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CARBON LABELLING SCHEME IS 'POTENTIALLY FLAWED'
July 2007
The widely-publicised scheme to print labels on consumer product packaging indicating source-to-store carbon content is not only flawed but it also has the potential to become a source of conflict according to supply chain specialists Barloworld Optimus.
Fraser Ironside, Global Business Development Director of the company behind world-leading emissions calculation and reduction software CAST-FE said this week that what the Carbon Trust is attempting to do by showing consumers the amount of carbon emitted in getting any given product from source to store is 'admirable' - and as such, he says, has the support of the industry.
But, he added, where the widely-heralded labelling scheme falls down is in failing to understand the complexities of 'non-static' supply chains as well as in wide variations in how companies actively go about measuring their respective footprints
"The way they're going about it essentially dumbs-down the complexities of the supply chain process which in turn will only lead to inaccuracy and misleading data.
"Supply chains are not static. If they're to be flexible, responsive and effective they will vary from day to day. Accordingly, the whole concept of carbon footprint labels on packages essentially risks opening-up potential sources of conflict".
His comments come in the wake of the Carbon Trust's recently-announced tie-up with Walkers, Boots the Chemist and 'Smoothie' drinks manufacturer innocent to help consumers make purchasing decisions based on carbon content disclosures printed on packaging.
At the same time, Tesco Chief Executive Terry Leahy has also revealed the supermarket's independent plans to become the first chain in the world to assign carbon labelling indicating the amount of CO2 emitted during the production, transportation and consumption of all its 70,000 products.
"There is no issue with companies formally stating their commitment to the environment by stamping carbon levels on their products, nor do I question their reasons for doing it " commented Fraser Ironside who also heads-up Barloworld Optimus' operations in America.
"These are positive steps and moves in the right direction. The contentious issue revolves on how accurate that information is, and as yet, no rules or boundaries exist on what companies should be measuring or where their calculation starting-point should be.
"If it's to have any meaning at all, sourcing and shipping both need to be measured to the minutest degree, and factors such as seasonality, demand, plant efficiencies, warehousing, supply routes and a whole mixed bag of ever-changing circumstances - even down to whether or not a product is eventually sold in, say, Scotland or Kent - will inevitably have an impact on its eventual footprint reading.
"If any product's label fails to recognise that fact, the whole process becomes an entirely futile and costly exercise amounting to little more than just going-through-the-motions" he warned.
Pledging all-out co-operation with the Carbon Trust to find a 'workable' solution to educate consumers into the global implications of carbon footprinting, he added that a 'far more workable solution' would be to re-think the process to list 'average' carbon emissions rather than 'actual' - or better still, he says, to print emission details based at company level rather than product level.
Singling-out the widely-publicised Carbon Disclosure Project as 'a more positive move' he added that there is a growing marketing value in any company stating its 'green' commitments - with few observers doubting that the next few years will see dramatic swings in that direction.
"That's why the principle of a carbon labelling scheme is to be applauded. But if it's going to happen, it has to be meaningful and accurate otherwise it'll just turn into another fiasco along the lines of the food labelling disaster - and that's the mood of the food industry as a whole right now.
"Yes, a solution exists and we're keen to assist in defining it. But as the proposal now stands, no. Scrap it, let's all get round a table and let's thrash-out something that will work before damage is done" he urged this week.
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Technical
CARBON LABELLING SCHEME IS 'POTENTIALLY FLAWED'
The widely-publicised scheme to print labels on consumer product
packaging indicating source-to-store carbon content is not only flawed but it also
has the potential to become a source of conflict according to supply chain specialists
Barloworld Optimus.
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