Carbon Minds has partnered with BASF to provide comprehensive and consistent product carbon footprint (PCF) data for chemicals and plastics in alignment with the BASF PCF methodology. The partnership is set to develop a new, wide-ranging database with more than 80,000 datasets covering over 1000 chemical products in 190 regions. While based on Carbon Minds' existing database cm.chemicals, the new database is tailored to companies using the BASF methodology in their product carbon footprint calculations, due to a new system model which aligns with BASF's existing carbon footprint methodology.

Through this initiative, Carbon Minds and BASF aim to promote the harmonization of carbon footprinting methodologies across industries and create the conditions for comparable carbon footprints for chemical and plastics raw materials. As more and more companies in the chemicals value chain set climate targets, chemical producers are under increasing pressure to provide high quality carbon footprint data with a cradle-to-gate scope on their products. To assess any given product, producers require data not only on the emissions of their own processes, but also on the carbon footprint of the raw materials they use, which often accounts for more than 80% of a finished product's carbon footprint.

When sourcing carbon footprint data on raw materials, chemical producers have two options. The first is to approach suppliers. Currently however, suppliers can rarely provide the required data.

More typically, producers turn to secondary databases. Whether data on raw materials comes from suppliers or third-party sources, the methodologies behind data on raw materials are often not fully aligned with those used by producers to assess their own processes. These methodological inconsistencies can severely compromise the quality and comparability of carbon footprints calculated by different producers.