VITAL JOB IN CLIMATE FIGHT IS COUNTING

Hot Job: Calculating Products' Pollution
Ana Campoy, September 1, 2009 (Wall Street Journal)

"…[I]n these days of global-warming worries and greener-than-thou marketing, companies suddenly can't get enough of [Nuno da Silva's professional pollution calculator] services. Revenue at the division he manages exploded 150% in 2008 and continues to expand this year, despite the recession. Since the beginning of 2008, he has added 13 people to his staff, bringing the number of employees to 16…[at] the U.S. division of a German environmental consulting company, PE International…

"Concerns about greenhouse gases and other environmental hazards have spurred governments and companies to try to reduce the environmental impact of everything from auto fuels to water bottles. The first step in doing that is to assess the pollution those products impose…"

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"Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s most recent environmental effort -- a bid to tag all of its products with information about their environmental impact -- will force hundreds of its suppliers to inventory their pollution, which many expect will create a boom for the pollution-counting profession…Using computer models, [pollution counters] process information about the energy and resources consumed by making, using and disposing of a product. At each stage, a product's effects on the soil, water and air are tracked to come up with what is known as a life-cycle assessment.

"…[At] DuPont Co., the in-house group that does life-cycle assessments has grown from three members to 10 in the past six years…At New Balance…a "green team" [calculated]…that the materials that go into the shoes, rather than the trip from overseas, take the bigger toll on the environment…Although life-cycle assessments have been around since the 1970s and are fairly common in Europe, the practice has taken off in the U.S. only in the past few years…[T]he profession can be lucrative. Calculating the life-cycle impact of a single product can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars…[S]tarting salaries in [the] field average about $60,000."

Accurately assessing the many dimensions of life cycle emissions is vital and will provide lots of work. (click to enlarge)

"The first step in doing a life-cycle assessment is collecting data on the environmental impact of the different processes involved, from extracting raw materials to transforming them in a factory. Sometimes that means measuring emissions from a smokestack or a tailpipe, but the statistical information often comes from databases compiled by companies like PE International…Most serious counters [folliow] the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization [guidelines]...But no clear rules govern the assessments, whose conclusions can vary sharply…and there are no enforcement mechanisms…

"The American Christmas Tree Association…found that an artificial tree was slightly more environmentally friendly…But the National Christmas Tree Association, which represents tree growers, disputes the findings…[A] life-cycle assessment done for the consumer-products giant Unilever found that smaller bottles of more-concentrated laundry detergent would save water, reduce packaging material and cut greenhouse-gas emissions from transportation…But consumers continued to choose bigger bottles…Only after Wal-Mart banned nonconcentrated detergents from its shelves did Unilever make inroads with its pollution-counter-approved product."