Product Carbon Footprints

ICL has been measuring and managing its corporate carbon footprint for several years, as part of our commitment to reducing our impact on the environment. To achieve our goal of becoming Climate Neutral by 2050, we launched a program to complete calculation of carbon footprints for our main products. We are now in the second stage of this program, which involves creating calculations based on a full year of data and raw material extraction, all the way to the various products delivered to our customers. This allows us to pinpoint potential savings in critical areas, such as energy usage, and provide our customers with the comprehensive information they require. \

Our approach goes beyond just carbon foot printing. We have also developed a Sustainability Index that assesses the environmental impact of potential new products during the R&D process, considering factors such as bioaccumulation and toxicity. If a product falls into one of our defined “no-go” categories, we halt development and do not commercialize it. During the use-phase, our customers receive guidance from ICL on how to use our products in a way that minimizes their environmental impact. By taking a holistic approach to sustainability, ICL is committed to leading the charge in responsible corporate practices to protect our planet for generations to come.

We reached well above our target of completing 50% of additional product carbon footprint assessments in 2022

The potential impact of climate change and the need to reduce emissions of greenhouse gasses is recognized as critical around the world. Understanding and effectively communicating the environmental impact of products has resulted in carbon footprints being used to assess the impact of products. A carbon footprint is a focused form of life cycle assessment (LCA) in which the analysis is limited to assessing the impact of emissions that can have an effect on climate change (carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gasses). The carbon footprint of ICL products from Israel, The Netherlands, Spain, Germany and the United States have either already been calculated, or are in the process of being calculated. The carbon footprints undertaken by ICL are completed by an external party to minimize any risk of bias and in keeping with available guidance focused on carbon footprints including ISO14040, ISO14044, ISO14067 and PAS2050. The methodology for calculating carbon footprint has a number of core steps in ICL:

Step One: Define the goal of the study and build the process map of the product’s life cycle, from raw materials to disposal, including all materials, energy and waste flows
Step Two: Confirm boundaries and perform high-level footprint calculations to help prioritize efforts (at this point the process map completed in Step One can be updated, if required, with any new information)
Step Three: Collect data on material amounts, activities, and emission factors across all relevant life cycle stages; and
Step Four: Calculate the product carbon footprint (PCF).

An emission factor is a coefficient that allows conversion of ICL’s data into GHG emissions. Activities will emit different greenhouse gasses (GHG) and their global warming potential (GWP) will represent their impact on the greenhouse effect, by converting into a common measure that is CO2 equivalent. Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) is the unit of measurement that allows different greenhouse gasses to be compared on a like for like basis. Assessments for ICL are typically done per kg of product and use with a year of data. Energy, water and raw material inputs are included in the calculation for each product.

Emission factors for raw material inputs tend to use a commercial database for calculating the product footprint (apart from where inputs are from within ICL or where a supplier has provided a carbon footprint for their material). The most used database is the Ecoinvent database that supports carbon footprint calculations by providing emission factors for use to calculate the CO2 equivalent of raw material, water and energy inputs associated with a process. ICL is committed to improving the carbon footprints that are undertaken and as part of this will be seeking to increase the amount of carbon footprints that are based on assessments completed by suppliers (once the assessment has been verified and validated).

This approach is part of ICL’s extended product responsibility, which is being implemented with regard to climate impact and GHG emissions. ICL is currently exploring its value chain (Scope 3) GHG emissions.

ICL set a target for 2023 to complete additional PCF for 250 products, focusing on significant products which will create transparency for our customers and their needs toward Scope 3 and upcoming compliance with EU CBAM disclosure.

Preparing for the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)

The EU ambition is to be climate neutral by 2050. This has been made as part of the EU Green Deal, which is a comprehensive package of tax and non-tax measures. The work includes key aspects such as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) that is being introduced to try and reduce the risk of carbon leakage for some industries, including fertilizers. The risk is that production shifts offshore to countries with less stringent climate policy and so the CBAM will impose a fee on carbon intensive goods from countries with less stringent climate policies. The CBAM will require importers of certain products into the EU to pay for the tonnes of carbon emissions embedded in those products in the form of CBAM certificates (the cost of emission allowances will be tied to the EU Emissions Trading System). The reporting stage of CBAM is expected to be phased in gradually from 2023.

Understanding the carbon content of products is seen as critical to ICL. It is to ensure ICL, and its supply chain can meet upcoming legislative requirements in addition to responding to increasing customer awareness of this important issue.

To date, calculations of product carbon footprints have been focused on products in Israel, Spain, The Netherlands, China, UK, Germany, United States and France. ICL has also devised a method to assess the primary packaging associated with ICL products. Over 500 products have been assessed from the Fertilizer and Chemicals businesses. Benchmarking of ICL products reveals they are predominantly less than the market average in carbon footprint.

Polysulphate has the lowest carbon footprint at 0.034 kg CO2e kg-1 of product

Polysulphate Case Study:

Polysulphate has the lowest carbon footprint when compared to alternatives, providing a simple way to reduce farming's impact on the environment.

Crop productivity and crop quality are the most well-known major benefits of applying Polysulphate. Now the added benefit of low carbon footprint is set to make Polysulphate a fertilizer of choice for those farmers carrying out carbon calculation of their enterprise and wanting to lower their carbon footprint.

The unit of measurement for carbon footprint is kg of carbon dioxide equivalent per kg (kg CO2e kg-1) of product. Compared with a wide range of equivalent fertilizers, Polysulphate has the lowest carbon footprint at 0.034 kg CO2e kg-1 of product, less than 3% the carbon footprint of ammonium nitrate.

13.3

Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning

Product Carbon Footprints

Preparing for the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)

Polysulphate Case Study:

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