Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman--Including 10 More Years of Business Unusual by Yvon Chouinard

Author:Yvon Chouinard
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2016-09-05T22:00:00+00:00

The Environmental Cost of Transportation

Our research shows that a Patagonia shirt requires roughly 110,000 BTUs of energy to manufacture, from acquiring raw materials to making the fabric to sewing a finished shirt. Then, shipping that item air freight from Ventura to Boston, even in a package with eighteen other shirts, takes another 50,000 BTUs per shirt. While we are constantly looking for ways to expend less energy during the manufacturing process, there are several ways anyone can help minimize the environmental cost of transportation.

First, we should be producing locally whenever possible.

Second, consumers should be discouraged from ordering items to be shipped by airfreight simply because it’s convenient, especially if it’s a box of lobsters from Maine or a fresh salad from California. The dollar cost added to the item may be relatively small, but the environmental cost is huge.

Third, it becomes apparent that the global economy is not sustainable. It’s completely dependent on burning up cheap fossil fuel. Shipping goods by rail or by boat uses 400 BTUs per ton for each mile shipped. Truck freight uses more than 3,300 BTUs per ton, and air cargo uses 21,670 BTUs, to move a ton of goods one mile.

When shopping by catalog or on the web, you should reconsider ordering that live lobster from Maine, and ask yourself if you really need that pair of pants sent overnight or by second-day air.

—Y.C.

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