Why Measure a Carbon Footprint? What Is PCF?

Large companies are already required, or soon will be required, to report climate- and emissions-related data under the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). These reporting obligations often include emissions associated with products and supply chains. While the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), which will gradually introduce the Digital Product Passport (DPP) with comprehensive sustainability data, does not yet apply to most manufacturers, emerging regulations are already driving customers to request product- and material-level carbon data from their suppliers.

Factory-X addresses the Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) as a key challenge in discrete manufacturing. A product PCF requires aggregating all contributions to a complete carbon footprint, from raw material extraction through to the factory gate (“cradle-to-gate”). A PCF quantifies the greenhouse gas emissions attributable to a specific product, typically expressed in kilograms of CO₂ equivalent (kg CO₂e). In discrete manufacturing, this includes raw materials such as steel, aluminum, and plastics; energy consumption of production equipment; auxiliary materials; transportation; and upstream supplier processes, all allocated down to the individual component level.

What the “PCF Guidance” Delivers

The guidance provides a framework for calculating product carbon footprints consistently and automatically, from process, energy, material, and logistics data, enabling transparent and verifiable emissions accounting across organizations. The guidance clearly explains how companies can systematically collect emissions data from their own operations and supply chains, consolidate it into a cradle-to-gate PCF, and account for requirements such as system boundaries and cut-off rules (for example, thresholds, reporting dates, or exclusion criteria).

A major focus is the accurate attribution of energy and material consumption to individual products. To illustrate this, the guidance presents three detailed calculation examples covering a milled component, a forged component, and an additively manufactured suspension fork, including formulas, data sources, and treatment of scrap, packaging, and transportation.

In addition, the document explains how emissions can be distributed within multi-product manufacturing environments using process subdivision, system expansion, or allocation methods (physical or economic).To improve accuracy, the guidance advocates spatial and temporal process separation through submetering, combined with production data, thereby reducing reliance on estimates and allocation assumptions. The guidance also includes practical examples of allocating building-related emissions, downtime-related emissions, and machine energy consumption.

Guidance, Support, and Opportunities for Collaboration

Developed with contributions from ESTAINIUM, Siemens, Fraunhofer IWU, and other partners, the Product Carbon Footprint Guidance (PCF Guidance) is based on the Catena-X PCF Rulebook Version 4.0. It provides valuable orientation, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises. Fraunhofer IWU also offers support in the accurate calculation of product carbon footprints.

Data Interoperability and Exchange

The Factory-X data space enables suppliers and customers to exchange PCF data in a standardized format, making carbon-related information traceable throughout the entire value chain. This forms a foundation for meeting future regulatory and customer-driven sustainability requirements.

Factory-X specifically focuses on the cradle-to-gate approach. Looking ahead, Catena-X–based data exchange is expected to become accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises as well. Companies retain full control over their data at all times, ensuring data sovereignty. For manufacturing processes distributed across multiple companies, an efficient cradle-to-gate carbon footprint assessment depends on automated workflows and secure data-sharing ecosystems.