In order to foster life cycle thinking (LCT), IDEA can be used to quantify environmental impact at the action level. For example, for food, laundry, and cleaning, it is possible to identify the items and actions necessary to do so and calculate the environmental load for each of the above items by using IDEA. It tells you the following:
1.We can calculate what types of environmental impact items are emitted and how much is emitted.
2.We can calculate what types of environmental impact items can be reduced and how much can be reduced by what method.
By using IDEA to calculate the amount of environmental impact arising from daily life, environmental problems can be viewed as familiar problems. It is also possible to develop environmental education.
The following are examples of the use of IDEA in daily life.
We used IDEA to calculate greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) for approximately 120 individual items that are frequently served on Japanese tables.
For example, if we analyze four servings of curry and rice, we can use IDEA to calculate GHGs for each ingredient. The main ingredients of curry and rice were found to be eggplants (outdoor), shrimp and squid, eggplants (facilities), chicken, pork, and beef, in order of decreasing GHG.
IDEA can also be used to calculate GHG for each action. In the case of curry and rice, depending on the size of the food to be cut and the presence of water drops on the bottom of the pot, the action time of heating changes. Cutting food into small pieces and wiping water drops from the bottom of the pot shortened the cooking time and correspondingly reduced GHG.
Based on the above results, it was confirmed that, in order to reduce GHG emissions, it is effective to change to ingredients such as shrimp and squid, to cut food into small pieces, and to wipe water droplets from the bottom of a pot. We also confirmed how many kilograms of GHG emissions can be reduced by each measure.