Apparel and consumer goods companies need a Scope 3 solution that meets the demands of modern sustainability teams: a way to get actionable, audit-ready emissions insights quickly. This solution needs to go beyond spend-based Scope 3 calculation methods, and make it easy to pull together many disparate pieces of data about emissions during each stage of the production and distribution process. Worldly’s new Product Impact Calculator (PIC) meets this need for the apparel and consumer goods industry by seamlessly incorporating industry expertise and primary data into Scope 3 calculations.

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The majority of apparel and consumer goods companies’ emissions are not only categorized as Scope 3, but are specifically from the production, distribution, use, and end of life of their products. That is also where 80% of reduction opportunities lie for many brands and retailers (Source: McKinsey, 2021). With Scope 3 having the most potential for reduction initiatives, companies need better, more actionable Scope 3 data, and they need it quickly. However, calculating Scope 3 emissions has traditionally come with trade-offs.

The Dilemma: Efficiency vs. Actionability

Calculating Scope 3 emissions from purchased goods has been either time consuming and complex, or generic and inactionable.

Companies getting started with calculating their Scope 3 emissions usually rely on spend-based methods. This multiplies the dollars spent on a purchased good by an industry-average fixed emissions number. Though this method is simple, fast, and helps companies gather a snapshot view of their emissions across their entire product portfolio, emissions will always increase linearly based on their spend, regardless of sustainability investments made.

Sustainability teams that want to move beyond spend-based Scope 3 calculations find they often spend the majority of their time gathering data from disparate sources and putting together calculations, rather than focusing their efforts on reduction initiatives. Companies may elect to hire a consultant for a comprehensive product carbon footprint analysis. At its low end, this can cost tens of thousands of dollars, can take months to perform, and the analysis doesn’t allow for iteration.

As a result, companies have been left with two unappealing options: the spend-based method, which is too generalized and isn’t actionable, or comprehensive analysis, which is time-consuming, and resource-intensive.

Introducing Product Impact Calculator

To address these needs, Worldly developed the Product Impact Calculator (PIC), which offers a fast, scalable approach to Scope 3 calculations for the apparel and consumer goods industries that incorporates industry expertise and primary data from supply chains.

“Our industry has been striving towards the collection and application of primary data – away from averages, assumptions, or estimates – so we can really improve environmental performance and reduce the industry’s carbon footprint as quickly as possible,” said Alex Lauver, Senior Director of Materials, Innovation & Sustainability, Outdoor Research. “Worldly has developed a great tool that moves this effort forward at a global scale.”

With the Product Impact Calculator, companies get:

Scope 3 data in minutes, not weeks – By leveraging pre-built, default product impact models, based on millions of data points, and AI-assisted data mapping, PIC ingests purchase order records and quickly provides an initial Scope 3 emissions inventory. This efficiency is a game-changer for sustainability teams, replacing data gaps with industry data – rather than assumptions – and eliminating hours of work in spreadsheets, giving back time to focus on reduction initiatives.

One platform for impact – Easily refine impact models by adjusting product details. Current Worldly customers can easily integrate their primary supply chain data from the Higg Index — the leading value chain environmental and social impact measurement methodology and suite of tools developed and owned by global nonprofit alliance Cascale (formerly the Sustainable Apparel Coalition) and exclusively available on Worldly. The Product Impact Calculator can bring in primary data from the Higg Material Sustainability Index and the Higg Facility Environmental Module for more precise calculations. Also, companies can sync individual product impacts from the Higg Product Module. These integrations allow companies to tailor the tool to their specific needs and data availability, and enables a comprehensive approach to sustainability management, all on one platform.

Ready for reporting – Regulations for reporting on emissions are all based on the GHG Protocol, and the methodology in the Product Impact Calculator is pre-assured to meet the GHG protocol requirements. Demonstrating impact reduction over time is also a critical component of maintaining regulatory alignment. PIC enables brands to track impacts at the purchase order level, and leverage expertise on how goods are made, allowing you to identify your real areas for impact reduction and show progress towards carbon reduction efforts.

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“The Product Impact Calculator gives retail and consumer goods a much-needed foundation for measuring Scope 3 emissions of their product lines,” said Kevin Vranes, Worldly CPO. “Think of it like a meal kit: we assembled all the ingredients for you, and even prepared some of the dishes. You can customize the meal as much as you’d like, but you don’t have to start from scratch. Reducing GHG emissions is essential to address the impacts of climate change, and this tool moves the retail and consumer goods industries forward towards that goal.”

A Novel Methodology Based on Extensive Research and Industry Standards

The PIC determines the emissions from a standard piece of clothing or object – like a t-shirt or sleeping bag – based on default product impact models that come with the tool. The default product impact models are based on millions of data points and Worldly and Cascale’s extensive research, analysis, and industry expertise. Worldly’s data science team analyzed over 130K unique products and 12M unit sales in the U.S. and Europe, and integrated PEF guidance and MSI data to create 38 default product impact models for multiple products, packaging, and their associated upstream and downstream transportation.

The impact data leverages years of development of life cycle data (MSI) that has been built in close collaboration with Cascale and its brand and retailer members. Where there are government-backed and publicly available representative products (e.g. the French Ademe database), Worldly seeks to match those as closely as possible.

Empowering Sustainable Decision-Making

Worldly’s Product Impact Calculator empowers sustainability teams to shift their focus from data gathering to implementing reduction initiatives. It offers the granularity needed for hotspot identification and progress tracking, while maintaining the efficiency required for comprehensive portfolio analysis.

Ruffwear, an early adopter of the tool, highlights its potential: “The speed and ease of use of this tool could inspire new ways for Ruffwear to track against our GHG budget on the same cadence that we track against our financial budget.” This sentiment underscores PIC’s ability to integrate sustainability considerations into core business processes.

The Product Impact Calculator equips apparel and consumer goods companies with the tools they need to make informed decisions, demonstrate progress, and prepare for a future where sustainability reporting is not just an option, but a requirement.

Ready for your next approach to Scope 3 calculations? To learn more about using Product Impact Calculator for your business, reach out to your Worldly account manager today!

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