Materials & Processing capture everything your packaging is made of — including the materials, their weights, and how they are processed. This is the foundation of your footprint calculation.
Data focus: Why materials are the most crucial part of your footprint calculation
Materials are usually a big share in your footprint calculation and often account for the majority of your product’s environmental impact. The extraction, processing, and production of raw materials typically drive far more emissions than transport, packaging, or end-of-life. This means that getting your material types, weights, and processing right is essential for an accurate and meaningful footprint.
Data gaps: Why you can't use defaults for materials and weight
Materials and weight data can’t be filled with defaults because every product’s composition is unique. Pickler has no way to accurately guess which materials you use or how much they weigh — these values must come from your ERP, Bill of Materials, or supplier to ensure a correct footprint.
Adding material and processing data in the form
Step 1: Add Component Name
In Pickler, your product is made up of components. A component is any part of your packaging that is produced separately before it becomes one final product (e.g. lid and bottle).
Click Enter component name to enter a name.
Or leave empty, a default 'component 1' will be used.
When to use components?
A component allows you to add a unique processing location. That's why - as a rule of thumb - you can best use multiple components when parts:
come from different suppliers
are produced in different countries
are assembled into a single final product
Examples
A bottle with a cap → 2 components
A pouch with a separate print or label → 2–3 components
Step 2: Adding materials and map to IDEMAT database
2.1 Select existing material from the dropdown
Click the dropdown field. You will see materials that are already in your company account.
Type to search and select a material.
What are the tags in the dropdown?
The tags show to what source in IDEMAT the material is mapped. This source represents the scientifically validated environmental impact of producing that material — including raw material extraction, processing, and emissions — and is used as the basis for Pickler’s LCA calculations.
2.2 Add a new material
When the right material is not in the list, click Add new to add a new material. In the popup, fill in your material name.
Click Select material to map your material to IDEMAT.
A new window will open with all available materials in IDEMAT. Use search and / or the category filter to find a record in IDEMAT that matches your material the most.
Hover over the row and click map to this source.
Click Add to complete your mapping.
Not sure what to pick or you can't find a suitable material?
Click Get help with mapping in the top right corner and ask us for assistance.
Step 3: Add material weight
Click the weight field and enter the weight of the material in gram.
Step 4: Add processing
Click the processing dropdown to open available processing methods. Pickler will show processing methods that are applicable for your material if your material is mapped.
Select a processing method that was used, or select None or negligible processing or converting, when there was no additional processing needed or when processing is already part of the material that you selected.
Is processing always needed?
Not always. In many cases, no additional processing is required. If that’s the case for your material, simply select None or negligible processing or converting.
This is because some materials already include all relevant processing steps in their IDEMAT source, or require only minimal converting that has no meaningful impact on the footprint.
Materials that typically do not need processing
Glass — All necessary processing is already included in the glass material dataset.
Cardboard — Cardboard is considered a finished material. Common converting steps (like cutting or creasing) are already covered.
Paper (other) — Light converting steps such as folding or cutting require negligible energy and do not meaningfully influence the footprint
Step 5: Add processing location
This is the location where raw materials are processed to the final product.
Click the dropdown to open the list with existing locations.
Select a location from the list are click Add new to add a new location. A new popup will show.
Add Location name, this is where your product is produced. This doesn't need to be an address, it can also be a facility name for example.
Click Enter location in the Google location field, to map your location to a real spot on the map.
Click Add and your location will be added.
What is my location used for?
Your processing location affects two important parts of your footprint:
Processing impact
Pickler uses the location to determine which energy mix (from IDEMAT) should be applied.
For example, if you select a location in Germany, Pickler automatically recognises that the processing happens in Germany and applies the German energy mix when calculating the processing footprint.
Transport calculations
If you use automatic transport calculations, Pickler uses the processing location as the starting point to calculate the distance from A to B.
This creates more accurate transport legs and ensures your footprint reflects the real journey of the product.
Step 6: Additional data
Optional additional data —such as printing, energy use, and energy mix— can be added to enrich your primary data, although it’s not required for footprint calculations. Especially energy data, can often be requested from your supplier.
Click "Additional data" to open the accordion where you can add more data.
Printing
Toggle printing
Click the dropdown and select a printing method.
Enter the printing area in m2. You can use up to 9 decimals.
Enter the printing location.
Processing energy consumption
For every product in Pickler, you can add primary data on the electricity and heat used during processing. This makes your footprint more accurate and transparent because the energy use comes directly from your production site rather than defaults. Make sure the data reflects the real energy consumption per unit.
Toggle Processing energy consumption.
Click the Electricity per product field to enter the KWh of electricity used for the procesing of 1 product.
Click the Heat per product to enter the KWh of electricity used for the procesing of 1 product.
Click MJ field to enter heat used per product.
When energy consumption data is not available per product
In many cases, your supplier won’t have energy consumption per product, but only per batch or the total energy use over a certain period. In that case, you can allocate this energy to individual products to calculate a per-product value.
How to use energy allocation
Processing energy use
Add the location-based energy mix used during processing. This reflects the actual electricity and heat sources at the production site—for example, onsite solar panels, a nearby hydro plant.
Suppliers usually have this data because they track their onsite generation. Adding it can lower your footprint and accurately highlight your supplier’s real sustainability efforts.
Toggle Processing energy mix.
Add the share of local electricity and / or heat.
Why you can only add market-based location energy data
Use only location-based energy data: real energy physically powering the site (e.g., onsite solar, local hydro, biomass heat).
Do not use market-based data like green contracts, GOs, RECs, PPAs, or offsets — isn’t suitable because it doesn’t change the real energy flowing into the factory — it only changes how it looks on paper.
Step 7: Additional components
You can add multiple components per product if needed.
Click Add component to add a new block.
Next step: Additional Packaging.