EU Battery Regulation 2023/1542 is a gamechanger for battery makers importing to the EU and the companies they supply.

We’ve covered what these regulations mean for battery manufacturers in depth in a previous Insight.

In this Insight, we want to focus on the timeline. What do battery manufacturers need to act on for the near term, and what do they need to plan for in the long term?

EU Battery Regulation Overview

Before we start, let’s quickly review what EU Battery Regulation 2023/1542 entails:

Objective:
The EU Battery Regulation aims to ensure that batteries placed on the European market are sustainable and safe throughout their life cycle, covering all actors and their activities.

Who is impacted by the EU Battery Regulation?
The Regulation applies to any battery in the EU market with a capacity over 2kWh

What is required?
Article 7, together with Annex II, dictates required carbon footprints of electric vehicle batteries and rechargeable industrial batteries.

When does it start?
The regulation begins to come into force a year from the passage of its implementing act - likely sometime in 2025.

When do I need my Product Carbon Footprint? How about a digital battery passport?

You need to start with a real-data-based Product Carbon Footprint.

The EU requires the carbon footprint of every EV battery sold in the EU be calculated and made publicly accessible by February 2025. Industrial batteries over 2kWh get an extra year - their deadline is in 2026.

The information in the footprint must be specific to each model and manufacturing plant and collected throughout the value chain. Any changes to materials or facility-level energy mix must be reflected, and carbon offsets cannot be included in the calculation. This will be used by the EU to help sort EV batteries into similar-performing types for easy identification in the future.

For the 2025 and 2026 deadlines, the Product Carbon Footprint just needs to include active material production. This system boundary, from raw materials to the finished product leaving the factory, is often called Cradle to Gate.

In the medium term, you’ll need to start engaging your suppliers and partners. In 2027, the system boundary requirements will expand to cover the four main stages of the battery life cycle:

• Mineral extraction and pre-processing
• Battery manufacturing (inclusive of active materials, cell manufacturing, and battery pack assembly)
• Distribution
• End-of-life processing and recycling

This full-lifecycle view is called Cradle to Grave.

Check out the infographics below for complete system boundary information.

For EV Batteries:

For Industrial Batteries:

Also in 2027, that data will need to be stored in a publicly available Digital Battery Passport. The idea behind the gap is to give companies time to iron out the process before the repercussions for failure get more serious.

(Already thinking about how much work that plant-level, real data-based PCF is going to be to calculate? Glassdome can help. Our PCF platform makes Battery Regulation compliance simple.)

Where should I start?

You should have all of the digital and organizational infrastructure in place to respond as soon as the implementing act is a go.

The most immediate need is a Product Carbon Footprint for each EV and industrial battery you produce. Then you can incorporate that PCF into a Digital Battery Passport.

Step 1: Calculate your PCF
As you can probably gather from the diagrams above, PCF calculation can be incredibly tedious and time-consuming. Setting your system boundaries, poring through dense databases, making sure you’re complying with reams of certification and legal regulations. Glassdome’s PCF solution helps manufacturers simplify PCF calculation and reporting.

Step 2: Verify your PCF
Not just any PCF report will do when you’re trying to comply with regulations. You need to create a report that complies with international standards to achieve your business needs. Glassdome’s PCF solution is ISO 14067 verified by LRQA. That means you’ll be able to get the PCF report you create with Glassdome verified quickly and easily compared to competitor solutions.

Step 3: Publish your PCF
Create a publicly available platform for regulators and customers to view your PCF. Our consultants can help ensure you’re complying with EU regulations.

Step 4: Create your Digital Battery Passport
With a compliant PCF in place, you have a couple of years to build the infrastructure of a digital battery passport for all of your battery models. Glassdome’s plant and product level data makes acquiring real data across multiple models a snap.

Want to learn more? Get in touch with a Glassdome sustainability expert today. Through our work with organizations like Samsung SDI, the Global Battery Alliance, and LG Electronics, we know how to help the world’s leading battery makers prepare for this regulation.

Glassdome exists to work with manufacturers to help build a more abundant future. Few projects exemplify our vision like the Global Battery Alliance Digital Battery Passport program.

The GBA was established at the World Economic Forum in 2017 through cooperation between battery producers, mining and energy companies, and government agencies. The Digital Battery Passport initiative helps it achieve its goal of a carbon neutral battery value chain by 2050.

Glassdome is leading a pilot program for the GBA. We’re bringing together 13 global companies and organizations to get ready for the EU Battery Directive’s implementation while advancing the GBA’s other goals.

How exactly does the project work, and how will it move both of our visions forward? Read on to find out.

The GBA Digital Battery Passport

The Digital Battery Passport is a system that tracks, manages, and provides access to full lifecycle and sustainability data for EV and industrial batteries over 2kWh distributed in the EU. To comply, battery manufacturers and suppliers need to collect and manage key data like their product carbon footprint (PCF), percentage of recycled materials, and country of origin.

The EU Battery Directive requires the implementation of a battery passport by February 2027. The EU requires that the battery passport contains:

• A unique identifier
• The type of model of the battery
• Performance and durability statistics, updated over the battery’s lifecycle by those who repair or repurpose the battery

The GBA pilot program takes it a step further. The GBA passport, accessible via a QR code on the battery itself, will include:

Labeling data
Information necessary for identification of a specific battery and its components

Technical data
Technical parameters of a battery model and particular battery

Usage data
Information related to events during the battery’s use

Sustainability data
Sustainability performance expectations for the battery

What ESG indicators does the GBA Digital Battery Passport program cover?

The GBA goes several steps further than the EU when it comes to economic, social, and governance indicators.

The GBA Digital Battery Passport process will cover twenty one ESG indicators, whose frameworks are in varying degrees of completion.

Indicators marked in green have existing coverage in existing rulebooks or drafts.
Indicators marked in blue correspond to risk categories in the EU battery regulation due diligence chapter.
Indicators marked in black are remaining salient ESG issues.

What is Glassdome’s role?

Glassdome is project managing the pilot, storing the PCF data in our secure central hub, and helping companies in the pilot program navigate and learn from the initiative. We’re also acting as an expert guide that knows the details of battery passport regulation front-to-back. 

Wrangling data from thirteen companies and organizations involved isn't easy, but our background in secure data management and sustainability metric calculation for global enterprises make us well-suited for this role. 

The members of this program are:

• Glassdome
• Samsung SDI (battery manufacturer)
• SKIET (separator)
• EcoPro (cathode material)
• SK Nexilis (copper foil)
• Lotte Infracell (aluminum foil)
• Choil Aluminum (aluminum foil)
• Inzi Controls (battery module manufacturer)
• SK tes (waste battery recycler)
• PM Grow (battery subscription service and reusable battery company)
• Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre (Australian battery research center)
• Korea Battery Industry Association (Korean battery trade association)
• SK C&C (digital carbon passport platform company)

How can Glassdome help your company?

Are you a battery manufacturer or supplier that needs to comply with the EU Battery Directive, or wants to get ready by joining in with the GBA pilot projects?

You’re going to need to start with a Product Carbon Footprint. Glassdome’s real data-based Product Carbon Footprint solution is made for manufacturers and suppliers. It simplifies carbon compliance, with integrated data aggregation and calculation and automated reporting.

Sound interesting? Get in touch and one of our experts can help you find the best climate compliance solution for your business.

If you work at the intersection of manufacturing and sustainability, you’ve probably heard about ISO 14067. 

Whether you’re an automotive supplier whose OEM is asking for verified product carbon footprint data, a consumer tech company whose customers are getting suspicious of greenwashing, or a company that wants to do right by the environment, it’s something you need to know about.

At Glassdome, we’re proud to say our Product Carbon Footprint solution is ISO 14067 verified.

That’s why we’ve put together everything you need to know about ISO 14067 and why it matters to your business.

What is ISO 14067?

Let’s start with the basics. ISO stands for the International Organization for Standardization. As they succinctly put it, ISO “brings global experts together to agree on the best way of doing things.”

If a product or process is verified by ISO, it’s made in a way that holds up to the highest global standards.

The ISO 14067 standard codifies the principles, requirements, and guidelines for quantifying and reporting a product carbon footprint (PCF) (also known as a CFP, or carbon footprint of a product). It addresses only a product’s impact on climate change, excluding other social, economic, and environmental factors. 

This standard is consistent with two international life cycle assessment (LCA) standards:

ISO 14040: LCA principles and framework
ISO 14044: LCA requirements and guidelines

But while an LCA covers climate change (carbon emissions), water, ozone, acidification, land use, and more, a PCF only looks at climate change impact measured through the carbon emissions created in the production of a product.

A similar, but not quite identical standard is ISO 14064, which covers an organization’s scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, and is consistent with the GHG Protocol. Useful, but not a PCF.

ISO 14067 isn’t just important for corporate sustainability. It also aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goal 13 on Climate Action. Companies that follow it are helping to foster a better world for everyone.

What does ISO 14067 do for my business?

Getting an ISO 14067 verified PCF has a broad array of benefits for your business. They can include:

Reliable benchmarking for organizations and consumers: PCF is the only apples-to-apples comparison tool when comparing product sustainability. Facility or corporate level data doesn’t work at the product level given the massive amount of additional variables they bring to the comparison.

Trust and transparency: Greenwashing is rampant in sustainability declarations and advertising, and consumers are catching on. A verified PCF shows you take compliance seriously, and your data and improvement are trustworthy.

Streamlined compliance: As you’ll see below, by conducting your PCF calculation with a verified solution, you can cut down the time to comply with regulations from the EU, California, and others by weeks or months.

Improved efficiency: Once you know your PCF, you’ll know how to improve it. And happily for your bottom line, one of the best ways to do it is to increase efficiency. Sustainability improvement can go hand in hand with continuous improvement efforts in your facilities.

Strong sustainability foundation: Sustainability standards rarely live on their own. If you need to comply with standards like ISO 14001 (environmental management systems) or ISO 14025 (environmental labels), you need to start with a verified first step.

What does Glassdome’s ISO 14067 verification mean for me?

Like we said in the introduction, the Glassdome Product Carbon Footprint solution is ISO 14067 verified. But what’s that mean for your business specifically?

If your business deals with global environmental regulations like EU CBAM, California SB 253, or the Digital Battery Passport, you’ll enjoy a far simpler third-party verification process. Carbon emissions that are measured and reported through our platform will be ISO 14067 compliant by default. That cuts time, cost, and red tape.

And that is about to become very important. Emissions reporting for CBAM will be required by 2025. And once it’s implemented in 2026, third-party verification will be required. Also, Article 47 of the new EU Battery Regulation means many battery makers need to have verified PCFs sooner rather than later.

Third-party verification can take up to three months, and the cost can be quite high. By dramatically cutting the time to produce the report with our automated system, sometimes to as low as two days, and using a verified solution that knows exactly what verifiers need, you can sail through regulations with comparative ease.

What’s next?

Does an ISO 14067 verified PCF like something that your business might need? Just want to know more about how these regulations could impact your business? Drop us a line. 

Get the true picture of the carbon footprint of your products. Before you customers demand it and you’re snarled in red tape.

When it comes to manufacturing, continuous improvement means more than simply making things better. It’s an organization-wide approach to driving major change through incremental improvements. When they adopt a continuous improvement approach, organizations take established processes, break them into manageable components, and make consistent incremental improvements.

It’s a methodology born from manufacturing and designed to increase productivity and efficiency, reduce waste, and improve employee engagement and customer satisfaction. And it’s holistic: it affects everything from C-suite decision-making to company culture on the factory floor.

It’s much easier to implement continuous improvement when you work with a software partner that knows how to get your manufacturing data and turn it into the reports and analytics you need. That’s what Glassdome does.

What are the key principles of Continuous Improvement?

Continuous improvement is based on five core ideas:

Most improvement comes from small changes, not total revolution: Continuous improvement is in some ways a broad implementation of the saying “don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.” Any idea, no matter how small, to reduce time-to-market, cut defects, or reduce waste is a good one.

Bottom-up change is as valuable as top-down: A culture of continuous improvement means that input from the factory floor, whether from employees or machines, is key to identifying and implementing useful changes.

Improvement doesn’t need to be expensive: Many continuous improvement initiatives lead to streamlining process steps, fixing broken processes, or reducing waste. Simple changes in mindset and better data flow can actually cut costs and save money.

Improvement engages employees: By empowering and upskilling staff, manufacturers can retain and improve the staff they already have while they refine their processes.

Improvement should be measurable: You should be able to track improvement through metrics like reduced costs, lower takt time, fewer defects, or improved customer satisfaction.

What are the origins of Continuous Improvement?

Continuous Improvement is based on kaizen. Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy and professional methodology based on creating major improvements in one’s life through small daily changes.

Kaizen was adopted by manufacturers tired of large top-down initiatives crumbling in the absence of experimentation, necessary data, and team input. They found that a consistent culture of making things better helped make changes stickier and less risky.

Major manufacturing leaders like W. Edwards Deming and Taiichi Ohno (we’ll come back to him later) codified the continuous improvement approach in methodologies like Total Quality Management and Lean Manufacturing.

Why do manufacturers need Continuous Improvement?

Manufacturing companies around the world face enormous challenges, from labor shortages, to rising input costs, to aging equipment. By implementing a continuous improvement plan, manufacturers can make themselves more adaptable, efficient, and profitable.

Continuous improvement strategies can solve multiple challenges at once. These include:

• Improving quality
• Cutting down on waste
• Lowering operating costs
• Increasing workplace safety
• Enhancing efficiency
• Increasing employee productivity & buy-in
• Reducing staff turnover
• Enhancing agility

The world continues to change rapidly. The adaptability and resilience built into companies with a culture of continuous improvement helps ensure that they don’t get caught flat footed. While competitors stall and flounder, they can quickly start evolving.

How does Continuous Improvement connect to Lean Manufacturing?

Continuous improvement approach means getting better each day through small-scale refinements and adaptations built on bottom-up input and data. Lean manufacturing is a systemic approach to increasing efficiency and cutting waste through empowering employees and streamlining processes. 

While the two are subtly different, they are naturally symbiotic. A culture of continuous improvement makes lean manufacturing work better.

Lean manufacturing has its origins in the automotive industry, with Henry Ford’s assembly line and the Toyota Production System developed by Taiichi Ohno. But the lean approach can be adopted by any manufacturer.

Lean manufacturing is built around a four-part cycle: Plan, Do, Study, Adjust. Through consistent use of this cycle, lasting changes are built and strengthened.

In that cycle, lean organizations are guided by five principles (defined in the book Lean Thinking by James Womack and Daniel Jones):

Identify Value: Understand what customers want and are willing to pay for. Deliver products and services that meet those needs in the least wasteful way possible.

Map the Value Stream: Identify and codify every step and process involved in creating and delivering your products or services. Include any delays that happen between those steps.

Create Flow: Remap the value stream to channel a smooth flow of work, focusing on the handoffs between teams and departments. Cut down on interruptions, delays, and bottlenecks to increase efficiency.

Establish Pull: Adopt a system where customer demand drives (pulls) production and material movement. By producing only what customers need when they need it, you avoid overproduction and excess inventory.

Seek Perfection: Cultivate a culture of reflection, continuous improvement, and empowered problem-solving. Create better processes by striving for perfection at the employee level.

Integrating continuous improvement with lean manufacturing leads to the best of both worlds. A culture of innovation and engagement with a structure for waste reduction and process improvement.

How can I implement Continuous Improvement?

Continuous improvement is an approach, a mindset, and a culture, built into one. The fact that it’s not one-size-fits-all makes it adaptable, but it can also leave managers wondering where to start.

Workflow tools like Kanban, systems like 5S, and techniques like Root Cause Analysis can all be helpful.

But all of them rely on good data. Good data is where impactful continuous improvement starts. Without accurate, timely information, quick and effective changes can’t be made.

That’s where Glassdome comes in.

The Glassdome Continuous Improvement solution gives you all of the data you need from your factory floor, in a form you can understand and use.

Our consultants come to your location and connect your machines to our IoT gateways to start acquiring process data. Our manufacturing expertise means we can even pull useful data from older machines, machines that use proprietary software, or machines that aren’t connected to the internet.

Once the data pipeline is established, we work with you to build a real-time overview of your processes, from basics like downtime and pace of production to advanced analytics like flight paths, takt time, and more.

With that information, you can improve your processes in real time. And with customizable, actionable reports, you can measure your progress month-over-month (or week, or year). 

Want to start implementing a continuous improvement plan? Our staff of manufacturing experts can help. Get in touch today, and let’s have a conversation.

Consortium of 13 companies, including Samsung SDI, SKIET, EcoPro, Lotte Infracell, and SK C&C, formed to respond to EU Battery Directive

Pilot project launched in May 2024 to establish systems, inspect companies’ regulatory response processes, and prepare for 2027 implementation of digital battery passport requirements

Vancouver, Wash., and Seoul, South Korea: Glassdome, a leading sustainability platform for manufacturers, was selected by the Global Battery Alliance (GBA) to organize a new Digital Battery Passport pilot project. The choice was revealed in an announcement on May 21, 2024. Glassdome has formed a consortium of 13 companies, including Samsung SDI, SK IE Technology (SKIET), EcoPro, and Lotte Infracell, and will lead a pilot program designed to preemptively respond to upcoming EU Battery Directive Digital Battery Passport requirements.

The Digital Battery Passport is a system that tracks, manages, and provides access to full lifecycle and sustainability data for EV and industrial batteries over 2kWh distributed in the EU. The EU Battery Directive requires its implementation by February 2027. To comply, battery manufacturers and suppliers need to collect and manage key data like their product carbon footprint (PCF), percentage of recycled materials, and country of origin.

The Glassdome platform helps companies report their PCF using real data. Carbon compliance and global environmental regulatory reporting are often a complex, time consuming process. Glassdome makes sustainability simple for manufacturers by guiding them from data collection to monitoring to ongoing reporting.

This year, Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance (LRQA) named Glassdome as the first ISO 14067 verified real data PCF platform. When a company measures and reports their PCF through Glassdome, its results already comply with ISO 14067 standards, shortening the verification period by weeks and cutting costs.

The GBA was established at the World Economic Forum in 2017 through cooperation between battery producers, mining and energy companies, and government agencies. The Digital Battery Passport initiative helps it achieve its goal of a carbon neutral battery value chain by 2050.

The GBA pilot project led by Glassdome will derive accurate real-data-based PCFs across the entire battery manufacturing lifecycle. It will also implement a secure data management system that helps manufacturers and partners share only their relevant PCF data, and only with those who need to know it.

The full consortium consists of:

• Glassdome
• Samsung SDI (battery manufacturer)
• SKIET (separator)
• EcoPro (cathode material)
• SK Nexilis (copper foil)
• Lotte Infracell (aluminum foil)
• Choil Aluminum (aluminum foil)
• Inzi Controls (battery module manufacturer)
• SK tes (waste battery recycler)
• PM Grow (battery subscription service and reusable battery company)
• Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre (Australian battery research center)
• Korea Battery Industry Association (Korean battery trade association)
• SK C&C (digital carbon passport platform company)

Jinki Ham, CEO of Glassdome Korea, remarked, “As we transition from a linear to a circular economy, the global market needs environmental impact data. Sustainability regulation is changing the disclosure of information like recycling rates and product carbon footprint from a nice-to-have to a must-have.”

He continued, “Glassdome is a world leader in carbon regulation solutions. We’re dedicating ourselves to helping our manufacturing clients, large and small, continue to export to customers in Europe and anywhere else carbon regulation emerges.”

Lee Jeong-hoon, head of the SK C&C Net Zero Platform Business Team added, “Digital and ESG expertise based on LCA foundations is essential in tracking carbon data in the battery value chain. By combining that expertise with generative AI technology, we will go beyond simple data tracking and make our customers more competitive by helping them reduce their carbon footprints.”

Under Glassdome’s leadership, a total of 13 battery value chain companies from Korea, the U.S., and Australia will form the GBA consortium and promote the ‘Digital Battery Passport’ pilot project from May 2024.

About Glassdome: Glassdome is an industrial software company dedicated to making sustainability and operations clear and simple for manufacturers. The company was founded in the innovative heart of San Francisco in 2019. Roots in Silicon Valley and Korea connect a tech-savvy spirit with powerful industrial expertise. The Glassdome platform is uniquely positioned to serve manufacturers that want to improve efficiency and meet and exceed green regulation requirements, all in one platform.

Find out more at glassdome.com.

Food and beverage manufacturers crave high quality, predictable output with little variance. So customers can find the treat they’re looking for, and get exactly what they want every time they take a bite or a drink. When that happens, they come back for more.

Executives, engineers, and managers know what it takes to achieve that goal. They need visibility in what’s happening on the floor. They need to maximize their machinery. They need information presented in a usable way. And they need it all to come without a huge investment in time, money, and stress.

That’s where manufacturing operations management software comes in.

Challenges

In many food and beverage production facilities, decreasing downtime and increasing quality takes months.

On the floor, islanded equipment confines visibility to local displays. Production status, logs, and KPIs are written down on whiteboards and paper. Analytics and reporting are done manually, or rely on slow, error-prone data entry.

A dwindling skilled labor pool and difficult training environment only amplify production uncertainty headaches.

Executives struggle to balance short-term profitability with long-term sustainable growth, and do it all without any real-time visibility into the causes of downtime and inefficiency. Out-of-data and imperfect data leads to slow, flawed decision-making.

What is Manufacturing Operations Management Software?

Manufacturing operations management software (MOMS) is a clear, simple platform that helps manufacturers see, improve, and report in real time. With a properly implemented MOMS system, you get full visibility into your manufacturing processes, which helps you improve your manufacturing performance in an informed way.

MOMS brings all of your machines and processes together to help you become more efficient and flexible and get to market faster. With a MOMS system, you’ll be able to quickly respond to changes in the market.

How does Manufacturing Operations Management Software help F&B operations?

MOMS helps Food & Beverage production facilities in four distinct ways: increased output, improved quality, better preventive maintenance, and connected batch processing.

Increased output

First, and most obviously, implementing MOMS helps you increase output. 

With real-time visibility, you’ll cut downtime and avoid bottlenecks. When a machine is down or underperforming, you’ll know right away. And if your MOMS system has machine and operator reporting (like Glassdome does), you’ll know exactly what happened.

That way you can quickly find out what happened and fix it for the future.

Improved quality

MOMS helps you improve the quality of your output. That leads to fewer finished products rejected for low quality, and increased customer satisfaction.

The software platform does this by aggregating and analyzing all of the data from your factory floor. Instead of relying on slow trial-and-error fixes, you can see where issues arise and fix them before your next batch. Correlation analysis also helps you confirm the degree of influence each issue and fix has on the final product.

Better preventive maintenance

MOMS helps you take better care of your machines, while using limited man-hours more efficiently.

Many factories maintain machines on a schedule, because it’s impossible to know exactly how many hours a machine has been running. Barely used machines get premature service, while hard-working tools don’t get what they need. The visibility that comes with MOMS allows for usage-based maintenance, so machines get maintained exactly when they need to be.

Visibility through time also allows you to see any performance degradation as it happens, so you can make timely small adjustments instead of late costly revamps.

Connected batch processing

Many food and beverage products are made in batches, which need to move through disconnected systems. When something goes wrong in one machine, it results in significant added cost in waste material and lost production time.

The Glassdome MOMS platform specializes in batched, continuous batched, and hybrid manufacturing processes. Our wireless connectivity and cloud-based model make it the ideal solution for a process that is disparate by nature.

MOMS in Action

Challenge

A global confectionery manufacturer wanted to improve the consistency of its products. Specifically, it wanted to minimize variability in product size and thickness.

Existing Process

Size and thickness of products was manually measured, recorded on paper, and then entered into a Quality Management System. Ambient temperature and humidity was impacting the quality and consistency of the product.

Glassdome Solution

The manufacturer deployed Glassdome to conduct real-time product sampling and excursion monitoring. We implemented real-time automatic sharing of measurement data and anomaly detection.

Results

The manufacturer saw a 69% reduction in size variability, and a 54% reduction in thickness variability.

Why Glassdome?

Of course, we don’t think you should use any old MOMS system. We think you should use Glassdome (especially if you have a batch-based manufacturing process, as we mentioned above). With Glassdome, you get:

Straightforward Deployment

Start strong, refine quickly. Get moving fast with collaborative experts, flexible drag-and-drop software, and out-of-the-box functionality.

More Data from More Machines

See everything all the time. Integrate with older and more complex machines, pull more real-time data points, and maximize downtime reporting.

Results You Can Use

Make your data work for you. Don’t settle for generic data or wait a day for reporting. Start getting better now with helpful reports, seamlessly automated.

Glassdome is clear, simple, and makes your manufacturing operations better. See for yourself on our site, or get in touch at [email protected].

• LRQA verified that Glassdome complies with ISO 14067, the international standard for calculating and reporting product carbon footprints (PCFs).

• Glassdome developed its PCF solution in accordance with the ISO 14067 standard from the outset. The Glassdome solution streamlines third-party verification, saving time and money.

• EU CBAM regulation will require third-party verification by an accredited institution for carbon emissions reporting. From 2026, verification will be mandatory to export items like steel and aluminum to the EU.
 

- Glassdome helps manufacturing companies respond to global environmental regulations with digital transformation and product carbon footprint (PCF) solutions

- Lotte Aluminium and Choil Aluminum have an LCA-based total carbon emissions management system that goes beyond EU CBAM compliance

- Korea’s first application of a  ‘Carbon Emissions Management Platform’ that simultaneously supports EU CBAM and battery regulation compliance

- Platform enables calculation of raw material supplier carbon emissions (Scope 3) and creates product-level carbon footprint management system

Seoul, South Korea (Feb 5, 2024) - Glassdome, a company specializing in carbon emissions data management solutions, has partnered with SK C&C (CEO Yoon Poong-young) to develop the "Digital Carbon Passport platform" for Lotte Aluminium Co., Ltd., (CEO Choi Yeon-soo) and Choil Aluminum Co., Ltd., (CEOs Lee Young-ho and Seong Won-mo). This significant collaboration was announced on February 5th.

This project is a proactive response to new climate change and greenhouse gas reduction regulations, particularly those in the European Union (EU) and the United States. It is specifically designed to address the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and create a competitive edge in carbon emissions compliance.

The Digital Carbon Passport initiative aims to establish a robust platform rooted in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, meticulously assessing the entire carbon footprint throughout a product's lifecycle. It is also a preemptive measure designed to align with new EU battery regulations set to take effect in February 2025.

This is a groundbreaking achievement within South Korea, as the first-ever deployment of a carbon emissions management platform designed to seamlessly ensure compliance with both the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and battery regulations.

Lotte Aluminium is a materials company specializing in the production of aluminum foil tailored to meet the capacity and voltage requirements of secondary batteries. Choil Aluminum is a supplier of the raw materials essential for the production of aluminum foil for Lotte Aluminium. These two companies are part of the global secondary battery supply chain and are subject to EU CBAM and EU battery regulations.

The Digital Carbon Passport platform introduced to Lotte Aluminium and Choil Aluminum is designed to gather and analyze all carbon emissions data. Many carbon footprint initiatives only cover Scope 1 and 2, which include direct and indirect emissions originating from product production processes. The Digital Carbon Passport includes Scope 3, which encompasses emissions stemming from raw material suppliers. 

As a result, both companies have achieved a groundbreaking industry milestone by establishing a comprehensive product-level carbon footprint management system.

The Digital Carbon Passport platform adheres to the ISO 14067 international standard and serves as a tool to streamline the compulsory reporting of carbon emissions in accordance with the European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). CBAM imposes tariffs on carbon emissions associated with six major product categories, such as steel and aluminum. It goes beyond merely accounting for carbon emissions generated during the production process; it also supports comprehensive life cycle assessments, quantifying and evaluating the environmental impact throughout the entire product life cycle.

Glassdome has the world's first technology to manage the carbon footprint life cycle of products based on primary data. Distinguishing itself from alternative solutions in the market, which often rely on users manually inputting carbon emissions data based on default or average values from public sources, Glassdome's approach utilizes real data. This methodology significantly reduces the risk of potential overestimation of carbon emissions, which could result in penalties or uncertified reports. Glassdome uses a real-time data collection and analysis approach to safeguard the confidentiality of sensitive information. This process efficiently converts the data into carbon emissions metrics and transmits only this processed information, ensuring both accuracy and security.

Seungmin Lee, the Head of the ESG Strategy Division at Lotte Aluminium, said, "We have entered into this agreement with a proactive commitment to comply with the carbon-related regulations set forth by the EU. With the implementation of this contract, we have successfully obtained precise and trustworthy carbon emissions data, gathered in real-time from every stage of our processes. I am eager to embrace this opportunity as it paves the way for us to not only reduce our carbon footprint but also enhance our competitiveness by introducing eco-friendly technologies."

Seong-hoon Jeong, Head of the R&D Center at Choil Aluminum, expressed, "Through this contract, we have acquired a robust carbon emission management platform, aligning perfectly with the carbon neutralization requirements of our secondary battery customers, who are investing in the EU and US markets." He further emphasized, "By effectively addressing key global carbon neutralization initiatives, including the Carbon Border Adjustment System (CBAM) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), we have solidified our position as an environmentally-conscious battery materials company. We are also fully prepared to comply with additional carbon management regulations such as PCF (Carbon Footprint) and DBP (Digital Battery Passport), reinforcing our commitment to sustainability."

Jinki Ham, Head of Glassdome Korea, emphasized, "A substantial portion, ranging from 60% to 90%, of product carbon emissions falls within the Scope 3 category. Accurate carbon emissions data from our manufacturing partners is crucial for an exact evaluation of the entire supply chain's carbon footprint and for formulating effective long-term carbon reduction strategies." He continued, "We've established a comprehensive framework for the systematic collection and management of carbon emissions data from the partner suppliers of Lotte Aluminium such as Choil Aluminum. We will commit to collaborating closely to facilitate substantial carbon reductions within each company, setting the stage for sustainable business operations."

Manufacturers are at an inflection point. Making things and getting them to where they need to be is far more complex than it once was. While manufacturing moves from developed countries to new frontiers, supply chains grow more and more volatile. How can modern manufacturers understand and adapt to these changes?

What’s happening to manufacturing in developed countries?

Since the late-20th century, manufacturing's share of worldwide value creation has been decreasing. According to the World Bank and OECD, the global share of manufacturing in GDP has decreased from 18.9% in 1997 to 16.6% in 2021 (see chart).

This decline in manufacturing’s importance to the global economy began in leading developed countries. Deindustrialization has been clearly evident in the United States, Europe, and Japan for some time. Recently, it has also been observed in the Four Asian Tigers – South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan – as well as in China.

In the United States, manufacturing decreased from 16.1% in 1997 to 10.7% of GDP in 2021. In South Korea it decreased from 27.6% in 1988 to 25.5% in 2021. Manufacturing’s share of GDP is falling even in major manufacturing nations like Germany, Japan, and China.

Are developed countries just “hollowing out?”

In addition to deindustrialization, much of this decline in developed countries can be attributed to offshoring, leading to a phenomenon called "hollowing out." This is when manufacturing facilities move to countries with lower labor costs, resulting in a decline in the manufacturing workforce in the original country. In a social context, it can be dangerous as middle-class jobs disappear, wealth concentration increases among the affluent, and the low-income population grows.

This isn’t a case of self-centered manufacturers looking for marginal gains on their balance sheet. The IMF notes that this decline in the manufacturing share of the overall economy is considered a natural occurrence as the entire economy develops. The fact that consumption expenditures on manufactured goods have remained relatively stable over the past few decades supports this argument.  

However, despite these factors, it is undeniable that the traditional manufacturing-centric industrial structure is undergoing a revamp, and manufacturing’s share of the developed world’s economy is decreasing. 

Supply chain challenges

The global supply chain has become historically volatile. The Global Supply Chain Pressure Index (GSCPI), which measures the status of the global supply chain by integrating transportation cost data and other manufacturing-related indices, has fluctuated wildly in recent years. This instability is due to trade tensions between the U.S. and China, a worldwide spike in protectionism, and, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic.

Global Supply Chain Pressure Index

How can the manufacturing industry strengthen its competitiveness to overcome these challenges?

Deindustrialization and global supply chain volatility are challenging the manufacturing industry. Without a system that can adapt flexibly to these shifts, the sector may face even greater crises. 

That’s why Digital Transformation is the hottest topic in manufacturing innovation. 

Digital Transformation (DX) refers to the process of introducing and operating digital technologies to develop new products and innovate existing products or operations. This includes cutting-edge tech like the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and big data solutions. Digital Transformation is designed to improve efficiency and customer experiences and create additional value through innovation and new inventions.

The COVID-19 pandemic acted as a catalyst for Digital Transformation. A survey in 2020 showed that 37% of European companies and 27% of U.S. companies had not adopted digital technologies, but in 2021, 55% of European companies felt the need to adopt digital technologies due to the pandemic, and over 46% increased their investments in digital technologies.

Manufacturers have their own subset of DX: Industrial Digital Transformation (iDX). iDX is the process of addressing industrial challenges and creating new value by integrating digital technologies such as cloud computing, big data analysis, AI, and 5G throughout the entire industrial process.

iDX can be broadly organized into four categories: process innovation, product intellectualization, service enhancement, and the creation of new industries and business models.

The future

Despite its promise, Digital Transformation is not progressing as rapidly as expected. While almost all companies have started DX projects in some form or at some level, most are struggling to fully complete the initiative and embed Digital Transformation in their DNA.

Companies and governments worldwide are implementing various policies to promote the Digital Transformation of industries. In future insights, we’ll explore the DX promotion policies of different countries and regions. 

Looking to implement iDX in your factory to make it more efficient and increase visibility and productivity? Look no further. Our Manufacturing Operations platform is the best way to cut downtime and raise quality.