Pepsico and the Earth Institute develop new carbon calculator

For a company like PepsiCo, which oversees more than 20 brands and hundreds of different products around the world, calculating the carbon footprint of just one of its products can take weeks, and at a significant cost to the company. To save time and money, PepsiCo teamed up with researchers from Columbia University’s Earth Institute to create a tool that can measure the carbon footprint of thousands of products all at once.

The calculator... can calculate the carbon emissions of different materials and activities in a company’s supply chain and operations, and within minutes pinpoint which of these carries the largest carbon footprint.

The Pepsico tool uses data mining techniques to estimate carbon emissions for a variety of products based on the information from previously analysed materials. Pepsi is not the first to prduce a calculator in fact Danone has developed a calculator with SAP to identify the carbon emissions of individual products. Pepsi says they hope to make the tool available to other companies in the future. 

Read more about the Pepsico calculator at Green Biz

Who is producing your products? Check the Slavery Footprint Calculator

Although, this can only calculate a general footprint based on your personal lifestyle (kids, home, diet, gadgets, helathcare products) it shows how widespread bonded labor is through out the supply chain. Plus it is an insanely cool website.

Calculate your footprint at SlaveryFootprint.org

Read more about it at Treehugger.com

Shrinking the footprint of Healthcare

Only recently has the industry begun grappling with the amount of waste it generates, and one reason is that financially stressed hospitals are seeking ways to cut costs. “We’ve just seen a sea change,” said Cecilia DeLoach Lynn, director of sustainability education at Practice Greenhealth, a nonprofit group in Reston, Va., that is working to shrink the environmental footprint of health care institutions.  “Once upon a time, you had to do a lot of door-knocking to get anybody to pay attention,” Ms. DeLoach Lynn said. “These days, folks are asking us not whether or not they should be doing it, but how.” Practice Greenhealth’s members include around 1,100 hospitals and 80 companies.

Read more at the New York Times