How much energy is there in a carrot? A glance at a range of packaging and some websites says around 30 calories. But that’s not really my point. One energy level that isn’t so easy to discover, but that is becoming equally important to Britain’s shoppers, is the ‘embodied energy’ of said carrot.
Essentially, the embodied energy of a carrot (or a building, or this magazine or anything you can see) relates to the energy used to make it and deliver it to the end-user. Embodied energy, therefore, is the greenhouse gas emissions (mainly CO2) generated by that energy use; including those produced during manufacture, transportation, storage and sale.
In all honesty, I have no idea what the embodied energy of the average carrot is (it would, after all, take a colossal amount of research), but this doesn’t mean the issue isn’t of huge importance for Britain’s producers. Even though it would be near impossible to include an accurate embodied energy label on a carrot, many of Britain’s shoppers can quite easily identify if one carrot is ‘greener’ than another.
Transportation, or ‘food miles’, is one of the biggest contributors to embodied energy, and one of the first things savvy consumers look out for. According to a DEFRA survey published in August, over half of shoppers already “make an effort to buy things from local producers”, justifying the ongoing supermarket scramble to highlight their commitment to local sources.
Less publicised, but equally significant is packaging. Is the packaging recycled/recyclable? If so, the energy wasted in creating packaging from scratch is diminished and the carrot is looking greener. Loose carrots look greener still. But no-one seems to publicise the influences on embodied energy that aren’t as easy for consumers to see – the facts that could turn embodied energy into an effective marketing tool for any product, carrots included.
If a producer was to use renewable energy at the plant it uses to clean, pack and dispatch the carrot – publicising the fact effectively – then they could show another green light to shoppers, whilst enhancing the carrot’s attractiveness to retailers and helping to achieve government CO2 reduction targets in the process. Who is to stop a producer from converting a transport fleet to biodiesel, reducing the embodied emissions attributed to food miles? Put that on a (100% recycled) label and soon your carrots are being seen through green-tinted lenses. As you improve, calculate your CO2 savings and tell consumers. Seeking the advice of knowledgeable PR and communications consultants can really help to generate ideas of what to change how to unlock the commercial potential of going green.
The fact is that until producers and retailers become as environmentally savvy as consumers already are, ‘embodied energy’ will always be seen as an awkward buzzword, rather than the commercial opportunity it represents. I for one would buy green carrots.

Alex Myers is an experienced writer on climate change issues and a senior consultant at Kaizo PR, specialising in green communications strategy.

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