01 · The Data Gap3 min read
I went looking for sustainable products and found a data problem
How a 2024 search for trustworthy eco-friendly products became two years of learning about EPDs, LCA, carbon data and the concept built around the gap.
Carbon-aware product management · A field journal
I went looking for sustainable products and found a data problem.
These are my notes on how carbon thinking gets built into products: the data behind a footprint, the standards that shape it, the cost of AI, and the concepts I build to learn. Written by Writam Bugga, a product manager in Seattle.
The why-chain every entry follows
- 01
A missing product label
- 02
Certifications and supplier data
- 03
EPDs and life cycle assessment
- 04
Scope 1, 2 and 3 accounting
- 05
ESG reports and compliance
- 06
1.5°C targets
Five themes
Drawn from the map I made while learning. Each theme has its own notes, sources and common questions.
Theme 01
The Data Gap
Why product carbon data is missing, and who pays for it.
Theme 02How Carbon Data Gets Built
Collect, organize, train, track, and the standards behind each step.
Theme 03The Footprint of AI and Software
Software carbon intensity, PUE, training vs inference, the agent iceberg.
Theme 04The Climate PM Practice
Carbon as a product metric, LCA for PMs, daily habits.
Theme 05Experiments and Concepts
Things built to learn: concepts, prototypes and side projects.
Latest entries
All entries01 · The Data Gap2 min read
Notes on EPD platforms and machine-readable declarations
A market reading of digital EPD infrastructure: why moving declarations from PDFs to structured data matters, and where product opportunities sit.
04 · The Climate PM Practice2 min read
A day in the life of a carbon-aware PM
A working playbook for building carbon thinking into everyday product management: daily habits, the first month, and growing into climate leadership.
01 · The Data Gap2 min read
The SMB carbon advantage
Most carbon tools are built for enterprises, but small and medium businesses carry much of the supply chain. Why that gap matters, and what tools could do.
03 · The Footprint of AI and Software2 min read
Digital decarbonization: tools worth knowing
A field guide to measuring and reducing the footprint of software, websites and AI: open standards, calculators, data sources and where each fits.
For climate tech teams
Moving fast and slow at the same time
I have done early-stage product work three times across different sectors, and I build and run my own experiments end to end. The core of any work I would do: the organization and sector, LCA data sources, reporting and compliance, multi-sector reach, personas and segmentation, and AI and data governance.