The Climate Conscious Assessment is a product-level GHG inventory based on the principles of process life cycle assessment (LCA). TCC works with the companies whose products we assess to tally the GHGs emitted during the complete life cycle of their product, including production of all raw and manufactured materials, conversion of those materials into a finished product, processing of waste, product packaging, any storage and transportation of products, in-use emissions, disposal or recycling of the product, as well as immediate offset projects and any other innovative solutions of the company whose products are under assessment.

There is not yet an accepted standard tailored for product-level GHG inventories, but a there is a collaborative effort underway in the UK by the Carbon Trust, Defra and the British Standards Institution (BSI) to develop a Publicly Available Specification (PAS 2050). TCC is a reviewer commenting on that process.

TCC has also authored a discussion paper to be published as part of a cooperative research initiative,the London Accord, which describes in greater detail the many important decisions implicit in developing a standard. We believe that a single standard for product-level GHG inventories is vital in order to prevent consumer confusion and frustration in a marketplace of proliferating standards.

However, until a definitive standard exists, TCC adheres to our own methodology: