Carbon Footprint Labels for UK Produce
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK 
on 05.31.07
The Government unveiled a scheme yesterday, where produce will carry a label indicating the size of its carbon footprint. It will take into account the production, distribution and even disposal of the packaging after use.
It's not an easy task though, because the footprint of an item in a supermarket is not always obvious. For example, a vegetable grown in Africa and shipped to the UK may have a smaller footprint than the same vegetable grown in the UK, if the greenhouse required heating.
"More and more, businesses are looking for ways to reduce their impact on the environment. To help them achieve that we need a reliable, consistent way to measure these impacts that businesses recognise, trust and understand," said environment minister, Ian Pearson. "This will be fundamental in our efforts to move Britain towards a low-carbon economy in the decades ahead."
Although the scheme is voluntary, Tesco has promised to place the labels on all the goods it sells, which will inevitably place pressure on other companies to do the same. :: The Guardian
See also :: The Home Depot Introduces New "Eco Options" Label :: European Eco-label for Footwear, ::The Carbon Footprint of a Burger
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About time: the "food miles" concept is far too simplistic, and often misleading.
who, i wonder, will make sure the labelling is accurate?
Robust independent auditing is definitely needed. I believe Tesco has funded the Environmental Change Institute (http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/) to carry out its labelling scheme.
when will they realise that it is not just carbon that is the problem. how about methane - 20x better at being a greenhouse gas? and agriculture (livestock) responsible for 18% of greenhouse gasses whereas ALL transport is 13.5%. basically i am saying the focus must be widen beyond these buzz words like carbon -
(though good labeling is a start)
This is wonderful news. If Wal-Mart will drive something like this in the US, it will be huge.
Now if we could just get a company like Wal-Mart in the US to back something like this, it would be huge! Great news....and a wonderful idea.
In the piece I read, in the Independent, the announcement was littered with words like 'may' and 'could', which usually presages a lot of money getting spent on a bunch of consultants, and then sod all of any use happening once the requisite boxes have been ticked.
There is also the small matter of what happened with the health composition labelling. In some places we get a traffic light system, and in others a row of figures that look like the periodic table.
It's going to get pretty crowded on the side of each pack, and I have my doubts anyone will have the slightest clue what they are looking at, much less be able to make a coherent decision based on it. I for one have not bothered to scrutinise each item I select. For start, what am I comparing? Apples and oranges? Well, of course a Spanish orange may be better than a South African apple, but who on earth is going to get into that????!
If there is any serious intent to make a difference here, it needs to be at the in-point, not throwing it on the poor blooming consumer to try and sort out the fudge government and industry are trying to shuffle around.
So do I feel my kids' future is being protected by this? Well, may... be... not.
If consumers don't push for change, business would be incentivised to follow. Surely a good thing - just not the only measure.
No need to travel across the pond. CarbonCounted is right here, much closer to home, based in Toronto, Canada.
CarbonCounted is an organization committed to informing consumers about carbon dioxide emitted through the production and delivery of a product or service to market. This is coupled with a clear logo that can be placed on any product, storefront window, letterhead etc that serves to easily and quickly inform the client of that product's or service's footprint status.We hope this will become a useful tool in the global effort to reduce carbon emissions.
We are looking for feedback from all parties and respectfully request that you visit our site and provide us with comments and suggestions.
Thank You,
www.carboncounted.com