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Product Impact Calculator: Environmental Cost

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Table of Contents

 

The Environmental Cost (Coût Environnemental) is a value displayed on physical labels to inform consumers on the environmental impact of their product purchases.

This value, also known as an Eco Score, applies to textile products (both Adult and Children-sized clothing) in accordance with French Labeling requirements and Ecobalyse methodology. This absolute value number is displayed on products or services on shelves or online within the French market to help consumers make an informed choice. Eco Score labels aim to provide reliable and easily understandable information about the environmental impact of goods throughout its lifecycle. The calculation of Environmental Cost takes into consideration 16 impact categories such as greenhouse gas emissions, damage to biodiversity, water use, and natural resource consumption. 

Requirements for environmental labeling apply to all distributors, importers, and manufacturers selling textile products in France. This includes any clothing companies that conduct business in the French market, including companies based in France or abroad.

The Ecoscore was developed in conjunction with the apparel and footwear PEFCR, and aims to provide transparency on the environmental impact of products sold in the French market by encouraging manufacturers and distributors to use sustainable practices. Click here to learn more about the relationship between French Environmental Cost and the PEF score.

 

Navigation

  1. Select Products.

     
  2. Select Products from the black navigation bar.

     
  3. The Product Library is available here.

4. The new French Eco Score column is visible on the Products table

 

How does it work?

The Environmental Cost feature requires the following product-level details to generate regulation-compliant Eco Scores. If one of the mandatory parameters is missing, an Eco-score cannot be generated and an error message will pop on the screen.

NOTE: Purchase orders are not required to create an Eco Score.

 

Mandatory Fields

Parameter PIC Field
Product Name Product Name
Product Category Product Category
Product Weight Weight
Raw Materials Type Materials
Raw Materials % Material Composition
Location: Textile Formation Location of Textile Formation
Location: Finishing Location of Finishing
Location: Final Assembly Location of Final Assembly

NOTE: Location of Textile Formation and Location of Finishing are currently only available via PIC's bulk import and API.

Before calculating the Eco Score, the platform will prompt you to confirm if the weight is customized. The fields listed above are all available in the bulk upload template, or you can manually enter them into PIC during import. 

 

Optional Fields

Official Parameter PIC field
Geographic provenance of spinning Location of spinning
Remanufactured status of finished product Remanufactured
Number of SKUs in segment - Durability Number of references
Reference price - Durability Price
Company and repair service - Durability Business and repair service

 

How to generate and download Eco Scores:

Begin by following the instructions as usual for bulk uploading products. 

Ensure your bulk upload workbook includes the required fields as described above. 

  1. Select Import.

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  2. Select the Bulk Upload workbook, or whichever workbook corresponds with the column headers in your file.

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  3. Drag and drop your file onto the screen. You can upload the following file formats: CSV, Excel, or JSON. We recommend CSV as a best practice.

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  4. Review the field mapping on the next two windows before clicking Continue.
    • If a field is missing or incorrect, select the dropdown arrow to select the desired field.
    • Preview the data for the category on the right side of the window. Hovering over different rows updates the preview window.

    • Select Continue. 

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  5. On the next page, review the Bulk Upload table for any errors. Check the Missing Info and Revising section below for a detailed example of resolving errors.
     

  6. After the table has been reviewed and all errors have been resolved, click Submit data. 

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  7. You'll know if you were successful when you see the Success pop up.

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Missing Info and Revising

Select the Missing Info checkbox in the upper right-hand corner to target just the products that are missing information. In this case, all four products are missing purchase orders.



By using the bulk upload, you can make tens of thousands of edits to your Product Library with a single file upload.

  1. Check Missing Info box if you haven’t done so already.
     

  2. Click the first checkbox in the Product Library, and navigate to Select all on this page. Steps 1 and 2 will check all the items that are missing information, which can come in handy if you’re dealing with hundreds of thousands of products.

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  3. From the black navigation bar, select Download. This downloads a csv file that mirrors the selected rows in the Product Library. 

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  4. Make any edits in the CSV file, in this case, adding the purchase order dates to the purchase order column. Make sure to save as a CSV file.

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  5. Back on the platform, select Import. 

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  6. Select the Bulk Upload - BOM workbook, or whichever workbook corresponds with the column headers in your file.

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  7. Drag and drop your file onto the screen.

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  8. Review the field mapping and value mapping on the next two windows before clicking Continue.

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  9. On the next page, review the Bulk Upload table for any errors.

    • The following example is for a company uploading a workbook with four products.

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    • The screenshot below has errors several errors that need to be resolved.

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    • To resolve the errors, hover over the red shaded cells.

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    • The red cell under the Material 1 column is blank. Select Wool from the drop-down menu.

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    • The red cells under Composition 1 column should be 100. Since these products are made with only one material (Material 2 and Composition 2 columns are not filled out), the composition must equal 100%. Enter 100 into the cells with 75. 

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  10. After the table has been reviewed and all errors have been resolved, click Submit data. 

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  11. You’ll know if you were successful when you see the Success pop up.

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Downloading French Eco Score Labels

  1. Once your products are uploaded, the system generates the Eco Score for each qualified product.

  2. Select the checkbox next to each product, followed by Download French Eco-Score Labels from the black navigation bar.

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  3. Select Download French Eco-Score Labels to export your file.
     

French Eco-Score Label Download File

The downloaded ZIP file contains folders for each selected product. For example, the screenshot below shows the file contents for Product_045.


The folder contains:

  1. PNG image of the French Eco-Score Label.
  2. CSV file corresponding to the product, including the value and description for:
    • Acidification
    • Climate Change
    • Freshwater Ecotoxicity
    • Fossil Resource Use
    • Freshwater Eutrophication
    • Human Toxicity - Cancer
    • Human Toxicity - Non-Cancer
    • Ionizing Radiation
    • Land Use
    • Mineral and Metal Resource Use
    • Ozone Depletion
    • Photochemical Ozone Formation
    • Particulate Matter
    • Marine Eutrophication
    • Terrestrial Eutrophication
    • Water Resource Use
    • Environmental Cost
    • PEF Score Coefficient
    • Freshwater Ecotoxicity, Corrected
    • Human Toxicity - Cancer, Corrected
    • Human Toxicity - Non-Cancer, Corrected
  3. JSON file corresponding to the product.

 

Why is my product missing an Eco Score?

Select the info icon in the product row that is missing an Eco Score to learn more about why the product was not eligible. A product will be flagged and not be given an Eco Score for the following reasons:

  1. A user selects a material that does not exist in Ecobalyse.
    • Click here for guidance on which proxy to use for materials in your product that are unavailable as an option.
  2. If the product contains multiple materials, and the material % does not add up to 100%.
  3. A user selects a product category that does not exist in Ecobalyse.
    • For example, hats, belts, wallets, and outdoor equipment are not eligible because these categories are not supported by the French ADEME methodology.
    • Click here for guidance if your product does not align with the predefined product categories.
  4. Exact product weight is not provided.
  5. Unit of weight is not provided.
  6. Geographical location of textile formation is not provided.
  7. Geographical location of finishing is not provided.
  8. Country of manufacturing is not provided.

 

Overview of an Eco Score

Click on a product to reveal a detailed breakdown in the right pop out window. 

A product’s Eco Score includes the total Environmental Cost and each impact category’s score contribution.

Let’s take a look at this example, a sweater:

The Environmental Cost of this sweater is 967 Impact Points, which is calculated by adding up the sum total of each impact category’s score contribution. 

In this example, there are 16 impact categories. Adding up the bolded numbers in the list below equals the total Environmental Cost (967 Impact Points):

  • Acidification - 0.0247 (0%)
  • Climate change - 4.4653 (0.5%)
  • Ecotoxicity - 84.3767 (8.7%)
  • Resource Use - 66.1314 (6.8%)
  • Freshwater Eutrophication - 0.001 (0%)
  • Human Toxicity - 0 (0%)
  • Ionizing Radiation - 6.4299 (0.7%)
  • Land Use - 69.1276 (7.1%)
  • Mineral Resource Use - 0 (0%)
  • Ozone Depletion - 0 (0%)
  • Photochemical Ozone Formation - 0.0148 (0%)
  • Particulate Matter - 0 (0%)
  • Marine Water Eutrophication - 0.0148 (0%)
  • Terrestrial Eutrophication - 0.051 (0%)
  • Water Use - 1.4508 (0.2%)

In addition, there are 2 additional metrics that are taken into account: Exports outside of Europe and emissions from microfibers.

The Environmental Cost, or more specifically the number that goes on the product's physical label, does not have a boundary or limit. 

The unit for Environmental Cost is points (Pts), with 1 Pt corresponding to the total environmental impact of a product in 1 year. It can be measured in Points (Pts), in milliPoints (mPts) or in microPoints (µPts) with 1 Pt = 1 000 mPt = 1 000 000 µPt.

 

Before You Can Publish: Setting Up on the French Portal

To use Worldly's direct publication feature for environmental costs, you'll need to set up your organization on the French government's declaration portal first. This is a one-time process. After you complete it, you can publish scores from PIC directly to the portal with a single click.

You must complete three steps on the French government portal:

1. Register on the portal
2. Set up your organization 
3. Delegate declaration rights to Worldly

The portal is at affichage-environnemental.ecobalyse.beta.gouv.fr.

Step 1: Register on the Portal

You'll need a ProConnect account to log in. If you don't have one, the portal will guide you through creating it during registration.

Go to the portal and click the login or registration button. You'll be asked to authenticate via ProConnect, which is France's unified government login system.

**For French-based companies:** The registration process is straightforward. You provide your legal entity information and verify your email.

**For companies headquartered outside France:** The process is more involved. You'll need to prove your legal business entity status through documentation. The French government may request additional papers to verify you're a legitimate company. This can take a few days, so plan accordingly.

Once you're registered and logged in, you're ready for step 2.

Step 2: Set Up Your Organization

On the portal, you'll see a section to set up your organization profile. Fill in your company's information:

- Company name
- Legal entity information
- Address
- Contact details

The portal will generate a unique Brand ID for your organization. Save this ID. You'll need it later when you add products to Worldly.

Step 3: Delegate Declaration Rights to Worldly

This is the key step that lets Worldly submit scores on your behalf. In your organization settings on the portal, look for the section on delegation or third-party access.

Add Worldly as a delegated third party. You'll need to authorize Worldly (using the email ecoscore@worldly.io) to declare environmental costs on behalf of your organization.

Once you've delegated, you're done on the portal.

Share Your ProConnect ID with Worldly

After you've completed the three steps above, provide your ProConnect ID to your Worldly customer success contact. They'll enter it into our system, which lets Worldly publish your scores to the portal on your behalf.

You don't need to log into the French government portal again unless you want to. All your declarations will happen through PIC.

What Happens Next?

Once your ProConnect ID is in our system:

1. Make sure your products have GTINs (if required for your company size)
2. Generate environmental cost scores in PIC
3. Click "Declare to Portal" in the product library
4. Worldly submits your scores directly to the French government portal

That's it. Your scores will appear on the public portal, and you'll have met your French environmental labeling obligation for those products.

 

Declaring Environmental Costs: The Worldly Way

Worldly connects your environmental cost calculations directly to the French government's declaration portal. Once you've completed the one-time setup on the portal, you can declare your scores with a single click from PIC, and Worldly handles the rest.

What Worldly Does for You

When you click `Declare to Portal` in PIC, Worldly submits your environmental cost scores directly to the French government's declaration portal using a secure API connection. You don't have to log into the government portal, manage submissions manually, or worry about formatting. Your scores are submitted on your behalf, and they appear on the public portal automatically.

This saves you time and removes the friction of managing declarations across two separate systems.

What You Need to Do First

Before you can use the Publish to Portal feature, you'll need to complete a one-time setup on the French portal. See "Before You Can Publish: Setting Up on the French Portal" for step-by-step instructions.

The short version: register, set up your organization, delegate to Worldly, and give your ProConnect ID to your customer success contact.

 

The Workflow: from PIC to the French Portal

Once setup is complete, here's how it works:

1. Generate your environmental costs in PIC

Create products in your Worldly product library and fill in the required information (weight, country of manufacture, fabric country, dyeing country, and material composition). PIC calculates the environmental cost automatically.

Check the French Eco-Score column in your product library to see the calculated score.

2. Make sure you have GTINs

The French government requires a GTIN (product barcode) for each product by default. Add these to your products in PIC before publishing.

If your company is small and doesn't have GTINs, you may qualify for a waiver. Contact the French government portal to request an exception.

3. Click Publish to Portal

When you're ready to declare, select the products you want to publish and click the `Declare to Portal` button in PIC.

4. Worldly submits to the French portal

Worldly receives your request and submits your scores to the French government's declaration portal using our API connection. The submission happens in the background.

5. Your scores appear on the public portal

Within a few minutes, your products and their environmental costs will appear on the French government's public portal. Your environmental cost declaration is now live and visible to consumers.

 

Updating Your Scores

You can update an environmental cost score once every three months per product. If you need to make a change within that window, contact your Worldly Customer Success team.

 

Why You Still Set Up on the French Portal

The French government requires brand owners to register and authorize third parties before anyone can declare on their behalf. This is a legal requirement, not a Worldly design choice. By registering and delegating to Worldly, you're giving us the legal authority to submit scores on your behalf and ensuring your organization is properly registered in the government's system.

This legal step also means the French government knows who you are and has verified your legal entity status, which strengthens the integrity of the labeling system.

 

Managing Your Portal Account After Delegation

After you delegate to Worldly, you can still log in to the French government portal. You might do this to:

- Check the status of your declarations
- View how your scores appear on the public portal
- Manage your organization information

But you don't need to. All of your declarations happen through Worldly.

 

Questions about GTIN Requirements

The French government's portal requires a GTIN (product barcode) by default. If your company is small or doesn't have GTINs, you may be able to get a waiver. Contact the French government portal directly to discuss your situation.

For help with GTINs in Worldly, see our article on product information requirements.

 

Need Help?

If you get stuck during registration or have questions about the portal process, the French government's documentation is available on the portal itself (behind your ProConnect login).

For Worldly-specific questions or to provide your ProConnect ID, contact your Customer Success manager.

 

 

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