Show CO2 footprint of products on their package by spoutrain

Interesting idea, raising awareness is important, and honest disclosure would help. One challenge would be to factor in the shipping. That would complicate the packaging process, because unlike nutrition info- carbon footprint changes with the distance of transport. Another option that may be simpler, is to have the production location clearly marked, not hidden in the fine print on the rear. Just as you know the product was made in China, you should know the fruits or vegetables were grown thousands of miles away. Perhaps that would encourage at least some consumers to think twice. One example from architecture, is bamboo flooring. It's considered green because it's rapidly renewable. But by the time you ship it from China to the US, is it really green?.. http://www.theicct.org/blogs/staff/consumers-shipping-and-our-carbon-footprint http://www.worldshipping.org/industry-issues/environment/air-emissions/carbon-emissions Either way, providing such info on the packaging would be a step forward. Cheers !..

Hi Guys, Greatly appreciate your constructive comments. As you know, shifting behavior for a changing climate is a complex problem. As such, I think the "How" must be decoupled from the "What". There's so many ways to solve a problem that I usually find it easier to first nail down the problem I want to solve. The aspect I wanted to address through this proposal was to elevate the need for awareness of end-consumers on their footprint on environment. If one deliberately choose to buy a product that emits more CO2 than another one, it will have more impact on his consciousness than a TV or radio reportage. This is the "What". Now, on how this can be done. I don't think I can solve it all by myself, but let me expose some of my ideas here. Any other idea is welcome ! I agree with arockway that using an opt-in approach would be less aggressive and probably faster to put in place than having laws in place. With proper media influence, companies who transparently show CO2 footprint of their products could gain a competitive advantage. Doron_Bracha brought a good point as well: What about transportation-related emissions. I think we have to deal with accuracy here. Having 100% accuracy on the CO2 emission measure would be a nightmare to put in place based on current technology costs. On the other hand, letting people doing calculation by themselves defeats the purpose: End consumers must be able to take a decision very fast on whether buy a product or not, based on information presented to them. I think transport-related emissions must be split in 2: - Procurement & Manufacturing : The manufacturer is responsible to collect all information from its vendors. If CO2 emitted is not provided by a vendor, a reasonable estimate should be used instead. Transportation-related CO2 should be calculated based on the location issuing goods and mode of transport (train, air, boat, road) - Shipping & Sales : The manufacturer should include in the CO2 calculation the CO2 emitted to reach its consumers. Since a manufacturer can cover large areas, let's use a ratio here. The rule could be : Use the average CO2 emitted for transportation to reach 20% of the target market. The target market here represents customers of the manufacturer, which can be other manufacturers or end-consumers. If distributors are involved in the logistic chain, the manufacturer needs to take this into consideration in the calculation. Although not extremely precise, this method provides an easy way to include transportation-related emissions in the total emitted CO2 displayed on packaging. Precision increases with the distance between the manufacturer and end-consumers. About the methodology point raised by paulobrito. Here again, I'm in favor of simplicity over accuracy. Rule of thumb is that CO2 is emitted by: - Energy consumed in manufacturing process : A good estimate could be based on amount of electricity or fuel used in the process. - Energy consumed by employees to come to work : Ask employees distance they do. - CO2 emitted as a by-product of the process (for example, gases emitted in the process of digestion of bovines) : Calculation could be based on data made publicly available through a database feeded by scientific measures. As a conclusion, as you can see evil is in the details. That's why I think that first defining the "What we could do" to shift the behavior for a changing climate is a very important first step here. How can we achieve it ? Can we make it a viable solution ? I'm sure we can if we deal with compromise first. Over the time, new technologies (for example, RFID in a cheaper form) will help to have a better accuracy. What are your thoughts ?

This is a nice idea and would certainly change the game for some of the crazy stuff, like shipping branded bottled water all over the world. I'd suggest it needs to go beyond manufacturers and look at making distributors equally responsible - a lot buy wholesale from manufacturers then ship globally, beyond manufacturers' control. I think forward-looking companies would actively opt-in to this - people are increasingly aware of their carbon footprint and I feel this could provide a good differentiator for those companies' products. I'd certainly look for it!