This document provides instructions for students to research and analyze the environmental impact of various products by completing a matrix. Students are asked to select a product, research its life cycle from obtaining raw materials through disposal/recycling, and answer questions in the matrix about the environmental impact at each stage. The document includes a partially completed example matrix analyzing the life cycle of plastic grocery bags.

1. SCI/256 v8
Environmental Impact Research Matrix
SCI/256 v8
Page 2 of 2
Environmental Impact Research Matrix
Instructions
Analyzing the life cycle of a product is one of the best ways to
understand the impact of our consumption on the environment.
In this assignment, you will research the series of steps that it
takes to deliver a common product to the public and consider
how consumers’ choices and behavior can contribute to or
diminish environmental sustainability.
Select one of the following products: car, new cell phone,
plastic grocery bags, food of your choice, a new 3-bedroom
home, an online purchase of your choice, or another product of
your choice with faculty approval.
Research the life cycle of your selected product using the
internet, textbook, University Library, or other resources.
Analyze the environmental impact of the purchase or usage of
the product you selected by completing the matrix below.
Answer each question in the matrix with a 1- to 2-sentence
response. Be sure to provide references for the sources you use.
A partial example has been provided for you.
Example
Name of Product/Process: Cup of Yogurt
Question
Answer
1. How is the product/process obtained or created? What raw
materials are required?
Every cup of yogurt requires sugar, milk, bacteria, and water,

2. but cow’s milk is the most common ingredient. The states that
supply the most dairy in the U.S. are California (18.5%) and
Wisconsin (14.2%).
2. How is the product processed or implemented?
Many different types of milk can be used, but typically, each
half cup of yogurt requires half a gallon of milk.
Petroleum oil is used to make yogurt cups.
Sources:
The California Dairy Press Room & Resources. (n.d.). Retrieved
from
http://www.californiadairypressroom.com/Press_Kit/Dai ry_Indu
stry_Facts
Matrix
Name of Product/Process: Plastic Grocery Bags
______________________________________________
Question
Answer
1. How is the product/process obtained or created? What raw
materials are required?
Plastic grocery bags are made from a polymer substance known
as polyethylene, made by extracting ethylene from natural gas
and treating it to become the polymer. Plastic grocery bags are
then created by repeating polyethylene structures to form a
patterned structure, then modified into different shapes and
sizes.
2. How is the product processed or implemented?
The process used in manufacturing plastic grocery bags is
known as extrusion (Xanthos & Walker, 2017). The
polyethylene plastic is heated up to a temperature that melts the
pellets, then subjected to cooling, where it is cut and sealed as
desired.
3. How is the product delivered or transported to you?
After the plastic grocery bags have been produced and wrapped,

3. they are transported by trucks to different ports and different
warehouses in different cities.
4. How is the product disposed of?
Responsible end users of plastic grocery bags dispose of them
in plastic bags’ recycling bins, whereas others throw them away
where they may bring about landfills and hazards to the
environment.
5. What kind of waste is generated? How can it be recycled?
After plastic grocery bags have been used and disposed of, they
end up as ocean waste, street waste, or landfills when disposed
of irresponsibly. Plastic waste can be recycled by mechanical
recycling, where the plastic waste is washed, ground into
powder, and eventually melted, or by chemical recycling, where
the plastic waste is broken down into monomers (Saidan et al.,
2017).
6. List any other observations or insights pertaining to the
environmental impact of the product.
Plastic grocery bags waste poses a danger to animal health,
human health, and the environment at large. Plastic bags waste
cause flooding in the streets, drain blockages, ocean waste, and
landfills.
Sources:
Xanthos, D., & Walker, T. R. (2017). International policies to
reduce plastic marine pollution from single-use plastics (plastic
bags and microbeads): a review. Marine pollution
bulletin, 118(1-2), 17-26.
Saidan, M. N., Ansour, L. M., & Saidan, H. (2017).
MANAGEMENT OF PLASTIC BAGS WASTE: AN
ASSESSMENT OF SCENARIOS IN JORDAN. Journal of
chemical technology & metallurgy, 52(1).
Copyright 2020 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2020 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved.
Ch 04 EC SEC.gov Exploring Procedure

4. This ac:vity takes you to the website of our foremost authority
in accoun:ng, the Securi:es and
Exchanges Commission, aka “The SEC”. Every publicly traded
company trading on U.S. exchange must
send their financial statements directly to the SEC which makes
this site the place to go for detailed
informa:on. For now we are exploring revenue recogni:on and
adjus:ng entry policies of your
company, which I will demonstrate here with UPS.
First, find the :cker symbol for your company from last week’s
ac:vity. Then click the link to get started:
hLp://www.sec.gov/
1) Explore this page for fun if interested, then click on
“Filings” in the menu bar and select
“Company Filings Search” to get to work.
http://www.sec.gov/
Use Fast Search since you have your :cker symbol already. If
you do not have your :cker symbol, do not
fight the picky Company Name op:on. Instead, go back to easy
Google finance and type enough of the
company name into the search field to get it to show you the
right :cker symbol.
Click “Search” to move to the next screen.
“10-K” is the code for Annual Report for US issuers. Follow
the arrows to get your company’s

5. complete annual report. Almost there! If you don’t find any
10-k reports, then you likely have a
foreign issuer. In this case, try searching for a “20-F” form, or
a “40-F” form, or leave the “Filing
type” field empty then click the “Search” buLon and scan down
through the resul:ng filings. If
your company went public too recently to have issued a 10-k
report yet, search for the
prospectus form “424B4”. If this fails then go to the company
website and locate their annual
report under “Investor Rela:ons”. Do the rest of the exercise
there. Start early, and contact
your instructor if you can’t get unstuck.
2) One last step. Click the link shown and you’ll be face to
face with your annual report.
There, isn’t that preLy? Take 2 minutes if you can spare them
and scroll down just a bit to read the
table of contents. If you’ve never seen one of these, you might
be shocked at the candor of the
informa:on companies are required to reveal. If you don’t look,
you’ll never know. Later in the
semester you may need more detail than Google or Yahoo can
offer. Remember how to search in this
10-k report, and you’ll always be able to get the informa:on you
need on your company.
How to locate informa:on on your company’s revenue

6. recogni:on policies:
Use the “Find” func:on of your browser (in Windows
“Ctrl”+”F”) to open a search field within your 10-k.
Search on the term “revenue recogni:on”. Read everything
about every use of that term in the
document. Answer the discussion ques:ons for this case when
repor:ng. Make sure to fully address
each and every ques:on completely. If that search term doesn’t
find anything, try “Summary of
accoun:ng policies”, or varia:ons of those terms. If that doesn’t
work, use parts of the suggested search
terms. If all else fails, try scrolling through the document with
an eye for anything to do with accoun:ng
assump:ons, policies, or sales, or anything like that. You will
most likely find what you need in a
footnote just aeer the financial statements. For a direct path,
look for something like “Financial
statements and Supplementary Data” in the table of contents.
Click that link to go that sec:on. then
look for a link within that index labeled something like “Notes
to Consolidated Financial Statements”.
That should take you to the footnotes which will contain the
revenue recogni:on informa:on you need.
If the above techniques do not reveal substan:al material on this
topic, then you may have a company
that is displaying their financial statements including footnotes
in a separate file. Look for “Financial
Statements” in the form 10-k table of contents. If that link
reveals a line like “The financial statements
are included herein by reference” then they are not actually
included. Look for that line to tell you were
they are, something like “….they are in the annual report in
exhibit 13….”. That exhibit will be in the list
of items below the line for “Form 10-k” in the search results as

7. displayed in the screen shot above. Look
for the men:oned exhibit, or just open them one by one and
search each one for “revenue recogni:on”
un:l you get what you need.
How to locate informa:on on your company’s adjus:ng entry
polices:
Follow the same steps in your revenue recogni:on work. Search
instead on these key words: “accrual”,
“assump:on”, “defer”, “accoun:ng policies”, “depreci a:on”. The
paragraphs surrounding these terms
are rife with more technical terms than we have seen. Use your
textbook index or Google to find
defini:ons of key terms where necessary. You do not need to
report on everything, just find enough that
makes sense to you and report that. I just want to see that you
genuinely searched and found something
related to something we are studying. Write enough to
demonstrate that and you’ll have gained the
intended learning experience. This informa:on is also located in
the footnotes, accessible from the table
of contents as described in the revenue recogni:on instruc:ons
above.
Ch 04 EC SEC.gov Exploring Repor:ng Form Your
name:________________________
Company Name:____________________
Ticker symbol:______________________
Follow the detailed instructions in the procedure to answer the
following questions. This is only

8. an exploration case. It is not a continuation of the primary
analysis case.
Describe the nature of their revenue recognition policies.
Describe the nature of 1 to 3 of their policies involving
adjusting entries. Highlight any
significant effects these policies may have on their reported
earnings and/or financial standing.
There may be too much information here, select only the most
interesting pieces and limit
answer to one moderate paragraph
Describe any internal control weaknesses found regarding
revenue recognition or adjusting
policies. “Internal control issues“ is the wording that describes
opportunities for cheating
inherent in their processes.
How do you expect their revenue recognition and adjusting
entry policies affect the accuracy and
dependability of their financial statements? Do you trust the
company more or less? Explain
your answer providing the reasons supporting your answers.
(Note: This is not a continuation of
your developing analysis case. This is a separate standalone
exploration case.)