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Tiina Pajula Principal scientist, Sustainable business, VTT
Maija Pohjakallio Vice President, Climate and Circular Economy, Metsä Group
“Companies want to pursue a positive climate impact through their actions, and the carbon handprint can be one tool that helps them achieve this.”
“Companies want to pursue a positive cli- mate impact through their actions, and the carbon handprint can be one tool that helps them achieve this.” For years, Metsä Board has followed the en- vironmental impact of their paperboards with life-cycle assessments prepared in accordance with the ISO14040 and ISO14044 standards. Carbon handprint calculations are based on comparing two footprints calculated in line with these standards. The goal of carbon hand- printing is to assess the positive greenhouse gas impacts (“avoided emissions”) for customers.
“You have to be very specific about what you’re comparing. For example, the function- ality of the products compared must be similar.” “Furthermore, all the utilised data sourc- es must be presented, and the calculation de- scribed transparently. It is also important to note that the carbon handprint is a relative met- ric that is calculated with respect to a specific baseline,” she says. Packaging design matters Ultimately, the climate impact of a packaging product is generated over its entire life-cycle and is affected by a multitude of factors: the raw materials, production process and trans- port, design, and how the product is used, recy- cled and disposed of, Pohjakallio summarises. “Package design can create a big part of the to- tal carbon handprint – even if people don’t al- ways realise its impact,” she says. With the approaching EU “Green claims” reg- ulations, more and more companies are likely to be interested in the carbon handprint. After all, the directive would provide a new criterion to prevent companies making misleading claims about the environmental merits of their prod- ucts or services – and stop greenwashing. “What the carbon handprint does is to offer a science-based, life-cycle targeting tool to ad- dress precisely these issues – and that benefits all climate-conscious companies eager to demon- strate their track record,” Pajula summarises. •
Transparent and fact-based comparison Pajula says that the careful selection of the base- line product for comparison is key. “We have technical experts at AFRY who know the qualities of boards and plastics and can make fact-based comparisons between dif- ferent packaging products common in the in- dustry,” she says. Pohjakallio acknowledges that determining the carbon handprint requires profound anal- ysis.
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