The vocabulary that shows up in carbon regulation, product footprints and third-party verification — in plain language, one definition per term. Where a term is also something you do in CarbonSig, the definition says so.
A United States production tax credit for clean hydrogen. The credit tier turns on the hydrogen's lifecycle carbon intensity, measured in kilograms of CO₂e per kilogram of hydrogen, and pays up to $3.00/kg at the lowest-carbon-intensity tier. The intensity has to be verified by an independent third party — a self-declared number does not set the tier.
The measured quantity an emission factor is applied to: tonnes of material bought, kilowatt-hours consumed, kilometres driven. Emission factors get most of the attention, but a footprint is only as good as the activity data underneath it, which is why verifiers ask where a quantity came from.
How the emissions of a shared process are split between the several products it produces. A refinery or a smelter makes more than one saleable output, and the split — by mass, by energy content, by economic value — materially changes each product's footprint. The method has to be stated and justified, not assumed.
The part of CarbonSig that computes results from a system model and lets you interrogate them, including the Sankey and bar-chart views. It is where you find out which node actually drives the number, rather than only what the total is.
The level of confidence an independent auditor expresses about reported sustainability information. Limited assurance means the auditor performed lighter procedures and found nothing obviously wrong. Reasonable assurance means deeper procedures and a higher level of confidence. CSRD phases the two: limited first, with reasonable assurance expected by 2028.
A formal statement about a product's carbon data, made by the party that holds the data. An attestation is a claim with a name attached to it. It becomes a verified claim only once an independent third party has reviewed it.
Carbon that comes from biological material rather than fossil sources — timber, crops, biofuels. It is accounted for separately from fossil carbon because its uptake and release happen on much shorter cycles, and mixing the two hides what a number actually means.
A chain-of-custody model in which an environmental attribute is traded separately from the physical product it came from. It lets a buyer claim a low-carbon attribute without receiving that exact batch, which is useful in shared infrastructure and contentious for the same reason.
The record a finished product carries in CarbonSig: its name and quantity, its total embodied CO₂e and intensity per unit, the methodology behind the number, and the verifier's details. It is a live record rather than a static PDF, and it is the thing you share with a customer who asks for your product footprint. Also called a Carbon Receipt in plain language.
A tradable unit representing one tonne of CO₂e reduced, avoided or removed elsewhere. Credits sit outside a product footprint: they can offset a corporate total, but they do not lower the embodied carbon of the thing you made, and a product declaration should not net them off.
Emissions expressed per unit of output rather than as an absolute total — kilograms of CO₂e per kilogram of hydrogen, grams per megajoule of fuel, tonnes per tonne of steel. Intensity is what regulations and customers compare, because absolute totals scale with production volume.
Taking CO₂ out of the atmosphere and storing it durably, as distinct from emitting less in the first place. Direct air capture and mineralisation are removals; a more efficient furnace is a reduction. The distinction matters because they are not interchangeable in a claim.
The European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. It puts a carbon price on certain goods imported into the EU — steel, aluminium, cement, fertiliser, hydrogen and electricity among them — so that imports face a comparable cost to EU production. Its definitive phase, with financial obligations, started in January 2026. Declaring verified actual emissions instead of default values is what keeps the cost tied to how the goods were really made.
The unit an EU importer surrenders to cover the embedded emissions declared for CBAM goods. Its price tracks the EU carbon price, so the cost of an import is a function of the emissions you can evidence — which is the whole reason verified actual data beats a default value.
The fallback emission figures applied when an importer cannot supply verified actual emissions. They are set deliberately conservative, so they generally cost more than a real number: the default penalty for missing data is €100 per tonne. Declaring verified actuals is how you stop paying for the gap.
Carbon dioxide equivalent: the common unit that lets different greenhouse gases be added together, by converting each one according to its global warming potential. A footprint expressed in CO₂e is a total across gases, not only carbon dioxide.
The International Civil Aviation Organization's Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation. Fuels claiming CORSIA eligibility have to demonstrate their lifecycle emissions using the LCAF methodology, in grams of CO₂e per megajoule, and achieve a reduction against the fossil baseline.
A system boundary that covers everything from raw material extraction up to the point the finished product leaves your gate — and stops there. It excludes distribution, use and end of life. Most product carbon footprints used in business-to-business trade are cradle-to-gate, because that is the part of the life cycle the producer controls and can evidence.
A system boundary covering the full life of a product, including distribution, use and end of life, rather than stopping at your gate. Building product declarations often require it; business-to-business product footprints are usually cradle-to-gate instead.
The European Union's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. It requires in-scope companies to report sustainability information to the ESRS standards, under double materiality, with independent assurance — limited first, and reasonable assurance expected by 2028.
How well the data behind a footprint represents the thing being measured — its age, geography, technology match and completeness. Two footprints with the same number are not equally defensible if one rests on a supplier's measured figure and the other on a decade-old regional average.
Emissions released by sources you own or control — fuel burnt in your own furnaces, kilns and vehicles, and process emissions from chemical reactions on your site. In a CarbonSig model they are their own node type, sitting under the process that causes them, and they map to Scope 1.
The same emission reduction or environmental attribute being claimed by more than one party. It is the failure mode chain-of-custody rules exist to prevent, and the reason a transferred attestation has to become unusable by the party that sent it.
The CSRD principle that a company reports both how sustainability issues affect it financially and how its own activities affect people and the environment. Both directions are in scope, which is why the reporting reaches into the value chain rather than stopping at the balance sheet.
Value-chain emissions that occur after your product leaves you — distribution, processing by a customer, use, end-of-life treatment. Together with upstream emissions they make up Scope 3, and they are the part of a footprint you influence by design rather than control by operation.
What a supplier's Carbon Attested Product becomes when it is transferred to you. The transfer is irreversible, so the same attestation cannot be counted by two parties, and the certificate can then be selected as an input source in your own model — its emissions carry into your product footprint with the supplier's verification status attached.
A widely used life cycle inventory database, and one of the reference libraries a CarbonSig model can draw emission factors from alongside IPCC, US EPA and EPD International data. Using a published library rather than an ad-hoc figure is what makes a factor traceable.
The emissions released in producing a good, as declared for a border mechanism such as CBAM. In practice it means the same thing as embodied carbon, in the vocabulary the regulation itself uses.
The greenhouse gas emissions associated with making a product, expressed in CO₂e and usually per unit — per tonne of steel, per square metre of panel. It is the number a customer means when they ask for your product's carbon footprint, and the number a border mechanism like CBAM asks you to declare.
A published value that converts an activity into emissions: kilograms of CO₂e per kilowatt-hour of electricity, per tonne of material, per kilometre travelled. Choosing one is a judgement about geography, technology and data age, which is why a defensible model records not just which factor was used but why.
One verification job in the Verifier Hub: a verifier, a client, a registered model and the review that runs against it. Engagements carry their own status — pending, under review, awaiting response, opinion issued — so both sides can see where a review has got to.
A published, independently verified document reporting a product's environmental performance, following rules for its product category. In construction and heavy industry it usually follows EN 15804:2019+A2, and it is often required for green building schemes and public procurement.
The climate change standard within the European Sustainability Reporting Standards, used for reporting under CSRD. It asks for emissions across your own operations and your value chain, which makes it dependent on data your suppliers hold — and on that data holding up under assurance.
The European Union Emissions Trading System, the cap-and-trade market that puts a price on emissions from covered installations. It is the price CBAM references, so the cost of unverified imported carbon moves with it. Allowance prices ran roughly €55–70 per tonne in early-to-mid 2026.
An issue a verifier raises during a review round, pinned to the specific node it concerns via its model, product and node path. Findings are tracked from open to resolved and worked through round by round until the verifier issues an opinion. Finding a batch of them in a first verification is normal, not a failure.
Emissions allowances given to EU installations at no cost, historically to protect industries exposed to international competition. It is being phased out as CBAM phases in — from 97.5% in 2026 to 51.5% in 2030 and zero by 2034 — which is what steadily raises the cost of carbon-intensive production inside the EU.
The unit a life cycle assessment is expressed per, chosen so that alternatives can be compared fairly — a square metre of finished floor at a stated durability, not simply a kilogram of material. Get it wrong and two footprints stop being comparable even when both are correct.
The methodology for a company-level greenhouse gas inventory, organised into Scopes 1, 2 and 3. It answers a different question from a product footprint: how much a company emitted in a year, rather than how much is embodied in one thing it makes.
The most widely used methodology for quantifying the greenhouse gas emissions of a single product across its life cycle. It sets the accounting rules — boundaries, allocation, data quality — that a product carbon footprint follows so that two footprints can be compared.
A factor expressing how much heat a greenhouse gas traps over a chosen period, usually 100 years, relative to carbon dioxide. GWPs are what convert methane, nitrous oxide and refrigerants into CO₂e, and they are revised as the science is updated — so a footprint should state which set it used.
A gas that traps heat in the atmosphere. Carbon accounting covers a defined basket — carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, fluorinated gases — converted to a common CO₂e unit so that a single total can be reported.
Emissions caused by your activity but released somewhere else: the power station that generated your electricity, the supplier that made your input. They fall into Scopes 2 and 3, and for most manufacturers they dwarf what comes out of their own stacks.
The workspace-level analytics view in CarbonSig, which exports structured workbook data across ready systems, products and contributors. It is the view that answers portfolio questions rather than single-product ones.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Beyond its assessment reports, it publishes the global warming potentials and default emission factors that national inventories and carbon models rely on, including as one of the reference libraries available in CarbonSig.
The pair of standards defining the principles, framework and requirements for life cycle assessment. They govern how a study is scoped, how inventory data is handled and how results may be interpreted and reported. A calculation engine described as ISO 14040/44-compliant follows those requirements.
The standard for verifying and validating greenhouse gas statements. It sets out what an independent verifier does: planning, risk-based sampling, evidence gathering, and the form of the opinion issued at the end. It is the standard that gives third-party carbon verification its shape.
The international standard for quantifying the carbon footprint of a product. It builds on the life cycle assessment standards and specifies how a product-level CO₂e figure is calculated and reported.
The Life Cycle Assessment methodology used under CORSIA, aviation's carbon offsetting and reduction scheme, to calculate a fuel's lifecycle emissions in grams of CO₂e per megajoule. A fuel has to achieve a reduction against the fossil baseline to qualify as CORSIA eligible.
A structured method for measuring the environmental impacts of a product across its life, from raw materials through production and use to disposal. A product carbon footprint is an LCA narrowed to one impact: climate change.
The dataset behind a life cycle assessment: the flows in and out of a process — materials, energy, emissions — before they are converted into impacts. Reference libraries such as Ecoinvent publish LCI data that models draw on.
A named segment of a product's life used to structure reporting: raw material supply, transport, manufacturing, use, end of life. Product declarations report stage by stage, which is how a reader can see whether a low total comes from clean production or a narrow boundary.
In CarbonSig, the record that holds a product's system model — its nodes, data, calculated results and status. Models are what you build, register and hand to a verifier; reports are views of them.
In a CarbonSig model, the result after sinks and credits are taken off the sources: Net Emission = Sources − Sinks − Credits. Keeping the three terms separate is what lets a reader see whether a low number comes from lower emissions or from something subtracted.
The unit a system model is built from. Inputs carry the emissions of what you buy, processes represent the steps you run, direct emissions capture what your own site releases, and outputs are what you sell. Each node carries a state — incomplete, draft, or reviewed — so the model shows its own readiness.
Data measured at the specific site or process being modelled — your own meter readings, your supplier's measured figure for the batch you bought. It is the strongest evidence a footprint can rest on, and the first thing an auditor looks for behind a low number.
The total greenhouse gas emissions attributable to one product, expressed in CO₂e per unit. Unlike a corporate inventory, which totals a company's emissions for a year, a PCF answers a question about a specific thing you make — which is what customers, border mechanisms and product declarations ask for.
The category-specific rulebook an Environmental Product Declaration follows: which life cycle stages to include, which functional unit to use, how to allocate. Two declarations are comparable only if they followed the same PCR.
The published emission factor libraries a model draws on inside CarbonSig, including Ecoinvent, IPCC, US EPA and EPD International. Choosing from a reference library rather than an ad-hoc figure is what makes a factor traceable when a verifier asks where it came from.
The action that locks a finished model into a read-only snapshot for verification. Registering is the boundary between working on a number and submitting it: after it, the copy a verifier reviews cannot move underneath them.
The state a model enters when you lock it for verification. A registered model is a read-only snapshot: the verifier reviews that exact copy, and it stays immutable until a new round begins, which is what gives the review an audit trail.
A request you send a supplier, from the Relations area, asking for the carbon footprint of something you buy from them. Responses come back as attestations you can use in your own model, and the requests themselves are tracked, so you can see who has answered and who has not.
An item a verifier checks a model against, drawn from the standard the verification is being run to. Requirements become immutable once an engagement is active, so the goalposts cannot shift mid-review.
A flow diagram in which the width of each band is proportional to the quantity flowing through it. In CarbonSig it shows where a product's emissions actually come from, and it is what makes risk-based sampling practical for a verifier — the biggest flows are visibly the ones worth testing.
The three categories the GHG Protocol uses for corporate emissions. Scope 1 is what you burn on your own sites. Scope 2 is the energy you buy. Scope 3 is everything else in your value chain — most often dominated by purchased goods and services, which is why it depends on supplier data.
Data taken from a published source rather than measured at the process in question — an industry average, a database record for a similar technology in a similar region. Legitimate and often unavoidable, but weaker evidence than primary data, and the gap should be visible.
A number you calculated and stand behind yourself, with no independent review. It is a legitimate starting point and it is not the same thing as verified — a distinction auditors, programme operators and regulators all make, and one this site never blurs.
Something in a model that removes CO₂ from the atmosphere rather than adding it. Sinks are accounted separately from sources, so a net result shows whether a low number comes from emitting less or from subtracting something.
Anything in a model that emits: a fuel burnt, a material bought with emissions attached, a process reaction. Net emission is sources minus sinks minus credits, and keeping the three apart is what makes a result readable.
The part of CarbonSig where you construct a product's system model out of connected nodes, enter or select the data behind each one, and see the calculated result. What you build there is a system model — the durable asset the reports are drawn from.
The connected representation of how a product is actually made: its inputs, the processes it passes through, the emissions those release, and the output you sell. Reports are views of it, which is why the model outlives any single reporting cycle.
The route from a result back to the exact place a figure lives — model, then product, then node. It is how a verifier's finding gets pinned to something specific instead of to the footprint as a whole, and how you know what to fix.
Value-chain emissions that happen before your process: the mining, refining, manufacturing and transport behind everything you buy. For most producers this is the largest part of Scope 3 and the part that depends on supplier data.
The formal conclusion an independent verifier issues at the end of a review, and the thing that turns a self-attested figure into a verified one. It is the verifier's statement, not the platform's — CarbonSig hosts the workspace it is issued in.
One cycle of independent review. The verifier raises findings against the registered model, the client responds to each one and resubmits, and the round counter advances. Rounds repeat until the verifier is satisfied and issues an opinion.
The state a product reaches when an independent, accredited verifier has completed their review and issued a formal opinion on it in the platform. CarbonSig hosts the workspace the review happens in; the verifier is independent, and the opinion is theirs.
The verifier's side of CarbonSig: a dedicated account with a workspace of engagements, a read-only view of each registered model, and panes for requirements and findings. It is where an independent verifier does the review, rather than in a mailbox full of spreadsheets.
The container your models, libraries, products and relationships live in, with its own users and permissions. Workspaces are how one organisation keeps separate projects, sites or clients apart inside the same account.
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This page defines the vocabulary of carbon accounting. For how a term behaves inside the product — what a status changes, what a button does — the help centre is the source, and it is written by the people who build it.
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