Carbon foot-printing has made its way onto the plates of people living in Sweden.
These ‘climate labels’ list kg of CO2 per kg of product: which results in a decimal like .3498 or .7612. The problem with this approach is that it provides no frame of reference for the consumers to understand what the decimal means. The good news is – at least it will enable customers to make comparisons to other food products, and according to the New York Times, the labels puts Sweden on-track to cut emissions from food by 20-50%.
It would be great if these labels eventually expand to include a more complete calculation of full impacts throughout the product’s entire life-cycle (though it will be difficult to help consumers understand the complexity, so carbon labels such as this are a great test-run and first step).
More details:
New York Times
Environmental Leader
[thanks for the tip, Simona & Lisa!]