The SIRIM Kabon Kalkulator is a web-based tool for collecting information on the life cycle of construction and buildings materials in Malaysia.Companies can use the tool to calculate the carbon footprint of their products, enabling them to gain reputational benefits through a SIRIM sponsored carbon label, and become better informed on reducing their environmental impact.
Development of Product Carbon Foot Print Calculator by SIRIM Berhad
The carbon footprint of a products or services describes the total amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases emitted over its life cycle. Determination of the carbon footprint involve LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) study which focusing on emissions of greenhouse gases, starting from raw materials acquisition stage, production stage, use stage and would be ended up at the final disposal. The results of a product carbon footprint are usually presented as carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2-e) emissions measured in kilograms or metric tones.
The development of carbon footprint calculator is needed to support the calculation and certification of product footprints. In this project, a toolkit called “SIRIM Karbon Kalkulator” would be developed to automate the calculation procedure and be used by the auditor to verify the calculation process.
The “SIRIM Karbon Kalkulator” consists of several elements, including;
- Compilation of input output data of a product over its lifecycle.
- A framework that enables user to enter the primary data quickly and easily
- A database of secondary data that is source from MYLCID (Malaysia Life Cycle Database), ILCD (International Life Cycle Database) and any other source comply with criteria as described in a document “criteria acceptance of SIRIM Karbon Kalkulator database”.
- A guidance document that provide information and rules on how to collect data and use the calculator to calculate the carbon foot print of products or services.
- Common activities such as transportation, disposal of waste to landfill at end of life and storage at distribution center would have its own calculator in separate spreadsheets.
Model Framework
The process of carbon foot printing of a product would involve significant investment of time and resources. In this process, data needs to be collected from variety of activities such as raw materials extraction, energy and utilities consumption, transportation and disposal of waste. These primary data would be collected by the company within their operational control according to the relevant system boundary. The data collection process would be done using PDS (Product Data Sheet) form. The PDS is a series of questionnaire that covers input output data related to the life cycle of product from cradle to grave. Sometimes the secondary data (such as national average) also needs to be collected in order to characterize the upstream and downstream process for which primary data are not easy to obtain.
Since the carbon foot printing process require handling and treatment a lot of data, a framework is needed to organize and grouping the data within different categories and linked them to each emission factors to produce a final foot print. “SIRIM Karbon Kalkulator” is used to simplify the calculation process. This toolkit use data and information from the PDS form to calculate the carbon foot prints of product. Carbon footprints values could be differ considerably from product to product within the same product category, but the calculation procedure would be applying the same. A common reference flow will be decided at the onset of carbon footprint calculation starting from raw material phase right up to disposal phase.
Data and information gathered in this toolkit would also be used by the auditor during the audit to reassess the calculation procedure and validity of corresponding data.
