Overview
The Use Phase module calculates emissions from consumer activities once your products reach their final destination. This expanded methodology covers product storage, preparation, and associated utility consumption during the consumer use phase, providing crucial insights into your product's complete environmental impact.
Impact Stage Coverage
This estimation function covers the Product Use Impact Stage for the Use of Sold/Leased Goods & Services Altruistiq Activity. This represents the environmental impact that occurs when consumers interact with your products.
Use Phase Activities Covered
The module estimates emissions from:
Consumer storage (home refrigeration, pantry storage)
Product preparation (cooking, heating, processing)
Associated utility consumption (electricity, gas, water usage)
Supported Product Categories
The module supports a comprehensive list of food categories:
Meat - with cooking and storage requirements
Fish - including preparation and refrigeration needs
Eggs - covering storage and cooking activities
Milk - including refrigeration throughout consumer use
Pasta - covering cooking and ambient storage
Frozen dishes - including frozen storage and cooking
Roast and ground coffee - ambient storage, no additional energy
Beer - including refrigeration at home and commercial locations
Bottled water/beverages - covering consumer refrigeration patterns
Other - generic category for products not specifically listed
Required Input Data
Essential Data
Product category selection from the supported categories above, to be supplied in the Product List reference data
Product weight (kilograms) (this is taken from your original Product List data upload and so is not required as a new data input)
Optional Custom Data
Usage patterns specific to your product or consumption country
Storage duration modifications based on your product characteristics
Preparation requirements that differ from category defaults
Use Phase Processes
Default data is pre-populated based on the product category, using PEF guidelines. You can override these defaults with measured or more accurate estimates if available. You can adjust these by downloading the dataset, making adjustments, and re-uploading.
The following data can be customised to be specific to a given product, country and year:
Data | Description |
Usage share (%) | The percentage of the product that is assumed to use each process. Eg 32% drinks assumed to be stored in a fridge at home and 68% in a fridge at a pub/restaurant |
Default process share defaults:
Product Category | Use-phase Activity | Usage Share (%) |
Meat | Fridge at home | 85% |
Meat | Fridge at pub/restaurant | 15% |
Meat | Frozen storage at home | 0% |
Meat | Cooking – Gas stove | 75% |
Meat | Cooking – Electric stove | 25% |
Fish | Fridge at home | 81% |
Fish | Fridge at pub/restaurant | 19% |
Fish | Frozen storage at home | 0% |
Fish | Cooking – Gas stove | 75% |
Fish | Cooking – Electric stove | 25% |
Eggs | Ambient | 100% |
Eggs | Cooking – Gas stove | 75% |
Eggs | Cooking – Electric stove | 25% |
Milk | Fridge at home | 90% |
Milk | Fridge at pub/restaurant | 10% |
Pasta | Ambient | 100% |
Pasta | Cooking – Gas stove | 75% |
Pasta | Cooking – Electric stove | 25% |
Pasta | Water use | 100% |
Frozen dishes | Frozen storage at home | 100% |
Frozen dishes | Cooking – Oven | 100% |
Roast & Ground Coffee | Ambient | 100% |
Beer | Fridge at home | 45% |
Beer | Fridge at pub/restaurant | 85% |
Bottled water / Beverages | Fridge at home | 88% |
Bottled water / Beverages | Fridge at pub/restaurant | 12% |
Other | Ambient | 100% |
Use Phase Calculation Parameters
For each use phase process, default data is pre-populated based on the product category, using PEF guidelines. You can override these defaults with measured or more accurate estimates if available. You can adjust these by downloading the dataset, making adjustments, and re-uploading.
Data | Description |
Electricity use (kWh/kg) | The electricity use required to process each kg of product |
Water use (L/kg) | The water use required to process each kg of product |
Default Electricity and Water use:
Product Category | Use-phase Activity | Default | Unit | Notes |
Meat | Fridge at home | 0.0035 | kWh/kg | Based on PEF 0.0037 kWh/L |
Meat | Fridge at pub/restaurant | 0.3333 | kWh/kg | Based on PEF 0.35 kWh/L |
Meat | Frozen storage at home | 0.0047 | kWh/kg | Based on PEF 0.0049 kWh/L |
Meat | Cooking – Gas stove | 0.125 | kWh/kg | Based on 1.25 kWh/kg at 10 min cook time |
Meat | Cooking – Electric stove | 0.0417 | kWh/kg | Based on 0.417 kWh/kg at 10 min cook time |
Fish | Fridge at home | 0.0035 | kWh/kg | Based on PEF 0.0037 kWh/L |
Fish | Fridge at pub/restaurant | 0.3333 | kWh/kg | Based on PEF 0.35 kWh/L |
Fish | Frozen storage at home | 0.0047 | kWh/kg | Based on PEF 0.0049 kWh/L |
Fish | Cooking – Gas stove | 0.125 | kWh/kg | Based on 1.25 kWh/kg at 10 min cook time |
Fish | Cooking – Electric stove | 0.0417 | kWh/kg | Based on 0.417 kWh/kg at 10 min cook time |
Eggs | Ambient | 0 | kWh/kg | Considered negligible |
Eggs | Cooking – Gas stove | 0.125 | kWh/kg | Considered negligible |
Eggs | Cooking – Electric stove | 0.0417 | kWh/kg | Considered negligible |
Milk | Fridge at home | 0.0036 | kWh/kg | Based on liquid energy default |
Milk | Fridge at pub/restaurant | 0.3398 | kWh/kg | Based on liquid energy default |
Pasta | Ambient | 0 | kWh/kg | No refrigeration |
Pasta | Cooking – Gas stove | 1.85 | kWh/kg | Includes boiling water |
Pasta | Cooking – Electric stove | 0.95 | kWh/kg | Includes boiling water |
Pasta | Water use | 10 | L/kg | Approximate for pasta boiling |
Frozen dishes | Frozen storage at home | 0.0054 | kWh/kg | Slightly higher than default due to longer storage |
Frozen dishes | Cooking – Oven | 0.3075 | kWh/kg | Based on 12.3 min oven time |
Roast & Ground Coffee | Ambient | 0 | kWh/kg | No storage energy |
Beer | Fridge at home | 0.0037 | kWh/kg | Based on PEF |
Beer | Fridge at pub/restaurant | 0.3465 | kWh/kg | Based on PEF |
Bottled water / Beverages | Fridge at home | 0.0037 | kWh/kg | Based on PEF |
Bottled water / Beverages | Fridge at pub/restaurant | 0.35 | kWh/kg | Based on PEF |
Other | Ambient | 0 | kWh/kg | No storage energy |