Photo by Maxim Tolchinskiy on Unsplash
When factoring heat generation required for the manufacturing and transportation of products, Greenhouse gas emissions attributable to products, from food to sneakers to appliances, make up more than 75% of global emissions. (Source: The Carbon Catalogue https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-022-01178-9)
Our data, which is publicly available on nature.com, contains product carbon footprints (PCFs) for various companies. PCFs are the greenhouse gas emissions attributable to a given product, measured in CO2 (carbon dioxide equivalent).
This data is stored in a PostgreSQL database containing one table, product_emissions, which looks at PCFs by product as well as the stage of production that these emissions occurred. Here's a snapshot of what product_emissions contains in each column:
product_emissions
product_emissions| field | data type |
|---|---|
id | VARCHAR |
year | INT |
product_name | VARCHAR |
company | VARCHAR |
country | VARCHAR |
industry_group | VARCHAR |
weight_kg | NUMERIC |
carbon_footprint_pcf | NUMERIC |
upstream_percent_total_pcf | VARCHAR |
operations_percent_total_pcf | VARCHAR |
downstream_percent_total_pcf | VARCHAR |
You'll use this data to examine the carbon footprint of each industry in the dataset!
SELECT industry_group,
COUNT(DISTINCT company) AS num_companies,
ROUND(SUM(carbon_footprint_pcf), 1) AS total_industry_footprint
FROM product_emissions
WHERE year IN (SELECT MAX(year) FROM product_emissions)
GROUP BY industry_group
ORDER BY total_industry_footprint DESC;Carbon Emissions by Industry
The data reveals that the Materials industry has the highest carbon footprint, emitting 107,129 units of CO₂ equivalent. Following closely is the Capital Goods industry, with 94,943 units of CO₂ equivalent emissions. The Technology Hardware & Equipment industry also contributes significantly, with 21,865 units of CO₂ equivalent emissions.
In contrast, the Food, Beverage & Tobacco industry has a much lower carbon footprint, emitting 3,162 units of CO₂ equivalent. The Commercial & Professional Services industry has an even lower carbon footprint with 741 units of CO₂ equivalent emissions. However, the Software & Services industry has the lowest carbon footprint with just 690 units of CO₂ equivalent emissions.
Overall, the Materials and Capital Goods industries are the largest contributors to carbon emissions, while the Commercial & Professional Services and Software & Services industries have relatively minimal emissions.