Aroma Ingredients

Product Carbon Footprint

Gain Transparency – Request PCF from your suppliers

The Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) sums up the total greenhouse gas emissions generated by a product over the different stages of its life cycle, from the extraction of resources through the manufacturing of precursors and the making of the product itself up to the point it leaves the company’s gate (cradle-to-gate).

To make this important information available to you, BASF has developed a digital application to calculate the cradle-to-gate PCFs for its sales products. Thus, you can calculate to which extent BASF products contribute to the carbon footprint of your business activities and your own products.

A study conducted by an F&F house demonstrates that 95% of the CO₂ emissions associated with a cosmetic fragrance composition can be attributed to the primary raw materials and production processes necessarily to create aroma ingredients. Less than 5% arises from compounding at fragrance houses. Therefore, significant CO₂ emissions reduction of F&F houses will come from providers of raw materials, chemicals and aroma ingredients.

Choose to reduce – Take next step in reducing CO₂ emissions

We, at BASF, enable our customers to calculate and to reduce the carbon footprint of their products and their CO₂ emissions from sourcing by offering BASF aroma ingredients.

Our conventional product line is produced in our highly efficient Verbund sites and benefits from our continuously optimized processes and innovations from BASF Carbon Management program.

Our rPCF product line makes use of mass balance approach to deploy utilities and raw materials with a reduced PCF. The PCFs of rPCF products are reduced by about 10 to 15% compared to the conventional one.

Our BMBcert^® product line replaces fossil raw materials by renewable raw materials, the so-called BASF Biomass Balance approach. This results in a PCF reduction compared to the conventional product of up to 60%.

Click here to learn more about BASF rPCF and our BMBcert® offer.

Make it comparable – Place results in the Aroma PCF Scale

To enhance transparency on PCF data in the F&F industry, we developed a PCF scoring system that classifies aroma ingredients on a 6-level color and letter scale by their PCF.

The score starts from a green A range with a PCF of 15 kg CO₂e/kg and leads up to a red F range with a PCF above 500 kg CO₂e/kg. The ranges were defined in order to include the broad range of PCFs of aroma ingredients available in the market.

Range A ends at 15 kg CO₂e/kg as this has been calculated by Takasago to be the average PCF of a fragrance mixture for cosmetics. Within range A, there are 3 sub-groups: A++, A+, A, which allows to distinguish the products with a PCF close to zero (A++).

All BASF Aroma Ingredients that are produced in our integrated Verbund sites in Ludwigshafen, Germany and in Kuantan, Malaysia, including the rPCF and BMBcert^® versions, are sorted into the ranges and communicated publicly.

Be credible – Use only reliable data for your calculations

BASF’s product carbon footprint (PCF) calculations follow the requirements and guidance given by ISO 14067:2018. In a methodology review, TÜV Rheinland has certified that the PCF methodology SCOTT developed and used by BASF SE for calculating the PCFs of BASF products is scientifically-based, is in accordance with ISO 14067:2018 and theTogether for Sustainability PCF Guideline, and reflects the state of the art (ID-Nr. 0000080389: BASF SE-Certipedia).

Choose Sustainability: Reach Your Scope 3 Carbon Footprint Targets with BASF’s Citral-Based Products

Best in class

Our citral-based aroma ingredients, which are produced from petroleum and natural gas, show significantly lower product carbon footprints than respective products produced using coal as raw material and to produce energy. This distinction in raw material use not only reduces our environmental footprint but also enables responsible sourcing practices throughout the supply chain.

Smart Choice for Carbon Reduction

By using BASF’s citral-based products, you can be confident that their carbon emissions remain at lower levels compared with coal-based Citral option. Our production process delivers citral-based ingredients with a Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) that is at least 45% lower than coal-based alternatives. This comparative PCF calculation has been verified by TUEV Rhineland¹. Continuous process-improvement measures to further optimize our production processes and the commitment to including PCFs in sourcing decisions enable us to keep the PCFs at a competitive level also in the future.

Year-on-Year Comparison of BASF Product Carbon Footprint

BASF has provided Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) values since 2020, enabling companies to track and report their carbon reduction progress accurately. For instance, if a product had a PCF of 18 in 2020 with a volume of 100 metric tons, and today the PCF is reduced to 12 with an increased volume of 120 metric tons, this reflects a 20% increase in purchased volume and an absolute reduction of 360 metric tons of CO₂ emissions (a 20% decrease). By sharing with our customers historic and current, annually updated PCF values, BASF supports customers in demonstrating measurable improvements in their sustainability reporting year after year.

Taking the right sourcing decision to reduce Scope 3.1 carbon emissions

If purchasing a certain amount of product from an average coal-based supplier results in emissions of 100 metric ton of CO₂e in the Scope 3.1. accounting, switching to the equivalent amount of BASF’s citral-based product reduces emissions to just 55 metric tons of CO₂e . This 45% reduction represents a significant and measurable reduction of CO₂ emissions from raw material sourcing bringing F&F houses closer to reaching their Scope 3.1 targets.

¹TUEV Rhineland certification Identyfikator 0000086825: BASF SE - Certipedia