Creating a packaging product involves four key steps: choosing the type of product, entering generic product details, specifying if the packaging system is to be included or not, before deep diving into the product's lifecycle. Here's a detailed breakdown of the process:
Step 1: Choose the type of product you want to model
- Product Class: Choose if you want to model a food or a packaging product. This article is a step-by-step guide to creating a packaging product. You can read all about creating food products here.
- Development Stage: Choose if this product is in production (currently being sold) or in development. This will determine if a product can be selected for baseline/historical volume reporting.
- Product Type: Select whether the product is final (B2C), intermediate (B2B), or internal (raw material used in another product). Changing a sold product to internal marks it as made by you; you can change that on the next step.
Step 2: Enter Generic Product Details
Start by entering essential product information:
- Packaging Name: Provide the packaging product's name.
- Consumer-facing packaging amount (in g): This is the total weight of the packaging getting to the consumer (excluding any transport packaging).
- GTIN: Include the Global Trade Item Number, if available.
- Packaging type: Select the type of packaging you are about to model (e.g. Box, Case, Pallet etc.). This is important for system validation.
- Packaging ID: Enter your product ID. This must be unique across all workspaces.
- Made or bought (internal packaging only): whether you make this packaging, yourself or through a co-manufacturer, or buy it finished. See Made or bought.
If you can't find the right packaging type, you can add a placeholder by selecting 'Other'. You'll be able to add a comment to notify our team for assistance.
Step 3: Specify if you want to model the full packaging system
Specify whether you want to include the full packaging system in your product modelling. This is any transport packaging used to protect the final sold good for handling, storage, shipping and distribution (e.g. pallets, cases, wraps etc.) You can change this later from Edit product details. See Transport packaging and end of life.
Step 4: Map the Product Lifecycle
Once the basic product details are entered, click 'Next' to proceed to the Product Lifecycle Mapping tab. Here you will map the flow of raw materials into your facilities and the distribution path of the product once it's ready for shipment.
- Final products: Includes all five life cycle stages all the way to the consumer.
- Intermediate products: These products cover up to the distribution stage.
- Internal products: These include only the first two stages to ensure no double counting in supply chain assessments.
You will be presented with a Graph View, which visually represents the lifecycle of your product. You can also switch to the List View, which displays all lifecycle stages as a simple list for easier review.
Graph vs. List View
- The Graph View (default view) provides a visual map showing how everything connects in the product lifecycle.
- The List View offers a more straightforward overview of each node in the lifecycle, making it easier to see the amounts, suppliers, and other key details.
You can toggle between the two views at the top of the page to suit your preference. The Graph View will be the primary focus for this article.
Step 5: Add Raw Materials (Materials & Packaging)
- Materials: Add all raw materials used to create your final packaging product. For each material, specify:
- Material type group: Select the type of material you want to choose from (e.g. glass, polymers, paper etc.)
- Material: Pick the material you want to use.
- Recycled content: Specify how much of that material is recycled in percentage.
- Amount (in g): Amount of the specific material purchased.
- Supplier(s): You can either select an existing supplier from the Supply chain section or create a new one by typing the supplier's name and clicking '+ [new supplier name]'. If the supplier has multiple roles (e.g., both supplier and transporter), you can add multiple types under Type of Provider.
After adding a new supplier, you can enter details such as:
- Split (%): The percentage of time you sourced the material from this supplier over the past 3 years.
- Country of Origin: Where the supplier sources the material.
- Packaging: As described above in Step 3, this is packaging used for transport from final manufacturing facility to the consumer. All transport packaging is managed via the transport packaging interface, where you need to specify:
- Final level: This is to indicate which is the outermost layer of packaging. A level is defined as all packaging components removed at the same time in the same place.
- Dimensions (in cm): For the final level, dimensions need to be provided in order to properly account for the volume of the total transported good. Volumes of the levels below are estimated using these dimensions and the number of units inside.
- Contained number of units: The number of units of the previous level contained at each level (e.g. how many product units in Level 1, how many Level 1 in Level 2 etc.). A level can hold a single unit, for example one bag in a box.
- Packaging: You can add any number of packaging components at each level (e.g. film, pallet and labels all in Level 2).
- Final level: This is to indicate which is the outermost layer of packaging. A level is defined as all packaging components removed at the same time in the same place.
Once confirmed, all transport packaging nodes will appear in your product graph/list with the respective icon of the transport packaging at the bottom of the list of raw materials.
If you can't find a specific material or packaging component, you can add a placeholder by selecting 'Other'. You'll be able to add a comment to notify our team for assistance.
Once all raw materials are added, your graph will begin to populate, visually showing the flow of these materials through the lifecycle.
Building packaging from your own packaging products
The Made of picker for a material offers two lists: Internal products, your complete internal packaging products, and Raw materials, your purchased packaging goods first and then our library. Pick an internal product to build on packaging you have already modelled, for example a can that uses the lid you modelled on its own. The line is linked to that product: it takes the product's name and supplier, shows its materials in place of the recycled content and sub-material fields, and Open graph takes you to it. Its impacts and end of life carry through, so editing the lid updates the can. Pick a library material again to drop the link.
Not sure of every step yet?
Carry on to the facilities. If you have no visibility of how the product is made beyond its raw materials, add the production facility and use Add default steps inside it (see Adding default steps in Step 8): it fills that facility with typical steps so you can get an initial result with little first-party data, and you can replace them with your own later. It replaces the old Apply defaults button, which changed the whole product at once.
Step 6: Add Facilities and Locations
- Production Facilities: Add one or more production facilities where your product is made. Ensure at least one is designated as the final production facility, which results in your SKU ready for distribution.
- Warehouses and Stores: Add locations where raw materials, intermediate products, or finished goods are stored, including your warehouses, logistics companies, or retailers.
- Consumption Locations: For final products, specify where the product is used (e.g., country, region, or city).
- Final Destination: For intermediate products, add the point where your product is handed over to the downstream customer.
For each facility or location, specify the agreement type (direct or indirect) and country/region of operation. These details affect Scope 3 categorisation.
Facilities/locations can be added under most life cycle stages (production facilities, warehouses, stores and consumption locations). You can either select a facility/location created under Supply chain from the drop downs or create a new one by simply typing the name of the facility you want to create and click '+ [new facility name]'.
You can move elements around the grid as needed to create a coherent picture: click the little grid icon to resize your grid, add columns or rows, and move the elements around as you wish to visualise as clearly as possible the flow of your SKU across its life cycle.
Step 7: Establish Transport Links
Connect your raw materials to the relevant production facility with transport links: this is essential because only raw materials transported to the facility will be available to select as inputs in your production steps.
- If only one facility was added to the graph, these are generated automatically for you, using our default regional transport services supplier and transport conditions which you can later modify by clicking on the transport link and selecting edit. Defaults appear with the 'default' tag.
- When a supplier has no transport link, Add missing transport links appears at the top of the Raw Materials column. It links each of those suppliers to the facility whose step uses it, with the default carrier for its region, marked as a default for you to edit. A note says how many links were added, and how many suppliers it skipped because they need a production facility, a production step that uses them, or a supplier location first. Nothing is saved until you save the product. The same button is in the change modelling editor.
- For each transport link you create manually, you need to specify:
- From and To, selecting the origin and destination of your transport.
- Transported goods (if the same supplier/origin provides multiple goods).
- Transport services supplier to specify which company is responsible for providing this transport service. For transport suppliers, you are asked to confirm the agreement type with that supplier (whether it's a direct contract or indirect via someone else). This will affect Scope 3 categorisation. By default, this will be inherited from what was set at the supplier level.
Step 8: Add Production Steps
The next step consists in specifying what happens inside the production facilities:
- Clicking on the inner box of the production facility will open a new graph where you can specify the various production steps happening inside this facility to turn your raw materials into the final product your customers/consumers will get.
- Choose whether you want to add a packaging production (conversion) step or a packing step. For each step, you can enter the following information:
- Process, selecting the relevant one from our list of industrial processes.
- Specify if it is the final step happening in a given facility.
- Input(s), selecting what the inputs to the process should be and what amounts are being used in this particular step.
- Remember that transport needs to have been added for your raw materials to appear in this list.
- If this is a packing step, make sure you have at least one packaging raw material as well as a material or intermediate product as inputs for this to be valid.
- Optional inputs, where you can add primary data about your specific process. We can either use our default assumptions, or our assumptions (including energy and water) get replaced with your own collected primary data. When looking for this data, make sure you input the amounts required for this specific process (i.e. extrusion, rotogravure etc.) to produce one SKU only. Good LCA practice suggests taking an average of the inputs and outputs over a representative period of time, e.g. one year for an industrial plant.
- Output(s), if it is not the final step of your final production facility, which results in the SKU being ready, you need to specify at least one intermediate product, name it and specify what amount is made. You may also have other outputs resulting from this step including waste, emissions or by-products. Add as many as you need in here! A by-product takes no share of the impact. Material and packaging steps cannot put out a co-product. See Co-products and by-products.
- Optional outputs, the same as for inputs, you can choose to override some of the secondary data assumptions with your own data or not. You can also come back to add this later.
If you can't find the processes you need, you can add a placeholder by searching for 'Other' under process. Please add a comment to communicate to our in-house experts what you need us to add and our team will get notified instantaneously.
Adding default steps
An empty production facility shows an Add default steps button, in the facility view and in the list view. On a packaging product it fills the facility with general steps built from what flows into it, ending with packing so the mass balance adds up. Each step carries a default tag, so you can see what is left to refine. The button only touches the facility you choose, and nothing is saved until you save the product.
Suggested values
Some fields show a value in grey while they are empty. That is a suggestion, worked out from what you have already entered. To accept it, press Tab (or Shift+Tab) to leave the field and the value is filled in. Clicking elsewhere leaves the field empty, and typing replaces the suggestion with your own value. If you clear what you typed, the suggestion comes back.
You will see suggestions for:
- Intermediate product quantity: the step's inputs, plus any process water and auxiliaries, less everything else the step outputs (waste, emissions, co-products, by-products and wastewater). This is the same mass balance we check when calculating, so accepting it keeps the step balanced.
- Water input and wastewater: each suggests the other.
- Display names: the name of the process or material you picked.
A balanced intermediate quantity keeps following its step, even after you save. Change an input, a waste, a co-product or the water, and it updates. If you typed your own figure, it stays, and the step offers the balance beneath it: Balanced: 950 g, with Apply beside it. A step with several intermediate outputs never updates them by itself; use Apply.
Add missing transports
If you have multiple production facilities or warehouses in sequence, make sure to add transport links from one to another specifying which output is being transported from one facility to the next. This is important otherwise you won't be able to select it as an input in the following facility. For raw material suppliers with no link, use Add missing transport links (see Step 7).
With the above steps, you should have finalised your product life cycle up until the end of the production life cycle stage. Next you can add transport to connect the various facilities and locations in your graph, to specify how your product SKU goes from your final production facility to your customers/consumers. Remember that every component needs to be connected to something.
Step 9: Add Distribution Data
Specify how long and under what conditions items are stored in your various warehouses and stores.
- Whether warehouses are used to store raw materials, intermediate products or the final SKU, you can open any warehouse by clicking on its inner box. The same is true for stores in the distribution life cycle stage.
- Once opened, you can specify for each item in there the storage duration. Defaults are applied based on PEF assumptions and can be modified if primary data is available for the corresponding facility.
Step 10: Product Non-Recyclability
If the final sold product is non-recyclable in a certain location, update the end-of-life stage for that packaging.
Step 11: Generate Report
Once all steps are complete, click 'Generate Report'. If there are any issues with the data, including mass balance issues and disconnected nodes, you'll be prompted to resolve them. Once all errors are fixed, you'll be able to generate a final report using both primary and secondary data for your product.
You can also save a product that still has problems: it stays a draft until they are fixed. Products > Data issues lists what keeps each draft from completing, with how to fix it, and opens the model at the spot that raised it. See How do I use Data issues.
Other possible actions
Flagging
You might want to flag a specific node to remember to come back to it at a later stage. This can happen if you don't immediately have the data and put a temporary placeholder to keep going or if you are unsure about some of the details. To do so, all you have to do is click on the little flag icon in the top right corner of any modal. This will turn blue.
When the modal is closed, the flag is visible in the top right corner of the node to remind you that this node requires your attention.
Undo/Redo
As you create your product, if you ever need to undo a change you just did, you can click on the undo/redo buttons in the top left of the graph.
View datasets in use
Clicking on the database icon from within the product editing interface will show in real-time which datasets are in use for this product's impact calculation.
Datasets can be viewed for the entire product by clicking on the database icon at the top of the graph, or this view can be filtered to a specific node of the graph by clicking the icon on the modals directly (e.g. inside a production facility, or in the ingredient modal).