Fact Finding Missions

Ask Umbra on comparing green products 5

Q. Dear Umbra,

I am a consumer who has recently convinced a friend of mine to green his business. I am now in charge of doing all of the research. My question is, how do I go about assessing the life cycle of various products? ... Do you know of such a service/website?  I have tried to Google things but it is very hard to get side by side comparisons. Also, do you know of a good website that rates random products according to their environmental impact?

Tamara A.
Munich, Germany

woman holding applesData, people. We need data.iStockA. Dearest Tamara,

Welcome to my life. If there were such a website, I would keep it secret, so that I seemed to have a mysterious font of knowledge. Instead we have floors 2B-4B, vast subterranean shelves stretching in to the distance and little cubbies filled with gerbils manipulating abaci. It’s quite dusty down here.

You appear to seek two separate assessments. A “Life Cycle Assessment” in the environmental sense is an examination of an object or action from birth to death, resulting in a quantified measurement of its total environmental impacts. An LCA does not usually include an evaluation of the quality of an object. In a comparison between cloth and disposable diapers, the LCA might mention that disposable diapers are less durable, i.e., single-use items, but this is inherent to the product category. So you are asking for two things: one, to know which of various comparable categories is environmentally superior (e.g., bus vs. light rail, paper vs. plastic); and then within those categories, which individual product is best (e.g., Friend of the Planet Pencils vs. Feel Really Guilty Pencils).

For the daily stuff, the product evaluation is easier to find than an LCA. People like to read product reviews, so there are many services providing reviews, and many online discussions. I fell into the black hole of European Clothes Washer message boards a couple years ago—men passionately discussing the various benefits of their German machines. Where do people find the time?

The side-by-side evaluation is less common than “We Like This!” Grist does comparative product reviews. Other sites with a green review component are the Green Guide and Consumer Reports’ Greener Choices. I’ve also noticed that Amazon consumer reviews are enthusiastic and prolific. There is a new site, GoodGuide, that looks interesting and like it would suit your needs, but it is still under development.

I’ll just give you a few suggestions for formal LCA sites, because these are denser. A big behemoth is the Carnegie Mellon EIO-LCA site, which “estimates the materials and energy resources required for, and the environmental emissions resulting from, activities in our economy.” I’ve talked about the EIO-LCA before, and using it requires some work on your part, to figure out what parts of the (U.S.) economy the activity involves and then do some math. The benefit of EIO-LCA is being able to estimate emissions even if you can find no formal comparative LCA. Here is an LCA database—just enter your search terms and have a party! And here’s another that I’ve yet to use.

There is no simple answer to what you are asking, but in the several years since I started writing this column, these services have proliferated. I believe that in a few more years all knowledge will be laid at our fingertips. Umbra has spoken.

Prophetically,
Umbra

 

Yours is to wonder why, hers is to answer (or try). Send your green-living questions to Umbra.

Umbra Fisk is Grist Research Associate II, Hardcover and Periodicals Unit, floors 2B-4B.

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  1. ecotechnologist Posted 10:16 am
    11 May 2009

    Dear Umbra, and TamaraThe PAS 2050 give advice on how to go about conducting an LCA on products.LCA and embodied energy data tends to vary, as the criteria for assessment varies, depending on the scope of your study (do you include the labour for example, or the water , or the purifying of the water? How far back to go?).There are some indusrty bodies in construction compliing a like-for-like database (Such as the BRE)An online database is much needed, so if you are going to alot of trouble on this, might be a good idea to document it for the rest of us, and also as a benchmarking tool, for others to use for improvement?
    Good luck.  

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  2. jenyreny Posted 6:21 am
    12 May 2009

    I performed a product LCA on products for a company last year.  It's very time intensive but definitely a labor of love.  We focused on comparitive CO2 emissions though took note of water usage and where plants were fertilized.I'd be interested in exchanging a few emails or calls to help get you started.  Let me know. 

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  3. bself Posted 10:55 am
    13 May 2009

    Check out http://www.ecorate.com, launched today!

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  4. BuyGreen's avatar

    BuyGreen Posted 8:04 am
    14 May 2009

    We have developed Green Standards which take a lifecycle view of all the products we sell on BuyGreen.com You will see a rating emblem on every product picture and at the bottom of each product description you will see a link to our Green Standards report for that product and you can access the two page detailed report.We believe informing the consumer about the eco-friendly characteristics of a product is critical. We are trying to provide a comprehensive view of a product and delivered in a simple, standardized and transparent form. You can see an overview of the BuyGreen.com Green Standards here - www.buygreen.com/greenstandards.aspx

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  5. acwilson Posted 3:47 am
    18 May 2009

    i've been greening my office and found that some choices were really not obvious until i did some research.paper is the best example. i knew i wanted to get 100% recycled paper, but we use A4 and A3, which is much harder to find. it turned out that i couldn't find locally made 100% recycled A4 and A3, but i did find a product imported from the UK.now, i expected (like most other people i suspect) that the imported product would be worse because of the energy and thus fossil fuels/carbon embedded in the transport.i knew the product was shipped which made it easier (generally only fresh food and flowers are air freighted). so, i simply googled how much CO2 is emitted per kilogram of weight per kilometre of travel. then worked out how far it had to come (half way around the planet) with the help of google maps and googled how much the paper weighed per ream.it turns out that it saves more CO2 to buy 100% recycled paper from the UK and ship it to southern australia than to buy 80% recycled paper made in australia.not intuitive, but true. and we can't afford to fall into narrow minded thinking when it comes to climate change.but ultimately the change we've made that has made the biggest impact has been to switch to renewable electricity. that is our biggest contribution to climate change, so was the most important thing to get rid of.i don't know about the US, but here you just call up your electricity retailer and ask for all of the electricity that you use to be sourced from renewable sources. we shopped around and found a deal that only cost us $10 more per month than what we're already paying.it only takes a little tiny bit of effort but has a BIG impact.

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