Rexel expands carbon tracking across European product range

Rexel has announced a major expansion of its carbon footprint tracking system, extending emissions estimates to its entire European product catalogue. The move covers around four million product references across eight countries, giving professionals more detailed visibility into the environmental impact of their purchasing decisions.

The company said the update is part of its broader push to support electrification and energy optimisation while helping customers comply with growing environmental reporting requirements.

At the centre of the initiative is Rexel’s “Carbon Tracker” tool, which estimates the carbon footprint of products ordered through the company and provides recommendations on how to reduce emissions. The system is designed to simplify ESG reporting for electrical contractors and project developers, who are increasingly required to quantify the carbon impact of their work.

Until now, Rexel’s methodology—based on verified environmental product declarations and technical specifications validated by Bureau Veritas—covered around 70% of its catalogue. The new approach extends coverage to 100% of products by estimating emissions data for the remaining items using a structured modelling methodology.

To support transparency, Rexel has introduced a three-tier reliability system for its carbon data. High-confidence figures are based directly on manufacturer environmental declarations, medium-confidence values rely on product specifications, and lower-confidence estimates are derived from comparisons with similar products in its catalogue.

The company says the expansion effectively turns every purchase into a data point for carbon management, enabling customers to integrate emissions considerations directly into procurement decisions and project planning.

According to Rexel’s ESG leadership, the objective is not only to measure carbon impact but to make it operational in everyday decision-making across the electrical industry value chain.