Product Carbon Footprint Toolkit
A Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) measures the greenhouse gas emissions linked to a product, usually expressed as CO2 equivalents. They help make emissions visible at the product-level, improving comparability, and supporting decision-making on where to focus reduction efforts. PCFs can help improve transparency, support more accurate reporting, and identify hotspots.
Section Overview
Our PCF Journey
In 2023, we decided to take a portfolio approach to calculating product carbon footprints. Our portfolio consists of over 300,000 products, so calculating PCFs individually was not feasible. We selected AllocNow, a PCF software which has the capability to calculate PCFs for all products in our portfolio, due to their ability to integrate with our Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems as well as our carbon accounting software.
We calculated PCFs for all products in 2024 and started communicating in 2026. We aim to have 100% of our portfolio calculated with verified PCF results by 2030.
- GHG Protocol Product Life Cycle Accounting & Reporting Standard
- ISO 14067:2018
- Together for Sustainability (TfS) PCF Guideline
- PACT Methodology for Product Carbon Footprints
- GHG Protocol Corporate Standard (Scope 1 & 2)
- GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance
- GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain Standard (Scope 3)
View all toolkits
We’ve created various toolkits to support your sustainability goals across your business, and we’re continuously expanding to create more resources for our suppliers.
Sustainability at Merck
We built the framework of this toolkit by leveraging insights from our own strategy. Click here to learn more about sustainability at Merck.