MANY will say we do not have the time but shouldn’t we take a step back right now and properly analyse and quantify whether some of the schemes, products and ideas being put forward in our headlong dash to reduce CO2 emissions are doing more harm to the environment than good? Has anyone done the sums?
For instance, it is generally assumed that upgrading to the latest, most energy efficient air conditioning or refrigeration system is a good thing. After all, greater efficiency means less energy consumption and hence lower CO2 emissions.

However, it is very easy to forget that manufacturing, purchasing and installing new equipment also has an environmental impact. Mining and refining the minerals required to produce raw materials, their transport to the manufacturer, turning the raw materials into a product, transporting those products to the distributor and/or end user, final installation and recycling or disposing of the old equipment, all have an environmental impact.

So where is the crossover point? How old does your equipment need to be, or how much more efficient should the new equipment be before it becomes environmentally beneficial to replace?

Cynics amongst us would also point out that our desire to find the ‘lowest cost manufacturing base’ for our products has inevitably led us to manufacture in countries which, shall we say, do not always conduct their business with the same concern for the environment as we might like. And these countries are invariably a considerable distance from their eventual market, bringing extra pollution through transportation.

And at what point, environmentally speaking, is it best to repair, refurbish or remanufacture equipment? Our society has become based on throw-away principles. Products are so cheap and repairs so costly that keeping a faltering piece of equipment operating becomes financially unviable, but is it always best to replace it with new?

Realistically, though, can we ever be truly serious about the environment all the time we are obsessed with lowest cost?

I will not be convinced until companies choose manufacturing sites for the benefit of the environment rather than the location with the lowest labour rates, the general public/end user accept the inevitable higher prices (and the government can accept the economy going into inflationary overdrive as a result) and the general public en masse says “yes, we think the energy efficiency of a heat pump makes it worth spending four times as much as we would for a conventional gas boiler. Where can I get one?”

Neil Everitt

Editor