I've been shopping for a new bicycle. Specifically a bike to race in time trials–the race of truth (also known as le contre la montre to Tour de France fans). This is a highly specialized type of bicycle, with frame designs often being tested in wind tunnels to maximize aerodynamic performance.

Lots of folks shopping for such a bike would obsess over the wind drag statistics generated in those wind tunnel tests.  Instead, I chose to obsess over greenhouse gas production statistics associated with the manufacturing of carbon fiber and aluminum. To do so, I utilized Carnegie Mellon University's Green Design Institute Economic Input-Output Lifecycle Assessment Tool.

The input-output lifecycle assessment tool is remarkably simple to use. All you have to do is to select the industry sector(s) you want to learn about, choose the data set you're interested in as well as how many sectors you want to consider.

Of course the manufacturing data aren't quite as specific as carbon fiber or aluminum tubing, so I chose "plastics material and resin manufacturing"  and "aluminum extruded product manufacturing."

Looking at the global warming potential, expressed in metric tons of CO2 per $1 million of economic activity, here's what I learned:

As you can see, the overall greenhouse gas impact of manufacturing extruded aluminum is almost 25% greater than the greenhouse gas impact of manufacturing plastic/resin materials. And, while I chose to show just a few of the industry sectors involved in the manufacturing of these two products in the table above, the lifecycle assessment tool allows you to look closely at any number of relevant industry sectors.

The lifecycle assessment tool also allows you to compare other factors, such as conventional air pollutants, energy use and toxic releases.

FYI, aluminum manufacturing produces nearly three times the conventional air pollutants that plastics/resin manufacturing does; energy use throughout the manufacturing process is about the same for both materials; and, plastics/resin manufacturing releases almost 40% more toxins than aluminum manufacturing does.

Since my primary focus is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, my choice of bicycle frame materials is carbon fiber. The specific bike I chose is the Felt B2–a rocket, I hope!

Carbon Neutral Journal's stats are brought to you by Blue Spruce Cleaners.

Popularity: 38%