Cradle to grave

A cradle-to-grave footprint covers a product's whole life: materials, manufacturing, distribution, use and end of life.

It extends a cradle-to-gate footprint with the stages after the factory: shipping to warehouses and shops, the use of the product (for clothing, mostly washing and drying) and its disposal, recycling or incineration.

The later stages depend on assumptions about how people use and dispose of the product, so a whole-life footprint should state those assumptions.