14. Grey energy and the consumer

Consumers know how much the energy they use costs them, because they pay for it. However, they are not directly aware of the amount of grey energy they consume, as its cost is hidden in the purchase price of the object or service. We have already discussed the case of buildings, an important item for a country, as much of the grey energy is consumed locally. For many other commodities, grey energy is consumed abroad and has little influence on the energy balance of the country where they are used.

We'll illustrate the problem of grey energy consumption with a few examples from CLIP