HowGood Packaging Methodology

The Latis platform has a dedicated packaging module for advanced users with packaging teams or expertise. This allows Latis users to use primary data to build out packaging products and calculate product carbon footprints aligned to the GHG Protocol Product Standard. These product carbon footprints can help companies make more informed decisions around packaging, engage suppliers for more granular packaging data, and be used in scope 3 accounting.

The raw material stage covers the cradle to gate environmental impacts associated with the production of packaging materials. This includes all upstream processing from resources extraction to the finished raw material ready for conversion into packaging components. Below is a breakdown by material type:

The recycled content method (also referred to as the cut-off or the 100-0 method) is used to allocate emissions due to recycling. For product footprint boundaries that exclude end of life emissions, recycled content is the appropriate method, per GHG Protocol Product Standard Box 9.3.

The Circular Footprint Formula (CFF) is used to allocate emissions between recycled content and its corresponding virgin material. This allocation method is used when calculating cradle to grave footprints in the platform. Full details on the variables used within this formula are available in the Circular Footprint Formula section under Allocation. Since users of the platform must specify the amount of recycled material used in the packaging, no assumptions are made for R1 values.

The inputs for the circular footprint formula are the same as the Packaging inputs for the cut off method. See Cut-Off Method section for details.

Packaging Material Production is an assessment of the energy it takes for the factory processing needs of a given packaging subcomponent and the likely fuel(s) needed for that process. Some subcomponents are highly processed and require considerable energy to convert them from raw material into a product that is ready for market. This stage also includes the processing of nested packaging products used as subcomponents within a more complex, final product (hereafter referred to as “components”).

This stage covers the emissions due to transportation between the point harvest or resin formation and component processing locations. It also includes all transportation involved in pre-processing or manufacturing of inputs used in the final product, up to the final transportation to the manufacturing facility. This is relevant for complex products that contain nested or component products with intermediate transportation and manufacturing stages of the product life cycle.

To create this metric, we multiply the weight-distance traveled by the emissions factor of the mode of transportation used. We use the 2023 Global Logistics Emissions Council (GLEC) standard, a GHG Protocol approved industry source for global transport emissions, as our source for emissions factors. Backhauling and empty trips are included in the GLEC emissions factors. Emissions factors are based on tonne-kilometers converted to kg-kilometers to normalize against 1 kg of product maintained in the HowGood database. HowGood customers don’t always have visibility into the methods and distances of transportation so HowGood uses proxy data in line with specification from the GHG Protocol.

Transportation distances are calculated using arc distance calculations between state, country, or region centroids.

All transportation stages of the life cycle follow the above methodology, with the exception of this stage between raw material and processing, which is the only transportation stage with an allocation ratio applied. If you are transporting X ton of PET resin to produce 1 ton of flexible PET film, this stage multiplies the per kg transport emissions by X to reflect the amount of raw material transported.

As our clients and knowledge grows, HowGood updates this proxy data using more detailed modes, including regional data outside of the US. In addition, we are planning to accept more detailed transportation distances and modes of transport when the customer can provide this primary data.

On-Site Packaging Transformation is an assessment of the energy it takes for the factory processing needs of a given packaging product.

To calculate GHGs associated with product processing/manufacturing, HowGood uses the packaging product type and location of the manufacturing facility. Products are grouped into categories based on similar processes. Customers can choose the manufacturing type which best describes their product.

The energy needs of each process or subprocess associated with the production line is collected/estimated from energy or environmental assessments and life cycle inventories as MJ/kg product per fuel type. They can include lighting but exclude overhead operations, employee transportation, and manufacturing of the equipment.

HowGood then uses the total energy consumption and the carbon intensity of electricity at the manufacturing location and/or emissions factors of the other fuels to calculate the associated emissions due to the product processing or finishing.

When customers have conducted product LCAs and can provide processing energy data with enough granularity to map to our inclusions and exclusions, we can ingest that data and create a customer and product(s) specific process.

See the last paragraph in Upstream Processing for limitations and planned changes.

This stage covers the emissions attributed to a product being transported to the distribution region.

See Transportation to Processing for details around default assumptions.

End of life emissions of packaging data is driven by the packaging material(s) and distribution region of the final product. HowGood has assumptions on the standard fate of waste for region from OECD Waste - Municipal waste: generation and treatment and 2024 UN Global Waste Management Outlook. This drives the portion of the packaging material going to each waste treatment method. We allow customers to override our defaults if they have better primary data to assume fates of waste.

The fates of waste considered are landfill, incineration with energy recovery, incineration without energy recovery, and recycling. Incineration with energy recovery and recycling fates of waste EFs look only at the emissions due to collection and sorting of waste materials. The emissions for the actual process of recycling are included in the raw materials stage and the emissions for the burning of waste for energy consumption are included in standard grid EFs so we exclude them here to avoid double counting.

Biogenic emissions from landfilling are calculated separately.

When the amount of recycled material within the packaging is unknown, 100% virgin material should be used. When recycled material is used in the product, there are 2 ways the Latis platform will allocate emissions between virgin and recycled materials detailed in the sections below.

The Circular Footprint Formula is a recycling allocation approach which seeks to give credits and burdens to both the users of recycled materials and those who produce materials which will be recycled at the end of life. More credit goes to the user of recycled materials if there are plenty available, whereas for materials where there is high demand but low supply of recycled materials, more credit is given to the makers of the virgin material which will be recycled at the end of life.

Parameters of the CFF (as defined by PEF)

A: allocation factor of burdens and credits between supplier and user of recycled materials.

Qsin: quality of the ingoing secondary material, i.e. the quality of the recycled material at the point of substitution.

Qsout: quality of the outgoing secondary material, i.e. the quality of the recyclable material at the point of substitution.

Qp: quality of the primary material, i.e. quality of the virgin material.

R1: it is the proportion of material in the input to the production that has been recycled from a previous system.

Ev: specific emissions and resources consumed (per functional unit) arising from the acquisition and pre-processing of virgin material.

Erecycled: specific emissions and resources consumed (per functional unit) arising from the recycling process of the recycled (reused) material, including collection, sorting and transportation process.

Since the Latis platform requires users to specify if a material is recycled, and by how much, R1 is assumed to be 1 if a 100% recycled material is chosen.

Default A and Qsin/Qp values are available in Circular Footprint Formula Parameters

The CFF is used only for the material acquisition phase of packaging in cradle to grave PCFs. The end of life phase is calculated based on the fates of waste of the material.

The cut off method attributes the recycling based on the amount of recycled material used in the final product. The cut off method of allocation is used in system boundaries without end of life.

During manufacturing of packaging, not all input material ends up in the final product. Losses can occur during steps such as polymerization, extrusion or pelletizing due to inefficiencies, off cuts, trimmings or degradation of material. To account for this, allocation ratios are used to reflect additional material requirements due to material quality loss or conversion processes when making a subcomponent. This includes material quality loss from recycling of materials. To account for material losses during on site production, users can specify the weights of the input materials as well as the weights of the final output material.

CFF A Factor (per PEF Annex C):

CFF Qsin/Qp Factor (per PEF Annex C):