In an effort to reduce the level of carbon emissions and the resultant ecological imbalances and to improve the health of humans, a group of researchers have suggested for the inclusion of carbon labels to all consumer products.
They feel such an introduction will assist the consumers as well as the business supply chains to understand the level of carbon in each product and eventually will help in a large level of carbon reductions. The explanation of the researchers is published in the April issue of Nature Climate Change Journal.
They suggest for a global type of private labeling arrangement till the formation of an acceptable national and international rules and their adoption. They explained that such an action will enable the consumers to buy products with low level of carbon and will pressurize the business communities to manufacture green products and utilize greener methods in the packing and transportation processes thus contributing to a reduced level of carbon discharges.
They explained that the preference on green products by the customers will make the companies to attempt for various alternatives right from choosing the products to the packing and transporting them. In the process companies will have more number of occasions to plug in their energy inefficiency to save on energy costs and find out methods to operate their businesses cost -effectively.
On explaining how the carbon label will work, the researchers cited the labels issued by the Carbon Trust, a not for profit company in the UK and said that the labels will illustrate the amount of greenhouse gases released during the lifecycle of the product and the efforts of the companies in reducing their carbon footprint.
The carbon footprint in any product is measured by including the estimated amount of greenhouse gases discharged in the life cycle of a product. The details such as farming, sourcing of the product, construction of the product, its packaging, transportation and the final disposal to reach the customer is included in assessing the carbon footprint.
The research was performed and co-authored by Michael Vandenbergh, an environmental law professor at the Vanderbilt Law School and Climate Change Research Network’s director, Paul Stern of the U.S. National Research Council and Thomas Dietz of Michigan State University.