The Oldenburg-based family business BÜFA is setting a starting point for offering its customers in the chemicals trade comprehensive data on the Product Carbon Footprint (PCF). The CO₂ footprint makes the emissions caused by products in their life cycle transparent. The data provides important clues on how to reduce or avoid the impact of greenhouse gas emissions in the value chain.
"Sustainability is particularly important to us in all areas of the company. But ecological aspects are also becoming increasingly relevant for our customers when making purchasing decisions. With the Product Carbon Footprint, we illustrate and evaluate the impact of a product on the climate. In this way, BÜFA makes a contribution to sustainable development - both in our company and for our customers," says Felix Thalmann, Chairman and CEO of the BÜFA Group.
The method BÜFA uses to calculate the PCF has been externally validated by the independent, internationally recognised environmental verifier and expert organisation GUTcert. The calculation is based on the different phases of the supply chain. In the first part, the upstream Scope 3 emissions are mapped, starting with the extraction of raw materials through product manufacture to the factory gate of our suppliers. In this process, BÜFA works together with both the suppliers and the data provider ecoinvent. Finally, the emissions caused by BÜFA itself, the so-called Scope 1 and 2 emissions, are added to the calculation of the PCF. In this way, our customers receive data that is based on the "Product Carbon Footprint Guideline" of the "Together for Sustainability" (TfS) initiative on the one hand and complies with ISO 14067 on the other.
In this way, emission reduction possibilities are made transparent with regard to the manufacture of products as well as logistics and transport. BÜFA will start by calculating the PCF for individual products, primarily according to customer needs. Gradually, the data will then be rolled out across the entire product portfolio in the Chemicals division and constantly updated.
In the area of medium-sized companies, BÜFA is taking a pioneering role with the externally validated calculation of the PCF. At the same time, in cooperation with suppliers and start-ups, we are looking not only at products but also at production processes in order to reduce the carbon footprint of our products and thus be able to offer more sustainable alternatives. Biobased raw materials and production processes based on alternative raw materials play a major role here.