Carbon footprint, a new price indicator?
Innovation Trends Manager
The report by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency shows that food accounts for just over 30% of the climate impact of Swedish households. Faced with this, the food brand Felix decided to calculate the climate footprint of all its products.
Felix, a Swedish food brand, displays the price of its products according to their carbon footprint
The “Klimatbutiken” is a pop-up store launched by the Swedish food brand Felix last October in central Stockholm where the price of products is calculated according to their carbon footprint. Customers therefore pay a carbon price versus a price in Swedish krona.
They have a weekly carbon budget of 18.6 kg, which shows them, in a very concrete way, the environmental cost of their purchases. At the same time, Felix products sold elsewhere are also labelled with a climate impact scale.
The indicator takes into account the entire chain from cultivation, rearing, production of raw materials and other ingredients, transport and production. The calculations are based in part on the RISE climate database for food, producer information and brand-specific information such as industry data for packaging and transport.
Felix assume that “calculating climate impact is not an exact science,” but these indicators are powerful enough to show clear direction and valuable information about what is a sustainable choice and what is not.
The goal is to demonstrate how easy it is for buyers to make climate-friendly choices when products are clearly labelled.
What if tomorrow the new change is the carbon footprint?
Food brands, but also restaurants and fashion brands are increasingly adopting carbon labelling to educate consumers about the hidden costs of products while gaining a new competitive advantage. They understood that they had everything to gain by being transparent and also accompanying the consumer in his education in a non-binding way.
It is indeed together, the evolution of the brand on the one hand towards more sustainable production methods and the evolution of the consumer in his choices of consumption, that everyone will be able to feel involved in the change in the face of climate issues.
This approach also shows that the implementation of more sustainable consumption patterns can lead us to change our standards. Here, a lower climate impact generates lower “prices”. It makes it easier for consumers to make sustainable choices directly without questioning the relationship to price as we usually know it. In this respect, the carbon indicator is also a good basis for thinking about a more inclusive society tomorrow.
