Use this guide to select appropriate emissions factors and calculate the Projected emissions reduction from your lower carbon material or ingredient purchases.

Finding Suitable Emission Factors (EFs)

As you evaluate EFs for preferred materials, it’s important to use high-quality, comparable data. Consider these factors in your research:

• 🪢 Conventional material: what material are you comparing against?
• 🔍 LCA boundary: is the study looking at the same scope of emissions as your measurement? It’s important to compare apples to apples. (Pro tip: The BEE measures cradle-to-gate emissions.)
• 📍Location: is the study from the same geographic region as your material? Regional differences in production processes, equipment, and energy sources can affect emissions.
• 📆 Year: is the study recent? Technology, manufacturing processes, and regional energy grid mixes change over time.
• 📑 Source: is the data from a reputable source? Look for data from government sources (EPA, IEA, or other national databases), nonprofit sources (e.g. Textile Exchange), peer-reviewed research studies (e.g. journals and other publications), or LCA studies provided directly by the manufacturer of a specific product.

Useful Sources

First, if possible, we recommend asking your supplier for emissions data related to the materials you purchase from them. They may surprise you and have it on hand! If they don’t, there are other ways to estimate the impact of switching to a preferred material.

Here are a few sources that may have suitable data for comparing preferred and conventional materials:

• 🐝 The BEE
• ♻️ EPA ReCon Tool
• Planet FWD
• Worldly’s Higg MSI
• Published LCA Studies
• Our database of common lower-carbon materials

Emissions Impact Modeling Template

What is it?

• A pre-formatted sheet to help you calculate the emissions reduction between a baseline and preferred scenario.