The Carbon Footprint of Christmas

Over the past year or so, as climate change (or is it climate chaos?) has moved closer to the forefront of the world's collective consciousness, we've seen relative carbon footprints for just about everything. From burgers to furniture to UK produce to pepper spray and even New Jersey, there isn't anything that doesn't have a carbon footprint these days.

Thanks to UK-based product design consultancy IDC (Industrial Design Consultancy), we can now add Santa's goodies to that long list; they've done a thorough analysis, from materials to manufacturing, transport and the energy used by the product, of a handful of popular gifts this year, to come up with Christmas' carbon footprint. Hit the jump to see which products deserve a "Bah Humbug!" this year.

IDC’s Christmas list included the following products, which rung in at a total of 327 kg (721 pounds) CO2:
V.Smile Baby -- 93 kg (205 pounds) CO2
Philips Blender -- 62 kg (137 pounds) CO2
Optimus Prime Helmet -- 42 kg (93 pounds) CO2
Iggle Piggle -- 37 kg (82 pounds) CO2
iPod nano -- 31 kg (68 pounds) CO2
Trivial Pursuit ‘90s -- 21 kg (46 pounds) CO2
Picoo Z -- 18 kg (40 pounds) CO2
Gold Chain -- 15 kg (33 pounds) CO2
Book: Happy Slapped by a Jellyfish -- 8 kg (18 pounds) CO2

"Devices with electronics gave the biggest carbon footprints, due to the great amount of energy required to produce the components and batteries and the energy they consume in use. At the other end of the scale, paper goods such as books and board games gave relatively small emissions," according to the press release.

Here's a big takeaway from this story: "'Around 80% of the environmental impact of products is determined by the decisions made by the designers,' said IDC's managing director Stephen Knowles. 'While consumers can influence emissions with their buying decisions, the breakthroughs occur when marketers, designers and engineers work together.'" We hope Santa's elves have taken note of that. ::Industrial Design Consultancy via ::Core77