Calculating the CO2 Footprint of Machine Tools: A Standardized Approach

Practical guidelines CO2 footprint of a machine tool: easy calculation

2025-01-14 From Cornelia Gewiehs/ Translation: Alexander Stark 6 min Reading Time

Determining the CO₂ footprint of a machine tool is no simple task. With thousands of unique parts and varying manufacturing processes, the challenge is immense. A team of experts has now developed a practical, standardized approach to calculate the Product Carbon Footprint (PCF).

Machine tools can consist of tens of thousands of individual parts or be the size of a football field. The CO2 assessment is correspondingly very complex.(Source: Ramona Petrolle/ Schuler Pressen) — Machine tools can consist of tens of thousands of individual parts or be the size of a football field. The CO2 assessment is correspondingly very complex.
(Source: Ramona Petrolle/ Schuler Pressen)

How big is the CO₂ footprint of a machine tool? Anyone who wants to write a sustainability report for a manufacturing company or document progress in greenhouse gas emissions will probably pass this question on to the supply chain. The answer is not easy: after all, a machine tool can consist of several tens of thousands of individual parts, including purchased materials and preliminary products. There is a huge variety of products, ranging from compact milling machines for delicate watch movements to presses for aircraft parts: almost every machine is unique. How do you arrive at a figure that is valid and comparable for auditors as well?

“The CO₂ assessment itself is already complex,” says Prof. Felix Hackelöer from the Institute for Automation and Industrial IT at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences, “and for machine tools it is highly complex.” Hackelöer is a member of a group of experts formed on the initiative of the VDW (German Machine Tool Builders’ Association). The group was tasked with developing so-called Product Category Rules (PCR) for machine tools. This involves an e-invoicing approach that can be used to determine the Product Carbon Footprint (PCF), i.e. the CO₂ footprint of a machine tool. The team includes experts from six VDW member companies: Chiron, DMG Mori, Grob, Heller, Schuler and United Grinding, as well as from the VDW and VDMA departments involved in standardisation. The aim should be to create a guideline with a VDMA standard sheet that can ideally be further developed into an ISO standard.

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