Dreaming of a Green Christmas?

Product design consultancy IDC (Industrial Design Consultancy) has produced a ‘carbon footprint analysis’ for many of this year’s top Christmas gifts. The analysis estimates the carbon dioxide emissions associated with all the stages from a product’s life, such as the materials it is made from and the manufacturing processes used. “Around 80% of the environmental impact of products is determined by the decisions made by the designers,” said IDC’s managing director Stephen Knowles. "While consumers can influence emissions with their buying decisions, the breakthroughs occur when marketers, designers and engineers work together.” The products include: V Smile Baby (93 kg carbon dioxide), a Philips blender (62kg), iPod nano (31kg) and Trivial Pursuit (21kg). Electronics devices gave the biggest footprints, due to the great amount of energy required to produce the components and batteries and the energy they consume in use.