Cradle to grave
A life-cycle boundary from raw material extraction to final disposal.
A cradle-to-grave assessment covers a product's whole life: raw materials, manufacturing, transport, use and end of life. Cradle-to-gate stops at the factory gate, which is what scope 3 category 1 asks for when you buy something.
The USDA Forest Products Laboratory's 2020 LCA of US wooden pallets (FPL-RP-707) was cradle to grave, including repair and reuse, and reported benefits beyond the boundary, such as using waste wood for energy, separately.
For pallet reporting, keep boundaries straight: purchases are cradle to gate (category 1), disposal is end of life (category 5 or 12), and a cradle-to-grave figure is for comparing systems, not for slotting into one category. See the USDA LCA.
Life-cycle studies also differ in whether they credit benefits beyond the boundary, like energy from waste wood, so check whether a headline figure includes them.
Sources
- Cradle-to-grave life-cycle assessment of wooden pallet production in the United States (Res. Pap. FPL-RP-707) USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory (Alanya-Rosenbaum and Bergman, 2020). Accessed October 27, 2026. Table 2 (p. 8): average weights of 48×40 in. designs.
- Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard GHG Protocol (WRI/WBCSD). Accessed October 27, 2026. Box 5.6 and section 9.5 on avoided emissions; section 5.5 category descriptions.