If one wants to calculate the environmental impact of purchasing a product or services, they must consider the role of the capital assets that went into their production—machinery, factories, IT, vehicles, and roads—and the energy and materials required to create those assets. For instance, any assessment of the environmental “footprint” of renting a home should include the materials and processes that went into its construction.
Click here for original story, Capital costs: Research offers truer calculation of ‘footprint’ of purchases
Source: Phys.org