ECO-FRIENDLY MOBILE PHONES : A LIFE CYCLE CASE STUDY
by Kimi Ceridon
Consumers purchase ‘eco-friendly’ products with the understanding these products reduce their personal ecological impact. This case study utilizes a screening Life Cycle Assessment tool to evaluate the effectiveness of some of the commonly employed ‘eco-friendly’ design strategies. Although this assessment is limited in scope, according to the results, ‘eco-friendly’ mobile phones offer reductions in various ecological impact categories. A fraction of aggregated ecological impacts is climate change as measured by equivalent CO2 emissions. While ‘eco-friendly’ practices reduce aggregated ecological impacts, they are not significantly reducing equivalent CO2 emissions relative to mobile phones not marketed as ‘eco-friendly’. This assessment reveals that greater reductions in equivalent CO2 emissions can be achieved by focusing specifically on reductions in the energy consumption of the mobile phones. From a survey of literature, other studies indicate the issue is more complex. This suggests an expanded evaluation using a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment tool should be completed on the significant findings of this study.
download and more . . .
HANDSOAP - COMPARISON OF THE LIFE CYCLES OF VARIOUS RECIPES AND PROCESSING METHODS
by Kimi Ceridon
Commonly, choices for improving a consumer’s environmental sustainability tend to focus on big ticket items such as vehicle purchases or major lifestyle changes such as selecting local, organic food supplies. The cost and effort associated with these changes may be discouraging or simply not feasible to implement due to time or budget constraints. However, many everyday choices offer opportunities to make small improvements in personal sustainability while involving no additional effort or cost to implement. The barrier to making such choices is typically a lack of consumer information and communication allowing them to compare the environmental impacts of the everyday products they consume. These are products consumers readily and conveniently access and interact with everyday without much thought to their origins including items like personal hygiene products, home cleaning products and everyday disposables and durables. One such everyday product consumers interact with multiple times a day is soap used for handwashing. The following study takes a closer look at the environmental performance two types of hand soap alternatives – bar soap and liquid soap.
download and more. . .
THE PESTICIDE DICAMBA - A RISK ASSESSMENT REPORT
by Kimi Ceridon
Dicamba is a benzoic acid herbicide sold under many trade names and integrated into several pesticide products. There are several means of exposure to Dicamba including dietary exposure through food and water consumption, recreational exposure though interaction with treated lawns and turfs, residential exposure treatment of lawns and occupational exposure through treatment of crops and fields. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) has established recommendations for the acute Average Daily Intakes that are above the values recommended by agencies with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Union (EU).
download and more. . .
