Chemicals
Chemical manufacturers are under pressure from multiple directions simultaneously. CBAM is pricing carbon into imported goods and exposing gaps in emissions data.
A gap in environmental data that is becoming expensive
Chemical manufacturers are under pressure from multiple directions simultaneously. CBAM is pricing carbon into imported goods and exposing gaps in emissions data. The EU’s Chemical Strategy for Sustainability is reshaping how substances are assessed and regulated across their full lifecycle. And procurement teams throughout construction, automotive, agriculture and consumer goods are increasingly asking suppliers to back up environmental claims with verified data, not datasheets.
The same gap across every product type
The sector is vast. Bulk commodity chemicals, specialty formulations, solvents, adhesives, surfactants, fertilisers, pigments and resins all face different regulatory pressures but share a common gap: most companies have reasonable data on what goes into their process, and very little understanding of how that translates into broader environmental impact across multiple categories. That gap is becoming expensive.
Carbon pricing exposure
From 2026, importers of fertilisers and hydrogen into the EU must report verified embedded emissions or face financial penalties. CBAM’s scope is expected to broaden, and domestic producers face parallel disclosure requirements. Companies that cannot quantify the carbon embedded in their products are already at a commercial disadvantage.
Customer data requests accelerating
A tier-1 supplier into automotive or aerospace may not face direct regulatory obligations yet, but their customers do, and those customers are asking for product-level carbon data to complete their own inventories. Providing it builds the relationship; failing to provide it risks losing the specification.
EU Green Claims Directive
Any environmental marketing statement needs to be substantiated with a methodology that can withstand audit. For chemical manufacturers using terms like ‘low carbon’, ‘eco-friendly’ or ‘sustainable formulation’, an LCA is rapidly becoming the minimum defensible basis for that language.
“Below280’s LCA gave us the product-level carbon data we needed to respond to our tier-1 customer’s Scope 3 questionnaire. Without it, we would have lost the specification review.”— Specialty chemicals manufacturer, UK
| Impact Category | Petrochemical route | Bio-based route |
|---|---|---|
| Climate change (kg CO₂eq per kg) | 2.1 | 1.6 |
| Land use (Pt) | Negligible | Moderate |
| Fossil resource depletion (kg oil-eq) | 1.4 | 0.3 |
| Freshwater ecotoxicity | Low | Moderate |
| Acidification (mol H⁺eq) | 0.018 | 0.011 |
Figures are illustrative and for explanatory purposes only and do not represent a specific product or certified LCA study.
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