Yale Journal Identifies Products and Activities with Greatest Environmental Impact

GreenBiz

NEW HAVEN, Conn., Oct 24, 2006 - A special issue of Yale's Journal of Industrial Ecology examines the types of products that cause the most environmental damage through their use of resources such as energy, contribution to global warming, toxic impacts, and production of solid waste.

The journal’s research reveals that automobiles, air travel, food (chiefly meat and dairy), and home and related energy use -- including heating, cooling and other energy-using appliances -- cause up to 80 percent of the total environmental impact in society.

"The research findings reported in the special issue are important because they help pinpoint the most problematic types of consumption, which include activities that are now commonplace in our lives such as air transport," said Gus Speth, dean of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. “That should lead to clearer priorities and better decisions.”

Contributors to the special issue, Priorities for Environmental Product Policy, examined the impacts of products in Cardiff, Wales; in Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands; and in countries in the European Union (EU) as a whole.

The special issue features the most recent and influential studies on the relative impact of consumption activities. The studies, all independently conducted, conclude that a consistent and robust priority list of product groups can serve as a guide for environmental improvement programs undertaken by industry and government.

In many countries, environmental policy that is centered on production, use and disposal of products—rather than just pollution from smokestacks and drainpipes—is gaining acceptance. The European Union and China are banning hazardous substances from electrical and electronic products, for example, and Japan is implementing a green purchasing law.

“This special issue demonstrates the power of industrial ecology,” says Reid Lifset, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Industrial Ecology. “Concepts and tools that lie at the core of this field, such as life-cycle assessment and input-output analysis, help us to gain a much better understanding of the relative importance of specific categories of consumption for the pressures on the environment.”

The Journal of Industrial Ecology is a peer-reviewed international quarterly owned by Yale University, published by MIT Press and headquartered at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. The special issue is based in part on research prepared for the EU-funded project Environmental Impacts of Products (EIPRO). The project was led by Dutch research organizations TNO and CML, and provides an important basis for the EU’s Integrated Product Policy.

Arnold Tukker, manager of the Sustainable Innovation Program at TNO and manager of EIPRO, served as guest editor. The articles in the special issue are available online.