This text is part of the special section 20 years of CIRAIG
What is the least polluting? Buy an e-reader or several new books? One question among many others that the consumption life cycle inventory database of the International Reference Center on the Life Cycle of Products, Processes and Services (CIRAIG) will help answer.
For an e-reader, there is what is called a “critical moment”, that is to say the number of reuse after which its ecological impact becomes less than that of all the books that one will read a. times and put away in a library. This is valid for an e-reader as opposed to books. This also applies to a reusable bag as opposed to single-use bags. And for all products for which there is a reusable version and another for single use.
In order to be able to determine this “critical moment” and thus allow everyone to make sustainable choices based not on emotions or beliefs, but on evidence, the CIRAIG is developing an inventory database of life cycle of consumption, adapted to the Quebec context. To do this, it starts from the database ecoinvent, world-renowned, which contains data representing many activities around the world, such as energy production, mineral extraction or the production of many materials.
“When I pour myself a coffee, it’s as if I were holding in my hand a whole chain which probably starts in South America, but which also goes through China for recycled cardboard, illustrates Laure Patouillard, scientific coordinator and agent of research at CIRAIG. What is my environmental footprint? We will soon have the means to find out more precisely. “
Choose your battles
Resource extraction, transformation, transport, use of goods and services, end of life… the database connects all the actions which, together, determine the environmental impact of consumer goods.
“If I take my example of the e-reader, explains Mme Patouillard, the researchers must model all the information on the components, ranging from the place of production to the mode of transport, through the amount of energy used in manufacturing, to the number of times an average consumer uses it, and how it separates from it. “
While the database collects information on industry and markets – thus enabling companies in the responsible consumption sector to improve their offerings and minimize their ecological impact – it is also interested in the habits of end consumers. , starting with their eating habits. Other areas considered to be the most relevant when talking about a person’s environmental footprint – transport, housing, clothing, digital consumption – will soon be explored.
“Everyone could then quantify the environmental footprint of their own consumption and compare themselves,” notes Laure Patouillard. We will be able to assess the impact of the choices available to us. Everyone will be free to choose their battles with full knowledge of the facts. “
CIRAIG will soon launch a new Research Chair in Sustainable Consumption, thanks to government funding which will enable it to move forward on this project. He also invites organizations and citizens who wish to join the movement in order to contribute to the development of this database.
With Charlotte Mercille