We know that the use of products is polluting , and that the materials to manufacture them require resources. But we often wrongly believe that this "ecological weight" is proportional to the weight of the product when in reality, it is often much greater. The concept of the ecological backpack was invented to help us become aware of this and preserve a cleaner planet . Explanations.
Calculate the ecological footprint
The ecological footprint assesses what share of resources is needed to produce and use the good and service that we consume. It is a useful tool for measuring the pressure that man exerts on nature and resources, and which allows us to quantify the impact. This footprint is expressed by a date on which we estimate that we have exceeded the available resources in a year, or a drawing that displays several planets consumed, or even simple numbers, all warning signals that we often see scrolling on social networks. The problem? This calculation takes into account the ecological impact of using the product only, in particular on the climate, and not everything that was necessary upstream... and downstream. However, this is where a large part of the ecological footprint is hidden: in manufacturing processes, transport, resources for development, waste management. This "hidden side" of our ecological footprint would represent nearly 3/4 of the total impact of the product's life cycle.
The hidden side of the iceberg
When we talk about an ecological backpack, we often represent an iceberg, because we consider that a product carries a "visible" weight, as an object, but also another invisible weight, the sum of the resources that have been used. These are the resources that the consumer cannot identify, because they concern the design and manufacture of the product, the impact of the product on biodiversity , on pollution ( air , water and soil ). Not to mention the energy resources that the manufacture of the product required! Abstract notions, difficult to estimate.
However, each product "contains" them, as if these resources used were attached to it in a cloud or a balloon above its head... Or like an invisible weight that each product carries, hidden in its back: this is the idea of the ecological backpack invented by the German researcher Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek.
The concept of the “eco-friendly backpack”
This concept measures the weight of natural resources that were necessary to manufacture the finished product, in tonnes of resources per tonne of product. The calculation therefore goes beyond the concept of grey energy which only takes into account the energy used to manufacture a product or develop a service.
Indeed, the ecological backpack counts the “Indispensable Materials Per Unit of Service” (MIPS), or 5 categories of natural resources. This virtual backpack can be 30 times heavier than the product that carries it, sometimes much more. For example, in the category of electronic devices, a smartphone requires 70 kg of resources, or nearly 600 times its own weight!
How to calculate this eco-friendly backpack?
The calculation of the ecological backpack therefore evaluates the quantity of resources that were necessary for the product to be able to fulfill its function:
- Non-renewable resources: mineral (ore, sand), fossil (oil, gas, coal) and natural (earth, soil).
- Renewable resources: from biomass (gathering, gathering, hunting), agriculture, forests (wood).
- Soil movement: agriculture and forestry (plowing, erosion, mining).
- Consumption of water (surface or from groundwater) diverted from its natural flow.
- Air consumption in the case of chemical or physical changes.
This calculation is very complicated to make, because traceability is not always possible. And the consumer has little chance of being able to do it since the data is provided by companies, some of which try to hide the water and energy they consume to make a simple t-shirt or a beef steak.
Eco-friendly and eco-designed backpack
This concept and calculation are two important tools for companies wishing to develop the use of new materials, less energy-intensive, cleaner production processes, and for brands wishing to move to the eco-design of their products. These tools are also important to guide our consumption (even without having a figure), to become aware of the resources hidden behind each product and to think about its real usefulness versus its ecological footprint.
We see a lot of drawings of this character walking with a cloud of logos attached to him or his phone that illustrates the notion of "cloud" or social networks . This is perhaps how you will now see the products on store shelves. Know that there is an alternative: turn to the second-hand market that "profits" the ecological backpack and transparent, local brands, with clean processes, whose hidden footprint is lighter.
