Visualization of environmental impacts

Description

Ecological friendliness has been becoming a major factor to develop the company brand. An increasing number of product advertisements are designed to convey the green specifications. A carbon footprint which is based on LCA principle, Life Cycle Assessment, is one of the widely known methods for visualizing eco-friendliness.

In countries such as the UK and Japan, carbon footprint is becoming widely known. Carbon footprint is the figure that expresses the amount of CO2 emitted to produce and deliver the product. Governments induce corporations to display the carbon footprint on product packages so that consumers realize which products are more eco friendly. This education policy attracts considerable interests from consumers and encourages them to purchase greener products.

A carbon footprint is a measure of the impact our activities have on the environment, and in particular climate change. It relates to the amount of greenhouse gases produced in our day-to-day lives through burning fossil fuels for electricity, heating and transportation etc. The carbon footprint is a measurement of all greenhouse gases we individually produce and has units of tonnes (or kg) of carbon dioxide equivalent.

A carbon footprint is made up of the sum of two parts, the primary footprint and the secondary footprint. 1. The primary footprint is a measure of our direct emissions of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels including domestic energy consumption and transportation (e.g. car and plane). We have direct control of these. 2. The secondary footprint is a measure of the indirect CO2 emissions from the whole lifecycle of products we use - those associated with their manufacture and eventual breakdown. To put it very simply – the more we buy the more emissions will be caused on our behalf.

Enabler

Subsidizing Policy Mutual ecological influence CSR branding

Inhibitor

Passive political attitude Low oil price Economic recession

Paradigms

This indicator guides consumers to the truly eco-friendly products. In other words, a carbon footprint system makes people recognize the environmental impacts for the products, inducing them to green market.

Expert

Government: Ministry of the Environment NPO: Carbon footprint LCA Institutions

Timing

• COP15: International conference on the Climate Change in December 2009 in Copenhagen