Henkel Germany Launches Carbon Footprint Accounting System Covering Over 50,000 Products

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 9, the Consumer Brands business unit of Henkel Germany, in collaboration with Capgemini France, developed an automated product carbon footprint accounting platform called HCB HEART, which went live in 2026 and covers more than 50,000 consumer products. After more than a year of development, the system has been put into operation for the first batch of users. It can automatically calculate the carbon footprint of products from raw material acquisition to the factory gate, covering raw materials, packaging, production, and logistics.

HCB HEART was jointly developed by Henkel and Capgemini, based on the HEART environmental assessment reporting tool previously built by both parties for Henkel's Adhesive Technologies business. Capgemini was responsible for adapting the original system's functions to the data structure of the Consumer Brands business and expanding the accounting capabilities for different product categories. The new version integrates raw material, packaging, manufacturing process, logistics, and product component data, using a unified calculation logic to generate carbon footprint results for each product.

Henkel Consumer Brands products include laundry, home care, and hair care products, some of which contain multiple independent components. This development added a multi-component product accounting function, which can include different finished products and their packaging and accessories in the same product accounting object. For example, a Schwarzkopf hair dye kit can be accounted for as a complete product, with the system processing the data of each component within the kit separately and aggregating them into a unified carbon footprint result.

The platform can break down carbon footprint contributions by raw material type, packaging composition, production steps, logistics stages, and individual product components. Henkel's product development, business, and sustainability teams can use this data to compare emission results across different products and formulations, identify materials, packaging, and manufacturing stages with higher carbon emission contributions, and use it for formulation adjustments, packaging optimization, and product portfolio assessment.

Before the platform was put into operation, carbon footprint analysis for the Consumer Brands business mainly relied on manual calculations and fragmented data processing workflows. The new system automates repetitive calculation steps and unifies the accounting methodology across different product categories. Henkel and Capgemini also conducted an external audit of the HEART platform environment for the Consumer Brands and Adhesive Technologies businesses. Project materials published by Capgemini show that the platform has transitioned from the development phase to stable operation and maintenance, and system functions will continue to be improved.

This deployment will also provide a data foundation for Henkel's subsequent integration with product environmental information frameworks such as the Digital Product Passport and EcoBeautyScore.