To determine whether a product is eco-friendly, consider its life cycle.

Graham Hill: Well it probably really depends on which one. And the challenging part of this area is that there is a lot of gray. So it’s hard to determine what’s what, because different things enter into the picture.

Is it better to get organic strawberries from California or non-organic local strawberries, right? So it becomes sort of a complicated issue. So a lot of it’s about doing a full life cycle analysis, which really looks at all the components that go into the manufacture, and the distribution, and the cycle. How is it cycled? Does it end up in a landfill? Or is it recycled back as a technical nutrient, or does it not biodegrade? So really it’s like looking at the life cycle and understanding the full impact of it in the first place.

And then, probably more importantly, do you need this thing in the first place? The best product is the one that you can avoid.

Recorded on: Oct 16, 2008