Ecological backpack

The ecological rucksack is the symbolic representation of the amount of resources that are consumed in the production, use and disposal of a product or service . In the context of the life cycle assessment, it is intended to provide a benchmark that clarifies the ecological consequences of the provision of certain goods.

The model goes back to Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek , who first published it in 1994 as part of the considerations on material input per service unit (MIPS).

Similar approaches can also be found with the ecological footprint and with virtual water .

Examples and data on the ecological backpack

Typical values ​​are a factor of 5 for plastics , i.e. 5 kilograms of resources are required for one kilogram of plastic. Further values ​​are factor 15 for paper , factor 85 for aluminum , factor 500 for copper and factor 550,000 for gold .

Example cotton clothing:

• Manufacturing
  • The cultivation of cotton plants requires a lot of water
  • Cotton accounts for 10 percent of the world's pesticide and fertilizer consumption
  • The transport routes are sometimes considerable: the place of cultivation, fabric production, processing and sales are usually spatially separated

• use
  • laundry detergent
  • energy
  • water

If you add up all the resources and energy used, you get an ecological backpack of 32 kilograms for a pair of jeans that weigh 600 grams. This corresponds to an ecological backpack with a factor of 53.

criticism

The ecological backpack is to be understood as a rough number, which gives an insight into some of the necessary processes and expenses that are caused by consumer goods. Many important environmental impacts are not or poorly mapped with the ecological backpack. In the above example of cotton production, the energy expenditure for the production of the pesticides is taken into account, but the ecological effects of the pesticide in nature are ignored.

The exact understanding of the ecological rucksack is made more difficult by the fact that the authors do not include certain resource inputs in the calculation. For example, the necessary input quantities of water or air are not taken into account. In most consumer goods, however, the water input required would be the most important mass input. The term virtual water was coined for this purpose, which is intended to make the necessary calculations possible.

literature

• Michael Lettenmeier, Christoph Nettersheim: The ecological backpack . Economy for a future with a future, with 21 tables. Ed .: Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek. Hirzel , Stuttgart / Leipzig 2004, ISBN 3-7776-1289-8 .
• Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek , Willy Bierter: The MIPS concept, less consumption of nature - more quality of life through a factor of 10 . Knaur -Taschenbuch 77475, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-426-77475-5 (The "Material Input per Service Unit" ( MIPS ) from the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy is a fundamental measure for estimating the environmental impact of a product. ).
• Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek: Are we using the earth properly? The achievements of nature and the work of man. Ed .: Klaus Wiegandt , Forum for Responsibility. Fischer Taschenbuch 17275, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-17275-7 .

See also

• Anthropocene
• Ecological Footprint
• Virtual water or water footprint
• Well-to-wheel

Web links

• The resource backpack - a brief introduction to the concept of the ecological backpack
• Ecological backpack in the lexicon of sustainability
• Worldwide data for the calculation of ecological backpacks from the Sustainable Europe Research Institute
• Virtual = environmentally friendly? The ecological rucksack of the internet (PDF; 79 kB). In: Yearbook Ecology 2003