Consumers could soon be able to count to cost of a product’s carbon footprint with new technology designed for smartphones, Nottingham Trent University has announced.
An advanced IT and smartphone application, called ‘myEcoCost’, is being developed as part of a £2.6 million study by Nottingham Trent University (coordinated by Bavarian-based company TriaGnoSys) into whether consumers make more sustainable choices when information on products, such as ecological footprint, is made available to them.
Developed by ‘experts’, the electronic system will enable shoppers with smart phones to scan a product’s barcode and receive a rating of how ‘sustainable’ it is. The aim is for consumers to identify which products have the smallest carbon footprint, which use the least resources and which are the healthiest for them to consume.
Shoppers will be able to view the cumulative ecological cost of the products or services they have purchased online using a system similar to reward or loyalty card schemes.
Professor Daizhong Su, Head of the Advanced Design and Manufacturing Engineering Centre at the university’s School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment, said: “The aim is for consumers to make a more environmentally conscious decision about what they buy. For example, shoppers may choose a ‘greener’ product over another item that is the same price if they know that it has less of an impact on the environment.
“The desired knock-on effect of this would be that manufacturers would refocus their priorities and make their products and processes more sustainable, with luxury packaging, for instance, becoming a thing of the past and being deemed distasteful by society.”
Co-funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme, the three-year project is being undertaken by a consortium comprising Nottingham Trent University, Boots UK, Ecover Belgium, GS1 Germany, CFF Carbon Calculator, the Wuppertal Institute, Enviro Data, Robert Mostyn and TriaGnoSys. Nottingham Trent University’s research focuses on calculation models and the communications infrastructure.
Professor Su continued: “Delivering ecological cost statements to consumers is a real breakthrough which will inform shoppers about their impact on the environment and help them make more sustainable choices when buying goods and services.
“It may also enhance the corporate social responsibility of businesses and provide them with an incentive to be more sustainable in their own practices, such as by sourcing more renewable materials and supplies or using less fossil fuels in their vehicles.
“In order to safeguard the earth’s capacity to support life and to respect the limits of the planet’s natural resources, it’s essential that shoppers and businesses are more aware that what they buy and consume not only has a financial cost, but an ecological one as well.”
Dr Markus Werner, Managing Director of TriaGnoSys, added: “Developing a universal accounting software program is a very complex undertaking. However, with values other than cost at our fingertips, a new social concept of sustainable consumption is not far off. More expensive food might appear cheap in ecological terms and the advantages of sustainably designed packaging will become more apparent.”
Read more about MyEcoCost.
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