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FRAMEWORK FOR COMPARISON OF PRODUCT CARBON FOOTPRINTS OF DIFFERENT MANUFACTURING SCENARIOS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2023

Sven Winter*
Affiliation:
Product Life Cycle Management (PLCM), TU Darmstadt
Niklas Quernheim
Affiliation:
Product Life Cycle Management (PLCM), TU Darmstadt
Lars Arnemann
Affiliation:
Product Life Cycle Management (PLCM), TU Darmstadt
Reiner Anderl
Affiliation:
Product Life Cycle Management (PLCM), TU Darmstadt
Benjamin Schleich
Affiliation:
Product Life Cycle Management (PLCM), TU Darmstadt
*
Winter, Sven, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, [email protected]

Abstract

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The Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) has been established over the last few years as a new control variable in product design to quantify the sustainable impact of a product. However, the calculation of the PCF is subject to numerous uncertainties and assumptions, which are no longer represented in the stand-alone value. The uncertainties and assumptions arise at different stages of the calculation of the PCF and consequently create a multidimensional problem, which means that the PCF does not provide a trustworthy basis for comparing different production scenarios. To face this multidimensional issue, in this paper, a methodology for categorization of the different issues and, therefore, of the final PCF is presented. Through this methodology, which is divided into five levels mainly based on the origin, the quality, and the uncertainty of the data, an assessment can be made as to whether the values of the PCFs are comparable in different scenarios. The methodology can therefore help to improve decisions in product development with regard to environmental sustainability.

Type
Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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