Goods tips, Food tips, Sustainable goods solutions

Goods

Goods are defined here as consumer end-products, and services, such as food, clothes, cleaning products and cosmetics. (Raw materials and components that go into the production of these goods are dealt with elsewhere on this website.)

It is possible to consider that some goods are more sustainable than others but unfortunately it is often a complex and often confusing task to work out which is which.

An illustration of the type of dilemma that exists is the issue of food miles. The distance that food travels from it’s primary source to your plate uses energy from fossil fuels and this creates greenhouse gas emissions. The further the food travels the more emissions are produced. This fact suggests that British people are better off buying apples grown in Britain – and not from New Zealand, say. A complication arises when you consider a British person who is eating a British apple at the end of winter. This would happen if the apples have been stored in a cool-store for that long – or perhaps even grown in artificial conditions – which also uses energy. It may be that apples flown to Britain in winter from New Zealand have a smaller carbon footprint.

This scenario is made more complicated when you add all the other factors that add to the ‘ecological footprint’ of the product. Perhaps one day we will have labelling that states accurately what the ‘footprint’ of each product is but until that time it is a matter for consumers to understand the basic concepts of the sustainable production of goods.

Cost
Producers should look for ways to make more sustainable products and consumers must choose to buy those products, if necessary, even if they are more expensive.

There is often a ‘false economy’ buying cheap goods anyway. Cheap options are often less durable, less effective for their purpose and are made by ‘cutting corners’.