Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the packaging on our goods started to define the amount of resources (e.g. CO2 produced) used in the production, transport and selling of itself? Here’s a great example of it’s potential utility. I think it’s at least up there with my call below for reviewers to indicate the energy use and relative efficiency of gadgets.
Read this to find out how much it takes to get a typical litre of bottled water into your fridge.
Many years ago I took part in a school project that involved doing an energy audit. We measured various heat loss parameters for the main building and took meter readings over a period of time.
So I thought I’d do the same thing for my house. I’ve not yet worked out the details of how to calculate heat-loss values for the different parts of the building, but have started to monitor (and graph) my electricity, gas and water usage (now that I’ve a water meter). This Excel spreadsheet template is a first step at monitoring resource usage over time.
It’s possible to also calculate the equivalent CO2 usage but this isn’t straight-forward for electricity (depends upon generation method, transmission losses for your area etc.). I have included a calculation for gas, however. See the Resurgence pages for information on how to calculate CO2 emissions for various energy sources. Their calculators cover a large range of energy use but offer quite a course resolution (typically one year). My spreadsheet offers as detailed a look at resource usage in your home as you wish 
Having finally decided to shift our old futon upstairs into the spare room and get a sofa, the next step wasn’t as simple as I thought it might be. First off, inheriting or finding second hand stuff is more luck than judgement – how long can you wait for the right sofa to come along/become available? Basically we got sick of waiting and looking and decided to burn some cash on a new sofa.
That brings up it’s own issues. I’d not realised that the frame is made of hard wood. Typically I would assume this means tropical hardwood but getting information about sourcing of the timber from high-street shops is very difficult. dfs in Cambridge hadn’t got a clue and weren’t very interested in looking into the issue for us. MFI had nothing we wanted but Sofa Workshop were much more pro-active. I’ve yet to fully substantiate their claims, but apparently their hard wood comes from sustainable East European beech (mainly) and they were keen to discuss the concept (made a refreshing change).
