Lifecycle footprinting

12 Mar 2008; Went to see Prof Adisa Azapagic of Manchester University as part of the Suatinable Development Series in Cambridge.

She stressed the need to look at the full lifecycle carbon footprint of products and production processes if we are to make informed decisions on what we consume - "what can be measured can be managed". It was very informative. Starting with an global view on Green House Gas emissions she then drilled right down to the product level. Here are the highlights:

Lifecycle approach takes into account indirectactivities not just those directly involved in production - therefore include materials and energy used plus emissions and waste e.g. for:

Fuels this inolves Extract and Refine --> convert to power (the direct bit) --> Distribute --> Use --> Waste so which energy source ismost sustainable on this measure in CO2 equiv g/kWh?

Coal 680; gas 440; nuclear negligible (agreed that this ignores other factors like radioactivity) she also looked atrenwabkesoruces and PV solar was the 3rd worst after coal and gas - due to pollution from making chips.

Transport (CO2 eq g/person/km:
Plane (longhaul) 115
Plane shiorthaul (e.g. in Europe) 325
Rail (Long dist) 10
Rail (regional 20)
Bus (120)
Car (180)
So don't use plane within Europe

Biofuels (CO2 eq g/MJ)
Petrol 95
Bioethanol (wheat) 78
Bioethanol (sugar beet) 50
Bioethanol (corn) 125
Bioethanol (Rape/canola) 76
Bioethanol (soy) 60
So don't use ethanol from corn/maize and youneed 100% of any bioethanol (not just 10% added) l to make a significant difference from petrol

Food
Xmas/Thanksgiving dinner for 8 people produces 20kg CO2 equiv; the turkey is 13kg of this - be as veggie as you can

Meat v Veg
Potatoes 0.2
Tomatoes (UK) 9.3
Pork 5.4
Chicken 4.1
Beef 14
Lamb 14.3
Turkey 5.1

Tomatoes - grown in:
UK 9.3 (we grow in heated green houses)
Netherlands 3.5
Spain 0.2
So eat from where grown naturally even if transported long distance by road
Also eat seasonal foods that don't require heated environments/refrigeration)

Packaging for a typical soft drink
Aluminium 390
Carton 40
Glass 350
PET etc (high - could not catch figures but polyethylene was next best after carton)
I assume that this says glass is not good even if broken and recycled but I asume that reused milk bottles from milkman are OK).

But Milk (CO2 equiv per litre):
700 g Methane
600g Other GHG's
-----
1300 Total

Questions after, covered amongst other things:
1. Cooking method can affect (e.g. stir fry better than roasting)
2. As we get wealthier we use more carbon - is growth policy compatible with saving the world? She does not know how we will break the growth/carbon link. If things become cheaper (in carbon terms) e.g. low energy light bulbs then we tend to leave them on longer

In summary, as this data gets published it gives useful way to make informed decisions at personal and government policy levels since lifecycle approach is the only way to look at true climate warming cost of what we consume.