Reliability of carbon footprint as a decision-making tool for product development - a critical review Online publication date: Wed, 06-May-2015
by Gregor Radonjič
International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management (IJETM), Vol. 18, No. 2, 2015
Abstract: Various methods exist for evaluating the environmental consequences of products. With climate change high up on the political and corporate agendas, carbon footprint (CF) calculations are in strong demand. However, there are certain serious shortcomings related to the CF concept which every practitioner and potential user should be aware of. Although building upon a life cycle approach, CF addresses only impacts on climate change that may give a misleading picture of the environmental impacts and shift environmental burdens to other impacted areas, thus leading to incomplete decisions for sustainable development policies. Another very important issue is how the CF results are presented to the customer. All these conceptual and methodological shortcomings demand better understanding of the value of CF results within product development and marketing activities. In addition, understanding of the uncertainties can be crucial for properly interpreting CF results.
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management (IJETM):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:
Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.
If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com
Our Blog 
Follow us on Twitter 
Visit us on Facebook