Pilot Project to Label Consumer Goods with Carbon Footprint

Endangered:Polar bear cub Wilbär is safe at the Stuttgart Zoo, but his wild cousins are threatened by climate change. © picture-alliance/dpa

As alarm grows among the scientific community about serious climatic changes, leaders are trying ways to halt global warming without harming economic growth. A German pilot project will be launched on April 15 that will attempt to determine the carbon emissions of goods and services consumed daily, in hopes of "greening" some of our economic transactions.

"Product Carbon Footprint: Pilot Project Deutschland" will kick-off with an international symposium on April 15 in Berlin. The pilot project is intended to reduce the carbon footprint of everyday products by working with leading figures in media, business, politics and science as well as informing consumers.

“Product Carbon Footprint” was launched by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Öko-Institut (Institute for Applied Ecology), the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and THEMA1. Seven leading German companies from the food, trade, telecommunications and packaging industries will participate by providing selected products to the participating scientific institutes who will determine their so-called Product Carbon Footprint (CPF).

The pilot project’s climatology researchers will also work on developing an internationally uniform method for determining CPF and the way this should be communicated to the public. The object is to inform consumers and end users about the carbon footprint of the products they consume as well as to encourage manufactures to reduce carbon emissions, the leading cause of global warming.

The April 15 symposium will announce the “Product Carbon Footprint” participating companies to an audience of leading figures in media, business, politics and science. (Young Germany)

Links:

WWF Deutschland (in German)

Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)

Institute for Applied Ecology (Öko-Institut)

In Good Company: First Global Business Initiative to Protect Biodiversity Presented by Environment Minister Gabriel (TWIG, March 14, 2008)

Biodiversity Observation Network to Serve as Alert System (Young Germany)