Service industries carry large hidden environmental costs through their supply chains.

Evidence

One challenge relates to the fact that service industries appear far more benign in their environmental impact than they actually are. Unlike a major industrial facility or a fossil fuel mining company, service industries do not generally directly emit pollutants or extract natural resources. People, accordingly, often view such activities as contributing to higher environmental quality, or, at worst, being environmentally neutral. But service industry impact on the environment can be far from benign. Service industries require, for instance, the production of huge amounts of energy, which in turn implicates the development, transportation, and exploitation of energy resources. Service industries also require the manufacture, transportation, and production of the myriad goods and equipment used in their daily operations. Each of those associated activities may have significant negative environmental impacts. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 994

Categorization

• SEED: Angles well toward an essay on the disguised environmental footprint of the ‘clean’ economy — cognitive severance between consumption and ecological cause.
• XREF: connects to: Extraterritorial production pollutes the US through imported goods. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 1000; Efficiency displaces friction onto hidden labor and environmental costs throughout supply chains — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror…, 777; Free markets shift environmental costs onto communities whoever produces — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 1051 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Efficiency displaces friction onto hidden labor and environmental costs throughout supply chains #expands (0.90) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 777
• Global supply-chain efficiency transfers ecological costs onto the world’s most vulnerable people #expands (0.85) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 306
• Free markets shift environmental costs onto communities whoever produces #expands (0.80) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 1051