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Introduction
The first
decade of the 21st Century saw increasing concern for the
impacts that humans have on the natural environment. Population growth
and economic development are recognized as potential threats to life on
earth, at least as we know it. One obvious indicator of these threats is
seen in the growing certainty among climate scientists that changes humans
are making to the chemistry of the atmosphere lead to global climate
change (IPCC, 2007).
To date,
much of the debate around climate change focuses on government actions,
such as the U.S. decision not to ratify the Kyoto protocol on climate
change or state and local government adoption of voluntary greenhouse gas
emission reductions (Bogdonoff and Rubin, 2006). Increasingly, people
realize the power of changes in individual behaviors to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions and improve environmental quality in general. Various “foot
printing” exercises now help individuals estimate their personal impact on
the environment. One of the first versions of this is the “ecological
footprint,” a device that has been applied to both individuals and to
nations. (See:
www.footprintnetwork.org/index.php ) In addition to these excellent
generalized exercises, there are a number of specific “carbon footprint”
calculators for individuals, like the one from BP. (See:
www.bp.com/ or for an alternative:
www.carbonfootprint.com/ )
These are
excellent tools for raising awareness and for making general estimates of
individual or household footprints. They are, at best, rough estimates of
your carbon emissions, but they are not refined enough to provide you with
specific information you can use to reduce your emissions. While
awareness is good, the next step after awareness is action. This handbook
is designed for individuals and families who want to reduce their
environmental impacts in a systematic way. It is designed to allow
households to make specific calculations of their carbon dioxide
emissions, a good proxy for overall environmental impact, and then to
reduce these emissions over time. The framework for accomplishing this is
that developed for modern environmental managements systems (EMSs) used by
corporations, governments, and other large organizations around the
world. This handbook will provide you with a step by step approach to
developing your own personal EMS and using it to reduce your “footprint.”
Environmental Management System Approach
Environmental Management Systems are an application of modern quality
management systems to the improvement of environmental performance of
organizations. The most widely used systems are ones designed to meet the
ISO 14001 Standard (Block, 2007). The ISO 14001 Standard was adopted by
the International Organization for Standardization in 1996 and revised in
2004. It is a model that is applicable to households as well as large
organizations.
The
standard is based on the management model developed by W. Edwards Deming,
sometimes also known as the Shewhart cycle -- plan, do, check, act.
(Figure 1.)
Figure 1. Plan --
Do -- Check -- Act Cycle Applied to Environmental Management
This same
basic approach can be applied to the individual or household wishing to
reduce its environmental impact. The beginning of the process is to think
about what is important to you in terms of the environment -- your
environmental values. Do you think humans have a moral or ethical obligation to limit their
impact on the environment or on other species? Are you concerned that
humans are living in such numbers or in a manner that threatens the
ability of the Earth to continue supporting our species? Are you
concerned that the present generation of humans may be making the planet
unlivable for future generations? Whatever your motivation, if you feel
you should have less impact on the environment then you have started to
think about your values in relation to what you think you should do, what
we might call your personal “environmental policy”
in the language of environmental management systems. A personal
environmental policy is the start of a commitment to improving the
environment.
The next
step in the process is to think about the objectives
you want to set for yourself in light of your policy. How much do you
want to reduce your impact on in the environment and in what areas to you
want to focus your efforts?
The
first step in setting your objectives is to begin an inventory of the
effects you have on the environment. These effects are called
environmental aspects in
environmental management. For purposes of this handbook we are using
carbon dioxide emissions as the basic measurement of environmental
impact. Most, but not all, of your household impact on the environment
comes from energy use, and carbon dioxide emissions a good way to measure
that impact and compare it among the different ways we use energy. By
keeping track of your monthly energy purchases you can begin to build a
picture of your household’s emissions in the aggregate and by source. You
are then identifying the aspects of your life that have significant
impacts on the environment, the aspects that create the biggest carbon
emissions.
It can be
difficult to identify exactly when you use energy and thus the carbon
emissions they create. So rather than worrying about when you actually
use the energy, simplify the process by keeping track of your aspects by
when you pay for the energy. If your bill for electricity used in
December comes in January, just enter the amount of energy you paid for in
January, the month you paid for it. Energy purchases are often “lumpy” in
that you may buy fuel in a certain month and then burn it over the next
several months. The goal here is not to make month to month energy
consumption comparisons. Rather, the idea is to look at the longer term,
perhaps comparing energy consumption from year to year or using a twelve
month rolling average. This first step in the process is just to begin
tracking your energy consumption, which this handbook will help you
convert into carbon emissions.
Once you
have begun to identify the environmental aspects of your household, you
can begin to think about your objectives (see Figure 1. again). Your
objectives might be an overall goal, for example, reduce emissions by
10%. Objectives might be expressed in terms of a long term trend, reduce
emissions by a certain percentage each year for the next decade. Or they
might be specific to one of your aspects, reduce emissions from
electricity use or from gasoline consumption, while making sure that all
other emissions do not increase. One of the values of identifying
environmental aspects and beginning to keep track of emissions from each
aspect is that it allows you to see where your greatest impact currently
is, perhaps then the area where you could make the greatest reductions in
your footprint.
You have
now identified the means you are going to measure your progress with, your
environmental indicators. This
handbook is designed to use carbon dioxide emissions as the indicator of
environmental impact. You can measure progress toward the goals and
objectives by continuing to measure energy purchases which the spreadsheet
will convert into carbon dioxide emissions for you. The next step in the
process is to figure how you are going meet your objectives, your
program.
Devising
Your Program
Everyone’s program will be different, depending on personal
circumstances. Below are some ideas for emissions reductions that you can
tailor to your own specific needs. By thinking about some of these ideas
you may come up with programs of more relevance to you. There is no one
way to develop programs and everyone’s programs will be different.
Electricity Usage. A lot of electricity in the U.S. is generated by
burning coal or oil to make steam to turn a turbine. So even though
electricity itself is clean, it may create greenhouse gases to make it.
Here are some ideas for reducing power consumption in your home:
·
Be sure
that any new appliance you purchase is EnergyStar rated -- see:
www.energystar.gov/
·
Unplug
appliances and consumer electronics when not in use. By some estimates,
“standby power” accounts for as much as 10% of the electricity consumption
in the U.S (Pulling the Plug on Standby Power, 2006). Instant on features
in appliances and electronic equipment add a few seconds of convenience to
your life at the cost of a lot of electricity. The Economist
magazine estimates that “…a typical microwave oven consumes more
electricity powering its digital clock than it does heating food.”
·
Replace
incandescent light bulbs and compact fluorescent light bulbs, and turn off
the lights when you leave a room.
·
If you heat
water with electricity, install low-flow shower heads or consider an
“on-demand” water heater, perhaps powered by propane or natural gas.
·
Make sure you
do not have an old refrigerator in the basement with little or nothing in
it. Dispose of this carefully in case it is old enough that it contains
chlorofluorocarbons as a refrigerant.
·
When you use
your stove or oven, use only as much power as you really need. For
example, if you are making a cup of tea, measure just a tea cup full of
water into your pot. Your water will boil more quickly and you will only
use the energy you need to fill one cup
·
Consider
alternative sources for your power purchase. Maine Public Utilities
Commission is a good example of such a program for reducing the
environmental impact of the electricity you do use.
http://www.10000carbonfreehomes.com/
·
Another good
resource for Maine residents is:
http://www.maineenergyinfo.com/
Gasoline Consumption. For
many Americans, burning gasoline in cars is the single largest source of
carbon emissions, so this is an area where you may be able to make the
largest reductions. Emissions are a function of two factors -- the fuel
efficiency of the vehicle and the number of miles driven. Finding the
will to change driving habits is the challenge, because the car is an
incredibly convenient and comfortable device for most of us. Here are
some ideas:
·
Buy a car
that gets higher fuel economy.
·
Keep the car
you have, new or old, well maintained -- tune ups and tire pressure
maintenance both help.
·
Accelerate
more gradually and drive more slowly. For many vehicles, driving around
55 miles per hour does give better fuel economy.
·
Drive fewer
miles:
o
Use a bicycle
or walk (and you could also improve your health in the process)
o
Consolidate
trips
o
Avoid
“unnecessary” trips
o
Take public
transportation
o
Car pool
·
Beyond making
changes in your car habits, make your lawn smaller so that you do not run
lawn and garden equipment as much.
·
Reduce or
eliminate the use of other devices that burn gasoline.
·
If you are
relocating, consider how pedestrian-friendly or bike-friendly a locale is
as part of your housing purchase decision.
Home
Heating Fuels. Americans heat
their homes and their domestic hot water with a diversity of fuel types --
#2 oil, propane, natural gas, wood, and kerosene are among the most
common. The combustion of all of these produces carbon dioxide, although
some are much cleaner than others, both in terms of the efficiency of
converting the fuel into heat and in terms of the carbon content of the
fuel. Whatever fuel type you are using there are similar strategies to
use less.
·
Weatherize
your home -- new windows, weather stripping, storm doors, etc. Many
resources are available to help in this endeavor.
www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=home_improvement.hm_improvement_index
·
Consider
upgrading your furnace or other heating unit you have to a newer, more
efficient model.
·
Turn the
thermostat down a degree or two or leave some rooms of the home unheated
when they are not being used.
·
Turn the
thermostat down at night and throw on another blanket.
·
If you are
building a new home, think about making it smaller. Less space to heat
means less fuel burned.
Municipal
Sold Waste. A lot of wastes
generated at home end up being burned to produce electricity. Otherwise
the wastes are placed in a landfill. Whatever they disposition, these
wastes generate greenhouse gases, about 60 pounds per typical 33 pound bag
of waste. So, waste reduction reduces carbon dioxide emissions.
·
Recycle all
the plastic, glass, metal, and paper that you can in your community.
·
Take your
name off catalog mailing lists. Mail order catalogs consume large amounts
of paper each year and generate unnecessary solid waste. Shopping on line
may not be quite as convenient for you, but it will generate a big
reduction in impacts.
·
Compost food
waste and other organic products; better yet, reduce the amount of food
you let go to waste.
·
Buy products
with less packaging; better yet, buy less so that you have less to throw
away. Take a look at your waste some day and see if there are things in
there that you could have done without and still have been happy.
Airline
Miles. Airline travel is
expensive, particularly in terms of energy used per mile traveled. An
average figure is that you generate about 0.9 pounds of carbon dioxide for
every air mile traveled. (The issue of air travel impacts is complex, so
this is just a simplified assumption. See Kollmuss and Bowell, 2006.)
The message here is not that you should avoid all airline travel, just
as you should not avoid driving a car altogether. Rather, it is that
flying a little less can have a big impact on reducing your carbon dioxide
emissions.
These are just some of the programs you might adopt to reduce
your carbon emissions and many of these can have a noticeable effect on
the per person carbon dioxide emissions in your household. You can
probably think of many more. There are other ways of approaching your
impact that are not quite as easily measurable as these, but you may want
to think about them as well. There are many other web-based resources to
help you in this process. A particularly good one is:
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Climate_Change/What_You_Can_Do/at_home.asp
Other
Programs and Metrics
One of
the best measures of overall impact is your consumption of goods and
services. Whatever we buy -- food, clothing, trips, electronic devices --
requires matter and energy for production, marketing, and distribution.
So one simple way of measuring your impact on the environment is how much
you spend in total each year. As a general rule, the more you spend, the
greater you impact, the less you spend, the less your impact. Of course,
this is an imperfect indicator since not all expenditures have the same
environmental impact. If you are someone who equates your wellbeing with
consumption, it is going to be hard to reduce your environmental impact.
But if happiness for you comes from intangibles, it might be easier. (See
Layard, 2006.)
Another
proxy for environmental impact that is easy for many people to measure is
water use. If you are on a municipal water supply and have a water meter
on your supply line, keep track of water use. For many people, less water
use may be a sign of overall lower energy consumption.
Another
indirect but potentially effective strategy for reducing environmental
impact has to do with gift giving. Consider replacing gifts that you
might give for holidays, birthdays, and other special events with gifts to
charity instead. Some research suggests that as many as half the gifts
given in America are exchanged for something else. Gifts to charities can
be more meaningful and reduce the consumption of goods and services that
leads to environmental impact. Consider also giving people the gift of
absolving them from the obligation of giving you a gift. Or give people a
gift of your time. The New American Dream web site can help you think
about this issue (www.newdream.org/
).
References
Block, Marilyn R. 2007.
Effective Implementation of ISO 14001. Milwaukee: ASQ Quality Press.
Bogdonoff,
Sondra and Jonathan Rubin. 2006. A Primer for
Maine: Regional Greenhouse Gas
Initiative. Orono, Maine: Margaret
Chase Smith
Policy Center.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 2007. Climate
Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis Summary for Policymakers.
Geneva: IPCC Secretariat. Available at
www.ipcc.ch
Kollmuss,
Anja and Benjamin Bowell. 2007. Voluntary Offsets for Air-Travel
Carbon Emissions. Tufts Climate Initiative. Accessed March 19, 2007:
http://www.tufts.edu/tie/tci/pdf/TCI_Carbon_Offsets_Paper_Jan31.pdf
Layard, Richard. 2006. Happiness: Lessons from a New Science.
New York: Penguin Books.
Pulling the Plug on Standby Power. 2006. The Economist. March 9.
U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration. (accessed
2007) Fuel and Energy Source Codes and Emission Coefficients.
www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/coefficients.html
Utah
State University, Forestry
Extension. 2007. Heating with Wood: Species Characteristics and
Volumes.
http://extension.usu.edu/forestry/HomeTown/General_HeatingWithWood.htm
Appendix
Notes on
Personal Carbon Emissions Worksheet
The personal
carbon emissions worksheet is a simple Excel spreadsheet that uses
standard carbon dioxide emission factors for various activities and fuel
types. Simply follow these steps and fill in the data for each month
of the year. As noted above, to simplify the process, record data
(gallons of gasoline, kWh of electricity, etc.) for energy purchases when
you buy the energy rather than trying to estimate when you use energy
directly. It will make the process easier. The goal is not to
try to reduce your impacts from month to month, because energy use and
purchase is clearly “lumpy” over time. Rather, the goal is to reduce
your consumption on a longer time scale, say on an annual basis.
The one area of carbon emissions not covered by the spreadsheet is food
consumption. There are food consumption carbon emission calculators
that exist (http://www.foodcarbon.co.uk/index.html
) but research to support detailed calculations like in other areas is not
yet sufficiently developed.
The first step in your worksheet is Section 1). Fill in the
number of people in your household. Using total household energy use
values you put into the spreadsheet, it will then calculate both total and
per person carbon dioxide emissions estimates in Section 3).
Section 2 includes CO2 conversion factors derived
from public sources. You may wish to change some of these to match your
personal situation. All of these conversion factors except for air travel
are based on data from U.S. Department of Energy (2007). Carbon emissions
from electricity generation will differ depending upon the fuel used for
generation. Some states, like
Maine, now require electric utilities to provide customers with specific
emission data for their power source. If you have such information then
replace the 1.34 value in the spreadsheet with a value specific to your
electricity supply.
Emissions for burning wood are on a per cord basis since that
is how most people purchase wood supplies. U.S. Department of Energy
estimates that burning a short ton of wood or wood waste generates 3,814
pounds of carbon dioxide. The weight of wood varies by species and the
extent to which it is dried. For purposes of this calculator we used the
value of red oak, air dried of approximately 3500 pounds (Utah State
University, 2007). So a cord of wood would be 1.75 tons and thus would generate
6,674 pounds of carbon dioxide per cord.
The Department of Energy (2007) says about wood burning,
“These biofuels contain ‘biogenic’ carbon. Under international greenhouse
gas accounting methods developed by the IPCC, biogenic carbon is part of
the natural carbon balance and it will not add to atmospheric
concentrations of carbon dioxide.” That said, you should still count
these carbon emissions if you want to be honest with yourself about your
impact on the environment. By logic employed by the Department of Energy
here, you could consider fossil fuels to be “biogenic” and part of the
natural carbon cycle, you just need to assume a much longer time scale for
what you call “natural.” The simple fact is that once carbon dioxide goes
into the atmosphere, its effects on climate systems are the same wherever
it comes from, fossil fuels or biomass. The real question is not where
your carbon emissions come from in terms of fuel, rather it is one of how
large your emissions footprint is from all sources.
Air travel is particularly difficult because of the high
degree of variability of effects on climate due to both the length and
altitude of flights. Short haul flights generate more carbon emissions
per mile, since take off and landing consume a disproportionate share of
the fuel used in air travel compared to cruising. On the other hand, long
haul flights typically fly at higher altitudes where emissions have a
greater radiative forcing effect (Kolmuss and Bowell, 2006). The carbon
calculator here uses .9 pounds of carbon dioxide per air mile flown. This
is a conservative value, and some carbon emission calculators use much
higher conversion factor.
Once you have kept track of these data for a year, you are
ready to implement your programs.
Look at those areas where you generate the most emissions. Can you find
ways to reduce energy use in these areas? What are the easiest changes
you could make? Can you reduce your carbon emissions next year? Why not
set a goal for yourself? Now you are on your way to truly reducing your
impact on the environment -- you are reducing your footprint.
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