12 Search Results for ""carbon footprint""
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Which is Greener? Coca Cola or Which is Greener? Coca Cola or Innocent Smoothies
- From: JohnRussell
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Description:
One is a fruit drink made by a boutique company with a clutch of foodie awards and an impeccable ethical brand, which even boasts a halo on its logo. The other is a fizzy pop, famous for rotting teeth, made by a corporate giant almost synonymous with globalisation.
But when it comes to the environmental issue of the moment - the carbon footprint of their products - the bottle of Innocent smoothie comes off worse than a can of Coke. At least at first glance.
Coca-Cola today becomes the biggest global brand to publish the greenhouse gases produced by making, packaging, transporting, chilling, and disposing of their most popular products. The study, done with the government-funded Carbon Trust, shows a standard 330ml can of Coke embodies the equivalent of 170g of carbon dioxide (CO2e), and the same sized Diet Coke or Coke Zero 150g.
Coke's UK business follows Innocent, which helped the Carbon Trust pioneer its footprinting, and whose 250ml bottle of mango and passion fruit smoothie has a carbon footprint of 209g.
Innocent's co-founder, Richard Reed, questions whether it is fair to compare a bottle of crushed fruit and something largely made of water. Reed's defence highlights a wider issue: how to balance the importance of global warming with other attributes of a product - nutrition, helping poor farmers, careful nurturing of soil, or the welfare of animals. Innocent, for example, donates 10% of profits to charity. "The classical economic response is you implicitly reduce them to a common currency, which leads to money; but my view is these things are just not comparable," said Mike Mason, founder of carbon offset company ClimateCare.
Then there is the issue of what you measure: Coke's cans compare well, but a small glass bottle of the same drink has a footprint of 360g, much higher than Innocent's worst-scoring small bottle of crushed strawberries and bananas (230g).
To resolve these dilemmas, ideas are emerging. Innocent talks of "carbon calories": it calculates that in a world with massively reduced greenhouse gas emissions the average person could afford to eat and drink 2,900g of CO2e each day - and a smoothie would use just 1% of that total.
Mason advocates future labels saying how much carbon is embodied in every pound spent, allowing consumers to compare the impact of anything from a snack to a car.
"Putting an absolute emission on crisps and Aston Martins doesn't tell you very much; using CO2 per pound ... you could grade everything from cars to Coke on the same scale," said Mason.
In the meantime, footprinting can achieve a lot: helping companies understand where energy use and so emissions come from, and so how to reduce both, say supporters.
Innocent has, over two years, reduced the impact of some recipes by nearly a quarter, moving to 100% recycled bottles, buying green electricity, and obsessing about details like stacking more bottles on each transport pallet. "The number of pallets to move is massively reduced, so that's fewer trucks and less carbon," says Reed.
Under pressure to cut costs, and from retailers, brands like Coke, Walkers crisps and Cadbury's chocolate are now slowly taking up the cause. Coke hopes to make savings, including using thinner and more recycled packaging, designing more efficient fridges, and encouraging consumers to recycle more.
"When I say to my wife the carbon footprint of a Coke is 170g, it doesn't mean anything," says Sanjay Guha, President of Coca-Cola Great Britain and Ireland. "But if I use it to explain to her [that] if she was going to recycle one aluminium can that can reduce the footprint by [up to] 60%, then I have found a way to connect with consumers, to make this encouraging for them to do."
- Blog post
- 1 year ago
- Views: 223
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We all need GOALS We all need GOALS
- From: JohnRussell
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Description:
We all need goals and a starting point with most things in life and this is no different when you are trying to lead a greener lifestyle.
Do you actually know how green (or not) you are?
Probably not! And this is why we think it is important to regularly check your Carbon Footprint using our Carbon Calculator. Not only will it give you an indication of your footprint but it will also compare this against the country you live in which means that you will know just how good or how bad your footprint is.
Taking those first steps in leading a greener lifestyle or improving on what you already do doesn't have to be difficult or expensive for that matter. I would love to fit solar panels if I could afford to but I know that I need to start of with small steps which in the long run will save myself money and might allow me to make those big changes in the future.
So, once you've calculated your Carbon Footprint, take a look at our Top 10 Tips to Go Green.
They are not difficult.
They will not cost the earth. In fact, they will help save the earth!
And in 6 months time re-calculate your Carbon Footprint and see whether there has been any changes! You might as well check your bank balance at the same time.
And just to make it a little bit more fun add your Carbon Footprint to your Facebook or MySpace profile using our special little Carbon Calculator Widget. Compare your footprint with your friends and help spread the word.
- Blog post
- 2 years ago
- Views: 271
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Eco Farm Eco Farm
- From: adeymoore
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Description:
An attempt to create a pioneering carbon-neutral farm is starting in Italy.
A range of new technologies is being installed at the farm in the central region of Umbria as part of an experiment to cut its CO2 emissions to zero over the course of the next year.They include everything from electric farm vehicles to sun-reflecting paint on storage buildings.
It is all taking place at the Castello Monte Vibiano Vecchio olive oil farm, north of Rome.
With its vineyards and olive trees, this beautiful corner of Italy might look like it has escaped the intrusions of climate change, but the farm's owners say they, too, have to play their part in making the world greener.
"We want to go further than anyone else," says Lorenzo Fasola Bologna, Monte Vibiano's chief executive.
Storing solar energy
One of the key investments is in a unique solar powered battery re-charging centre.
Built by the Austrian company Cellstrom, the centre is a shed-sized box with 24 solar panels on it that houses a revolutionary liquid-based battery.
The battery can, for the first time, store solar energy.
Until now, electricity generated by the sun has generally had to be used immediately. It is one reason why opponents say solar power is limited.
No longer.
Depending on the amount of usage, the battery centre can store solar-sourced electricity for up to three days. They are working to extend that to 10 days and more, enabling the farm to continue operating through foggy days when the sun does not shine.
It means that golf carts and electric bikes will become the key means of transport for farm workers and that they can all charge up at the battery centre.
'360º solution'
Cellstrom estimates the farm can save 4,500 litres of petrol every year and reduce CO2 emissions by 10 tons.
"Yes, it is an expensive initial investment," says Lorenzo, without revealing the actual cost. "But we think that we will start getting our investment back after five years or so. From then on, our fossil fuel bills will disappear."
Solar power is just one of the ground-breaking technologies being applied to this farm. They call it a multiple layered 360º solution to global pollution.
They have bought a fleet of special miniature tractors that use a new generation of bio fuels. The farm says the new fuels will not be coming from food chain products like corn and therefore will not diminish world food supplies.
Then there are the farm's boilers which are used to create heat in the olive oil production process.
They will use wood chips instead of methane gas, as in the past. The wood is a renewable source of energy found from supplies already on the farm.
Even storage tanks on the farm are being painted white to reflect sunlight away from earth, in an effort to cut the effects of global warming.
And, just to make sure they have not left anything else out, they have also planted 10,000 trees to soak up and offset any unforeseen CO2 emissions.
'No choice'
By the end of next year they hope to be the first farm, anywhere, to reduce their inherent net carbon footprint to zero - ie without using off-site offsetting projects.
"It will be great," says Lorenzo, "to pass on this great, green enterprise to my children and their children."
And when asked if it makes economic sense for a business to attempt all this, he replies: "Absolutely. We are not a charity."
This whole region is responding to new climate pressures.
At the nearby Lungarotti winery in Torgiano, recycled grape vines now power the process, not oil.
Mini-weather stations provide data for planting and watering and organic fertilisers enrich the soil.
Chiara Lungarotti, whose family owns the company, is just as committed as her neighbour Lorenzo.
"We have no choice but to get agriculture to adapt to climate change," she says. "It is our interest for the sake of our crops to be friendly to the planet."
So, agriculture is now doing its bit on climate change.
Whether small olive oil producers or wine makers have lessons for bigger operations will be known when these experiments are over.
But they will be toasting Umbria if they have.
- Blog post
- 2 years ago
- Views: 266
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Facebooks & Widgets Facebooks & Widgets
- From: JohnRussell
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Description:
With more than 110 million active users Facebook is now the 4th most trafficked website in the world.
As part of our mission to 'spread the word' and make Click4Carbon your portal to the internet we have created the following:
The Click4Carbon Facebook Group
The Click4Carbon Facebook Application - which allows you to display and compare your Carbon Footprint value with your Facebook friends
So please join today, take part and help us by forwarding to all of your Facebook friends.
And, don't forget that with our Carbon Calculator widget you can also add your Carbon Footprint details to your own website and other popular social networking applications such as MySpace and Friendster.
- Blog post
- 2 years ago
- Views: 351
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About 'Additionality' About 'Additionality'
- From: RobLyons
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Description:
As I was browsing the web, I came across a word that I thought was just made up. Well.... It was, but for good reason. The english language is a wonderful thing and I doubt it existed 20 years ago. In fact I don't know if it is in the OED. I'm no expert but being English, I sometimes giggle when a word is "developed" (usually by the U.S.) by giving an '..al', or '..ing,' or better still an '..ization' at the end of an existing word.
Regardless of this I bothered to find out what it was all about. It turns out to be a little bit of common sense, but one of those that makes a (energy efficient) light switch on at the back of your brain when it is written down infront of you.
Although the definition relates more to governmental levels of Carbon Emissions, the principle is just as good for us on an individual level. So... next time you choose to offset your carbon footprint directly or indirectly, pay close attention to the projects it relates to.
What is additionality?
When you offset a flight (or anything else, for that matter), you are giving money to a company, which invests it in projects designed to reduce future emissions or remove CO2 from the air.
But what if those reductions would have been made anyway, regardless of your contribution? For offsetting to be truly effective, these cuts need to be “additional” to anything that would have happened in the normal course of events.In other words, “is an offset additional?” means “would the project that created this offset have happened without revenues from offset purchases?”
“Business as usual” improvements, are non-additional and their corresponding pollution reduction cannot be sold as a bona fide offset.
How does additionality work?
Take an offsetting project that involves distributing low-energy light bulbs in a developing country, thereby reducing future energy consumption. The carbon savings would only be “additional” if most of the recipients wouldn’t have acquired low-energy bulbs by some other means, such as a local government drive to reduce pressure on the electricity grid.
If that happened, the bulbs distributed by the offset company would stop being additional, since the energy savings would have happened even if the offset project didn’t.Another example, if offsets are claimed from the collection and destruction of methane at a landfill, what otherwise would have happened to that methane? If the methane would have been collected and destroyed anyway (whether because it is required by law or is standard business practice), then buying those methane reductions will not result in “additional” environmental benefit.
The problem with additionality is that it can be almost impossible to prove with absolute certainly. After all, no one can be completely sure what will happen in the future or what would have happened if a project had never existed.Guarantees
Partly because of the difficulty of ensuring additionality, many offset providers guarantee their emissions savings. This way, if something happens to make one offset project “non-additional” (such as the government giving out low-energy light bulbs), then the provider promises to make up the loss via another project.
As the offset market grows, some companies have enough capital to invest in projects speculatively: they fund an offset project and then sell the carbon savings once the cuts have actually been made. This avoids the difficultly of predicting the future.The Clean Development Mechanism
The concept of additionality has its roots in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the carbon-trading system built into the Kyoto Protocol. The CDM allows developed countries to pay for carbon cuts in developing countries instead of making more expensive emissions reductions at home.
For example, a rich country struggling with its Kyoto targets might fund a hydroelectric station overseas. For this or any other project to be approved under the rules of the CDM, the carbon savings must be shown to be additional. In other words, it can’t be a scheme that might have been run anyway.What about Click4Carbon
Click4Carbon is dedicated to developing projects which directly impact on the environment. We're not trying to sell any Carbon Credits, and therefore in principle we're investing in Additionality.
- Blog post
- 2 years ago
- Views: 315
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The Funny Side of Climate Chan The Funny Side of Climate Change!
- From: BobCarbon
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Description:
Is it possible to laugh about global climate change?
From the book " 101 Funny Things About Global Warming" by New York cartoonist Sindey Harris.
- Blog post
- 2 years ago
- Views: 386
- Not yet rated
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Funny Carbon Footprint Funny Carbon Footprint
- From: BobCarbon
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Description:A look at your Carbon Footprint
- 2 years ago
- Views: 865
- Not yet rated
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JohnRussell
- Views: 923
- Since: 2 years ago