Sustainability in the Designed Environment - Assignment Example

SARC: Introduction to Sustainability in the Designed Environment 0 Introduction Sustainability relies on one principle that everything we require to survive relies directly or indirectly on the natural environment. This implies that sustainability ensure creation and maintenance of the conditions suitable for the life of human beings. This leads to a fulfillment of the social, economical, as well as other present and future requirements. Therefore sustainability is essential in making sure that the human race continues to have water, materials, and other vital resources that protect human health and the environment. Carbon footprint has become a popular term in media wit climate change becoming a political and corporate agenda. This has lead to the rising demand and need for carbon footprint calculations. There are several approaches that have been proposed to provide estimates ranging from simple online calculators to sophisticated life cycle analysis. Despite these approaches, a definite definition for carbon footprint has not been established. According to Wackernagel (1996), carbon footprint is generally termed as the quantity of gaseous amount that contribute towards global warming. The sources of carbon could be human production and consumption activities. 2.0 Carbon Footprint The ISA Research Report (p. 4) defines carbon footprint as a measure of elusive total amount of carbon dioxide emissions directly or indirectly caused by an activity in its life stages. These activities include individual activities, populations, government, companies, organizations, processes, industries, among others. According to this definition, carbon footprint is restricted from area-based indicator. The total amount of carbon is measured in mass units such as kilograms and tons. This form of measurement does not give room to area unit hence there is no conversion to area unit such as ha, m², and km². Conversion into land area must be based on various assumptions and this increases uncertainties and errors related to particular footprint estimates. This is the main reason why accountants prefer to use appropriate units of measurement. The concept of carbon footprint should be all-encompassing and issue relative causes that lead to the rise of carbon emissions. Accurate measurement of carbon footprint ripples importance and precariousness in carbon offsetting. When considering indirect quantities of carbon emissions, the methodologies applied should eradicate undercounting and double counting of emissions. This substantiates the inclusion of the word ‘exclusive’ in the definition for carbon footprint. Life-cycle assessment of all products must be correctly evaluated in regards to fullness and untruncated. 3.0 Methodologies Calculation of carbon footprints can be achieved methodologically from two directions; bottom-up which relies on Process Analysis (PA) or the top-down which relies on Environmental Input-Output (EIO) analysis. Both methods deal with challenges discussed and try to capture full life cycle impacts in the form of Life Cycle Analysis or Assessment (LCA). 3.1 Process Analysis Process Analysis (PA) is a bottom-up method developed to understand environmental impacts brought by individual products from cradle to grave. This methodology implies that the analysis suffers from system boundary problem since it considers only on-site and in particular first-order and a consideration on some second order impacts. In case PA-LCAs are used to derive the estimates of carbon footprint, emphasis is needed to identification of relevant system boundaries and this minimizes truncation errors. This methodology runs into further difficulties for carbon footprint calculation for larger entities such as governments, households, or particular sectors of industries. Estimates in the database life-cycle can be extrapolated from the gathered information but the results obtained increase to be patchy since the procedure is based on assumptions that subsets of individual products represent the larger product from the group in study. At the same time, the use of information from different databases that are inconsistent increases truncated errors. 3.2 The Environmental Input-Output (EIO) Analysis This analysis offers the alternative top-down approach to carbon footprinting. The input-output tables are economic accounts that provide a picture of economic activities at a meso level. The tables are combined with consistent environmental account data to establish estimates of carbon footprint. This is a comprehensive and robust method that takes into account the higher order impacts and sets the economic system as a boundary. This methodology becomes successful when the completeness complies with the detail provided. This analysis is suitable for assessment of micro-systems such as products and processes but assumes that prices are homogeneous and that the output and carbon emissions at sector levels too are homogeneous. There is an also limited probability for disaggregating sectors for further analysis into closer micro systems. On the other hand, the method has a big advantage in that it requires less time and manpower when the model is in place. The best carbon footprint methodology requires a comprehensive and robust analysis that integrates the strength of the two methods into a hybrid approach. The integration allows preservation of details and accuracy of bottom-up approaches at lower order stages as the higher-order requirements are covered by input-output part of the model. The Hybrid-EIO-LCA approach embeds the process systems in the input-output tables to the current state-of-the art in ecological modeling. 3.3 Method of Choice The method of choice for carbon footprint calculation depends on the purpose of inquiry, availability of data as well as resources. Environmental Input-Output Analysis is the most superior method for establishing carbon footprints in both macro and meso systems. This analysis calculates carbon footprint for industrial sectors, businesses, large product groups, households, governments, as well as that of the average citizen. The PA has clear advantages when looking at micro systems entailing particular process, individual product or a small group of individual products. 4.0 Impact Log This case study focuses on study of carbon footprint from data collected over a period of weeks from different sectors; mobility, water, energy, and food. 4.1 Mobility Environmental burden is based on personal mobility since it is responsible for energy consumption but not distributed to the different means of transport. This is a personal case study based on data collected from the method of transport used on a daily basis and extrapolated annually. (Appendix A) Car is the commonly used mode of transport on weekly,monthly, and yearly basis with twice a week use of bus. However, bus as a mode of transport emits most carbon dioxide. This is related to the long distance covered. The distance covered by car on daily basis seems to be short and so to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from this source, other forms of transport that do not emit more cabon dioxide such as cycling and walking can be used. 4.2 Water Footprint Personal water footprint refers to the amount of freshwater used directly or indirectly consumed by an individual. Direct consumption includes drinking, cooking, showering while indirect consumption includes water used to produce, grow, electronic items such as laptop, refrigerators, and dryer. The total consumption of water is 1072 cubic meters per week which translates to 57888 cubic meters per year. All the same, there is great potential of reducing this high rate of water intake. In the home, water can be conserved through the following ways; Checking for leaks in the toilet, faucets and pipes Install water-saving shower heads with low-flow faucet aerators Use water meter to check leaks that are hidden Use plastic bottles or float booster in toilet tank (Appendix B) 4.3 Energy Use of energy in buildings contributes to 50% in climate change. Buildings produce artificial indoor climate through heating, cooling, ventilation, and lighting. A typical building contributes to a building’s energy by approximately 25% of the building’s operating cost. This implies that sensitive designs incorporating appropriate technologies are important in cutting heating and cooling energy consumption by approximately 60%. Trees also modify urban micro-climate and this affects the comfort and building space hence conditioning use of energy. Electrical appliances and fittings in residential buildings should be energy efficient. It is therefore important to determine the important output from the sources of energy. At this particular point the energy efficiency of a device must be compared or expressed as a ratio the output energy. The ratio derived is related with the season applied. It is also necessary to switch off unused light and appliances on standby. To reduce heating and cooling energy consumed, the windows for the house should be shaded, wash clothes with cold water, take shorter time when showering, and draught-proof the residential area. (Appendix C) 4.4 Food Carbon Emission Scenario for study is a family that consumes both red and white meat has the following food consumption; =2312m³ (Appendix D). To reduce the amount of carbon emitted from food consumption, the following strategies can be used; Ensure that what is bought is consumed so there should be no wastage of food Purchase food that is in season Spend less on processed food Rethink the diet. 5.0 Conclusion Carbon footprint is becoming established in the public domain. According to this report, carbon footprint stimulates the concept and process of carbon footprint assessment. Carbon footprint should include direct and indirect carbon dioxide emissions and mass unit measurement is used. Other green house gases should not be included because if they are included, it will be termed climate footprint. The two methodologies; process analysis and input-output analysis discussed reveal that input-output analysis provides a comprehensive and robust carbon footprint assessment at the meso level. A hybrid approach is suggested to be the best in situations where life-cycle assessments are integrated with input-output analysis. However, regardless of the method used to calculate carbon footprints, double-counting in the supply chains or life-cycles should be avoided. This is to avoid truncation and the significant implications on practices related to carbon trading and carbon offsetting. 6.0 Appendix 6.1 Appendix A: Personal Mobility Mode of Transport Times per Week Distance travelled (Kms) Time Taken (Mins) Daily CO2 Emissions Total Car Footprint (CO2e) Total greenhouse gas emission /year (Tons) Car 8 180 60 0.096 0.04 9.3 Bus 2 243 174 0.136 12 6.2 Appendix B: Water Activity Average Weekly Water consumption (Liters) Tea Kettle 11 Shower 367.5 Toilet Flashes 216 Hand Washes 165 Water Bottle 5.5 Dish washing 276 Car hose 27 Soup 4 TOTAL 1072 6.3 Appendix C Energy- Table 3: Average weekly energy consumption for house appliances (Total energy consumption per week is 122.2455kWh*0.54160=66.208kgCO2 House Appliance Power Usage (Watts) Daily Time Used Energy Used (Kj) Energy Used (kWh) Television 350 5400 1890 0.595 Desk Lamp 20 7200 144 40 Microwave 600 120 72 0.02 Laptop 95 10800 1026 0.285 Refrigerator 1080 86400 292428 81.23 Hair Dryer 1000 390 390 0.108 Laptop Power Adapter 60 150 9 0.0025 Living Room Light 100 180 18 0.005 6.4 Appendix D: Food Type of Food Quantity Consumed Per Week Vegetables 2125gms Dairy 1625mls Fruits 10.7Kgs Grains 950gms Proteins 3200gms Sugary Foods 1285gms Water 19Ltrs. Works Cited Otegbulu, Austin, Economics of Green Design and Environmental Sustainability, Journal of Sustainable development, Vol. 4, No. 2. April 2011. Print. Pp. 240-248. Wackernagel, Mathis. and Jansen, B. Our Ecological Footprint- reducing Human Impact on the Earth, New Society Publishers Gabriola Island, B.C, Canada, 1996. Print. Read More