The standard behind the label: enter PAS 2050.

Launched on the 28 of October has a label that looks bit more fun than its geeky name (in standards-land PAS stands for “Publicly Available Specification”, well it is from BSI British Standards). This is the next iteration of The Carbon Trust’s label trialed in 2007.

The problem, according to the Guardian’s interview the Carbon Trust’s chief executive Tom Delay, was that many companies simply didn’t know their product’s carbon footprint. The PAS 2050 standard was created to enable that measurement of greenhouse gas emissions, for the whole life cycle of the product.

As ever, calculating the “use phase” emissions from many products is really tricky. A nice british example for you – turns out that how you cook potatoes makes a big difference to the final results – boiled, baked, fried, microwaved… On their website, The Carbon Trust offers some tips:”Help to reduce this footprint: roasting or baking these potatoes creates approx. 200g more Co2 than boiling or microwaving them, and keep the lid on while boiling”.

OK mum, will do.