How Deichmann went from a handful of consultant LCAs to footwear LCAs at scale.
From 5 externally commissioned studies to 100+ footwear products and 10 component LCAs across China, India and Portugal, with studies that once took months now re-modeled in minutes.
- Company
- Deichmann
- Industry
- Footwear
- Region
- Germany
- Work
- Footwear + component LCA
- Months → minutes.
- From a 3–6 month external study to about 20 minutes to re-model it in the platform.
- 5 → 100+ LCAs
- From 5 consultant studies to 100+ footwear products assessed in the platform.
- ~80% DPP foundation.
- Reusing existing LCA and traceability data.
- 1 component, every product.
- 10+ component LCAs reused wherever the part appears.
“At the beginning, I thought every other service provider could do the same thing as you. Now that I'm part of the footwear industry scalability group, I've realized some big advantages from your software.”
Footwear complexity made data preparation the real bottleneck.
Each product combined many components, suppliers, processes and geographies. The assessment programme needed to keep LCAs accurate while moving from months of consultancy work to a repeatable platform workflow.
Supplier Bill of Materials files arrived with incomplete material details, missing mixes and loss rates, inconsistent component IDs, translation issues and different Excel structures. Deichmann also wanted to compare lower-impact material, manufacturing and transport choices.
A footwear-specific route from messy files to validated LCAs.
Carbon Trail adapted the data template, transformation engine and mapping taxonomy to Deichmann’s product structure, then trained the team to upload and review newer data directly with suppliers.
- ParseRead inconsistent supplier spreadsheets
AI-assisted ingestion handles different Excel formats, languages, spelling errors and unstructured product fields.
- MapResolve components and processes
Values are mapped to standard materials, suppliers and manufacturing processes with gaps kept visible.
- ValidateCheck results against expert studies
Platform outputs were compared directly with Deichmann’s existing expert-led LCAs to validate accuracy.
- AssessRun product and component LCAs
Teams identify hotspots and compare alternatives for materials, manufacturing, transport and processes.
Validated accuracy, delivered in minutes.
The method expanded across more than 100 footwear products and into component-level studies that Deichmann can now model in-house.
| Measure | Before Carbon Trail | With Carbon Trail | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Component study turnaround | 3–6 months for an external ISO 14040/44 study | Existing study re-modeled in about 15–20 minutes | Benchmark comparison available in the working session |
| Programme scale | Product-by-product assessment | 100+ footwear products | Portfolio-scale coverage |
| Result validation | Separate verified studies | Platform model checked against the same benchmark | Factory energy and water inputs reproduced the reported shift |
| Component ownership | A paid external study for each new component | Deichmann models new components in-house | The same component data can be reused across products |
From product footprints to component intelligence.
In 2025, Deichmann extended its work from finished shoes to high-impact parts such as suede, stretch microfibers and TPR outsoles. Carbon Trail completed component LCAs with benchmarking, creating data the team can use again.
Third-party studies, rebuilt in minutes
Carbon Trail re-modeled existing verified LCAs in about 15–20 minutes each. Where a study used factory-level energy and water data, the platform reproduced the shift against its benchmark that the study reported.
Supplier data becomes a custom factor
Deichmann’s supplier data now feeds footprints directly instead of relying on generic averages. One supplier’s coating data produced a value of 2.0 kgCO2e/kg, compared with 2.28 kgCO2e/kg for the default solvent-based dataset: a lower, defensible result grounded in primary data.
Outsoles modeled for any shoe size
An outsole is modeled per 1 kg of material, then scaled by its weight for each shoe size. This resolves the recurring reference-size question under the apparel and footwear PEF rules.
New components modeled in-house
With access to the full emission-factor library, Deichmann’s footwear CSR expert can model new components without commissioning a separate paid external study each time.
One component, many products
The component record is reused wherever that part appears. Deichmann can test changes to an outsole’s material, supplier or energy mix and use the same data for its ESPR and Digital Product Passport work.
Together, the component data covers roughly 80% of the data foundation Deichmann expects to need for the Digital Product Passport.