The importance of Life Cycle Thinking for sustainable consumption.
In light of the “green car” media frenzy that’s currently shaking the planet, it’s forgivable to assume that driving an electric car is, under all circumstances, more environmentally friendly than driving a fuel-powered car.
Interestingly, this is not always the case. If one traces the entire life cycle of an electric car from cradle to grave (i.e. from when the car was produced, to the end of its life when it enters the waste stream), it becomes clear that: yes, in many countries it is indeed the least environmentally damaging option, as the energy used to power the car is very likely to have been generated via clean energy resources.
But, in many countries, the lion’s share of power is still being generated by coal power stations - so, an electric car driven on the streets of Johannesburg, for example, runs on fossil-fuel generated electricity. Burning fossil fuels results in toxic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions which enter our atmosphere and contribute significantly to climate change.
What we have then, is a surprising scenario where the environmental impacts of burning fossil fuels to power an electric car, outweigh the impacts of the exhaust emissions and fuel consumption resulting from driving a fuel-powered car. So, although the potential environmental benefits of electric cars are indeed groundbreaking and should not be discounted, these benefits cannot be harnessed in every situation, and a study by the Journal of Industrial Ecology goes so far as to conclude that it is ‘counterproductive to promote electric vehicles in areas where electricity is primarily produced from lignite, coal or heavy oil combustion.'
Have a look at the image below which shows how the carbon emissions of grid-powered electric vehicles varies considerably according to where you live:
Value judgements such as the above can only be made using information gathered during what is called a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), defined in a study by Rebitzer as ‘a methodological framework for estimating and assessing the environmental impacts attributable to the life cycle of a product, such as climate change, ozone depletion, smog creation, eutrophication, acidification, toxicological stress on human health and ecosystems, the depletion of resources, water use, land use, and noise—and others.'
If we had to perform a Life Cycle Assessment on a takeaway cup of coffee, for example, we would need to critically consider every step in the making of that coffee - from the farming of the coffee beans and the various phases of manufacturing and transport required, to the boiling of the water to make that coffee, and, finally, the disposal of the paper cup (and this is by no means an exhaustive list of all the steps!) Each of these phases in the coffee's Life Cycle can be matched with environmental impacts such as energy usage, carbon emissions, water use, and waste, amongst many others - and their combined environmental impact is often truly surprising.
I recently attended a workshop on LCA and walked away with a number of my day-to-day assumptions challenged. The importance of this type of thinking is evidenced by examples such as the electric car, where we need to be careful of falling into the trap of ‘shifting burdens’. In other words, solving one problem, but ignoring another resulting problem that is somewhat disguised or more deeply hidden within the product’s lifecycle and therefore less obvious to the untrained eye.
If consumers are aware of the holistic environmental impacts of the products that they interact with on a daily basis (as offered by LCA thinking), they can make informed decisions about the products they choose to use and consume. As per the adage, 'you can only manage what you can measure,' this transparency of information is extraordinarily powerful, provided that it is disseminated to the world’s decision-makers in the right way. Taking the science-based thinking behind LCA and communicating its findings in an effective, unbiased and understandable manner, could mean the start of people really and tangibly internalising the effects of their choices on the planet.
Cover image: FreeImages.com/Igor Kasalovic