10/23/08|“Six Products, Six Carbon Footprints”
On October 6, the Wall Street Journal published a fascinating article titled “Six Products, Six Carbon Footprints.” Among other things, it reported lifecycle carbon footprints for these consumer products: milk, beer, detergent, a fleece jacket, hiking boots, and a Prius.
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The footprint analyses found that transportation often represents only a small percentage of a product’s carbon footprint. Factors like raw materials production (e.g., raising cows for milk, making packaging) and usage (e.g., refrigeration for perishable products, driving a car) play a much larger role.
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This is consistent with the studies I wrote about earlier this year in “Debunking the Food Miles Myth,” which showed that the ways in which a product is made, grown, packaged, etc. have an impact on its carbon footprint that often outweighs mere transportation distances.
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It’s encouraging to see other companies taking action to measure and report their products’ lifecycle carbon emissions. In brief, here are the footprints. (For your reference, the carbon footprint of a 1L bottle of FIJI Water is 1.3 pounds CO2eq, or 573 grams.)
- Half-gallon of milk from Aurora Organic Dairy: 7.2 pounds CO2eq
- Six-pack of beer from Fat Tire Amber Ale: 7 pounds CO2eq
- Laundry detergent from Tesco: 31 pounds CO2eq
- Fleece jacket from Patagonia: 66 pounds CO2eq
- Pair of hiking boots from Timberland: 121 pounds CO2eq
- Toyota Prius: 97,000 pounds CO2eq
And…
- Transparency about a product’s full carbon impact: Priceless
Sorry, I had to do that. I’m a sucker for those MasterCard commercials. But seriously, we at FIJI Water think it’s fantastic that all of these companies are not only measuring their products’ footprints, but also sharing them with the public.
