A regulatory term referring to sum of GHG emissions (3.1.2.5) and GHG removals (3.1.2.6) in a product system (3.1.3.2).
Carbon footprint of a product is the full product-level climate-change result for the product system, expressed in CO2-equivalents across the relevant life-cycle assessment boundary. In ISO 14067 terms, it is the single climate-impact result that brings together emissions and removals across the assessed system.
ISO 14067:2018 - Greenhouse gases — Carbon footprint of products
sum of GHG emissions (3.1.2.5) and GHG removals (3.1.2.6) in a product system (3.1.3.2), expressed as CO2equivalents (3.1.2.2) and based on a life cycle assessment (3.1.4.3) using the single impact category (3.1.4.8) of climate change
Reference: 3.1.1.1
This term originates in ISO 14067:2018 and/or ISO 14044 LCA methodology. It is used in EU product regulation — particularly under the EU Battery Regulation (PEF method for carbon footprint) and ESPR (environmental footprint) — because both regulations require lifecycle-based quantification of environmental impacts. Practitioners applying these regulations should be familiar with these LCA/PEF concepts to correctly scope, conduct, and verify product-level environmental assessments.
This term matters when a company needs the headline climate metric that will be declared, compared, verified, or communicated for a product. It is the number that tends to appear in customer-facing claims, regulatory submissions, and internal decarbonisation tracking.
For Minespider, carbon footprint of a product is the anchor metric around which product-level climate evidence is organised. The challenge is not just storing one CO2e number, but preserving the chain of assumptions, sources, and boundaries that make that number trustworthy.