Water Industry Conf London 010409

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Sustaining Future Ecosystem Services From
Understanding to Action Mini-Conference,
National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, London,
26th June 2009 CARBON AND ENVIRONMENTAL
FOOTPRINTS ON THE PATHWAY TOWARDS
SUSTAINABILITY G.R. Cranstona, G.P. Hammonda,b
and C.I. Jonesa a Department of Mechanical
Engineering, b Institute of Sustainable Energy
the Environment (ISEE), University of Bath,
Bath. BA2 7AY. UK Speaker Prof. Geoff Hammond,
Director of ISEE Email ensgph_at_bath.ac.uk
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• CONTENTS
• ECOLOGICAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINTS
• SOME EXAMPLES OF THE USE OF ENVIRONMENTAL
  FOOTPRINTS -
• One Planet Living
• Urban and rural communities
• CARBON FOOTPRINTS - EMBODIED ENERGY AND CARBON
  IN BUILDINGS, GOODS AND SERVICES
• THE INVENTORY OF CARBON ENERGY ICE
• THE ROLE AND LIMITS OF FOOTPRINTING

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ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINTING THE BASICS

• Definition Resources used and wastes produced
  by a defined population are converted to a common
  basis - the area of productive land and aquatic
  ecosystems sequestered (in hectares) from
  whatever source in global terms.
• Land Types
• Bioproductive Land
• Crops
• Pasture
• Forest
• Bioproductive Sea
• Built Land
• Energy Land
• Biodiversity Land

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• NORTH AND SOUTH GLOBAL AND NATIONAL
  ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINTS
• Environmental footprints represent a partial
  measure of the
• extent to which the planet, its regions, or
  nations are moving
• along a sustainable development pathway
• Such footprints vary between countries at
  different stages of
• economic development and varying geographic
  characteristics
• The relative significance of population
  density, economic wealth,
• and pollutant emission intensity has been
  determined (using
• WWF and other international statistics)
• This indicates which individual nations are
  currently frugal or
• profligate in terms of their resource use
  and environmental
• impacts
• Source Hammond (2006) Cranston et al.
  (2007)

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• TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE?
• Sustainability is synonymous with scenarios
  that lead to steady-state conditions, or
  stabilisation, rather than collapse due
  to resource or other limits.
• Whether or not humanity will experience such a
  collapse, or will be able to secure a
  sustainable future for people and wildlife,
  is too soon to tell.
• The timescale for achieving sustainability is
  likely to be
• 2050-2100, or longer Parkin (2000)

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SWINDON AND WILTSHIRE

• Wiltshire mainly rural
• County area of Wiltshire
• Including the four districts
• of Salisbury, Kennet,
• North and West Wiltshire
• Swindon mainly urban
• The unitary authority of
• the Borough of Swindon
• Base Year 2003
• Source Eaton, Hammond Laurie (2007)

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• FOOTPRINT ANALYSIS OF SWINDON AND WILTSHIRE
• Wiltshire mainly rural
• 2,594,000 global hectares.
• 5.94 global hectares per Wiltshire resident.
• This amounts to an overshoot ration of 2.011
• If the worlds population reflected this
  consumption,
• then we would need the equivalent biocapacity
  of 2.3
• extra Earths
• Swindon mainly urban
• 1,024,000 global hectares.
• 5.65 global hectares per Swindon resident.
• This amounts to an overshoot ration of 10.351
• If the worlds population reflected this
  consumption,
• then we would need the equivalent biocapacity
  of 2.0
• extra Earths

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CARBON FOOTPRINTING THE BASICS

• Definition The carbon footprint is a measure
  of the impact that
• human activities have on the environment, and
  in particular on
• climate change. It is the amount of
  greenhouse gases (GHG)
• emitted through burning fossil fuels for
  electricity, heating, and
• transportation in order to produce a good or
  service.
• Carbon Footprints or Carbon Weights? The units
  are kgC per
• functional unit, not ha.
• Standards
• ISO 14040 14044 Environmental Life Cycle
  Assessment
• PAS 2050 Life Cycle GHG Emissions of Goods
  Services
• Databases
• Ecoinvent
• Bath - Inventory of (Embodied) Carbon and Energy
  ICE

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• THE CREATION OF THE ICE DATABASE
• Created in support of a Carbon Trust and
  EPSRC-funded research project the Carbon
  Vision Buildings Programme.
• Aim To produce an open-access, reliable database
  of embodied energy and carbon for typical
  building materials from cradle to gate.
• It required values for the wide diversity of
  materials associated with buildings and
  construction.
• this was considered this to be unavailable at
  the start of the project (in 2004).
• Therefore we developed our own database

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• INVENTORY OF CARBON ENERGY (ICE)
• An embodied energy and carbon
• database for building materials
• ICE Excel and pdf files created to
• summarise data
• Draws from over 250 references
• Embodied energy carbon
• coefficients 400 selected values
• Aim Typical usable market
• products
• Identifies primary secondary
• materials

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• THE FIVE SELECTION CRITERIA FOR ICE DATA
• Source Extracted from studies that are
  compliance with approved methodologies/standards
  (e.g., ISO 14040 series compliant).
• System boundaries Chosen to comply with
  cradle-to-gate embodiment. Non-fuel carbon
  emissions were included.
• Origin (country) of data The best available
  embodied energy data from around the world has
  been adopted, although a preference was given to
  good quality UK sources.
• Age of data Modern sources were employed
  wherever possible, because the fuel mix and
  carbon coefficients associated with power
  generators has changed over time.
• Embodied carbon Preference given to data from
  LCA studies, but otherwise estimates were made on
  fuel split.

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• VERIFICATION OF THE ICE INVENTORY
• Validation of the dataset was initially
  undertaken through application and comparison
  with embodied energy carbon estimates for whole
  buildings
• Case Studies
• Domestic buildings (see the following figures)
• Non-domestic buildings
• Comparison with BedZed estimates (BRE Data)
• Embodied energy ICE was within 1
• Embodied carbon ICE was within 10

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• THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE ICE DATABASE
• The ICE database has been publicly downloadable
  via an online website see http//www.bath.ac.uk/m
  ech-eng/sert/embodied/ since April 2007. Over
  4,500 copies have now been distributed worldwide.
• Feedback from professional users has played an
  important part in the choice of 'best values' for
  'cradle-to-gate' embodied energy carbon from
  the range found in the literature.
• The variation in published embodied energy
  carbon data stems from differences in boundary
  definitions, age of the data sources, and rigour
  of the original life-cycle assessments.
• Data from the ICE inventory has been
  incorporated into a
• number of carbon footprinting tools for
  products,
• structures and activities by various
  industrial companies
• and government agencies.

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• CONCLUSING REMARKS 1
• THE ROLE OF FOOTPRINT ANALYSIS
• Planning
• Model alternative scenarios but a simple
  measure are rarely adequate tools for
  predicting the future, particularly the
  consequences of technological innovation.
• Prioritise actions to address adverse impacts.
• Monitoring
• Determine trends in resource use and ecological
  impacts over time.
• Evaluate local strategies to combat climate
  change.
• Education and Awareness Raising
• Simple to understand. They show how much natural
  capital we use in relation to how much we
  have.
• Promote behavioural changes.

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• CONCLUSING REMARKS 2
• THE LIMITS TO FOOTPRINTING
• The role of carbon and environmental footprinting
  has not gone without challenge-
• The uncertainties and deficiencies of using
  footprints (and related
  parameters) as, albeit partial, sustainability
  indicators include problems associated with
  boundary definitions, data gathering, and the
  basis for weighing the various consumption and
  associated impacts.
• Its adoption as a tool for decision-making in a
  policy or planning context depends on an
  understanding of these assumptions and
  uncertainties.
• Criticisms have also been made concerning the
  dominant influence of fossil fuels in footprint
  calculations. It may underestimate the potential
  of a switch to renewable energy technologies as a
  means of lowering humanitys footprint.

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DONT TAKE ANYTHING BUT PHOTOGRAPHS, DONT
LEAVE ANYTHING BUT FOOTPRINTS Signpost seen
by the speaker, Sinharaja Rainforest Reserve,
Sri Lanka (June 2001)
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THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS AND LISTENERS
ANY QUESTIONS?
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