The Carbon Footprint

A Life Cycle Overview Approach to Evaluate Product Impact in Development

John Paul Kusz, Associate Director, Center for Sustainable Enterprise
Stuart Graduate School of Business and Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology

What’s Your Carbon Footprint?

This question has been asked of the general population in recent commercials sponsored by companies like the British Petroleum Company and other entities that are working to make consumers aware of the effects of our lifestyles on the environment. For an individual, the question is difficult, if not impossible, to answer.1, 2

It’s a question whose answer is a mandate in countries that have signed the Kyoto Protocol.3 It is an answer voluntarily submitted by many other companies and organizations that have engaged in cross-sector efforts to reduce and offset carbon, or CO2, emissions through a free-market trading scheme. London and U.S.-based exchanges have made the voluntary company-to-company trading of carbon credits possible in much the same way that sulfur dioxide (SO2) credits have been traded for many years to reduce emissions of SO2, a precursor of acid rain, from power generating plants and industry. These exchanges trade carbon credits on a market-derived, dollar/ton basis. The trading price reflects the difficulty of accruing credits that are granted for each ton of CO2 reduction that is below predetermined reduction targets.4 The targets move down from year-to-year, resulting in an incentive to improve performance and a potential increase in the cost of buying credits to offset emissions that exceed an individual company’s allowance. The Kyoto Protocol includes five other greenhouse gases whose emission factors have been normalized to a CO2 equivalent. These are methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (NO), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).

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