Estimating the Greenhouse Gas Footprint of Knorr

Purpose Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been

identified as one of Unilever's priority environmental

impact themes: this assessment was therefore conducted to

help the Knorr brand measure and understand the GHG

emissions related to its product portfolio, identify opportunities

to manage GHG emissions in the Unilever-owned

operations (manufacture) and influence managed reductions

elsewhere in the Knorr product lifecycles, and assess the

impact of the brand's innovation and portfolio strategies on its

GHG footprint.

Methods A bottom–up product-based life cycle assessment

(LCA) approach was considered impractical to assess

Knorr's portfolio's complexity. Thus, a meta-product-based

accounting LCA approach was followed (Milà i Canals et al.

2009). Up to 16 product types or "meta-products" were

assessed in each geographical region, with a total of 36

meta-products assessed globally. Then, the Knorr GHG

footprint was derived by multiplying the impacts calculated

per tonne of each product type with the sales volumes in

2007. Data for ingredients and processing technologies were

gathered from the literature and suppliers; data from Knorr

factories were used for the manufacturing stage. The

variability in ingredients' production and processing and in

manufacture was factored in and propagated through the

calculations to assess the robustness of the results.

Results The profiles of different meta-products within a

product group (e.g. dry soups) follow similar patterns in

terms of absolute GHG per tonne and distribution of such

emissions along the life cycle. Variations are observed due

to recipe