What kind of life cycle information is interesting and useful for consumers? Experiences from the FIN-MIPS Household study

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1 What kind of life cycle information is interesting and useful for consumers? Experiences from the FIN-MIPS Household study Carbon footprint and LCA: identify the most effective way to reduce the environmental footprint of consumer s goods

2 Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy The WI searches for and develops environmental policy guidelines, strategies, and instruments in order to promote sustainability at the household, company, local, regional, national and international level. 1 Wuppertal Institute

3 Background 2 Wuppertal Institute

4 The FIN-MIPS Household Project Research agenda MIPS-studies Pre-study on data basis 6 masterʼs theses for new MIPS data in different consumption areas Household study voluntary, different households documenting their consumption Results: ecological backpack of household in kg p.cap. p.a. Focus groups after showing backpacks to households: how to decrease resource consumption? 4 masterʼs theses, 3 bachelorʼs theses 3 Wuppertal Institute

5 The FIN-MIPS Household Project Organizations involved Funding: 1 retail corporation, 2 ministries: environment (6%) and economy, 4 municipal institutions, SC network of Finnish NGOs (dissemination) Project team: Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, Wuppertal Institute, 13 students from 9 departments at 5 universities, Helsinki Metropolitan, Area Reuse Centre 4 Wuppertal Institute

6 The indicator: MIPS material input service unit refers to a relevant issue holistic indicator understandable (ecological backpack) good for comparing different products and activities 5 Wuppertal Institute

7 FIN-MIPS Household Overall results 6 Wuppertal Institute

8 FIN-MIPS Household Natural resource consumption of foodstuffs TMR of foodstuffs (kg) Beef Cheese Butter Spreadables, soyoil Spreadables, rapeoil kg Pork Cucumber (around the year) Poultry meat Eggs Tomato Cucumber (average) Fish Sugar Milk Soy Cloudberry Barley bread Rye bread Strawberry Wheat bread Mixed bread Potato Apple Lager 7 Wuppertal Institute

9 FIN-MIPS Household TMR for Goods and Appliances Kodin tavaroiden luonnonvarojen kulutus yht. 1 7 kg/hlö/vuosi Kodin tavaroiden luonnonvarojen kulutus yht. 2 2 kg/hlö/vuosi Vaatteet Kodin tekstiilit 8 Huonekalut 75 7 Suurten kodinkoneiden valmistus Suurten 6 kodinkoneiden käyttö Sähkö- ja elektroniikkalaitteiden valmistus Sähkö- ja elektroniikkalaitteiden käyttö 4 Kirjat ja lehdet Korut Astiat ja ruokailuvälineet Työkalut Lelut 1 ja harrastusvälineet Muut tavarat Vaatteet Päivittäistavarat Kodin tekstiilit 338 Huonekalut 2 5 Suurten kodinkoneiden valmistus Kodin tavaroiden luonnonvarojen kulutus Vaatteet Clothing yht. 2 7 kg/hlö/vuosi Kodin Home tekstiilit textiles Huonekalut Furniture Suurten Production kodinkoneiden of large valmistus appl. Suurten Use of kodinkoneiden large appliances käyttö Production of electronics Sähkö- Use ja of elektroniikkalaitteiden electronics käyttö Kirjat Books, ja lehdet newsp., magazines 33 Korut Jewellery 196 Astiat Kitchenware ja ruokailuvälineet Työkalut Tools 75 Lelut ja harrastusvälineet 24 Toys and leisure equipment 8 18 Muut Other tavarat goods 1 Päivittäistavarat Non food daily products 254 Suurten kodinkoneiden käyttö 2 Sähkö- ja elektroniikkalaitteiden valmistus 326 Sähkö- ja elektroniikkalaitteiden käyttö 1 5 Kirjat ja lehdet Korut 1 Astiat ja 137 ruokailuvälineet Työkalut Lelut ja harrastusvälineet Muut tavarat Päivittäistavarat Kodin tavaroiden luonnonvarojen kulutus yht. 5 kg/hlö/vuosi Sähkö- ja elektroniikkalaitteiden valmistus 74 Vaatteet Kodin tekstiilit Huonekalut Suurten kodinkoneiden valmistus Suurten kodinkoneiden käyttö Sähkö- ja elektroniikkalaitteiden valmistus Sähkö- ja elektroniikkalaitteiden käyttö Kirjat ja lehdet Korut Astiat ja ruokailuvälineet Työkalut Lelut 115 ja harrastusvälineet Muut tavarat Päivittäistavarat 8 Wuppertal Institute

10 The FIN-MIPS Household Project Conclusions Huge differences huge potential for resource-efficiency Need for new technologies, new lifestyles and new policies Triangle of change: not only consumers but also business and politics Need for creating general resource-efficiency awareness......with producers, retailers, consumers, politics, media Growing importance of education and communication Tremendous public interest in Finland (1 media contact per day) Internet gains importance (onedidit.com, Finnish Product Wiki ) Public discussion households, companies, governments, media => Need for education and awareness-rising for all actors and on all levels 9 Wuppertal Institute

11 What information the consumer needs? Whatʻs small, whatʻs big, whatʻs better? => Need for comparison... Consumers want information on quantities (e.g. Food MIPS report very popular) Put things into relation Make results of action visible... but comparison of what? Comparison between similar products (e.g. beef A vrs. beef B) => Clear differences if only criteria-based (e.g. food miles, organic) => Small differences if expressed in numbers (e.g. transport relevance small in total) Comparison between product groups (e.g. beef vrs. fish vrs. soy) => Difficult on a criteria basis (e.g. green-labelled beef vrs. red-labelled soy?) Comparison of lifestyles => How to break down to the level of action? => Internet gains importance (e.g. onedidit.com, Finnish Product Wiki ) => Is there a role for retailers? 1 Wuppertal Institute

12 Proposal: quantitative information on resource use Quantitative information on backpacks and footprints Ecological backpack => material, energy, water, soil, CO 2 Ecological footprint => land area, energy "Water footprint" => water Carbon footprint => CO 2 and other greenhouse gases, energy How to present the information to the consumer Amounts should be visible Is there one best indicator or should it be a combined index? Absolute or relative figures (e.g. kg, m 2 or % of daily input or impact) Comparison within and between different levels: production processes, products, product groups, lifestyles Which information is sufficient? Carbon footprint << resource use, resource use << sustainability Resource use plus certain sustainability labels (organic, fair trade,...) 11 Wuppertal Institute

13 Thank you for your attention! 22 /