Sumitomo Chemical’s carbon footprint calculation tool, CFP-TOMO, has secured third-party validation from TÜV SÜD, strengthening its credentials as a tool for measuring greenhouse gas emissions across chemical industry supply chains.
The validation by TÜV SÜD, an international third-party certification body, assessed the basic principles and quantification methods underpinning CFP-TOMO version 3.2, including its calculation logic.
The assessment covered the tool’s Cradle to Gate approach, which measures a product’s carbon footprint from the mining of raw materials through to shipment of the finished product.
TÜV SÜD confirmed that CFP-TOMO’s basic principles and quantification methods comply with relevant international standards and chemical industry guidelines, including ISO 14067:2018 for carbon footprint quantification and ISO 14040:2006 and ISO 14044:2006 for life cycle assessment.
The validation also covered alignment with the Japan Chemical Industry Association’s Guidelines for Calculating CFP in the Chemical Industry and the Product Carbon Footprint Guideline for the Chemical Industry issued by Together for Sustainability (TfS).
The validation comes as companies face growing pressure to measure and disclose greenhouse gas emissions throughout their supply chains using carbon footprint data that is reliable and comparable.
That challenge is particularly significant in the chemical industry, where complex manufacturing processes and intricate flows of raw materials, energy and by-products make carbon footprint calculations highly dependent on appropriate allocation and calculation methods.
Sumitomo Chemical said the independent validation will help it demonstrate to customers and supply chain partners that calculations produced using CFP-TOMO are grounded in methodologies aligned with international standards and industry guidelines.
The company also expects the validation to improve transparency around the tool’s calculation process and make it easier for users to explain the basis of their carbon footprint figures.
Sumitomo Chemical has been pushing to expand the use of CFP-TOMO beyond its own operations. The company completed carbon footprint calculations for approximately 20,000 products by the end of 2021 and has since begun providing the information to customers.
It has also made CFP-TOMO available free of charge to other companies calculating the carbon footprint of products they or their group companies handle, with paid licences available for certain applications, including businesses that provide carbon footprint calculation support to third parties.
The company said it will continue promoting wider adoption of CFP-TOMO to support corporate carbon footprint calculation and disclosure, while helping improve visibility into greenhouse gas emissions across supply chains and advance emissions-reduction efforts.
Sumitomo Chemical cautioned that the TÜV SÜD validation does not constitute individual verification or assurance of the carbon footprint calculated for each product. Actual results depend not only on the tool’s calculation logic but also on user-provided activity data, selected emission factors, calculation boundaries, allocation methods and other assumptions.
CFP-TOMO is designed primarily for companies in the materials sector, particularly chemical manufacturers, and calculates product carbon footprints on a Cradle to Gate basis—from raw-material extraction through product shipment.
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