We must cut carbon emissions to halt climate change. But they aren’t just produced by driving a car or heating a home. Upfront carbon – all emissions involved in manufacturing an item – can dwarf operating emissions, which is why when you look at the world through the lens of upfront carbon, everything changes.
Lloyd Alter is a writer, public speaker, architect, inventor, and Adjunct Professor of Sustainable Design at Toronto Metropolitan University. He has published many thousands of articles on TreeHugger where he was Design Editor, and on such diverse platforms as Planet Green, HuffPo, The Guardian, Corporate Knights Magazine, and Azure Magazine. A former builder of prefab housing and a tiny-house pioneer, Lloyd is a passionate advocate of Radical Sufficiency – the belief that we use too much space, too much land, too much food, too much fuel, and too much money, and that the key to sustainability is to simply use less. He is the author of Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle. Lloyd lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Annette Flinterman –
I’ve read much about and worked with many tools to reduce one’s carbon footprint and use your hand imprint (= action) to make a change. This book goes further and deeper into the topic. As written in the 1st chapter “when you look through the lens of upfront carbon, everything changes“, one indeed gets a better understanding of things, as well as how to deal with it.
Addressing all aspects of life, from living, working, consumption to transport and more, the author tries to give the best overview of upfront carbon costs and insights for solutions. Interesting for example to read, that the production of rice in Vietnam produces “more carbon equivalent than the country’s transportation“, due to the irrigation of paddy fields, which starves the underlying soil of oxygen, encouraging methane-emitting bacteria to flourish.
In the end it all comes down to less is less, in terms of consumption and carbon. Each step helps. But the author also includes some positive notes regarding the changes our society needs, including a quote from Professor Alexander: “most people will be better off in virtually all aspects of their lives”.