Damage Database
We need a global database that consolidates environmental information about products, chemicals and components that tells you how much damage they do to the environment:
- how much CO₂ or equivalent greenhouse gases are emitted per unit to manufacture this item.
- how much electric power was consumed to manufacture this item.
- how much water was needed to produce this item.
- How much of various pollutants were released to the environment to manufacture this item.
- Cost of landfill/recycling to deal with this item’s end-of-life.
Then a computer could compare two manufacturing processes, or consumer items for environmental friendliness. You could boil it down to a friendliness rating to help guide every consumer purchase. It would be organised as the mother of all BOMP (Bill Of Materials Processor), allowing loops, e.g. the impact of steel depends on the impact of the use of electricity used to make it and the impact of electricity depends on the impact of the steel used to build the electric grid.
For example, if the CO₂ impact of manufacturing changes NaOH, (sodium hydroxide) that impact would propagate to all processes that use NaOH.
~ Roedy (born:1948-02-04 age:68)