ISO 14067 is the international standard that sets the rules for measuring a single product's carbon footprint, the total greenhouse gases it causes across its whole life.
Published in 2018, it takes the life cycle assessment method and points it at one question. How much does this product add to climate change, from raw materials to disposal, counted in a way anyone can check.
The easiest way to picture it is a receipt. A product's carbon footprint is the climate bill it runs up at every stage, the farming or mining, the factory, the trucks, the shop shelf, the bin. Add up every line and you get one number, measured in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
ISO 14067 is the agreed way to total that receipt, so two people costing the same product end up at the same figure.
Facts about ISO 14067
Here are the facts worth pinning down before the detail.
- Standard: ISO 14067
- Full title: Greenhouse gases, carbon footprint of products, requirements and guidelines for quantification
- Current edition: 2018
- Status: Published
- Type: a requirements-and-guidelines standard you conform to rather than get certified against
- Written by: ISO/TC 207 (environmental management), subcommittee SC 7
- Family: one of the ISO 14060 family of greenhouse-gas standards
Note: Edition and scope confirmed against ISO's catalogue, July 2026. ISO 14067:2018 cancelled and replaced the earlier ISO/TS 14067:2013, which was a technical specification rather than a full standard. It is a method you conform to and reference, so there is no "ISO 14067 certificate" for a company.
What a product carbon footprint actually measures
Before the rules make sense, three ideas need to be clear.
- A product carbon footprint (CFP) is the total greenhouse gases linked to one product across its life, reported as a single figure in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). It covers more than carbon dioxide alone, taking in the other warming gases too, such as methane and nitrous oxide.
- CO2e is the shared unit. Each gas warms the planet by a different amount, so ISO 14067 converts them all into the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide using published global warming potential (GWP) values. That is what lets a methane figure and a CO2 figure add into one total.
- It is life-cycle-based. The footprint follows the same cradle-to-grave logic as a life cycle assessment, counting emissions from raw materials, production, transport, use and end of life, not just what comes out of the factory.
One more distinction matters, and it is about scope.
| Scope | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Full footprint | The whole life, cradle to grave |
| Partial footprint | Only part of it, for example cradle to gate, up to the factory door |
Either is allowed, as long as you state which one you measured. And ISO 14067 only ever measures one thing, climate change. Water use and land use belong to a full life cycle assessment, not to a carbon footprint.
What changes when you follow ISO 14067
The value of the standard is easiest to see by comparing a carbon number made without it to one made with it.
Without an agreed method, a "carbon footprint" is whatever the person calculating it decides to include. One team counts the factory but leaves out shipping. Another stops at the raw materials. A third quietly drops the packaging.
Every number is defensible on its own, and none of them can be compared, which is how a footprint slides from evidence into a marketing figure.
ISO 14067 closes those gaps by pinning down the decisions that otherwise get made in the dark.
A carbon footprint has to
- Follow the life cycle assessment rules of ISO 14040 and ISO 14044. ISO 14067 does not reinvent the method. It applies the established LCA framework to greenhouse gases, so the number is built on rules that already exist.
- Set a clear system boundary. State exactly which life stages are in and which are out, and whether the result is a full or a partial footprint.
- Convert every gas to CO2e using recognised GWP values. No picking and choosing which gases to count.
- Account for biogenic carbon openly. Carbon taken up and released by biological materials like wood, paper and crops has to be shown, not buried, because it can swing a result.
- Meet data-quality and reporting requirements. The data behind the number, and the choices made along the way, get written up in a study report so the figure can be checked by someone else.
Clear all of that and the footprint is comparable and defensible. Miss one and it is back to being a number only its author trusts.
Who is ISO 14067 for?
ISO 14067 is written for the people who have to produce a carbon figure that will be looked at closely, rather than one taken on trust.
- Product and packaging teams working out where a product's emissions really come from, so they cut the biggest ones instead of the most visible ones.
- Sustainability and reporting teams who need a number that holds up in an Environmental Product Declaration or a customer's supply-chain questionnaire.
- Brands making a climate claim on a product, who need evidence behind the word rather than a slogan.
- Assessors and reviewers checking that a footprint was calculated properly before it goes public.
Take a drinks producer choosing between a glass bottle and a lighter recycled-plastic one. The glass looks more wholesome, but a footprint measured to ISO 14067 might show the lighter pack carries the smaller climate cost once weight, transport and production are counted.
The standard is what turns that hunch into a number you can defend.
Where a product carbon footprint fits for producers
Here is the honest version for anyone reading this from an extended producer responsibility angle. A product carbon footprint is not what sets your EPR fees.
Those are driven by things like packaging recyclability, which ISO 18604 covers, and recycled content, not by a carbon number.
Where ISO 14067 earns its place is in backing up the climate claims and declarations producers are increasingly asked for.
- Environmental Product Declarations. A Type III EPD under ISO 14025 reports a product's life-cycle impacts, and the carbon figure inside it is quantified the ISO 14067 way. No credible method, no credible declaration.
- Green claims that survive scrutiny. A "low carbon" or "carbon neutral" line on a product means little unless the number under it was measured to a recognised method. ISO 14067 is that method, and regulators and large retailers are steadily moving toward expecting exactly this kind of evidence before a green claim is allowed to stand.
- Supply-chain and tender requirements. Big buyers now ask suppliers for product carbon data as a condition of doing business. A footprint built to ISO 14067 is the kind that holds up when a customer or auditor checks it.
Keeping track of which products have a documented footprint, and the data behind each figure, is the sort of record that sits naturally alongside the rest of a producer's compliance reporting rather than off in a spreadsheet of its own.
ISO 14067 vs ISO 14064 and the other carbon standards
A few standards sit close to ISO 14067 and get mixed up with it. The one to get right is ISO 14064, which measures something different in scale, as the diagram shows.
How the closest standards compare
Four standards come up most often. Here is what each one measures and how it relates to ISO 14067.
| Standard | What it measures | How it relates to ISO 14067 |
|---|---|---|
| ISO 14064 | The greenhouse gas emissions of a whole organisation, across its direct and indirect emissions | Same subject, different scale. Product versus whole company. The mix-up to avoid. |
| GHG Protocol Product Standard | The carbon footprint of a product, under a widely used protocol from the WRI and WBCSD | Same job, different rule-book. ISO 14067 is the formal standard, and the more audit-ready. |
| PAS 2050 | The life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of a product, under an older British specification from BSI (2008) | The pioneer. ISO 14067 followed it and is now the common reference. |
| ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 | The full environmental impact of a product across its life, many issues not just carbon | The method ISO 14067 is built on, aimed only at climate change. |
ISO 14067 questions answered
Short, self-contained answers to the questions people ask most about ISO 14067.
What is ISO 14067?
ISO 14067 is the international standard, published in 2018, that sets the requirements and guidelines for measuring the carbon footprint of a product (CFP). It applies the life cycle assessment method to one impact only, climate change, and reports the result as a single figure in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
Is ISO 14067 a certification?
No. It is a requirements-and-guidelines standard you conform to and reference, not a scheme you get audited and certified against. A product's footprint can be calculated to ISO 14067 and even independently verified, but there is no "ISO 14067 certified" stamp for a company.
What edition of ISO 14067 is current?
The 2018 edition. It cancelled and replaced the earlier ISO/TS 14067:2013, which was a technical specification rather than a full international standard. When you cite it, cite ISO 14067:2018.
What is the difference between ISO 14067 and ISO 14064?
ISO 14067 measures the carbon footprint of a single product across its life cycle. ISO 14064 measures the greenhouse gas emissions of an entire organisation. Product versus company, the same subject at two very different scales, which is why the two are so often confused.
Does ISO 14067 cover more than carbon?
No. It deliberately measures one environmental issue, climate change, expressed in CO2e. Broader impacts like water and land use fall under a full life cycle assessment under ISO 14040 and ISO 14044, not under ISO 14067.
What is a partial carbon footprint?
A partial carbon footprint covers only part of a product's life, for example from raw materials up to the factory gate, rather than the whole way to disposal. ISO 14067 allows it, as long as you state clearly which part of the life cycle the figure covers.
How does ISO 14067 relate to an Environmental Product Declaration?
An EPD under ISO 14025 reports a product's life-cycle environmental impacts, and the carbon part of that declaration is quantified using ISO 14067. The standard provides the method, and the EPD is the published result built on top of it.
Is ISO 14067 mandatory?
No, it is a voluntary international standard, not a law. But it is fast becoming the reference point that customers, retailers and regulators expect a product carbon claim to be built on, so in practice a buyer or a scheme can require it even where no law names it directly.
