Post by Niaga®

⁉️ Does GHG impact stop at the factory gate? When assessing the carbon impact of a product, procurement criteria and marketing claims still focus heavily on A1–A3: cradle-to-gate. A1–A3 covers: • A1 – Raw material extraction and processing • A2 – Transport of materials to the manufacturer • A3 – Manufacturing of the product Raw materials. Transport. Production. Important? Absolutely. Complete? Not even close. Because greenhouse gas impact does not stop at the gate. What happens at end-of-life can dramatically change the total climate footprint of a product. If a product is incinerated after use, substantial emissions are released in that final phase, emissions that are often overlooked in procurement discussions. If, however, a product is designed for reuse or high-value recycling, the story changes completely. When a carpet tile is reused in a second life, the embodied carbon of producing a new product is avoided altogether. When polymers are recovered through high-value recycling, they can replace virgin raw materials in the next lifecycle — avoiding extraction, avoiding primary production emissions, and generating significant carbon savings. Yet a cradle-to-gate perspective remains linear: Make → Use → Dispose. Circular products demand a full-loop perspective: Design → Use → Reuse → Recover → Recycle → Repeat. At Niaga®, we believe circularity only makes sense if we measure it across cycles. That’s why Object Carpet has recently finalized a full-loop carbon analysis together with CE Delft, moving beyond A1–A3 and explicitly accounting for end-of-life, reuse potential and next-life effects. The results will be shared soon. If we want to design truly circular systems, we must also measure them circularly. ♻️ #EcoDesign #CircularEconomy #ClimateAction #MaterialRecovery #DesignForReuse Nico Janssen