Your Top Questions About Carbon Trust Assurance for EcoInsights Answered

Why aren't more companies providing assured semiconductor carbon calculations?

The short answer: it's hard, and it hasn't always been required — until recently. While a range of platforms and tools can generate IC-level PCFs, achieving third-party assurance of the underlying methodology is a significant undertaking. It demands that the calculations, data sources, and modeling approach meet rigorous international standards — and then survive an independent verification process to prove it.

What's changed is customer demand. Over the past 18 to 24 months, downstream customers — particularly those operating under the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and similar frameworks — have begun explicitly requiring that PCF data provided by suppliers carry a verified stamp of approval on the methodology used to produce it. That pressure is now cascading up supply chains and accelerating the industry's move toward assured outputs.

How are customers using EcoInsights differently now that it's assured?

Assurance has opened a door that wasn't previously available: the ability to use TechInsights' PCF data directly in RFP and RFI responses. European supply chains in particular are now routinely requesting — and in some cases requiring — that carbon footprint data be ISO 14067 verified before it can be accepted. Because EcoInsights has achieved that assurance, TechInsights customers can now pass that credibility downstream to their own customers, meeting disclosure requirements that would otherwise require costly independent LCA work.

How can I demonstrate to my customers that my PCF methodology has been assured?

EcoInsights provides several practical mechanisms. TechInsights offers a product overview PDF that customers can share directly with their own downstream or upstream partners. For more automated workflows, API and MCP integrations enable PCF data to flow through the PACT or Catena-X framework to different users in standardized formats — including JSON, Excel, and CSV outputs. Critically, all ISO 14067 assurance disclaimers are automatically embedded into every export. There is no manual formatting required: the compliance language travels with the data, regardless of how it's exported.

Is this a one-time assurance, or does it require ongoing monitoring?

Both, in a sense. The Carbon Trust assurance is issued against a defined boundary — typically on a two-year cycle — but it is not static within that period. The assurance framework includes ongoing governance obligations, including a continual improvement plan and rigorous version control procedures. If significant changes are made to the model — such as new products being added or methodological updates that would materially affect outputs — those changes trigger a surveillance review by the Carbon Trust at any point during the cycle, not just at renewal. This ensures the assurance remains meaningful as the platform evolves.

How do you handle data that can't be directly measured — like process chemicals?

This is one of the most technically challenging aspects of semiconductor carbon modeling, and it's where TechInsights' unique combination of reverse engineering expertise and cost modeling heritage becomes critical. Process chemicals are identified and quantified through a bottom-up cost modeling approach — one that has been refined over more than 20 years of IC knowledge — because a cost model inherently accounts for every material and consumable used in production.

For variables like die yield, EcoInsights provides a calculated baseline, but the platform also allows users to input proprietary data directly from their own suppliers. That supplier-provided data is used only within the user's own session to generate their specific PCF — it is never stored in TechInsights' databases, protecting confidentiality while enabling greater precision.

Do you factor in tier one and tier two supplier-specific emission factors?

Yes — and they're editable. EcoInsights incorporates emission factor data from ecoinvent and other leading sources as defaults, but nearly all fields are open for users to update based on their own supplier data. If a tier one supplier reports a carbon factor that differs from the platform's default, that value can be entered directly, and the impact is reflected immediately in the PCF output. This is by design: the platform is built to learn from and evolve with the supply chain, not to enforce a fixed answer.

Are model changes and updates documented and shared with subscribers?

In detail. As a condition of the Carbon Trust assurance, TechInsights maintains rigorous documentation of all model updates, including the rationale for any changes that exceed defined thresholds — even as low as 5%. This documentation is updated quarterly for both the Manufacturing Carbon Module and the Packaging+ Carbon Module, and release notes are published whenever material changes occur. The result, as the Carbon Trust confirmed during the webinar, is methodology documentation that is not only audit-ready but among the most transparent and detailed in the industry.