ISO 14067 Explained

An independent overview from DQS, an accredited certification body.

ISO 14067 is the international standard that specifies principles, requirements, and guidelines for quantifying and reporting the carbon footprint of a product (PCF or CFP), based on life cycle assessment (LCA). It applies the methodology of ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 specifically to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals, expressed in carbon dioxide equivalents. The standard is relevant to any organization — manufacturer, service provider, or supplier — that needs credible, comparable product-level emissions data for customers, regulators, investors, and supply-chain partners. The current edition is ISO 14067:2018, confirmed by ISO in 2024 and now under revision (Working Draft ISO/WD 14067.2). The 2018 edition remains in force until a new edition is published.

What is ISO 14067, from a certification body’s perspective?

ISO 14067 is a product-level greenhouse gas quantification standard, not a management system standard. It sits within the ISO 14060 family of GHG standards and builds directly on the life cycle assessment rules of ISO 14040 and ISO 14044. Because it governs how product carbon footprints are calculated and reported, the relevant third-party mechanism is generally verification of the carbon footprint study — including the underlying data and calculations.. An independent verification body examines the PCF study against the requirements of the standard and, where the data and methodology hold, issues a verification statement.

The standard does not follow the Harmonized Structure used by ISO management system standards; instead it is organized around LCA stages — goal and scope, system boundaries, data collection and quality, impact assessment, and reporting. Independent verification matters because a carbon footprint is only as trustworthy as the assumptions behind it. A statement from an accredited third party gives customers, regulators, and supply-chain partners a recognized, comparable reference they can rely on rather than a self-declared figure.

As an accredited verification body, DQS assesses and verifies the applied product carbon footprint study — it does not design, calculate, or implement the study for you. That independence is what gives a verification statement its value: the organization quantifies and reports its footprint, and an accredited third party verifies it against the standard.

Key Facts about ISO 14067 at a Glance

Context and Drivers for ISO 14067

Regulatory Pressure

Product-level emissions data is moving from voluntary to expected. Under the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), companies must report value-chain emissions with auditable rigor, and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) attaches financial consequences to the embedded emissions of imported goods. The Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and the associated Digital Product Passport are set to make environmental information — including carbon data — a condition of market access for a growing list of product categories. A standardized, defensible quantification method such as ISO 14067 provides a consistent basis for meeting these expectations.

Market Expectations and Green Claims

Customers, retailers, and investors increasingly ask for product carbon footprints, and they expect the figures to be credible. Regulatory scrutiny of environmental marketing — through initiatives such as the proposed EU Green Claims Directive and the adopted Empowering Consumers Directive (EmpCo) — raises the bar against unsubstantiated or misleading sustainability claims.. Quantifying a footprint to a recognized standard, and having it independently verified, supports transparent communication and helps distinguish substantiated claims from greenwashing.

Supply-Chain Decarbonization

Because most of a product’s emissions typically sit upstream, in purchased materials and components, buyers are pushing carbon-footprint requirements down their supply chains. Suppliers that can provide ISO 14067-based footprints help their customers complete their own organizational and value-chain inventories, identify emission hotspots, and target reductions where they matter most. A consistent method makes product footprints comparable across suppliers and over time.

Core Requirements for ISO 14067

Principles and Consistency with LCA

ISO 14067 is grounded in the principles of life cycle assessment — life cycle perspective, relative approach and functional unit, iterative approach, and transparency. It applies the LCA framework of ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 specifically to greenhouse gas emissions, and all applicable requirements for product carbon footprint quantification are set out in ISO 14067 itself. The carbon footprint covers greenhouse gas emissions and removals across the product life cycle, expressed in carbon dioxide equivalents using characterization factors for global warming potential. The standard also accommodates a partial carbon footprint covering only selected life cycle stages.

Goal, Scope, and Functional Unit

Every PCF study begins by defining its goal and scope, including the product system, the intended application, and the functional or declared unit to which all inputs and outputs are referenced. The functional unit should be clearly defined and measurable — for example, “10,000 hours of illumination” rather than only “one light bulb” — so that results are meaningful and, where appropriate, comparable.

System Boundaries and Cut-off Criteria

The standard requires a clearly stated system boundary, typically cradle-to-grave or, for a partial footprint, cradle-to-gate. Cut-off criteria for excluding stages, processes, inputs, or outputs must be identified and explained, and exclusions are only permitted where they do not significantly change the study’s overall conclusions. Rules for allocation, and for the treatment of biogenic carbon, land use change, and electricity, are specified so that emissions are attributed in a defensible, transparent way.

Data and Data Quality

Quantification relies on representative primary and secondary data covering raw material extraction, manufacturing, distribution, use, and end of life. ISO 14067 sets data quality requirements — time, geographical, and technology coverage, plus precision, completeness, representativeness, consistency, and reproducibility — and requires that data sources and any limitations be documented so the result can be evaluated and reproduced.

The PCF Study Report

Results must be compiled into a PCF study report that documents the product description, functional unit, system boundary, methodology and data sources, assumptions including allocation methods and cut-off criteria, the quantified results, and a data quality assessment. This report is the basis on which an independent third party verifies the footprint and on which any external communication of the result rests.

Target Groups and Application Areas for ISO 14067

ISO 14067 is relevant to any organization that designs, manufactures, distributes, or sells goods or services and needs a credible measure of their climate impact. Because the standard applies to products and services of any kind, its use spans sectors — from manufacturing, automotive, and electronics to food and beverages, construction materials, chemicals, packaging, and consumer goods.

• Manufacturers and product designers quantifying footprints to identify emission hotspots and inform lower-carbon design and material choices.
• Suppliers and component makers providing product footprints that their customers fold into organizational and value-chain inventories.
• Brand owners and retailers seeking substantiated data behind product-level environmental claims and labeling, and Digital Product Passport requirements.
• Non-EU exporters placing products on the EU market facing carbon-related market-access requirements such as CBAM reporting..

Used well, a product carbon footprint provides the basis for evidence-based environmental management: it supports informed decisions on design, sourcing, and process change, and enables transparent reporting to interested parties. The standard quantifies and reports impact; the reductions follow from the decisions an organization takes on the evidence it provides.

Standards Related to ISO 14067

The Life Cycle Assessment Foundation

ISO 14067 does not stand alone. It builds on ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, the framework and requirements for life cycle assessment, and inherits their methodology for defining product systems, collecting data, and interpreting results. A full LCA considers multiple impact categories — such as water use or land use — whereas ISO 14067 focuses specifically on the climate change impact expressed as a carbon footprint.

The ISO 14060 GHG Family

Within the ISO 14060 family, ISO 14067 addresses the product level, while ISO 14064-1 covers the quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and removals at the organizational level (the corporate carbon footprint) and ISO 14064-3 sets out requirements for validation and verification of GHG statements. ISO 14068-1 builds on these quantification standards to specify requirements for carbon neutrality claims.

Differentiation from Similar Standards and Programs

ISO 14025 governs Type III environmental product declarations, which communicate LCA-based information according to product category rules; a product carbon footprint can feed into such a declaration. The GHG Protocol Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard is a used alternative reference for product-level accounting. PCF frameworks such as ISO 14067 and the GHG Protocol Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard share LCA foundations based on ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, but they differ in scope and purpose — and ISO does not treat them as formally equivalent. The two standards are currently being revised jointly to harmonize requirements, with a final unified standard expected around 2027–2028.