There is always the danger of cutting off your nose to spite your face when doing carbon or energy saving initiatives. On a massive scale, think for example of the policy move across EU member states to switch to diesel cars. It seemed like a good idea at the time to help meet our long-term global climate commitments and reduce CO2 emissions. But now the focus is on the local air pollution health risk, particularly since the WHO’s cancer research agency classified diesel engine exhaust fumes as cancer-causing in 2012. Indeed, the European Environment Agency estimates that air pollution causes 467,000 premature deaths a year in Europe, and about half of these are from traffic emissions. In Ireland, four people die every day due to air pollution and yet most deaths linked to poor air quality are preventable (Independent 2017 and EEA 2013).
If you wish to go a bit deeper again, there is life-cycle assessment (LCA) which considers a whole list of environmental impacts together. It considers these impacts throughout the life cycle of a product from raw material extraction, manufacturing, distribution, use and ultimately to the product’s end-of-life. This should give you a more accurate picture of the true impact. The mathematics behind it all is pretty simple, it’s just the sheer volume of calculations that demands care. Thankfully software advances have made these sort of assessments more affordable. Whether considering an environmental footprint of a single product, an entire factory or a building made up of thousands of different parts, an LCA and an eco-design review is a great way to get started on the circular economy.