Carbon Neutral?

Skrevet av Terje Hellemo

Carbon neutral in the outdoors?

I’ve been interested in this CO2 footprints for gear and transport for some time, but it’s not easy to find the numbers. On top of this the facts are often complex to grasp or communicate in the first place. As a consequence it’s easy to end up with the conclusions that fit what I already thought. We’re only humans and prefer full tang knives.

Checking things around CO2, I as an example found that Titanium production has a bigger CO2-ekvivalent footprint than aluminum per kilogram. That driving my car 200km creates more greenhouse gases than the production of nylon to my heaviest winter shell clothes (Klättermusen). Or a Savotta Jääkäri M, or even 1.5 kg Paracord. And that the food I eat matters. Looking for only “carbon neutral” products is like “leave no trace”. Impossible, but we should strive to create as small trace as possible in the sum of what we do.

When trying to figure out the microplastic domain I found that my car (tyres) and transportation are one of the major problems. Once again. We should do what we can in every area, but if we really want to be better, textiles are just a minor part of what we have to adjust. Buy natural fabrics, and use wash bags for the rest. Collect garbage. Recycle.

Coming back to the gear part of the equation it’s in my opinion important to buy (high quality) gear that last long. Preferably from natural or recycled materials. And pass the gear on for further use or good recycling when were done with it.

In this table I've tried to put things together in a comparable way. In my case it's easy to see that petroleum for transportation (1000 liters each year just for my car) is a big and adjustable part of my carbon footprint. * From what I found: Nylon production was recognized as a problem in the 90’s because of the emission of nitrous oxide (N2O) from the production of Adipic Acid. The N2O is 300 times more powerful than CO2 as a greenhouse gas. The abatement techniques are known and the majority of the large adipic acid producers (representing more than 80% of worldwide capacity in 2000) currently treat N2O emissions. But even if I count in the dirtiest production of Nylon (without the cleaning of N2O), 1 kilo nylon makes less greenhouse gases than one kilo of Beef. I found an estimate for world’s total emission of N2O from Nylon production in a recent book: “Assessing the Environmental Impact of Textiles and the Clothing Supply Chain.“ 14g N2O per kilo. With equal greenhouse gas effect to 4,2kg CO2.

In this table I've tried to put things together in a comparable way. In my case it's easy to see that petroleum for transportation (1000 liters each year just for my car) is a big and adjustable part of my carbon footprint.

* From what I found: Nylon production was recognized as a problem in the 90’s because of the emission of nitrous oxide (N2O) from the production of Adipic Acid. The N2O is 300 times more powerful than CO2 as a greenhouse gas. The abatement techniques are known and the majority of the large adipic acid producers (representing more than 80% of worldwide capacity in 2000) currently treat N2O emissions. But even if I count in the dirtiest production of Nylon (without the cleaning of N2O), 1 kilo nylon makes less greenhouse gases than one kilo of Beef. I found an estimate for world’s total emission of N2O from Nylon production in a recent book: “Assessing the Environmental Impact of Textiles and the Clothing Supply Chain.“ 14g N2O per kilo. With equal greenhouse gas effect to 4,2kg CO2.

Terje Hellemo
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