Scientific sustainability report — Ayurvedic Onion Hair Oil + Shampoo Combo (retail kit)

Functional unit: one combo = 100 mL Ayurvedic Onion Hair Oil (amber glass, 100 mL) + 200 mL shampoo (PET bottle, 200 mL).
Scope: cradle → regional warehouse (raw materials, packaging, manufacturing energy, road freight). Small, conservative screening LCA.

Single KPI (headline)

Estimated GHG footprint ≈ 0.87 kg CO₂-eq per combo (one 100 mL oil + one 200 mL shampoo).

Key assumptions (explicit & conservative — change any and result scales linearly)

• Oil: 100 mL, density 0.92 g/mL → 0.092 kg oil.

• Oil packaging: amber glass bottle 100 g (0.100 kg).

• Oil upstream (refined plant oil / infused oil proxy): 3.81 kg CO₂e / kg oil.

• Shampoo: 200 mL, density 1.02 g/mL → 0.204 kg shampoo.

• Shampoo ingredients (formulation upstream): 1.50 kg CO₂e / kg shampoo (conservative assumption for rinse-off personal-care formulations).

• Shampoo packaging: PET bottle 25 g (0.025 kg); virgin PET ≈ 2.15 kg CO₂e/kg.

• Manufacturing energy: oil 0.05 kWh / bottle, shampoo 0.08 kWh / bottle.

• Grid electricity emission factor (India): 0.727 kg CO₂e / kWh.

• Distribution: 200 km by road truck, freight factor 0.069 kg CO₂e / tonne-km.

(All assumptions are intentionally conservative for screening; replace with site data for precision.)

Short, stepwise calculation (reproducible)

A. Oil (100 mL, 0.092 kg)

1. Raw oil: 0.092 kg × 3.81 = 0.3505 kg CO₂e

2. Glass bottle: 0.100 kg × 0.60 = 0.0600 kg CO₂e

3. Manufacturing electricity: 0.05 kWh × 0.727 = 0.0364 kg CO₂e

4. Transport (200 km): 200 km × (0.192 kg ÷ 1000) t × 0.069 = 0.00265 kg CO₂e
   Oil total = 0.4495 kg CO₂e

B. Shampoo (200 mL, 0.204 kg)

1. Ingredients: 0.204 kg × 1.50 = 0.3060 kg CO₂e

2. PET bottle: 0.025 kg × 2.15 = 0.0538 kg CO₂e

3. Manufacturing electricity: 0.08 kWh × 0.727 = 0.0582 kg CO₂e

4. Transport (200 km): 200 km × (0.229 kg ÷ 1000) t × 0.069 = 0.00316 kg CO₂e
   Shampoo total = 0.4211 kg CO₂e

C. Combo total

0.4495 + 0.4211 = 0.8706 kg CO₂e ≈ 0.87 kg CO₂e per combo

Quick interpretation (one-liners)

• Ingredients (oil + shampoo formulation) dominate (~75–80%) of the combo’s footprint under these assumptions; packaging and manufacturing energy are secondary.

• Transport (short regional trucking) is negligible here but would grow with long-distance or air freight.

• Use-phase (hot water for shampoo rinsing) can be large for shampoo products in other LCAs — we excluded consumer-use energy in this screening; include it if you want full life-cycle.

High-impact improvement opportunities (prioritized)

1. Lower ingredient footprint: source cold-pressed/local amla/onion concentrates produced with agroecological practices or higher-yield extraction to cut the dominant ingredient term.

2. Switch packaging: use recycled glass (cullet) for oil and rPET or flexible refill pouches for shampoo to reduce packaging emissions.

3. Reduce manufacturing energy / buy RE: energy-efficiency in heating/filling and onsite renewable electricity reduce the electricity term.

4. Refill / concentrate models: selling shampoo as refill pouches or concentrated format reduces per-use packaging and transport impacts heavily.

Short recommended KPI to track monthly

• kg CO₂e per combo (measured): measure kWh per batch, actual bottle masses (g), supplier ingredient LCA numbers, and average transport km — then re-run the calculation.

References (sources used for emission factors and method guidance)

1. Indian grid weighted-average emission factor — 0.727 kg CO₂e/kWh (COA / Climatiq dataset). Climatiq

2. Median life-cycle GHG for refined vegetable oils — ~3.81 kg CO₂e/kg (food-oil LCA literature). ScienceDirect

3. Container-glass LCA and India-specific glass life-cycle guidance. AIGMF+1

4. Virgin PET LCA (recent literature reporting ~2.15 kg CO₂e/kg vPET). ScienceDirect+1

5. Freight / transport emission methodology and factors (TERI / India freight docs). Teri+1

6. Shampoo LCA studies & method notes (use-phase importance and product LCA guidance). MDPI+1