Carbon footprints are a hot topic right now – especially the carbon footprint of the goods we buy, from fruit at the supermarket to our homes and cars. To measure a product’s carbon footprint, you need to consider its entire lifecycle – from the extraction of raw materials, to manufacturing, shipping, end-use, and disposal. The footprint of an iPhone, for example, not only depends on where the components come from and how it is shipped from China, but also on how much electricity you use to charge it and how you recycle it or throw it away. A single iPhone has 120 pounds of CO2 baked into it, with nearly half coming from the electricity used over its lifetime.
For the transportation industry, the focus is on the supply chain – what’s the greenest way to ship from the manufacturer to the retailer, and what tradeoffs do you need to make? Environmental concerns are just one dimension of goods movement. Shippers and carriers are equally or more concerned about cost, reliability, shipping times, capacity, and flexibility. Incorporating green considerations into this is challenging at best. Last week I gave a presentation on sustainable supply chains to WESTAC, an association for the transportation industry in western Canada. While the transportation industry, like many industries, is exploring the sustainability aspects of their operations, companies are still searching for the right business case for sustainable shipping.
Of course, a product’s carbon footprint is important only if people will pay for greener products. This begins with product labeling – give the customer information about a product’s carbon footprint, so he or she can make an informed decision about costs and environment. We’re seeing this in stores like the UK’s Tesco supermarket chain, which is wrapping up a trial program involving labels on products ranging from light bulbs to potatoes. Japan’s Trade Ministry is launching a similar voluntary program, tapping into national brands like Sapporo Breweries.
These trial programs will give us the first indications of the demand for low-carbon goods—how many greenbacks consumers are willing to spend for greener products.
