I had never heard of carbon footprinting labels before reading the article "Following carbon footprints leads architects and consultants to their own doorsteps" in Architectural Record, and am glad to hear of them for two reasons:
1. As the article said, "... the main benefits of carbon labelling are likely to be incurred not via communication of emissions values to consumers, but upstream via manufacturers looking for additional ways to reduce emissions." I love the story of the potato chip factory discovering that the potato supplier was keeping the potato chips humidified, since they were sold by weight. Once they started analyzing carbon emissions, they were able to save energy (read: money) by eliminating both the humidifying and the dehumidifying phase. The article also said, "... the quiet spread of carbon labels is being driven by companies, which have come to see the value of determining the carbon footprints of their product." That makes sense, because the whole process is a great way to figure out how to reduce overhead, with clear monetary advantages. Whether or not consumers ever care about the labels, the companies definitely will remain concerned about the bottom line and therefore their carbon footprinting.
2. Related to the first reason, but looking at it from another important angle, is that companies, by pursuing their footprinting analysis, will see the monetary advantage to assisting developing countries go green. The article said, "Be getting firms to assess and reduce the emissions of products with imported inputs, however, carbon footprinting gives firms in the rich world a motive to cut emissions in the developing world, through efficiencies and investment in clean technologies." I don't know much about it at this time, but I think I've read before that carbon emissions in developing countries are critical to global climate change.
I don't feel confident that it's a good idea to use color-coding labels, though. It sounds like it would take more effort to learn and memorize than most people would care to do. Also, lots of people have color-blindness or see colors differently than the norm. Finally, some products, in their efforts to go green and/or save money, only use one color of ink in their packaging. Oasis soap, for example, has a little blurb on their packaging that explains why they only use one ink.
1. As the article said, "... the main benefits of carbon labelling are likely to be incurred not via communication of emissions values to consumers, but upstream via manufacturers looking for additional ways to reduce emissions." I love the story of the potato chip factory discovering that the potato supplier was keeping the potato chips humidified, since they were sold by weight. Once they started analyzing carbon emissions, they were able to save energy (read: money) by eliminating both the humidifying and the dehumidifying phase. The article also said, "... the quiet spread of carbon labels is being driven by companies, which have come to see the value of determining the carbon footprints of their product." That makes sense, because the whole process is a great way to figure out how to reduce overhead, with clear monetary advantages. Whether or not consumers ever care about the labels, the companies definitely will remain concerned about the bottom line and therefore their carbon footprinting.
2. Related to the first reason, but looking at it from another important angle, is that companies, by pursuing their footprinting analysis, will see the monetary advantage to assisting developing countries go green. The article said, "Be getting firms to assess and reduce the emissions of products with imported inputs, however, carbon footprinting gives firms in the rich world a motive to cut emissions in the developing world, through efficiencies and investment in clean technologies." I don't know much about it at this time, but I think I've read before that carbon emissions in developing countries are critical to global climate change.
I don't feel confident that it's a good idea to use color-coding labels, though. It sounds like it would take more effort to learn and memorize than most people would care to do. Also, lots of people have color-blindness or see colors differently than the norm. Finally, some products, in their efforts to go green and/or save money, only use one color of ink in their packaging. Oasis soap, for example, has a little blurb on their packaging that explains why they only use one ink.
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