Overview
The Processing of Sold Goods and Services module calculates the environmental impact of product storage during the distribution and retail phases of your product's lifecycle. This methodology covers both Distribution Centre (DC) and Retail storage across ambient, chilled, and frozen conditions.
Impact Stage Coverage
This estimation function specifically covers the Distribution and Storage Impact Stage, which maps to the Processing of Sold Goods and Services Altruistiq Activity.
Storage Locations Covered
Distribution Centre (DC) Storage: Warehouse-level storage before retail distribution
Retail Storage: Storage at retail locations before consumer purchase
Storage Conditions: Ambient, chilled, and frozen storage environments
Required Input Data
Essential Data
To generate storage emissions estimates, you need to add a new Product Category definition to the your Product List data, from the following list
Product category
Meat
Fish
Eggs
Milk
Pasta
Frozen dishes
Roast and ground coffee
Beer
Bottled water/beverages
Other
Optional Data
You can override defaults by providing:
Distribution scenario selection
Storage type proportions (ambient, chilled, or frozen percentages)
Storage duration (in weeks) for each storage type
Storage volume allocation (liters per kg of product)
Utility consumption values for each storage condition
Distribution scenario settings
We have 3 standard distribution scenarios available:
Scenario name | Legs and locations |
Retail distribution chain | Factory → Distribution Center (DC) → Retail Store → Consumer Home |
Direct to consumer | Factory → Distribution Center (DC) → Consumer Home |
Wholesale / Foodservice (B2B) | Factory → Distribution Center (DC) → Consumption Point |
The distribution scenario settings are shared between the Processing of Sold Goods and Services (Outbound Logistics) and Processing of Sold Goods and Services (Storage) activities.
By default, 100% of all products are set to travel via the retail distribution chain scenario. You can alter this and adjust what percentage of each product flows through each distribution route. This can also vary by country and year.
You can edit the scenarios by downloading the dataset, making adjustments to the data in the template, and re-uploading the data.
Storage conditions settings
Default storage conditions are assumed for each product category based on PEF guidance. You can adjust these by downloading the dataset, making adjustments, and re-uploading.
Each of the following parameters can vary by product, year and country:
Data | Description |
Storage type proportions (%) | Ambient, chilled, or frozen |
Storage duration (weeks) | If not provided, defaults applied per storage type |
Storage volume allocation (L/kg) | Litres of storage space required per kg of product; default varies by category |
The default values applied are listed below.
Product specific storage defaults:
Product Category | DC Storage Type | Volume Allocation (L/kg) | Retail Storage Type | Volume Allocation (L/kg) |
Meat | Chilled (60%) / Frozen (40%) | 2.86 / 1.90 | Chilled / Frozen | 2.86 / 1.90 |
Fish | Chilled (50%) / Frozen (50%) | 2.86 / 1.90 | Chilled / Frozen | 2.86 / 1.90 |
Eggs | Ambient | 3.81 | Ambient | 3.81 |
Milk | Chilled | 2.91 | Chilled | 2.91 |
Pasta | Ambient | 5.71 | Ambient | 5.71 |
Frozen dishes | Frozen | 2.22 | Frozen | 2.22 |
R&G Coffee | Ambient | 10.00 | Ambient | 10.00 |
Beer | Ambient | 3.96 | Ambient (80%) / Chilled (20%) | 3.96 / 2.97 |
Bottled Water | Ambient | 4.00 | Ambient (80%) / Chilled (20%) | 4.00 / 3.00 |
Distribution centre (DC) storage defaults:
Storage Type | Volume Assumption | Default Duration |
Ambient | 4 × product volume | 4 weeks |
Chilled | 3 × product volume | 1 week |
Frozen | 2 × product volume | 4 weeks |
Retail storage defaults:
Storage Type | Volume Assumption | Default Duration |
Ambient | 4 × product volume | 4 weeks |
Chilled | 3 × product volume | 2 weeks |
Frozen | 2 × product volume | 4 weeks |
Calculation Parameters
Lastly, you can adjust the electricity, natural gas, water and refrigerant use per storage location and per storage condition. These values are defined in terms of usage per litre of storage space per week. (Ie. 0.00115 kWh/l.week means it takes 0.00115 kilowatt-hours of energy to store 1 L of product for 1 week.) Again these values can be customised to be specific to a year and country.
Distribution centre (DC) storage defaults:
Storage Type | Electricity | Natural Gas | Water | Refrigerant |
Ambient | 0.00115 kWh/l.week | 0.01385 MJ/l.week | 0.00000047 m³/l.week | 0 |
Chilled | 0.00133 kWh/l.week | 0.01038 MJ/l.week | 0.00000035 m³/l.week | 0.000000167 kg/l.week |
Frozen | 0.00088 kWh/l.week | 0.00692 MJ/l.week | 0.00000023 m³/l.week | 0.000000112 kg/l.week |
Retail storage defaults
Storage Type | Electricity | Natural Gas | Water | Refrigerant |
Ambient | 0.03077 kWh/l.week | – | 0.0001404 m³/l.week | 0 |
Chilled | 0.02637 kWh/l.week | – | 0.0001053 m³/l.week | 0.000000050 kg/l.week |
Frozen | 0.01850 kWh/l.week | – | 0.0000702 m³/l.week | 0.000000033 kg/l.week |