Too Much Down Time = Crazy Ideas

Ok, one more blog before I go back to work after being gone a full week. While traveling to and from Autodesk University, I was left with way too much down time to dream up new ideas. While only my coworkers and family are usually subjected to hearing about these, I decided to publish this one to the Web through my blog in the hopes that someone will see it, perhaps decide it has merit, and help bring it to implementation.

The emerging and growing push to become more green and sustainable has gotten me thinking about the products I use everyday. But not just about alternative products that use less energy. I am beginning to wonder how much energy is used to manufacture the products I use each day.

Perhaps the brand of toothpaste I buy uses twice the energy that a competitor uses. If I knew this information, I would buy the brand that has developed a more energy efficient manufacturing process. But how can the average consumer find out this information?

Well, I decided if the food producers/suppliers can be made to put nutrition-related information on their packaging, then any manufacturer of a packaged product should be able to or be regulated to put information on their packaging that indicates how much energy was used to produce that product. As a consumer concerned about our environment, I need to know this to make better purchasing decisions to ensure that I am doing my part to improve the environment.

The manufacturers already have to know this information because it is needed for them to operate and run their business. With all the push to be green, I would think that this is something that a politician could easily push through the legislative body of our country. In the meantime, I will be wondering with each purchase if I am really buying the most energy efficient product out there.

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