All manufactured products have an environmental impact and procurement strategies are now beginning to focus on what has become known as the ‘embedded carbon’, favouring products with lower embedded carbon.
In fact, the environmental impact is more than the ‘carbon’ element, which relates to energy consumption during the life cycle of the product.
To take just one simple example, a painted door will have environmental impact, and embedded carbon, through:
- Harvesting and processing wood
- Quarrying and processing sand for window glass
- Extracting and processing ores for metal fittings
- Producing plastic from oil for plastic fittings
- Chemical processing of paints and finishes
- Packaging of all these elements prior to installation
- Transportation of all these elements
- Disposal at end of life
The growing focus on embedded carbon is creating a requirement to better understand the environmental impact resulting from the activities of suppliers, adding another strand of information that has to be examined and analysed.
And, of course, many companies will also be required to calculate these figures for their own products to meet customers’ sustainability assessment requirements.
Carbon footprint
All of the above contribute to an organisation’s carbon footprint, as well as its overall environmental impact.