Product Carbon Footprint#
Reducing and transparently reporting the Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) is becoming a key requirement across manufacturing industries. Regulations, customer expectations, and initiatives such as Catena-X or Manufacturing-X increasingly demand traceable, product-level carbon data instead of aggregated company-level metrics.
The Asset Administration Shell (AAS) is a natural fit for this challenge. It provides a standardized digital twin structure to describe products, materials, and their relationships across the lifecycle. BaSyx builds on this foundation by enabling PCF calculation and aggregation directly within the AAS ecosystem, making carbon data actionable, interoperable, and machine-readable.
Why PCF Calculation in the AAS?#
PCF data is inherently contextual:
It depends on the materials used
Their amounts and composition
Their individual emission factors
The specific product configuration being manufactured
Traditional PCF tools often operate in isolation, disconnected from engineering, production, and digital twin data. By contrast, the AAS allows PCF data to be:
Linked directly to product types and instances
Derived from material shells/submodels
Versioned, exchanged, and validated using standardized interfaces
This enables PCF to become a first-class digital twin property, rather than a static report.
PCF Support in BaSyx#
BaSyx provides an integrated PCF workflow through a dedicated PCF Process module and a PCF submodel plugin in the BaSyx AAS Web UI.
Material selection for PCF calculation in the BaSyx AAS Web UI.#
Key capabilities include:
Product-centric PCF calculation
PCF is calculated for a concrete product instance based on a selected product type and its used materials.
Type → Instance workflow
A product Type AAS is used as the template. The PCF process creates a new Instance AAS that represents the manufactured product with its calculated PCF.
Material-based aggregation
Users select materials and specify quantities. The resulting PCF is aggregated from the referenced material data.
Standard-compliant modeling
The calculated result is stored as a dedicated PCF Submodel, fully compliant with the AAS metamodel and ready for exchange.
End-to-end AAS integration
The entire workflow is executed using standard AAS concepts and BaSyx components; no external PCF tooling required.
Hint
The PCF Process module is meant to serve as a reference implementation and starting point when working with PCF in BaSyx. It can be extended or replaced to fit specific PCF methodologies, data sources, or calculation rules. Scalable implementations may integrate with external LCA databases or services.
Example Setup#
BaSyx provides a complete, runnable example that demonstrates the PCF workflow for a product made from multiple materials.
Note
PCF calculation Example on GitHub. Feel free to try it out yourself!
The example includes:
Product Type AAS
Material AAS with emission data
Automated creation of a Product Instance AAS
A generated PCF Submodel containing aggregated CO₂ equivalents
The setup can be started locally using Docker Compose and explored via the BaSyx AAS Web UI.
Role of the PCF Submodel#
The generated PCF Submodel serves as a machine-readable carbon footprint representation that can be:
Queried via AAS APIs
Exchanged across organizations
Embedded into AASX packages
Integrated into sustainability reporting pipelines
Used as input for higher-level analytics and optimization
Because it is part of the AAS, it can be combined with:
Bill of Materials (BOM) submodels
Process or energy submodels
Supply-chain or lifecycle data
Real-World Application Scenarios#
Typical use cases for PCF calculation with BaSyx include:
Sustainable product design
Compare material choices and configurations based on their PCF impact.
Supply-chain transparency
Exchange PCF-enriched product twins across company boundaries.
Regulatory reporting
Provide auditable, standardized PCF data at product level.
Digital Product Passports
Use PCF Submodels as building blocks for upcoming DPP requirements.
Manufacturing-X / Catena-X ecosystems
Enable interoperable, trusted PCF data exchange using AAS standards.