October 2012 Issue - Natural Awakenings Magazine Charlotte

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greenliving
Every product we use has a lifecycle,
or duration of environmental impact.
According to the State of the
World 2012: Transforming Cultures from
Consumerism to Sustainability, by the
Worldwatch Institute, humans collectively
are consuming resources equivalent
to 1.5 Earths, or 50 percent more
than is sustainable—and that’s before
projected population growth. In short,
we’re depleting more resources than the
planet can replenish; hence, our personal
consumption habits matter.
In an ideal world, all the appliances,
furniture and electronics we use
and later discard would be “cradle-tocradle,”
or C2C, certified, a term popularized
by German chemist Michael
Braungart and American Architect
William McDonough for describing
products designed never to become
waste. Such innovative products
typically are made of both technical
components that can be reused and
biological components that decompose
back into the natural world.
Current examples of products
that have obtained C2C certification
include gDiapers—biodegradable
cloth diaper liners that can be flushed
or composted—and Greenweave
recycled fabrics. But smart, sustainable
design is not yet the norm, so we
have to monitor our own consumption
and waste habits to try limiting
our support of polluting industries and
22 Greater Charlotte AwakeningCharlotte.com
Follow the Lifecycle
Crunching the Numbers on Products We Consume
by Brita Belli
contribution to ever-growing landfills.
Such product assessments are
challenging, because it’s not only about
what happens after a cell phone, for
example, is thrown into a landfill that
takes an environmental toll. It also entails
the chemicals used, toxins released
and fossil fuels burned to manufacture
and ship that phone.
To help us sort out the best approaches,
The Green Design Institute at Carnegie
Mellon University has created the
online Economic Input-Output Life Cycle
Assessment (EIO-LCA) that crunches the
numbers for commonly used products—
from household cleaners to mattresses—to
provide us with the bigger-picture impact.
So, as their website explains, “The effect of
producing an automobile would include
not only the impacts at the final assembly
facility, but also the impact from mining
metal ores, making electronic parts,
forming windows, etc., that are needed for
parts to build the car.”
Visit, awakeningcharlotte.com for an accompanying
chart, using the latest available
EIO-LCA figures, provides comparisons
for some common products—from
the most to the least energy-intensive—as
well as recycling rates and suggested
alternatives for keeping our own resource
usage and waste load to a minimum.
Brita Belli is the editor of E-The Environmental
Magazine.