Product Decarbonization From an Engineering Perspective: Drawing Insights From Industry

Sustainability has become a top priority for industrial companies, with decarbonization emerging as one of the most urgent challenges of the decade. Products play a central role in manufacturing companies’ decarbonization efforts, accounting for more than 80% of total emissions on average. The early phases of engineering are particularly critical, as key decisions made at this stage largely determine a product’s carbon footprint over its entire lifecycle. However, implementing early-stage product decarbonization remains challenging in practice, and industry progress varies significantly. This study empirically examines this issue through an interview study with 20 companies. The aim is to analyze and structure existing key knowledge from practice and translate it into strategic guidelines for product decarbonization from an engineering perspective.