Cradle-to-gate versus cradle-to-grave: which system boundary does your customer want?

When calculating a product carbon footprint, the first question is not 'how much' but 'how far'. The system boundary decides which emissions you count — and customers do not all ask for the same thing.

Cradle-to-gate: up to your factory gate

From raw material extraction up to the moment the product leaves your factory. This is the most commonly used boundary for B2B supply, because you control the emissions up to that point yourself. Your customer adds your cradle-to-gate figure to its own processing and transport emissions.

Cradle-to-grave: the entire life cycle

Including distribution, use phase and end-of-life (waste treatment, recycling). Needed for a full LCA or an environmental product declaration (EPD), but far more labour-intensive — you have to make assumptions about how the customer uses and disposes of the product.

Which boundary does your customer ask for?

For your customer's scope 3 category 1 (purchased goods), cradle-to-gate is usually sufficient: your customer fills in the rest. For a consumer-facing sustainability label or an EPD, cradle-to-grave is required. Always ask explicitly — the wrong boundary makes figures incomparable.

How verified.supply handles this

You record the system boundary per product (cradle-to-gate by default) plus the upstream, processing and downstream emissions separately. That makes it clear to every customer which boundary your figure uses, so they can place it correctly in their own reporting.