Overview
A My Emissions product carbon footprint (PCF) is a full assessment of one finished product as you make it: the greenhouse gas emissions of its recipe, processing, packaging and transport from farm to the point of sale, in kg CO₂e.
This document explains what is included in a footprint and the data sources My Emissions use.
Scope and system boundary
Our calculations follow the GHG Protocol Product Standard, and the methodology has been independently audited by W2R Solutions.
The boundary runs from farm to store: everything up to the point where the product arrives at the store, restaurant or customer site. This covers a mix of Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions across the supply chain.
Farming: Land preparation, growing, harvesting, fertilisers and animal feed. Land-use change (for example deforestation) is included for relevant ingredients.
Processing: Energy used to make ingredients and the final product, such as milling, cooking, meat and dairy processing, and cold storage through the supply chain.
Packaging: Materials used to contain, ship and sell ingredients and the final product, including primary, secondary and tertiary packaging of the final product.
Transport: Includes emissions from transportation of both ingredients and final products from origin to store or customer.
The calculation stops at the point of sale. Cooking by the end user, food waste and disposal after sale are not included.
Results are given as kg CO₂e for the product as sold, and as carbon intensity (kg CO₂e per kg of product). Carbon intensity is what the My Emissions carbon rating (A–E) is based on.
Recipe and ingredients
Ingredients are usually the largest part of a product's footprint.
Recipes can be imported from integrations we have with recipe management systems, bulk uploaded from a spreadsheet, or entered in the platform. You can also use our AI recipe generator which creates a typical recipe from a dish name, which you then edit to your actual ingredients and quantities.
Each ingredient is then matched to an emission factor. The factor covers the ingredient's own life cycle stages: farming, processing, packaging and transport. The ingredient's weight in the recipe is multiplied by its factor. For example, 100 g of beef mince in a cottage pie is multiplied by a beef mince factor.
Secondary data. By default, each ingredient is matched to the closest available secondary emission factor from the My Emissions database, so every product has a footprint from the start. The database holds emission factors for thousands of food items and is built mainly on Agribalyse, alongside Ecoinvent. You will always have complete transparency on data sources.
Adding specific data. Secondary factors can be replaced or refined with primary data. This data usually comes from three places:
Existing specification data. Product attributes you already hold, such as packaging details, can be used to refine values.
LCAs. Verified emission factors from supplier LCAs, or your own packaging LCAs, can replace the default factor.
Ingredient attributes. Where no LCA is available, information on how an ingredient is farmed, processed, packed and transported can be used to adjust the assumptions in its emission factor.
When an ingredient's factor is updated, the change applies to every product that uses that ingredient.
Processing
Processing emissions come from the energy used to make and store the product at your site, for example cooking, processing meat and dairy, or cold storage. We can collect processing data in several ways, depending on what data you have available:
Energy per production run
Machine list, including power consumption
Scope 1 and 2 emissions, where you or your manufacturer already have a complete company assessment
Total facility energy
Data source. Energy use is converted to emissions using the UK Government GHG conversion factors published by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). We use the electricity and fuel factors for the year that matches the assessment year.
Packaging
Packaging is collected once per packaging type. For each item we collect a description, the material type, whether it is made from recycled material and the recycled percentage, its weight, and how many products it holds.
Data source. Packaging emissions are calculated using the material factors in the DESNZ GHG conversion factors for the relevant assessment year. Each item's weight is multiplied by the factor for its material type.
Transport
Transport is collected as a list of journeys, one line per leg and mode. For each journey we collect the journey type, the transport mode, the distance, and the percentage of products by weight that take that journey.
Data source. Transport emissions are calculated using the transport mode factors in the DESNZ GHG conversion factors for the relevant assessment year. These factors are applied to the distance and weight carried on each journey.
The result
The finished footprint shows the total, the breakdown by life cycle stage, and which ingredients drive most of the emissions. Products can be duplicated and edited to compare recipe or packaging options during product development, for example removing a sleeve or switching to a lighter tray.
Every number in a footprint can be traced back to its source. For each ingredient you can see the emission factor it was matched to, the data source (for example Agribalyse, a spec sheet or a supplier LCA), and its emissions split by life cycle stage. Any match can be reviewed and overridden.
Results can be exported as a detailed PDF footprint for each product, allowing you to share the results with your internal and external stakeholders.