This tool could let companies make greener choices

Researchers have devised a more accurate way to predict and measure the impact products have on the environment.

Understanding how products
 can be greener.

Using a process called life-cycle assessment, companies often test the environmental impact their products may have—as well as the impact of producing the components, such as corn or sugarcane, that go into those products. This kind of assessment, however, often lacks detail about how the products affect natural resources such as land, water, and biodiversity.

The researchers tested this new LCA, called Land Use Change Improved Life Cycle Assessment, or LUCI-LCA, by evaluating the potential environmental impacts of two bio-plastic products that could come from sugarcane grown in Mato Grosso, Brazil, or from corn grown in Iowa. Their approach—which includes more accurate data about the regional land composition than the traditional LCA—came to different conclusions about which option would be more environmentally responsible. The group reports the results in Nature Communications.

“The size and reach of multinational companies is stunning, on par with that of many nations,” says Gretchen Daily, professor of biology at Stanford University and senior author of the paper. “When we think about how to bring human activities into balance with what Earth can sustain, corporations have a major role to play in decoupling economic growth from environmental impact.”

Read the story on the University of Melbourne’s Futurity website - “This tool could let companies make greener choices.”