What emission factor sources are used in M2030?

Manufacture 2030's Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) tool utilizes emission factors from several authoritative sources. These sources are collected and curated to make sure the calculations are as accurate as possible. The following sources are used:

• Ecoinvent is a leading life cycle inventory database that provides high-quality data for environmental assessments. It offers detailed information on various industrial processes, energy systems, and material flows, enabling precise calculation of emissions associated with products and services.

  Ecoinvent emission factors are available to use within the materials catalogue and within the processes and services elements of the PCF builder.

  Unlike most of the other sources used in PCF builder, you will need to select the emission factor from Ecoinvent that is most appropriate for your production.

  Find out more about Ecoinvent

• The Global Logistics Emissions Council (GLEC) Framework is a globally recognized methodology for calculating logistics emissions across the multi-modal supply chain.

  It provides guidance on how to measure and report greenhouse gas emissions from transportation and logistics operations, including road, rail, air, and sea freight.

  By integrating the GLEC Framework, the PCF tool enables users to assess emissions from logistics activities accurately.

  Emission factors from the GLEC Framework are used to quantify emissions from the transport and storage of materials, and for any own-fleet transportation. Emission factors from Version 3 of the framework are used.

  Find out more about GLEC

• The 2006 IPCC Guidelines* were developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to provide methodologies for estimating national level emissions of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, many of which can be applicable to company-level and product-level emissions reporting.

  The guidelines are structured into five volumes, covering various sectors including energy, industrial processes, agriculture, land use and land use change, and waste management. Alongside the methodologies, the guidelines also provide a suite of default emission factors that are used within the calculations for emissions from energy, waste, and processes.

  Find out more about the 2006 IPCC Guidelines

  *IPCC 2006, 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Prepared by the National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Programme, Eggleston H.S., Buendia L., Miwa K., Ngara T., and Tanabe K. (eds). Published IGES, Japan 

• Where possible, Manufacture 2030 prioritizes the use of official national government agency emission factors, ensuring alignment with country-specific reporting methodologies. These datasets are updated annually and reflect the most accurate regional emissions data available. Typically, emission factors collected from these agencies are used for energy emission factors. Examples include:

  • US EPA GHG Emission Factor Hub

  • UK DESNZ GHG Conversion Factors

  • Bilans Ademe

  • European Environment Agency

  • National inventory reports and data tables published by the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change

• Ember is an independent energy think tank that focuses on accelerating the global electricity transition. It provides data and analysis on electricity generation and its associated emissions, with a particular emphasis on transitioning from coal to clean energy sources. As part of their work, Ember publish annual well-to-tank emission factors associated with the generation of electricity for many countries. This data is available on their website.

   

  How is Ember data integrated into M2030?

  To integrate this data into M2030, the emission factors undergo a transformation process. This process essentially separates the two key components of each emission factor:

  1. Direct emissions from electricity generation (e.g., fossil fuel combustion at power stations). This can be thought of as a location-based Scope 2 emission factor.

  2. Upstream emissions from fuel production and processing (e.g., mining, refining, and transport of fuels). This can be thought of as a Scope 3 factor.

  This separation is based on assumptions of electricity generation efficiency per fuel type, derived from IPCC AR5 reports.

  On the Measurements page, only direct emissions from the generation of electricity are used in the Scope 2 calculations. Within the PCF module, the emission factors are recombined to provide a complete picture of the emissions associated with electricity use in production.

   

If you want to ask more about the emission factor sources we use within your calculations, please email emissionfactor@manufacture2030.com.  If you have your own energy emission factors that you would like to use instead of the M2030 defaults, then these can be emailed to the same address.