Tons of Carbon

I spent yesterday in S.F. and am still amazed that I was able to attend 2 separate conferences that focused on carbon offsets and carbon footprints within 15 blocks of one another. Moscone Center hosted the larger one, which focused on the emerging market for offsets and seemed to be well attended by brokers and others who make up a typical commodity marketplace. My biggest impression from this one was the huge international contingent, particularly European. This appears to be one new market opportunity where the EU has a significant head start, and I'm sure the companies who have "figured it out there" are chomping at the bit to take a leadership position in the U.S. market.

The smaller conference focused on measuring carbon footprints of consumer products. It seemed to be a mix of consulting firms and auditors on the vendor side and rather large technology and product companies who were there to learn about footprint measurement methodologies. I listened to part of a talk given by the head of sustainability at the Mars Corporation, and he said something that stuck with me. He was discussing the full lifecycle of dog food, and he was contrasting the primary contributors to their product's footprint with the areas of the footprint that his company can reasonably impact.

He showed how the raw materials (agriculture) and consumer purchase and consumption were the parts of the lifecycle that are most carbon intensive. The product manufacturing phase, and even somewhat the distribution portion of the lifecycle, were relatively efficient and therefore not large contributors to the footprint. The point he made was that the ingredients of the product (particularly beef) are demanded by consumers, and those same consumers demand convenient packaging. In other words, until consumers are willing to alter these demands, there is not much that the producer can do to make a significant impact on the overall footprint. As much as companies need to change their ways and get greener, I have a feeling as we continue to peel the onion on this climate change crisis we will find that the consumer is going to have to make some drastic, perhaps even painful, choices along the way.