When brands get their first LCA results, the next question is almost always the same: is this good or bad? A footprint on its own can’t answer that. Today we’re releasing the Carbonfact Benchmark, the feature our customers have asked for most. It places your product footprints next to anonymous, aggregated results from other apparel (and soon footwear) brands on Carbonfact.
Here’s what’s new:
Your footprint against your peers – your footprint per unit for each product and category, next to the median of other brands on Carbonfact
Best in class and the gap to close – the top performers in each category, and the reduction needed to reach them
Anonymous by design – results only appear as aggregates across at least 5 brands, and your brand is never named
Take a pair of pants as an example. Its LCA tells you its footprint, but not whether that footprint is high or low for a T-shirt. The Benchmark shows your footprint per unit for each of your products and product categories, next to the median of other brands on Carbonfact.
Because every Carbonfact LCA is cradle-to-grave, you can also break that comparison down by lifecycle stage. See how raw materials, processing, assembly, distribution, use, and end of life each compare, and which stage drives the gap.
Because every Carbonfact LCA is cradle to grave, you can also break that comparison down by lifecycle stage. See how raw materials, processing, assembly, distribution, use, and end of life each compare, and which stage drives the gap.
A median tells you where you stand, but not where to aim. For each category, the Benchmark also shows the best in class among brands on Carbonfact, and the reduction your products need to reach it.
That turns a footprint into a target grounded in what other brands have already achieved. If your denim sits above the median, you see the size of the reduction that would close the gap. You can then test which material or supplier change gets you there in Product Modeling, before you commit to it.
Following our acquisition of Vaayu, Carbonfact now works with 300+ brands and manufacturers, running over 2 million LCAs every day. That gives us a pool of apparel and footwear LCA data no single brand could build on its own. The Benchmark turns it into a representative reference point, with every result anonymized and aggregated.
Your brand, products, and suppliers are never named or shown to other brands. Results only appear as aggregates across at least 5 brands, so nothing can be traced back to a single company. As the network grows, the comparison becomes more representative for every brand in it.
Until now, brands could only benchmark a product’s footprint against their own catalog. You could see whether it sat above or below your other products, or how much it added to your Scope 3.1 footprint. You couldn’t see how it compared to the market. A down jacket will always outweigh a T-shirt, even if it is already one of the best in its category. The Benchmark changes that. You can now compare each product against a shared pool of anonymous data from other brands.
It shows which categories carry the highest impact relative to your peers, and how much reduction the best performers have already achieved. Start with the categories that sit furthest above the median and carry the most volume. That is where a material or supplier change is likely to move your Scope 3.1 number the most.