The following guide is a condensed version of the five available articles on how to create products in Pickler when using the Product form. Click here to access all the articles, and enhance your understanding of proper product upload even further.
To begin adding products via the Product form, go to your Impact Reports page and click on the blue "+ Add product" button in the upper right corner.
You're now ready to begin!
Step 1: Product Details
Purpose: Specify the fundamental information about your product. This includes:
Inventory or a scenario product: Choose the appropriate type based on whether it's a real product or a hypothetical one for analysis.
Product name and ID: Enter internal identifiers for easy tracking.
Product category, Industry, and Suppliers: Select the relevant classifications and the supplier, if known, for filtering and future benchmarking.
Description: Provide a client-facing description that will appear in the Impact Report.
Custom reference IDs: Add additional reference IDs, such as EANs, to make your products more identifiable.
Step 2: Raw Materials
Purpose: Detail the components and materials that make up your packaging:
Weight: Enter the total weight of your product (can be per piece or per sales unit).
Unit of measure: Determine what unit you prefer your products to be measured against.
Create components: Name the individual assembled parts of your package (e.g., box, lid, label).
Add materials per component: List the internal names of each material within each component. You can either use existing mapped materials or add new ones to be mapped later.
Add share/weight division: Specify the percentage or weight of each material compared to the total packaging weight.
Step 3: Production Method
Purpose: Provide details about where and how your packaging components are produced:
Adding production methods: Select a pre-filled production method based on the material and category, or add a custom method with specific energy usage (kWh/Kg). If you are unsure what these might be, then opt for Pickler's pre-filled default values, which are based on a worldwide average value.
Add production location: Specify the country (minimum requirement) or a more precise location where each component is manufactured.
Step 4: Adding Transport
Purpose: Recreate the journey of your packaging from production to your warehouse:
Adding locations: Enter the 'From' (production) and 'To' (warehouse) locations, adding any intermediate stops. You can copy the production location for the first transport leg.
Automatic Transport Calculations (optional): Choose to let Pickler automatically predict transport types and distances based on locations, or manually input this data.
Add pallet weight and size: Specify the dimensions and total weight of your shipping units (pallets or equivalent).
Step 5: Adding the End-of-Life (EOL) Stage
Purpose: Specify where your product is likely to end up after use:
Add EOL region: Select the country or region where your product typically enters waste treatment. This will determine the default EOL scenario for each material.
Custom end-of-life scenario (optional): For more specific calculations, you can manually set the distribution percentages for incineration, landfill, composting, and recycling, keeping in mind that only downgrading the default scenario (resulting in higher eco-costs) is currently permitted without specific evidence.
By following these steps in the Product Form, you can efficiently input the necessary data for Pickler to calculate the environmental impact of your packaging. Remember to save your product after completing each section.