Adding a Sold Products Card

  • 01/10/2024
  • 6 minutes to read

Continia Sustainability Environmental Accounts include a default emission source for accurately assessing and overseeing greenhouse gas emissions linked to the usage, processing, and disposal of their sold products. To gather data on sold items, companies may need to calculate scope 1 and scope 2 emissions or have in-depth conversations with clients to obtain specific details about how the products are used, processed, or disposed of, which can affect the assessment of greenhouse gas emissions.

Businesses have the flexibility to exclude downstream emissions from categories 10, 11, and 12 in their assessments. However, they are required to provide transparent disclosure and justification for any such exclusions made in their reports.

Scope

Sold products are classified into three distinct categories according to the GHG protocol:

Data collection emissions accounting within these categories varies significantly.

To gather the data for the processing of sold products (category 10)

For gathering data on Category 10 (processing of sold products) emissions, there are two primary methods:

  • Site-specific method - this method involves determining fuel and electricity usage and waste generation from third-party processing of sold intermediate products, then applying appropriate emission factors.
  • Average-data method - this method involves estimating emissions based on secondary data averages, such as emissions per process or product.

Activity data may include:

  • Quantities of energy (including electricity and fuels) consumed in process(es).
  • Mass of waste generated in process(es) where applicable.
  • Activity data for non-combustion emissions, if relevant.

To gather the data for the use of sold products (category 11)

Category 11 encompasses total expected lifetime emissions from sold products, determined by product design specifications and assumptions about consumer usage. Two types of emissions exist:

  • Direct use-phase emissions - those generated during product use, requiring measurement and aggregation per product.
  • Indirect use-phase emissions - emissions indirectly caused by the product use.

Activity data may include:

  • Total expected uses of products throughout their lifetime.
  • Quantities of products sold.
  • Fuel and electricity consumption per product use.
  • Refrigerant leakage per product use.

To gather the data for end of life sold products (category 12)

Category 12 covers emissions from waste disposal and treatment.

Activity data may include:

  • Total mass of sold products and packaging from the point of sale by the reporting company to the end-of-life after consumer use.
  • Proportion of waste treated by different methods (e.g., landfilling, incineration, recycling).

For further details, refer to the scope 3 standard of the GHG Protocol.

To add a sold products card

After understanding how you want to gather data to track emissions from Sold Products, you can implement employee commuting cards. You have the flexibility to categorize your Sold Products emissions as granularly as you want. For example, you can create a broad category that includes all products or specify by use type or materials.

To add a sold products card:

  1. Use the Search icon, enter Sold products, and select the related link.
  2. On the action bar, select New.
  3. On the Sold Products card, you can now input details such as the account type and the Emission Factor Set you want to associate with your data. It is mandatory to specify the category of the sold product in the Type field. The available options are:
    • Processing of sold products - use an emission factor that accounts only for the emissions related to the product you sell, excluding those from the final product's production that your product contributes to.
    • Use of sold products - use an emission factor that considers only the emissions associated with the product's use, not its production or disposal.
    • End-of-Life treatment of sold products - use emission factors that are also applied to the generated waste category.
  4. Once in use, the card also shows you the total accumulated carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions balance, the last data modified, and so on. For more information on how to fill out these fields, refer to the The Fields on the Environmental Account Card article.
  5. Once you've included all emissions related to sold products, the main page will give you a summary of the different types of emissions and their overall impact. This summary is particularly useful for figuring out how your company can make products that use fewer resources and have a smaller environmental footprint.