mikolas

The Carbon Footprint of “Green” Goods?

July 8, 2008 – 10:36 by Mikko Hämäläinen

According to pretty much every possible news outlet, Toyota will be adding solar panels to their Prius line of hybric cars. One thing that bugs me in all of these so called “green” goods is that there is no mention of the emissions from the manufacture of such goods.

A solar-electric-gas hybrid might cause lower emissions when in use - however manufacturing all those batteries and solar cells definately produce much more emissions than not manufacturing them. In addition to that, both batteries and solar cells need rare earth materials where the extraction of those from the earth causes considerable emissions, not to mention the amount of chemicals and energy used in purifying the materials. So, how green a green car really is? I think you would be better off with mass transportation if you really want to minimize your carbon footprint.

PS. I’d really want to know the additional emissions from product manufacture for all the goods marketed as “green”, just to be able to make fair comparison with non-green products.