Remember the days when nutrition labels on food items were not readily found in a standardized format?  I do not, but I’m sure there was a day when nutrition labels were not available.  It’s probably just a product of my generation but we did learn how to read a nutrition label in middle school, easy for us as it was all standardized by then.

What I do remember are the days I suddenly found labels like MSG free, organic and trans-fat free on the products in the grocery store.  If it’s organic, the product packaging made sure I knew it, along with the price tag. 

Now imagine this… a new label on all products we buy, the product’s carbon footprint!  If we’re making greener decisions, do you think you’d choose to go for an apple with a smaller carbon footprint rather than a larger one?  (I won’t pose the price question.)  I might be getting way ahead of our time as there are many marketing issues that arise from placing any sort of guarantee on your packaging… As consumers, we deserve apples to apples comparison, not apples to oranges. 

Well today, I was pleasantly surprised to read this article on the New York Times.  Tropicana, a Pepsico brand,  hired a team of experts to calculate the level of emissions during the production process of their orange products.  To some surprise, the activity with the largest footprint was the nitrogen fertilizer used in growing the oranges.  The total end-product math calculation?  It takes approximately 3.75 pounds of CO2 for each half-gallon of orange juice.

I applaud Pepsico for taking on this project carbon footprint.  It really only takes one mega brand to lead the way towards looking at the business under a new light.  Companies are coming under increased pressure to evaluate what their green level is — whether it’s pressure from climate change organizations, scientist reports, policy changes, general media and consumer demand — it’s working!  We’re even seeing the emergence of terminologies like “carbon-neutral” companies.  I think even getting others to undergo the same project can result in some great benefits, of which the noteworthy ones are…

1) Standards! 
How should companies measure carbon emissions?  Companies actually measuring emissions will require industry experts to standardize the process.  Without this, it’s hard to clearly interpret the results of the calculation.  We need to ensure that the measurements by different expert teams / carbon auditors are comparable across the board.

2) Carbon chain! 
We’ve heard of the supply chain and similar to it, identifying ones own carbon chain is necessary to gather…

3) Empirical data! 
The availability of empirical data across an industry will provide a huge basis on what processes require more carbon-reducing methodologies / technologies.