Product Carbon Footprint: Life-Cycle Stages, Emission Factors, Hotspots & Eco-Design
Calculate a fictional kettle's footprint from cradle to grave: functional unit and reference flow, bill of materials with scrap, factory energy allocation, tonne-kilometres, a use phase on a falling grid factor, end of life with recycling credits, hotspots and a redesign check against a target, with every cell checked as you go.
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About this course
In this course you calculate the carbon footprint of a fictional electric kettle from cradle to grave in a live spreadsheet. You define a functional unit and reference flow so products with different lifetimes compare fairly, multiply a bill of materials by emission factors with scrap rates and XLOOKUP, and allocate factory electricity and gas by machine hours and by mass. You add transport in tonne-kilometres, model the use phase on a grid factor that falls every year, and treat end of life with cut-off and avoided-burden credits. Finally you find the hotspots with SUMIFS and a chart and test a redesign against a reduction target.
Lessons
- Functional Unit & Reference Flow: Comparing Products Fairly Pro
- Materials Stage: Bill of Materials × Emission Factors with Scrap Pro
- Manufacturing: Plant Energy, Allocation by Machine Hours vs Mass Pro
- Distribution: Tonne-Kilometres, Transport Modes & the Air-Freight Trap Pro
- Use Phase: Electricity per Year, a Falling Grid Factor & Overfilling Pro
- End of Life: Recycling, Incineration, Landfill & Avoided-Burden Credits Pro
- Hotspot Analysis: Stage Totals with SUMIFS, Shares, a Chart & Highlights Pro
- Eco-Design Comparison: Baseline vs Redesign per Functional Unit Pro