Operational improvement
Compare with peers, identify carbon-intensity drivers and performance gaps, and target changes that can reduce emissions, resource use, and operating costs.
About BESTBEST Initiative
A global initiative.
A practical starting point.
BEST (Benchmarking and Evaluation for Sustainability and Transparency) is a global initiative designed to advance sustainability performance across industrial products, facilities, and potentially infrastructure. By integrating consistent assessment methodologies, digital tools, credible benchmarks, and transparent performance information, BEST helps businesses measure and compare performance, identify improvement opportunities, and translate stronger sustainability performance into market and economic value.
Our mission is to accelerate industrial sustainability transformation by making credible performance measurable, comparable, visible, and economically valuable—helping businesses, supply chains, markets, and policymakers reward continuous improvement and drive investment in more sustainable technologies and practices.
BEST begins with product carbon performance in the chemicals sector, initially focusing on ethylene and polyethylene, with opportunities to expand to other industrial products and facilities.
Methods, benchmarks, digital tools, pilots, and proposed participation programs are under development through scientific and industry engagement.
The approachBEST Initiative
From measurement to market value.
The proposed BEST framework connects six steps in a continuous improvement cycle.
Align →
Develop consistent product-specific methods, boundaries, and data-quality requirements.
Calculate →
Apply common rules and digital tools to calculate comparable product carbon footprints (PCFs).
Benchmark →
Compare carbon intensity with relevant peers and defined performance reference levels.
Communicate →
Present results, boundaries, and progress clearly; substantiate external claims through independent verification.
Improve →
Identify performance gaps and major drivers, then explore practical technologies, financial resources, and operating improvements.
Measure on schedule to track progress, iterate and refine to meet the next level of improvement.
Create Value →
Connect stronger performance with operational improvement, differentiation, procurement, and potential incentives.
Business valueBEST Initiative
Why participate in BEST?
Turn credible performance information into decisions that matter to producers, buyers, and markets.
Product differentiation
Communicate independently verified product performance and documented progress so customers can distinguish stronger performance on a consistent basis.
Procurement + market opportunities
Help buyers compare products, engage suppliers, and use consistent PCF information across value chains, including relevant Scope 3 accounting.
Potential policy + financial incentives
Provide evidence that may support performance-based procurement, financing, and policy incentives where applicable schemes accept it. Participation does not guarantee eligibility or financial benefits.
Future interoperability with eligible environmental-attribute and chain-of-custody systems is being explored. Any downstream use depends on the applicable system’s rules and evidence requirements.
Evidence-based benchmarkingBEST Initiative
Understanding Product Carbon Performance Through Benchmarking
BEST provides evidence-based benchmarks to help producers and buyers understand how a product’s carbon intensity compares with relevant industry peers and defined performance reference levels. The proposed GOOD–BETTER–BEST tiers are transparent benchmark categories. Proposed BEST Certification would confirm independent PCF verification and benchmarking under a defined BEST scheme; it would not certify a company’s overall environmental performance.
Benchmark thresholds, comparison groups, and calculation methods will be developed and validated through scientific and industry engagement.
Lower carbon intensityHigher carbon intensity →
BESTBETTERGOOD
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Illustrative product position
Illustrative product position
Dashed boundaries illustrate proposed benchmark thresholds. No numeric thresholds or actual product results are shown.
The first pilotEthylene → polyethylene
Start where the impact travels.
Ethylene is a major building block for polyethylene, a widely purchased plastic resin. Following that chain lets the pilot test whether changes in upstream production, resin manufacturing, and sourcing can be reflected in a credible product footprint. Lowering the carbon footprint of ethylene and polyethylene multiplies beneficial impacts on hundreds of downstream polyethylene-based products.
Ethylene
Establish a consistent product footprint for production, accounting for feedstocks, energy, process emissions, and appropriate allocation.
Polyethylene
Carry the relevant upstream footprint into resin production and assess the additional inputs and processes that shape the final result.
Procurement
Give buyers comparable, verified product information to inform sourcing decisions and demand cleaner production.
Product-specific methods, the online calculation tool, supporting databases, and independent verification arrangements are in development. The pilot focuses on carbon performance; a lower PCF alone does not establish a product’s overall environmental performance. The ethylene-to-polyethylene pilot will test connected product-level accounting: the footprint of one product becomes an upstream input for the next. Scientific, industry, and buyer review will inform implementation.
Verification and certificationBEST Initiative
Clear roles. Credible evidence.
BEST’s role
BEST develops PCF methods and benchmarks, sets data-quality requirements, and organizes independent verification. Under a proposed, defined BEST Certification scheme, BEST would confirm that a product carbon footprint has been independently verified and benchmarked against relevant peers and best-in-class reference performance.
Independent PCF verification
Qualified independent third parties can review a calculated PCF and its supporting data against specified requirements and issue a verification statement. Verification of a PCF does not automatically mean that the product is certified.
Proposed BEST Certification
Certification would require a documented decision that the product meets the defined BEST scheme’s criteria, based on independent verification and benchmarking evidence. BEST Certification would not certify compliance with other standards. Scheme rules, decision procedures, and any certification fees remain under development.
Be precise about the claim
Identify the product, facility or production route, assessment period, boundary, calculation method, and scope of independent review. A lower product carbon footprint does not establish overall sustainability performance.
Standards and interfacesBEST-Chemicals
Build on established foundations.
BEST is designed to fill the gap between PCF accounting frameworks and practical performance improvement and market use. It complements existing systems through product-specific rules, benchmarking, and interpretation.
ISO 14067 and TfS
Apply international PCF principles and chemical-sector guidance through more detailed product-specific methods, common calculation rules, and default or reference data.
PACT and digital product records
Design PCF outputs to connect with established value-chain data exchange approaches and digital product information systems.
EPDs / ISO 14025
Use verified declarations as possible inputs or results, while adding peer comparison, GOOD–BETTER–BEST benchmarking, and market interpretation.
International expert engagementMethod development
135 comments.
12+ institutions.
International expert feedback is informing the first ethylene product carbon footprint methods. Recurring technical questions help identify where product-specific rules need greater clarity.
The initiative team reports that China’s ethylene PCF standard-setting team has incorporated a significant amount of this feedback into its national standard under development. This is an early example of technical engagement supporting alignment across markets.
Work underwayBEST-Chemicals
Six connected workstreams.
BEST-Chemicals is moving from method development toward real-world pilots. Verification, annual reporting, credible recognition, and continuous learning connect the work.
Advance PCF methods and build benchmarks
Complete ethylene and polyethylene methods with international expert input and authoritative, traceable reference values. Develop peer benchmarks and GOOD–BETTER–BEST tiers using verified product and facility data, regional evidence, industry disclosures, and leading technologies and practices.
Build the online tool and databases
Embed common methods in a calculation tool supported by emission-factor, upstream-input, benchmark, technology, and practice databases.
Pilot with value-chain partners
Use real facility data to test calculation, upstream PCF use, benchmarking, reporting, proposed labeling, and improvement insights.
Develop verification partners
Engage with established international testing companies to define and pilot verification processes, methods, and boundaries. Build verification training materials to standardize implementation.
Build regional hubs
Engage local industry, validate regional data, recruit pilots, and return evidence to the common BEST framework. Potential hubs under exploration: Europe — Ireland | East Asia — China | Southeast Asia — Singapore | North America — California.
Develop improvement insights
Use benchmark results and facility data to identify performance gaps, major carbon-intensity drivers, and practical pathways to improve.
Partner opportunitiesBEST-Chemicals
Bring evidence. Test the system.
BEST seeks producers, buyers, researchers, technical experts, and regional partners to strengthen the system and test it with real value chains.
Method development and benchmark evidence
Review accounting rules and reference values; contribute credible facility, product, regional, technology, EPD, and industry data.
Industry pilots and regional deployment
Bring producers and value-chain partners into pilots, or help convene local industry and validate regional evidence.
Annual reporting and measurable progress
The proposed participation model asks producers to report covered-product carbon intensity annually, demonstrate improvement from a verified baseline, and progress toward higher performance tiers.
Value for producers, buyers, and policymakers
Support operational improvement, supplier engagement, procurement, and Scope 3 information. Verified performance could also inform incentives or financing, subject to the rules of each program.
Future interoperability
Explore how verified performance could connect with eligible chain-of-custody, registry, and environmental-attribute systems. Eligibility depends on the applicable system and is not automatic.
The ForumDublin, Ireland
The Dublin Forum.
Wednesday, November 25, 2026 · One day · Invitation only
A one-day forum bringing together key stakeholders across sectors to discuss progress toward reducing carbon footprints.
The Forum will also mark the official launch of BEST-Initiative.
Contact the Dublin ForumEU CHEMICAL MANUFACTURERSProgress toward carbon footprint reduction goals.
GOVERNMENT LEADERSPolicies and programs that promote and incentivize meaningful progress.
STANDARDS ORGANIZATIONSChanges to standards and methods for measuring and verifying progress.
PROCUREMENT PROFESSIONALSCommitted to sourcing, rewarding and purchasing lower carbon footprint materials.
Across sectors.
Stakeholders in agriculture, chemicals, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and data centers who have made progress toward the goals of the Paris Agreement will share what they have achieved and what comes next.
OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF BEST-INITIATIVE
The Dublin Forum will introduce BEST-Initiative and bring these sectors into a practical conversation about credible evidence, product carbon footprints and further reductions.
Invited participants and the full program will be announced when confirmed.