The carbon handprint is an approach to showcase the positive environmental impact—that is, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction—a product or service has compared to a baseline offer. Companies whose product or service is performing comparably well in terms of GHG emissions can use the carbon handprint to communicate their sustainable performance and positive environmental value of their solution to stakeholders. To better understand the uses, benefits, and challenges of the carbon handprint, we interviewed informants from seven large companies with some years of experience using the approach. The objective was to determine how the early adopters use the carbon handprint and create value from it. The results indicate that the early adopters have found valuable applications for the approach, particularly because it accounts for the positive impact of the company's business. At the same time, the users communicated that since the approach is not yet widely known in all stakeholder groups, there is potential to increase the value derived from the handprint approach, especially if it gains more international acceptance, awareness, and recognition.

The novel life cycle assessment (LCA)-based carbon handprint indicator represents a potential carbon footprint reduction that producers/products create for customers who use the(ir) product instead of a baseline product. The research question is how to consider a situation in which multiple customers use a product for different purposes to provide a carbon handprint quantification and the associated communication. The study further provides new insight into the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction potential within the mobile telecommunications and energy sectors. The carbon handprint of a novel Finnish liquid-cooled base station technology is quantified. The liquid-cooled base station provides a telecommunications service and waste heat that is recoverable through the cooling liquid for heating purposes. The baseline solutions are an air-cooled base station, and district and electrical heating. The liquid-cooled base station creates a carbon handprint, both through energy savings in telecommunications and additional waste heat reuse, replacing other energy production methods. A large-scale climate change mitigation potential through a liquid-cooled base station expansion could be significant. Different supply chain operators’ contributions to the total carbon handprint could be terminologically distinguished in communications to emphasize their roles in a shared handprint. The handprint should be transparently communicated for each customer and function.

Cities play a pivotal role in climate change mitigation; however, the methodology to quantify actual emission reduction potential of climate interventions implemented by cities and regions has been lacking. The aim of this study is to create a framework to assess positive climate impacts of cities and regions by modifying the life-cycle assessment (LCA)-based carbon handprint framework. Additionally, a step-by-step guidance to perform calculations is presented. A case study of the Finnish city of Espoo is used to further develop and test the regional handprint approach both qualitatively and quantitatively. According to our research, a city′s carbon handprint can be determined through the three main mechanism categories of ownership, operating environment and projects. In the case of Espoo, the carbon handprint of building public electric vehicle charging stations on city-owned land from the mechanism category of ownership showed to be up to 110 tCO₂eq/a for 18 charging stations. However, the overall handprint of a city consists of several actions, to be calculated separately. The regional carbon handprint approach provides a useful instrument to reliable quantify and communicate the innovative climate actions implemented by a city and it can be used in cities′ climate work as well as in marketing and branding purposes. Handprint turns the focus on possibilities for increasing a city vitality. As a provider of climate solutions, a city can attract new taxpayers and by focusing efforts to a certain sector, a city can help companies to reach synergies in fields essential from the climate point of view.

The need to reveal positive environmental consequences of offerings has risen as urgent climate actions are needed from companies. The environmental handprint approach was developed to indicate the positive environmental impacts of a solution offered to a client. The environmental handprint approach builds upon the previously published carbon handprint approach. The approach follows the guidelines of ISO standards on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) but complements them with instructions for calculating positive environmental impacts. The environmental handprint framework allows consideration of several different environmental impacts including climate impacts, air quality, and utilization of nutrients, water and resources, and it can be applied to products, services, organisations and projects. The framework consists of four main stages: 1. Handprint requirements, 2. Additional LCA requirements, 3. Quantification, 4. Communication. The handprint approach provides an important addition to life cycle studies. Handprints can be used by organizations to communicate the environmental benefits of their products, services, and technologies. They also serve as an aid to identify improvement potential throughout the life cycle of an offering, thus supporting product development and decision making. Case studies supported the methodology development. A case related to water handprint in water treatment in the mining industry is presented in this paper.