Pickler’s Fast-track LCA calculations provides you with data that helps you to get a clear understanding of your product’s impact on the environment and its emissions.
Here’s a breakdown of the data you get out of Pickler's calculations:
Eco-Costs: A single metric for the total environmental impact of your product.
Carbon Footprint: The total greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere from a product, expressed in CO2-equivalents (CO2-eq).
Eco-Score: The eco-costs of each product are turned into an overall score, for A+ to F.
True Costs: The sum of a product's sales price (market price) and eco-costs (environmental costs).
ESRS E1-5 Data: Helps your business meet CSRD compliance by providing the necessary environmental data at the SKU level for packaging distributors.
1. Eco-Costs: A Complete View of Your Product’s Environmental Impact
Eco-costs are one number (indicator) to represent all the environmental damage caused by a product — from raw material extraction to production, transport, and disposal. It's much like how a carbon footprint is a single metric for measuring greenhouse gas emissions.
While eco-costs are similar to carbon footprints in that they offer a single, easy-to-understand number, they go beyond just carbon emissions. Eco-costs provide a full Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), meaning they account for the most significant pollution issues:
Nature: The effect on ecosystems, such as biodiversity, deforestation and water pollution.
Human Health: The impact of pollution on air and water quality, and its effect on public health.
Material Scarcity: The reliance on limited, non-renewable resources like metals, rare earth and fossil fuels.
Global Warming: The contribution of carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases to climate change.
In short, eco-costs allow businesses to look beyond just carbon and see the full scope of environmental harm, making it easier to compare the true impact of different products.
What Are The "Costs" in Eco-Costs?
Eco-costs aren’t about cleaning up damage after it’s done or compensation; they are prevention costs — the money needed to stop environmental harm before it happens.
For example, if producing a plastic bottle causes pollution, eco-costs tell you how much investment would be required in cleaner technologies to avoid that pollution.
Think of investments in renewable energy, like solar panels or wind farms, to power the production process instead of relying on fossil fuels. It could also mean upgrading to energy-efficient machinery in factories that use less electricity or produce fewer emissions. Another example would be investing in water recycling systems to reduce water usage and pollution in the manufacturing process.
The Business Relevance of Eco-costs
Eco-costs reveal the financial risks that businesses will face if they don’t address their environmental impact. As society demands more accountability, stricter regulations like the CSRD are being introduced, and it's no longer a question of if businesses will pay for pollution—it's a matter of when.
Through carbon taxes, resource restrictions, or heavy fines for non-compliance, the cost of inaction will soon outweigh the investment needed to reduce your environmental footprint. Eco-costs provide you with a clear picture of where your packaging causes the most damage, allowing you to take proactive steps before these regulations catch up with you.
By understanding your eco-costs now, you can make changes that minimize risk, stay compliant with evolving regulations, and protect your business from future penalties. Acting today helps you avoid paying later—eco-costs give you the foresight to stay ahead, ensuring your business remains competitive and sustainable.
2. Carbon Footprint: Focus on CO₂ Emissions
Carbon footprint measures the total greenhouse gas emissions (CO₂-equivalents) across your product’s lifecycle, from production to disposal. It provides a clear view of your product’s contribution to climate change by tracking emissions from energy use, transport, and production.
However, carbon footprint only focuses on greenhouse gases and misses other key environmental factors like biodiversity or resource scarcity.
For instance, kraftliner may have a better carbon footprint, but eco-costs show testliner offers better protection for nature. That’s why using eco-costs alongside carbon footprint offers a more complete picture for sustainability decisions.
Just like eco-costs, carbon footprint can also be assed per lifecycle stage.
3. Eco-Score: Simplifying Sustainability Comparisons
The Eco-Score is a simple A+ to G rating, based on eco-costs, that summarizes your product’s overall sustainability performance. By combining all environmental factors into one score, the Eco-Score makes it easier to compare products or designs. This helps you simplify complex data, make faster decisions, and clearly communicate your product’s environmental benefits to customers.
4. True Costs: Minimizing Eco-Costs per Euro
True costs combine the market price with the eco-costs, revealing the full financial and environmental impact of a product.
While the market price reflects the sales price of a product, eco-costs show the hidden environmental damage. Together, they offer a complete view of a product's real cost to society, including both financial expenses and its burden on the planet.
5. ESRS E1-5 Data for CSRD Reporting
Pickler includes ESRS E1-5 data to help your business comply with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). This ensures your environmental impact assessments meet European standards and keep you compliant with evolving regulations.
As CSRD standards roll out, large corporations will soon require suppliers to provide E1 data this year and E2-E5 data in the coming years, including for packaging.