[GreenYes] Which Types of Products are the Worst for the Environment?

[Cheryl Myrup <cheryl.myrup@no.address>]

Dear GreenYes colleagues,

The Journal of Industrial Ecology has recently published a special issue on 
Priorities for Environmental Product Policy. The issue provides rigorous 
and comprehensive insight into the life-cycle impacts of consumption -- 
what we buy and what we use -- on the environment. The articles identify 
high-impact product categories at the level of city (Cardiff), country 
(Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands), and 
continent (the European Union).

A review article from the special issue is available on the web at 
<www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/jiec/10/3> for free download. The Journal of 
Industrial Ecology is a peer-reviewed international quarterly published by 
MIT Press, owned by Yale University, and headquartered at the Yale School 
of Forestry & Environmental Studies.

Despite the immense differences in approaches, all studies derive the same 
major priorities. The following activities and product groups cause 70 to 
80% of the total environmental impacts in society:
    * Mobility: automobile and air transport;
    * Food: meat and dairy, followed by other types of food; and
    * The home, and related energy use: buildings, and heating-, cooling-, 
and other energy using appliances.
Important reductions in environmental impacts thus can be reached by 
policies that target this limited group of product categories.

The special issue is based on research prepared for the EU-funded project 
<file://www.jrc.es/home/pages/detail.htm>Environmental Impacts of Products. 
The project was led by Dutch research organizations TNO and CML and 
provides an important basis for the EU's Integrated Product Policy.

For more information about this special issue, see <http://tinyurl.com/y4c8pe>
[please excuse any cross-postings, but do forward this announcement to 
others that might be interested]

Sincerely,
Cheryl Myrup
Assistant editor,
Journal of Industrial Ecology

======================================================================
Cheryl W. Myrup                      School of Forestry & Env. Studies
Assistant Editor                       Yale University
Journal of Industrial Ecology      205 Prospect Street
cheryl.myrup@no.address            New Haven, CT 06511-2189  USA
http://mitpress.mit.edu/JIE
======================================================================
Cheryl W. Myrup                      School of Forestry & Env. Studies
Assistant Editor                       Yale University
Journal of Industrial Ecology      205 Prospect Street
cheryl.myrup@no.address            New Haven, CT 06511-2189  USA
http://mitpress.mit.edu/JIE 

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