Verified Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) Data: Building Trust and Compliance Across Value Chains
- Kerstin Schmitz
- Oct 7
- 7 min read
Updated: Oct 15
As sustainability regulations tighten, verified Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) data is becoming a critical foundation for transparency and compliance across industrial value chains. The parallel to financial accounting is clear: just as audited financial statements provide the basis for investor decisions, verified PCFs are now seen as the benchmark for regulatory compliance, procurement credibility, and collaboration across global value chains. Verification turns carbon data into a trusted, comparable asset — essential for transparency, resilience, and sustainable growth.
This shift is being accelerated by regulatory frameworks such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), Scope 3 greenhouse gas reporting, and the upcoming Digital Product Passports (DPPs) [1][2][3]. Together, these initiatives elevate carbon accounting from internal reporting to an externally validated system of record. Companies that establish verification readiness today are better positioned to meet compliance requirements and strengthen their role in sustainable value chains tomorrow.
In short, verified PCFs are rapidly evolving into a decisive foundation for compliance, collaboration, and sustainable growth in global supply chains.
The PCF Verification Framework: Structure for Comparability
To embed credibility into product-level sustainability data, industry initiatives have created a shared verification approach. The PCF Verification Framework, developed by Catena-X (CX) and Together for Sustainability (TfS), establishes how PCFs can be verified in a consistent and comparable way across industries [4].
What makes the framework distinctive is its cross-industry scope. Chemicals, as foundational suppliers, can use the same structure to deliver verified PCFs that flow into automotive, electronics, packaging, and pharmaceuticals. For downstream players, this reduces duplication and enables comparability, while for upstream providers it creates a single standard accepted across customers.
With Version 2.0 (September 2025), the framework has matured significantly. It provides refined guidance on trust levels, introduces transparent data quality metrics such as Primary Data Share (PDS) and Data Quality Rating (DQR), and addresses forward-looking topics including prospective PCFs, cascading verification, and verifier governance.
The framework builds credibility through three defined trust levels:
Verification can be carried out internally (first-party), by customers (second-party), or through independent certifiers (third-party). This layered approach enables companies to gradually increase credibility while balancing resources and strategic needs.
An important innovation in Version 2.0 is cascading verification, which allows verified PCFs to be reused by downstream customers without requiring re-verification of the same dataset. This reduces duplication of effort, improves efficiency, and enables trust to propagate across supply chains — a critical enabler for broader adoption in industries where thousands of intermediate products feed into downstream applications.
The framework is also tightly linked to the latest TfS PCF Data Model (v3.1) [5], which embeds verification status directly into exchanged datasets. Platforms such as SiGreen are already implementing this model to enable the secure exchange of verified PCFs across supply chains — an essential step for cascading verification and cross-industry comparability.
This shared approach also supports scalable sustainability data management across industries, making the framework more than a set of rules — a practical system for comparability, scalability, and trust in product carbon data.
Why Verified PCF Data Matters Now
In 2025, the demand for trusted, auditable Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) data is being shaped by three converging forces: regulation, market expectations, and strategic value.
Regulation is setting the pace. The CSRD requires large companies to disclose Scope 3 emissions [1]. CBAM requires importers of carbon-intensive goods to report embedded emissions [2]. The ESPR and its DPP will further institutionalize product-level disclosure [3]. Globally, similar rules are emerging, from the International Sustainability Standards Board ISSB [6] to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) climate disclosure [7] and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) [8].
Market expectations are rising. Automotive OEMs are beginning to require verified PCFs from suppliers, with Stellantis explicitly including PCF reporting requirements in its supplier documentation [9]. Beyond automotive, procurement is shifting from a compliance exercise to a strategic lever for resilience and growth, as highlighted in analyses by IntegrityNext [10], McKinsey [11], and TfS [12].
Strategic value is becoming clear. Verified data enhances credibility with investors, supports supply chain risk management, and strengthens external communication [13][14]. For industries such as chemicals and regulated pharmaceuticals, where compliance and reputation are intertwined, trust in sustainability data is becoming as important as trust in financial reporting.
Taken together, these forces are accelerating the adoption of PCF verification and pushing companies to establish readiness now. Put simply: verified PCF data is becoming both a regulatory requirement and a driver of strategic advantage.
Practical Challenges in Verification Implementation
While the PCF Verification Framework provides structure, companies are still in the early stages of translating it into practice. Three areas stand out: data quality, governance, and balancing scope with cost.
Data quality and consistency are the foundation. At Trust Level 1, companies are expected to check completeness, plausibility, and consistency internally. The introduction of the DQR further strengthens transparency but also raises the need for harmonized methodologies and digital systems capable of handling large volumes of data [4][5][12][20].
Governance and impartiality are critical. Verification requires separation of roles and safeguards against conflicts of interest. Certification bodies operate under ISO 14067 and ISAE 3000 assurance principles, while companies must prepare audit-ready documentation and governance processes for external scrutiny. Ongoing re-certification cycles add further complexity [4][12][15].
Scope and cost are strategic considerations. Program-level certification (Level 2) provides portfolio-wide credibility, while dataset verification (Level 3) delivers the strongest evidence but is resource-intensive. Cascading verification helps mitigate these costs by allowing downstream reuse of verified PCFs [4][5][12].
By addressing these challenges proactively, companies can establish verification as a capability that strengthens comparability, transparency, and collaboration across value chains.
Scaling Carbon Footprint Verification Across Portfolios and Organizations
As companies put the framework into practice, scalability becomes central. Verification must work consistently across broad portfolios and organizational functions.
Portfolio scalability ensures that verification applies across hundreds or thousands of products, supported by harmonized methodologies, digital data models, and workflows [4][5]. By embedding verification requirements directly into calculation processes — dataset checks (Level 1), program certification (Level 2), and selective dataset verification (Level 3) — companies create repeatable structures that reduce duplication and improve efficiency.
Organizational scalability extends credibility across roles. Verified PCF data must support procurement, product development, sustainability teams, and supplier management alike. Role-specific access ensures that trusted data becomes a shared foundation for decisions.
The AllocNow Product Sustainability Platform (PSP) supports this transition by automating ISO- and TfS-aligned calculations, applying plausibility and completeness checks, and generating audit-ready records within the TfS PCF Data Model. Program certifications achieved with TÜV Rheinland for customers such as Covestro, Merck, and Wacker demonstrate how scalable verification can be implemented in practice [21].
Industry Landscape and Certification Snapshot: PCF Verification in Practice
One year after the launch of the Catena-X & TfS framework, adoption is moving from concept to practice [4]. The chemical industry is leading, with many companies achieving methodology certifications (Level 2) for their calculation programs. First product-level verifications (Level 3) are emerging, typically covering selected products or claims, while adjacent sectors such as packaging, electronics, and pharmaceuticals are beginning to test early approaches.
The automotive industry plays a foundational role. Catena-X was initiated by leading automotive OEMs, and companies such as Stellantis are embedding verified PCF requirements into their supplier programs. While automotive manufacturers are not yet prominently listed in certifications, their influence is accelerating adoption across supply chains.
A growing ecosystem of verification bodies — TÜV Rheinland, TÜV SÜD, Carbon Trust, SGS, DNV, LRQA, Bureau Veritas — shows the global maturity of PCF verification.
The following overview summarizes publicly disclosed certifications and verification activities as of 2025. It illustrates how PCF verification is evolving from methodological certification to selective dataset and product verifications, based on official verifier listings and company announcements.
Snapshot of Verification Practice in Chemicals and Adjacent Industries:
Sources include publicly available verifier databases (e.g., Certipedia – TÜV Rheinland, Carbon Trust client pages, SGS verification services) and corporate sustainability communications from listed companies.
Together, these developments demonstrate that verified PCFs are becoming a license to operate across value chains — with the chemical industry leading and downstream sectors steadily following.
The Future of PCF Verification and Sustainability Data Management
As PCF verification matures, attention is shifting toward integration with sustainability data management and supply chain collaboration.
Prospective PCFs will extend verification into scenario analysis and product design, enabling better-informed innovation decisions [4].
Cascading verification will streamline collaboration by reducing duplication and enabling trust to scale [4][5].
Primary Data Share (PDS) and DQR will raise expectations for supplier-specific data and comparability, with PDS becoming mandatory from 2027 [5].
Broader adoption across industries will continue, with chemicals in the lead but automotive, packaging, electronics, and pharmaceuticals close behind [22].
For companies, the message is clear: building scalable verification capabilities today ensures regulatory alignment, strengthens supplier relationships, and creates resilience across value chains. Organizations that act now will be best prepared to embed verified PCFs into their sustainability strategies and data systems.
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