The Brighter Planet Blog

Wanted to share with you all a white paper that we just put out, entitled “The American Carbon Foodprint: Understanding and Reducing your Food’s Impact on Climate Change.” Using the emissions model that we built to power the footprint calculator on this website, we analyzed the cradle to grave climate impacts of the average diet, and pulled the results together in a report that explains and interprets them. It turned up some pretty enlightening (and sometimes rather surprising) stuff – good background for anybody who is into understanding the food they eat.

A few highlights:

• The average American’s carbon “foodprint” is 6.1 tons of CO2e a year. That’s bigger than the combined impact of all their driving and flying.
• Production accounts for close to half of a meal’s total climate impact, and red meat is by far the most potent emitter of all the food groups.
• Of all the transportation emissions associated with your food, less than a tenth result from delivering food from the producer to the vendor, while more than two thirds result from your own driving to grocery stores and restaurants. That puts the importance of “food miles” in perspective!
• Kitchen energy accounts for 29% of a meal’s life cycle impact. Cooking at home is far more carbon-efficient than eating in restaurants.

Yes, the climate impact of our dining habits is substantial. But it’s pretty straightforward for each of us to make changes that significantly reduce those impacts. We distilled the learnings into seven take-home tips:

• Eat fewer animals and more plants
• Buy unprocessed foods with less packaging
• Grow and harvest your own food
• Minimize car trips to restaurants and stores
• Cook at home more and eat out less
• Cook with efficient appliances and techniques
• Compost, recycle, and relish leftovers

Check out the full paper to get answers to all the carbon foodprint questions you never knew you had, and let us know what you think.

–Matthew

We ran the Mastering the Art of Sustainable Cooking contest up until Dec. 31st 2009 to give people everywhere the opportunity to share tips and experiences about reducing their environmental impact in the kitchen. We received entries with tips about how to approach leftovers, efficiently raid your pantry, how to choose more sustainable ingredients and more. We’re excited to announce the judges have voted, and the five overall winners are:

Menu and Dining Planning
Jeff Thorp from CA with his delicious plan for getting three meals for two out of one chicken (and you can get the recipes to try it yourself at his blog).

Food Sources
Bettina from Loulies in DC blew us away with a handful of fabulous tips and recipes. One of our favorites (and the judges, too!) is a guide for Getting to Know Your Farmer’s Market.

Ingredients
Thomas from MA shared gorgeous photos and inspiration from his winter garden. Yes you can reap a harvest year-round even in a cold climate.

Techniques
Dave in Florida knows how to increase a BBQ’s efficiency. You just have to learn one little secret…

Appliances, Gadgets, and Gizmos
Cynthia in CA had an awesome idea: create a gadget co-op and share rarely-used appliances and tools instead of piling them up in the back of a kitchen drawer.

These winners will receive Amazon Kindle DXs—predicted by the New York Times to slash the publishing industry’s environmental impact.

The judges chose these winners from the top 15 entries with the most votes on our website. The panel includes celebrated local food pioneer Alice Waters of Chez Panisse and Slow Food International; visionary environmental writer Bill McKibben of 350.org; sustainable entrepreneur Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farms; food activist and anthropologist Amy Trubek; director and producer Ana Sofia Joanes of FRESH; EatingWell Magazine’s editorial director Lisa Gosselin; CEO Patti Prairie of Brighter Planet; and food television writer and producer Zachary Cohen of Farm to Table. Judges rated top-ranked entries based on eco-effectiveness and ability to inspire conservation in others.

Today also marks the release of our Mastering the Art of Sustainable Cooking Guide where we’ve compiled the top tips, stories and recipes from the contest for your benefit. Please enjoy it and spread it widely. The average American’s carbon footprint from food is as big as that of their car or their home, so food is a good place to reduce your climate impact. And if that wasn’t enough, we’ve also published a complimentary white paper for all you data-loving left brainers with an extensive analysis of the American carbon “foodprint.”

Thanks very much to our partners EatingWell Magazine, Guyot Designs
To-Go Ware, and Stonyfield Farms for donating food-related prizes to outstanding contestants.

As Gary Hirshberg said, “There is a connection between your health, healthy food and a healthy planet.” Cheers to that. We can all make choices in this arena and create heaps of benefits.

Bon appetit,
-Carolyn

It’s that time again! We’re happy to announce that the Antigo City Farm Urban Tree Program in Antigo, WI will receive $5,000 in seed money from the Project Fund. The funds will go to purchase 500 trees and support a project coordinator who will oversee a city-wide tree planting and education program. Through workshops, community members will be trained to plant the trees and tap local maple trees to produce syrup, a valuable local resource. If they succeed in their goal of reaching 500 households (20% of the city), the positive impact will be widespread.

With seven worthy projects from Montana, Wisconsin, Vermont, Oregon, Missouri and Colorado, we saw another diverse and successful month for the Project Fund. Other leading projects were weatherization projects from Montana Energy Corps and Button Up Middlebury, and an effort from Solar Oregon to educate on solar energy in rural areas. All of the projects brought in a whopping total of 9,572 votes.

We’re seeing plenty of new proposals coming in for the February round of voting. Be sure to visit the Project Fund homepage after the 1st to let your voice be heard!

-Matt V

In a recent post on Fast Company, we ranked the major US airlines by climate impact per passenger.

We started with data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ T-100 database, a collection of monthly reports from every airline that is certified to fly in the US. We took factors like flight distance, aircraft model, number of passengers, and amount of freight carried, combined them with aircraft fuel use equations from the European Environment Agency, and ran the lot through our emissions engine. (Fun fact: the calculations took about 15 minutes on a standard household computer.)

This chart shows the complete ranking, from best to worst in pounds of CO₂e per passenger-mile.

Note: a passenger-mile is one passenger flying one mile.

-Ian

Our first days of 2010 are flying by… and I admit, thus far I have stuck to one of my resolutions but not both (and I’m getting slack from colleagues who say you’re only supposed to have one resolution anyway). Regardless of my missing this cultural norm, I’m not alone: almost 80% of the people who make New Year’s resolutions fail to keep them. Some say the main reason is that people set goals that are too far out of reach, rather than smaller steps that help you build on the person you already are and move you towards the person you want to be. That sounds cheesy, but small steps are the realistic way to stay motivated and create new habits. Don’t set the bar too high.

It’s not too late to solidify some resolutions for the New Year now– this isn’t about the calendar, it’s about accomplishment. A good way to start could be with funny resolutions like “I will try to drive closer to the speed limit” or “I will do less laundry and use more deodorant.” The cool thing is these resolutions actually could be seen as “green” resolutions, too– driving slower and doing less laundry saves energy. I like NRDC’s 15 Resolutions for the Environment That Actually Make a Difference posted at The Daily Green and Green Living’s Green Resolutions You’ll Keep post. Outside of the green realm, there are no shortage of examples and ideas. Even the U.S. government has a resolutions website. (No, the resolutions are not what the Obama’s resolutions are at the White House, but resources for you to accomplish your goal.)

Once you decide on a resolution or two, I suggest telling people who know you well and won’t be afraid to call you on it if you let your resolution(s) slide. With some inspiration from The No Impact Project, I told my best friend I’m not buying anything new for three months (except for food, which I purchase with my Brighter Planet Visa so I’m earning offsets). My friend has already accomplished this resolution so I want to show her that I respect the idea enough to follow-through with it myself. As they say at the No Impact Project, it’s not about giving up creature comforts but an opportunity for you to test whether the modern “conveniences” you take for granted are actually making you happier or just eating away at your time and money. There are lots of places online to swap stuff, not to mention craigslist and eBay which are great for finding pre-loved things, and of course Goodwill branches all over the country. So I’m not worried that I won’t be able to get something I might need over the next few months. I’ll be implementing the good ol’ 3Rs (reuse, reduce, recycle).

No matter how big or small your resolution is, this handy list called How to Keep your New Year’s Resolutions will steer you in the right direction toward making a meaningful change.

Here’s to new beginnings.
-Carolyn