Ken Musgrave of Fast Company comes to the conclusion that we need a “unit” of green measurement for products, much the same way that calories and fat grams are used in food. Yes, but it won’t be so easy.
How are we going to measure greenness? How much of the original product is used in the new, recycled product? How much energy in joules it takes to make this? How many pounds of carbon is spent? Many of these are nebulous numbers, and it takes a combination of them to determine whether or not one thing is “greener” than another. Something may be using 99% of its original materials but take a lot of energy to recycle, whereas something may be using very little original material but be quickly grown from the earth.
It’s an interesting idea, but I don’t see it happening any time soon, at least not in a way that actually helps people make a decision about which products to buy. [Fast Company]
Juan Ojeda
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 at 8:48 AMThe fact that there are so many components that make one product ‘greener’ than another product is reminiscent of the way that many factors make one food product ‘healthier’ than another. This is why we have ingredients & nutritional information listed on the packaging. Maybe we could measure ‘greenness’ in a similar way?
matt
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 at 9:48 AMwell clearly, and it will be called the Gore unit of green