An app that gives the carbon footprint for a tin of beans - well almost

At the end of last week’s post I said that I would talk about an app that gives an indication of the carbon footprint for individual food items you buy in the supermarket. Given that I need to reduce my carbon emissions from about 6,000 kg to 2,500 kg of CO2 a year – a target we all need to hit by 2030 apparently – making better purchasing choices is clearly important. Eating is something that we all have to do and our eating habits have a big impact on CO2 emissions.

As I said last time, I love data. I’m also the sort of person who loves apps that track things. Whether it’s the number of steps taken in a day, the quality of my sleep at night or the calories consumed through eating too many chocolate biscuits - I love a good app. I appreciate that I might not be representative of the whole population in this regard.

Anyway – back to the app. This discovery came through the same Guardian article mentioned last time: ‘Sustainable gin and family-sized crisps! My week eating a climatarian diet’, which you can read here.

When I downloaded the app a few weeks ago it was called ‘Giki Badges’ but I see, through an update, that it has been rebranded as ‘Impact Score Shopping’. Their logo looks like this.

Using the app simply involves pointing it at the barcode on the food item you are interested in and then the app will tell you how many badges that product has been awarded. The maximum number of badges available (that I have seen) is seven but not all badges are necessarily available for all products. One product might be awarded 3 out of 5 badges, another 2 out of 3. The seven badges/categories I’ve seen are: free from additives, healthier option, better packaging, low carbon footprint, plant based, organic and animal welfare.

As mentioned before it is very difficult to work out the exact carbon footprint of the tin of beans that is sitting on the shelf in my kitchen. All tins with that same packaging will get the same score – but their actual carbon footprint will be impacted by things like the distance travelled from the factory to the depot, then transport to individual shops, then whether I walked to the shops, drove to the shops or had my groceries delivered.

The carbon footprint badge comes in low, medium and high categories. For me, the purpose of this whole exercise is to get informed, so that I have a little more to go on than the ‘eat local, in season and avoid cows’ generalisation. 

So whilst working out the exact impact of each individual product is near on impossible, it is possible to get an idea of products that are better or worse for the environment in terms of their carbon footprint.

Another thing the app allows you to do is to view alternative products – products that may be healthier for you, healthier for the planet or even both.

Obviously, for reasons already stated, it is not possible to know the impact of switching from one product to another in terms of kg of CO2 per year. Only a low, medium or high rating is given. But eating less high carbon footprint products and more low carbon footprint products is obviously going to be an improvement.

Next time I’ll have a look at some of the products in my cupboards and see how they rate. I'll have a look at some of the recipes/meals I regularly cook - and see how they measure up in terms of their environmental credentials.

Trying my best - and failing

Hopefully we all realise that we need to do more to look after our planet. But it can be very difficult and confusing to know what we can do that will really make a difference. I thought I’d start a series of blogs with the things that I’m discovering on this journey – you may find it helpful. Feel free to comment below with your suggestions, tips and advice.

What with COP26 taking place in Glasgow recently the climate crisis has seen a lot of media air time. As a church we marked the middle weekend of COP26 with a Sunday service exploring the theme: ‘COP26, the Climate Crisis and all that’. If you wanted to watch the highlights you’ll find them here: https://youtu.be/iNHm0wy4BVI

 

I expect that for most of us we have similar thoughts when it comes to this whole area.

·      My current lifestyle is partly responsible for the suffering of others who are experiencing the sharp end of the climate crisis.

·      I would like to do more in order to have a less damaging impact on the environment.

·      But what can I do?

·      And, what real difference will that make?

 

A couple of months ago we were challenged by one of our daughters to have a meat free week. It is widely reported that we need to eat less meat if we are going to reach carbon targets. In the end, our meat free week stretched to about a month, with us only eating chicken a couple of times – and that was chicken that we had in the freezer from before the meat free week started. Since then our diet has gone largely meat free. But is that necessarily better for the planet?

 

On the Sunday that I just mentioned above - our service was followed by a picnic tea. Previously a picnic tea might involve mini pork pies, sausage rolls, some ham. Occasionally even a pastie. But in the meat free spirit we thought rather than meat we’d get some bread, snacks and nice cheese – including brie and one of my favourites Castello pineapple halo soft cheese.

 

Once we’d done the shopping we watched a really interesting programme on BBC2 (it’s still available on iPlayer for a month) – Horizon: Feast to save the planet.

 

Five celebrities come together for a three-course meal where scientists have rated every dish for its carbon footprint. I’d recommend watching. The programme recognises that in practice, your average shopper is not going to be able to crunch all the numbers – but broadly speaking if you buy food that is local and in season then it doesn’t have transport miles attached (but boats are a lot better than planes) and anything that comes from a cow almost certainly has a high carbon footprint.

 

The take away for our picnic (so to speak) is that our cheese may well have been worse for the planet than a pork pie. 

 

Now, I don’t know, as I don’t have the details. But my pineapple soft cheese contained pineapple, papaya and almonds. None of these grow in the UK. The cheese is crafted in Denmark. At least it was a soft cheese – which is better than a hard cheese!

 

In contrast my pork pie would have been made in the UK with British pork. But it does contain Palm Oil – I’ve visited enough zoos to know that that’s bad for the rainforest and orangutans in particular.

I reckon I need to find an app – there’s bound to be one – that gives some indication of the carbon footprint of any food item. I also need to find out my current carbon footprint. And what that carbon footprint needs to be if the world’s not going to exceed the 1.5 deg C limit that everyone’s been talking about recently. 

 

Join me again next week.

 

 

Carbon Fast

I did not plan that I would be speaking about Fasting the Sunday before Lent, in fact it wasn't until last week that I even realised Lent started on 17 February. For many Christians Lent is a season of fasting and self-denial as part of our preparation in the run up to Good Friday and Easter Sunday. When the Bible talks about fasting it is primarily the act of giving up food and/or drink for a time, for a spiritual reason - more about that next week.



But I think we can broaden our approach to include other things. This year Tear Fund are running an interesting campaign aimed at getting us to cut our use of Carbon during Lent. For more details click here.

Carbon Footprints

I'm still looking at the Old Testament book of Ruth ahead of our church weekend away which starts tomorrow evening! It's amazing how a story that took place about 3000 years ago can still speak today.

So what have I been looking at this afternoon? My Carbon Footprint! How do you get from Ruth to Carbon Footprints you may be wondering. In Ruth chapter 2 we read about a guy called Boaz whose faith clearly touches every area of his life - including business and economics. In the Old Testament God gave laws which would ensure that the poor and the foreigner were provided for - for example when you harvested your wheat you were not to harvest right to the edge of the field but you were to leave a border so that the poor could come and harvest grain there in order to have enough to eat. Or when you picked grapes from your vineyard once you've been through it once you are not to go back and check that you've not missed any grapes - these were to be left for the poor.

So where are the Carbon Footprints you may still be wondering. For many of us who live in 'the west', the 'developed world', the 'first world' or whatever you want to call it, we make choices that have a negative effect on the world's poorest and most disadvantaged people. In 2000 world leaders made some committments aimed at halving world poverty by 2015 (called the Millennium Development Goals). This summer we are half way to 2015 - but we're not half way towards meeting many of these goals. Micah Challenge is one group that is continuing to encourage us to put pressure on our governments to fulfil their earlier committments. And one area of importance is the need to reduce domestic carbon emissions.

According to my visit to an online carbon footprint calculator (there are others - I just randomly chose this one) my personal carbon footprint is about 4200 kg CO2 per year - which is slightly below average. (Some of the values I put in to the calculator were guesstimates). The cost to offset this would be about £30 for tree planting in Kenya or hydroelectric projects in Brazil.

But what to do about reducing that footprint? First thing would be to get the bike back out of the garage where it has been since November!

Then we come onto the whole area of Fairtrade - but don't get me started - that's a whole other blog. If you want to talk re-cycling great - the wormery is going well. After almost 2 months the liquid fertiliser is now being used on the various vegtables growing in the garden.