As a wider population, we use products from places all around the globe daily, but we don’t often see or consider the environmental costs behind them. However, with a new tool revealed consumption tracking may become clearer
The food we eat, the clothes we wear, and the cosmetics we use can all contribute to deforestation, water scarcity, and biodiversity loss.
Understanding the environmental impact of our consumption habits is more important than ever as governments and organisations worldwide hope to meet their global sustainability goals.
The worldwide ecosystem
A new tool, the Global Environmental Impacts of Consumption (GEIC) Indicator, is helping to show these hidden costs; the UK Government reported on this to help us understand the impact of some of our daily life products.
Developed by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) in partnership with the Stockholm Environment Institute at the University of York, the GEIC Indicator provides valuable data on the environmental impacts of consumer goods in terms of deforestation, water use, and biodiversity loss.
The tool allows users to track these impacts by country, commodity, and year, providing a clearer picture of how consumption patterns influence ecosystems worldwide.
Revealing and reducing the environmental harm of our consumption habits
The GEIC Indicator helps us understand how UK goods production impacts global biodiversity.
For example, it can tell us how much deforestation was linked to the UK’s consumption of bananas from Colombia in 2022, or how much water was used to produce food. This data isn’t just a reflection of the global supply chain and helps policymakers and organisations make informed decisions to reduce environmental harm.
In its latest update, the GEIC Indicator has achieved an important milestone: it has been officially recognised as an Official Statistic.
This means the tool has met strict standards for data collection, reliability, and transparency. While the methods behind the tool haven’t changed, this recognition shows its growing importance in monitoring and reducing the environmental impacts of global consumption. The tool is updated annually, providing the latest data for governments, researchers and the public so that they can analyse and reflect on it.
The GEIC Indicator: Tracking our consumption habits
The timing of this update is important as it coincides with the release of a new biodiversity metric, the LIFE Metric.
This metric offers a better understanding of biodiversity loss, mapping where species are at risk of extinction due to land-use changes tied to commodity production.
The LIFE Metric builds on the GEIC Indicator’s existing features, which already track the impact of consumption on biodiversity, water resources, and deforestation.
The GEIC Indicator also plays a key role in supporting international environmental goals. It is now part of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), an international agreement designed to halt biodiversity loss and promote sustainable consumption. The indicator is included under Target 16 of the GBF, which focuses on enabling sustainable consumption choices to reduce waste and overconsumption.
Governments can use the GEIC Indicator to measure their country’s consumption impacts and identify areas for improvement.
For example, the tool can highlight which commodities are most responsible for environmental damage or which countries suffer the most from unsustainable consumption patterns. This information can help governments shape consumption policies that target the biggest hotspots, making their efforts more effective.
While achieving sustainable consumption is difficult, tools like the GEIC Indicator provide a way forward. They allow us to understand the hidden environmental costs of our everyday choices, providing important insights for governments, businesses, and consumers. As we move toward more responsible consumption patterns, the GEIC Indicator is a useful tool in the global efforts to protect the planet’s ecosystems.
