Global supply chains allow the displacement of environmental impacts from the country where the product is purchased to multiple locations where the product is produced. Photo: Colourbox
A new database gives researchers – and potentially policymakers – the ability to see how global trade affects environmental impacts.
Trade is one of the most visible hallmarks of 21st century life. Cheap shipping and global supply chains mean that goods made in one country can easily be shipped for purchase or consumption halfway around the world.
But if you are trying to assess – and limit – the environmental impacts of this trade, how can you possibly measure the environmental effects of a dress made in Pakistan that’s purchased in Peoria? Buying that dress drives all sorts of environmental and social impacts in far-away countries where the raw materials are extracted or products are made.
Essentially, you have to be able to determine all the different impacts along the supply chain of materials and energy that allow the dress to be made in Pakistan and then bought in Peoria.
A coalition of researchers under the umbrella of the EU’s 7th Framework Programme has been working on exactly this challenge through a programme called DESIRE, an acronym for Development of a System of Indicators for a Resource Efficient Europe.
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