How ‘green’ are your purchases? Complex supply chains make it difficult to know

Knowing the environmental impact of the products we buy is challenging. Tis is even more difficult when are made and shipped all over the world.

Making climate-friendly choices has become a part of everyday life for many Canadians.

The decision to “buy local” or drive an electric vehicle are two examples.

But it’s not always easy to know how “green” these choices are. Sometimes, it’s nearly impossible.

“It’s hard to find out what the environmental impact of a product is because there’s so many dimensions to it,” said John Sterman, a professor of system dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Sterman said the complexity of global supply chains is one of the main reasons why it’s so difficult to understand the environmental impact of a finished product.

In some cases, a product bought in Canada or the United States may have parts made by dozens of different companies located all over the world. And the raw materials these items are made from are often shipped across international borders multiple times during different stages of the production process.

The rise of online shopping and the proliferation of green-marketing campaigns has made it even more challenging for consumers to differentiate between products that claim to be green and those that actually are.

“How do we know that a particular little green leaf logo on that package that says it’s somehow meeting somebody’s certification actually means anything?” Sterman said.