The attributional approach only accounts for emissions and removals of greenhouse gases generated during a product’s life cycle and not avoided emissions or actions taken to mitigate released emissions.
CarbonCloud uses the attributional (book-keeping) approach to life cycle accounting. This means that all significant activities and their emissions in the production are considered, and their combined climate impact is attributed to the product.
This contrasts with the consequential approach, which is used to assess the climate impact from changing the level of output of a product. The consequential approach focuses on marginal effects linked to the production of a product.