Green Options » carbon footprint calculator

Cut Your Carbon Footprint – Don’t Wear Leather

mcmilker — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 18:40:00 +0000

An interesting article in The Wall Street Journal, Six Products, Six Carbon Footprints, highlights the next trend in green marketing, calculating and promoting the supply chain carbon footprint.

Never mind that the average consumer isn’t actually aware or at least has a pretty fuzzy grasp of what exactly a carbon footprint is, manufacturers are busily calculating away. And, they are finding some fairly interesting facts.

Leather, milk and meat from cows pack a pretty big carbon footprint: The average dairy cow produces, every year, an amount of greenhouse gas equivalent to four tons of carbon dioxide, according to U.S. government figures. Most of that comes not from carbon dioxide, in fact, but from a more-potent greenhouse gas: methane.

The recipe for a low-carbon load of laundry: Use liquid detergent instead of powder.

… a six-pack’s carbon footprint was about seven pounds. The real surprise was where the bulk of that number came from: the refrigeration of the beer at stores.

I actually found some of these things pretty interesting too, but as a marketer, I have different questions. I’m wondering if this will be the next wave in green marketing. I’m wondering if we will really be able to educate consumers that much about the manufacturing process. I’m wondering if they will care.

At this point my gut feel is that this WILL become a trend. Consumers will react to carbon footprint information. Leather will be out. Mothers will switch to soy and rice milk (even more than they currently are). Powder detergent will become passé.

Denver Launches Online Carbon Calculator

Kelli Best-Oliver — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:46:39 +0000

Just in time for thousands of delegates, press, politicians, staffers, and protesters descending on the city, Denver’s Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau (DMCVB) last week launched an online carbon calculator to help those coming to the Mile-High City figure out just what the environmental impact of their visit might be. The Carbon Calculator and Offset Program allows travelers, tourists, and event planners an easy way to calculate the tons of CO² emissions their trip will produce, determines the amount of carbon credits necessary to offset their trip, and directs users to a website where they can purchase the recommended amount of offsets.

Dollars and Sense: Calculating Money and Environmental Benefits of Bike Commuting

Adam Williams — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:26:06 +0000

At the beginning of this year I changed jobs, trading a 35-mile one-way commute for a 2.5-mile local ride.

Living in St. Louis, where we have four distinct seasons – pretty-damn-cold, balmy-moderate, humid-and-hot-as-hell and fall – I waited out the pretty-damn-cold months to begin my life as a bike commuter during the balmy-moderate ones.

New to the game, I’m taking things a bit slowly.

The Nature Conservancy: Video: Climate Change Affects Everyone… Even Janitors!

Jonathon — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 15:09:06 +0000

Actor Neil Flynn — who plays your favorite comic villain on a certain sitcom — lets us know that everyone in the world relies on nature for survival. And when he’s not practicing taxidermy, this bully shows us how climate change is affecting nature and people and… janitors!

To learn more about climate change or to find out how much good or harm you’re doing to the planet, go to http://www.nature.org/janitor — you can use The Nature Conservancy’s carbon calculator to discover your impact, help the planet and feel good about yourself!