From Envirowiki

Embedded energy refers to the amount of energy needed to produce a product, over its entire production lifetime.

Many products may appear to be "low impact" or "environmentally friendly", but in fact have very high embedded energy that cancels out any other benefit of the product.

[edit] Examples

• In Australia, you can buy organic tins of beans, that are grown and packed in Italy. The unthinking consumer purchases the beans, most likely believing that they are a more ethical choice than the tin of beans that is not organic, but is grown and packed in Australia. In reality, the greenhouse impacts (through fossil fuel consumption) of shipping a tin of water, bean, and salt to the other side of the world renders as laughable any benefit of the beans being "organic".

• The aluminium industry has succeeded in having its product incorporated into the packaging of just about every food product one might purchase. The astronomical amounts of electrical energy used to smelt aluminium make it a major cause of global greenhouse pollution - the greatest threat to life on earth. Australia's six aluminium smelters use 15% of all the electricity consumed in Australia. Think about this when next you purchase a packet of organic corn chips.

• The purchase of new appliances is often justified on the basis that the product is most energy efficient option available. Such claims should be examined carefully. The impacts of the embedded energy in the new appliance may dwarf the impacts of continued use of an older less efficient appliance.