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Getting started with product carbon footprints for electronics
Getting started with product carbon footprints for electronics
Timon Ruban avatar
Written by Timon Ruban
Updated over 4 months ago

Our early access program starts in July 2024 and is limited to a few select customers. Interested in joining? Reach out to [email protected].

What type of sustainability data do you offer?

Luminovo is partnering with Sluicebox to offer product carbon footprint estimates for individual electronic components, PCBs and whole assemblies. Think “CO2e for every MPN in your BOM”.

🛣️ Today we support instant CO2e-estimates for PCBs and off-the-shelf parts (that have a manufacturer and MPN). In the future, we'll also add support for other types of custom parts (like labels, metal or plastic parts) and scope 1 and 2 emissions of the PCBA assembly process.

Why do I need product carbon footprints?

New regulations such as the EU Digital Product Passport mandate that OEMs provide detailed lifecycle assessments (LCAs) to demonstrate their commitment to reducing carbon footprints and ensuring sustainable sourcing practices. On top, more and more OEMs are setting pro-active NetZero goals. Both lead to growing pressures for suppliers to disclose sustainability data across the whole electronics supply chain.

Even if your company isn’t directly affected by new regulations yet, your customers might be and the need for transparent sustainability data might soon be knocking on your door.

💡 Learn more about new regulations (CBAM, CSRD, CSDD, EU Digital Product passport, US SB 253) and how they affect the electronics industry in our sustainability glossary.

Can I use this data to help estimate my corporate carbon footprint?

If you are affected by CSRD and need to report a corporate carbon footprint, you can simply upload one BOM with all parts and quantities you purchased in a given year to get the carbon footprint estimates to include in your corporate carbon footprint estimate.

💡 Without component-level data like ours, the only other option is to use spend or weight-based estimates of the material used in your products. Learn more about the disadvantages of spend-based carbon accounting in the CSRD-section of our sustainability glossary.

What is the benefit of using sustainability data from Luminovo x Sluicebox?

  • Cost efficiency and speed. Without Luminovo x Sluicebox, conducting LCAs traditionally involves external consultants, costing $30k-$100k for a single assembly and taking 6-18 months. With Luminovo x Sluicebox LCAs are 1/10 the cost of traditional methods and we get you to a verified EPD in 1-3 weeks. Accelerate time-to-market with sustainability data available at purchase, not months later.

  • Simplicity through unique data access. Distributors don’t have carbon footprint data. Traditional data providers in the electronics industry don’t have carbon footprint data. Most manufacturers don’t have carbon footprint data. We do. Traditional LCAs thus require coordination with over 148+ stakeholders for a single product. With Luminovo x Sluicebox you just upload a BOM and let us worry about the rest.

  • Actionable insights. By providing quick and reliable estimates of carbon footprints we enable you to identify high-emission areas early on and implement targeted strategies to reduce the carbon footprint of your BOM. Choose between alternates not only based on price and availability, but also based on CO2e.

Where does your data come from and why can I trust it?

Sluicebox's AI engine is scientifically-vetted against ISO 14040/44 and European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and is in the process of being TÜV certified. It combines datapoints from 40+ trusted sources such as EcoInvent, BEIS and other governmental databases with insights from ~12M scientific papers grounded in material science. Their methods use primary data like country of origin, materials and technology nodes to tailor emissions data to the specific component supply chain, assuring accuracy down to single MPNs. Sluicebox's data is 95% accurate when tested against F500 company’s results.

For PCBs, the estimates are improved by our proprietary engine to process Gerber files (that can compute the exact weights of copper, laminate and finishes of a specific PCB as well as panel utilization rates).

For the manufacturing emissions (scope 1 and 2 emissions of the PCBA assembly process), we leverage the resources and bottom-up time calculations used in our manufacturing costing module to get an accurate picture of the emissions involved.

How will this data be priced?

A yearly subscription fee based on the number of required MPNs. Larger volumes of parts will come with volume discounts. The smallest package starts at 1,000 MPNs and includes unlimited access to PCB emissions as well.

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