Chinese organization announces public program for product carbon footprint accounting for 2025 
On Aug. 6, 2025, the All-China Environment Federation, a Chinese nonprofit organization, announced a public program for product carbon footprint accounting for 2025. Businesses can apply for the program on a voluntary basis. Here is an overview.
Scope of the program
The following things are eligible for carbon footprint accounting under the program: independent products, combinations of products, raw materials, supply chains, services, etc. of businesses, higher education institutions, research institutions, science parks and other entities engaged mainly in providing green and low-carbon services or producing green and low-carbon physical products or raw materials.
Steps of product carbon footprint accounting
The All-China Environment Federation carries out product carbon footprint accounting in the following steps: application → screening → contract agreement → document submission → expert assignment → initial review → product carbon footprint accounting meeting → accounting report preparation.
Uses of accounting results
Below are some of the ways businesses can make use of product carbon footprint accounting results.
Optimization and improvement of production processes
- Identification of high-emission sources
Identify the main sources of carbon emissions (e.g., raw material production, manufacturing and transportation) in the product lifecycle.
- Process improvement
Optimize high-emission production processes and introduce more efficient equipment and technologies in them to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions.
- Energy management
Increase energy efficiency by means such as introducing renewable energy or efficient equipment to reduce carbon emissions from production.
Supply chain management and low-carbon procurement
- Supply chain optimization
Analyze carbon emissions in the supply chain, and encourage suppliers to adopt low-carbon production technologies and low-carbon materials based on the analysis result.
- Supplier selection
Choose suppliers emitting less carbon to reduce carbon emissions from the whole supply chain.
- Transportation optimization
Optimize logistics and transportation by means such as using more efficient equipment and shorter routes to reduce carbon emissions from transportation.
Product design and innovation
- Low-carbon product design
Adopt low-carbon product designs based on carbon footprint accounting results, such as designs using lighter materials, using recyclable materials or having longer lifespans.
- Promotion of circular economy
Promote product design for circular economy by means such as adopting disassemble, recyclable or reusable designs to reduce waste generation.
The announcement of the program (in Chinese) is available here:
