Product life cycle GHG emissions inventory
Measurement answer
What this metric measures
Reports the total attributional greenhouse gas emissions inventory associated with a product life cycle, expressed in CO2e per declared unit of analysis.
Specification
Metric specification
- Result format
- Single value
- Unit
- kg CO2e per unit of analysis — source-defined reporting unit
- Reporting basis
- Product inventory period disclosed for the reported product GHG inventory
- Aggregation
- Total GHG emissions and removals attributed to the product across included life-cycle stages and greenhouse gases, expressed as CO2e per unit of analysis
- Pillar
- Environmental
- Topic
- Product life cycle greenhouse gas emissions
- Controlled domain
- Products and life-cycle assessment
- Entity type
- Metric
Reporting boundary
Declared product life-cycle boundary, such as cradle-to-grave, cradle-to-gate, or gate-to-gate; excludes offsets, avoided emissions, delayed-emission weighting, indirect land-use change, and indirect market effects from the attributional inventory total
Verified source occurrences
Framework coverage
This is one canonical metric. The bindings below show every verified framework occurrence without creating duplicate metric pages. Edition, disclosure, role, and relationship remain source-specific.
- Adopting Disclosureproduct-life-cycle-ghg-emissions-inventory
CDP Full Corporate Questionnaire 2026
- Publisher
- CDP
- Edition
- Full Corporate Questionnaire and Reporting Guidance 2026 v1.3, revised 6 August 2026
- Requirement
- Conditional
- Relationship
- Reuses Canonical Metric
- Mapping outcome
- Reused
- Source locator
- Q7.73.3, numeric field 1
- Measurement AuthoritySource evidence
GHG Protocol
- Publisher
- GHG Protocol
- Edition
- September 2011 publication
- Requirement
- Not Specified
- Relationship
- Defines Measurement
- Mapping outcome
- Direct Evidence
- Source locator
- PDF page 12, paragraph preceding section 2.3
- Measurement Authorityf485e1c3df42f37547c9
GHG Protocol
- Publisher
- GHG Protocol
- Edition
- September 2011 publication
- Requirement
- Not Specified
- Relationship
- Maps Source Identity
- Mapping outcome
- Published
- Source locator
- PDF page 12, paragraph preceding section 2.3
Value structure
Dimensions and units
- Unit
- kg CO2e per unit of analysis — source-defined reporting unit
- Reporting basis
- Product inventory period disclosed for the reported product GHG inventory
Unit meaning: Values use kg CO2e per unit of analysis under the disclosed GHG Protocol Product Standard method, product boundary and reporting period.
Published dimensions
- product
- unit of analysis
- functional unit or reference flow where applicable
- life-cycle stage
- boundary type
- greenhouse gas
- biogenic status
- emissions or removals direction
- inventory period
- GWP source and date
- allocation method
- recycling method
- land-use-change method
Calculation method
Formula information
- Status
- Specified
- Formula type
- Sum
Formula
Product life cycle GHG emissions inventory = sum of attributed included life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions and removals, converted to CO2e using the disclosed GWP source, per unit of analysis.Apply the source-defined GHG Protocol Product Standard method only within the disclosed product, unit-of-analysis and life-cycle boundary. The source explicitly characterizes product GHG inventories conducted under the standard's framework as a quantitative performance metric used to establish targets, monitor progress, and report achievements. Under the Product Standard rules, the defensible public identity is the explicitly reportable net product inventory result in CO2e per unit of analysis, with product boundary and methodological variants retained as disclosures rather than replaced by corporate emissions constructs.
Variables
| Symbol | Variable | Definition | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|
E_i | Attributed life-cycle GHG impact for included inventory item i | Emissions or removals attributed to an included process, activity, life-cycle stage, and greenhouse gas after application of the disclosed inventory methods. | kg CO2e per unit of analysis |
T | Product life cycle GHG emissions inventory | Total attributed product life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions inventory across included items and stages. | kg CO2e per unit of analysis |
Verified sources
Evidence and status sources
Sustopedia checked each record-specific claim directly against primary publisher material. Labels distinguish current measurement authority from future compatibility and corroborative, legal, edition, or method status context. Corroborative evidence can support a stated limitation but cannot establish the core measurement by itself.
Measurement evidence
- Measurement evidenceChecked 28 August 2026
Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard
- Publisher
- GHG Protocol
- Edition
- September 2011 publication
- Locator
- PDF page 12, paragraph preceding section 2.3
Supports: The official GHG Protocol Product Standard source supports the identity, boundary and method basis of “Product life cycle GHG emissions inventory”.
Open official source
Use with context
Interpretation boundaries
Method disclosures required
Source-edition basis: Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard, September 2011 publication.
- Product and product system definition.
- Unit of analysis and functional unit or reference flow, where applicable.
- Inventory period.
- Life-cycle stages and processes included or excluded.
- Boundary type, including whether the result is cradle-to-grave, cradle-to-gate, or gate-to-gate.
- Greenhouse gases included, including nitrogen trifluoride where applicable under the Required Gases amendment.
- GWP source, publication date or assessment-report basis, and time horizon used for CO2e conversion.
- Allocation, recycling, and closed-loop treatment methods.
- Treatment of biogenic carbon, emissions, and removals.
- Land-use-change method and any direct land-use-change impacts.
- Data sources, data quality, assumptions, exclusions, and estimation methods.
- Statement that offsets, avoided emissions, delayed-emission weighting, indirect land-use change, and indirect market effects are excluded from the attributional inventory total.
Record-specific limitations
- The result is an attributional product inventory and is not a corporate Scope 1, Scope 2, or Scope 3 emissions metric.
- Offsets, avoided emissions, delayed-emission weighting, indirect land-use change, and indirect market effects must not be netted into the inventory result.
- Comparability depends on consistent product definition, unit of analysis, boundary, GWP source, data, allocation, recycling, and land-use-change methods.
- Biogenic and non-biogenic emissions and removals require separately disclosed profiles where applicable.
Interpret this metric with the stated reporting boundary, period convention, value shape, and unit. Results prepared with different boundaries or conventions may not be directly comparable.
Measurement evidence supports the core record-specific claims described above. Corroborative evidence can support limitations, while compatibility and status sources provide their separately labelled context. None of these cards by itself determines an organisation's legal applicability, filing readiness, assurance status, or compliance conclusion.