Contact us

Thank you for contacting us!

Your submission has been received and we'll be in contact with you shortly.

Return home
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
A rounded corner tag that says "new"
Looking Ahead: Using AI to Build Dynamic Cost Models
Read more
A dark gray close icon

Looking Ahead: Using AI to Build Dynamic Cost Models

Provide your email address to download Muir AI's white paper on how the changing supplier and product landscape requires innovative approaches for should-cost analysis.

Thank you for downloading

We have sent the whitepaper to your email too.

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Gold close icon

January 2025

We Need More PCFs

Let's shift the traditional paradigm for how companies are creating Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) reports for the products they manufacture or purchase. Companies need faster, innovative, and cost-effective solutions to make PCFs a reality. That's where Muir AI comes in.

There is a growing recognition that Product Carbon Footprints or PCFs are effective tools for companies to track and manage their corporate carbon footprint. To accurately assess total emissions, companies need to go beyond high-level organization-wide data from suppliers and obtain precise information about the products they purchase. This is where PCFs come in. 

Companies can use PCFs to understand the emissions they are inheriting with the products they purchase, and to create decarbonization strategies with their suppliers. 

But to fully embrace the power of PCFs, organizations must rethink their approach to creating and utilizing them.

The Problem: Traditional PCFs Are Static, Costly, and Complex

Historically, creating a PCF has been anything but simple. The process required significant time and expertise, along with a serious investment, making it accessible only to a select few organizations and thus limiting their overall effectiveness. Even when companies did invest in PCFs, they often treated these documents as static reports, limiting their usefulness over time.

Traditionally, created a PCF commonly took one of two paths: 

  • Consultant-Driven Analysis: Companies would hire specialty consultants to deconstruct products, map their components to emissions factor databases, gather primary data, and compile reports. This painstaking process could take months and cost tens of thousands of dollars per Product Carbon Footprint. And given the significant investment required, companies were often reluctant to update the reports as products or supply chains changed. 
  • Advanced LCA Software: Alternatively, sustainability or subject-matter experts might use lifecycle assessment (LCA) tools. While effective, these tools demanded extensive expertise and coordination, requiring users to deeply understand products materials and manufacturing or production processes, in addition to requiring them to collect data from procurement teams or manufacturing partners. This made them inherently more expensive, as specialists needed to invest much of their time to generate the reports. 

Once completed, these reports became static artifacts. Updating a PCF to reflect new data or changes required starting the process anew, consuming additional resources and creating bottlenecks in decision-making.

A Paradigm Shift: Muir’s Innovative Solution

To truly drive decarbonization at scale, companies need a fresh approach to PCFs. Enter Muir—a technology platform designed to make PCFs accessible, dynamic, and cost-effective. - while using a methodology that is third-party certified to ISO 14067. Here’s how Muir is reshaping the PCF landscape:

  1. Cost-Effective Scaling: Muir’s PCFs are powered by advanced technology, reducing the cost of creating a PCF by 10 to 100x, when compared to traditional methods. By lowering the cost to create PCFs, Muir empowers businesses to iterate and refine their reports. As new data becomes available, Muir’s customers can easily refine their PCFs, because the cost is so low. This affordability makes it feasible to generate PCFs for a broader range of products, driving more comprehensive emissions tracking and reduction strategies.
  2. Encouraging Continuous Refinement: Muir’s PCFs are designed to evolve with our customers. Instead of being static, unchangeable documents, these PCFs can be dynamically edited and refined as new information becomes available. This adaptability allows companies to incorporate changes in their supply chain or emissions data without incurring significant costs.
  3. Flexible Input Options: Muir’s platform offers multiple pathways for data entry, accommodating diverse user needs. Whether you’re working with detailed datasets or limited information, Muir’s technology ensures that creating a PCF is straightforward and scalable, all while using the data our customers have available.
  4. High-Fidelity Estimates: Muir generates insightful, high-fidelity estimates for products’ bills of materials (BOMs) and manufacturing processes. This capability reduces the need to gather exhaustive data upfront, enabling companies to start creating actionable PCFs sooner.

The Mindset Shift We Need

To unlock the potential of PCFs, companies must undergo a fundamental mindset shift. No longer should PCFs be viewed as costly, static compliance documents—they are dynamic tools for continuous improvement. With the right technology, creating and updating PCFs can become a seamless part of a company’s sustainability strategy, enabling real-time insights and informed decision-making.

The Muir Platform offers the tools and flexibility businesses need to meet this moment, transforming PCFs from a luxury into a necessity. By leveraging technology to streamline the creation and refinement of PCFs, companies can take decisive steps toward a low-carbon future.

The time for action is now. With innovative solutions like Muir, we can make PCFs a cornerstone of corporate climate strategies – providing corporations the data the need to effectively measure, track and reduce their carbon footprint. 

Reach out to our team to schedule a demo today - and see how easy it is to make PCFs a part of your sustainability strategy.

A line divider

Stay up to date on the latest about Muir and in sustainability

Don't worry, we don't spam.

Other stories

View all stories