PROJECT 1: LOGBOOK
Throughout the world today, there are significant problems regarding the natural environment, and climate change which has been signficantly increasing over the years. People use more resources than they need, meaning that people aren’t being sustainable towards our planet.
‘Carbon Emissions’ refer to the release of carbon dioxide through various processes. Carbon Dioxide is a greenhouse gas, which becomes trapped in the atmosphere which contributes signficantly to the earth’s temperature rising. Due to many different human activities, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been continually rising and has ‘now reached dangerous levels not seen in the last 3 million years’. (Main sources of carbon dioxide emissions, June 2016).
Over the period of four weeks, I calculated and observed my personal ecological footprint. By doing so, I have recorded and calculated carbon emissions coming from my electricity consumption, water consumption, food consumption and transport usage. I was able to observe the type of impact that I have on the planet. Throughout my recordings, I was able to realise certain things that I need to reduce in order to reduce my personal footprint, and what others should be doing as well.
WEEK 1 – PERSONAL ELECTRICITY FOOTPRINT
Between 1990 and 2014, electricity from NZ’s emissions rose 21%, and was the 2nd highest growth area of energy emissions over that certain period. (Carbon Knowledge – Ecotricity NZ Ecotricity NZ, 2017). I was able to find out that the Average New Zealand household’s use in a year is 11,410 kWh.
This continues to rise, and I was able to record my own personal electricity consumption over a period of 7 days to see my impact towards this.
PERSONAL ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION MEASURED IN KILOWATT HOURS:
(See Appendix 1)
Wednesday (Day1): 3.313 kWh
Thursday (Day 2): 3.7 kWh
Friday (Day 3): 3.176 kWh
Saturday (Day 4): 4.288 kWh
Sunday (Day 5): 2.8575 kWh
Monday (Day 6): 4.753 kWh
Tuesday (Day 7): 7.305 kWh
Week Total: 29.4 kWh
Estimated year usage: 1528.15 kWh
Carbon Emissions week total: 3381g
Personal annual electricity carbon footprint: 175,812 g or 0.1758 metric tonnes
Throughout the week, I noticed that the most electrical energy that I consumed was from the lights in my bedroom. On average, each day I used around 1.5 kWh of bedroom lighting, which would contribute to around 172.5g of CO2e emissions. For appliances such as the Common Room Lights, Fridge, Studio Lights, TV and Lecture theatre lights, I have made sure I divided by the number of people who I am sharing the energy usage with. I seemed to use the most energy on Day Seven (Tuesday) with 7.305 kWh of energy in total. This seems to be significantly higher than previous days, which seemed to be around 3 or 4 kWh. This would be because on the Tuesday I seemed to use more appliances such as the washing machine and the clothes dryer. The washing machines and dryers seem to use a significant amount of energy for its use, for example the washing machine in my hall used around 0.25 kWh per wash. To save energy, I possibly could’ve not use the dryer and just let my clothes air dry in my room. On Tuesday I used my bedroom lights for 6 hours, which seems to be quite a lot compared to my other days. There are 3 lights in my room which use around 100 watts of electricity. I think if there was the option of switching on only 1 of the lights, this would help with saving energy.
The data would also not be accurate of my everyday energy use, as living in a hall I am unable to get information from the cooks as to how much energy is consumed when cooking. I also wasn’t able to get information from the heating or air conditioning. This means my energy consumption would be reduced compared to if I was at home.
If I were to extrapolate my electricity consumption from this 7 day period to a year, my electricity consumption would be around 1529 kWh, meaning a total carbon footprint of 175,812g. However, this would not accurately represent the whole year, as in Winter I would be using a much larger amount of energy, as it would be darker (therefore more lighting) and also colder (therefore heaters used).
In the future I also think that I could make use of the natural daylight that comes through the window other than switching the lights on.
To conserve more energy for the future, I should make sure to turn my lights off on occasions when I leave the room such as going to the bathroom. It would also be important to turn them off for majority of the day, and let the natural daylight come into the room through the windows. The same goes for charging my Phone and Laptop, and making sure that the switch is off when my charger is still plugged in but not charging anything. My room has a small window, therefore meaning less light is able to come in compared to if I had a bigger window. If there was a bigger window, then there would be less of a need to using lighting throughout the day, which would then decrease the total energy consumption. Future buildings and homes should consider solar power for electricity, as this would signficantly reduce the CO2 emissions.
WEEK 2 – PERSONAL WATER FOOTPRINT
Freshwater is extremely important for New Zealand’s social, cultural, and economic well-being. (Fresh-Water use in New Zealand, Parliament). It is estimated that total water use in New Zealand currently equates to two or three times more water per capita than in most other countries. The average water usage by a New Zealander is 250-300 Litres per day. I was able to record my own personal water usage throughout the period of a week, to compare mine to the average, and also to see what kind of impact I have.
PERSONAL WATER CONSUMPTION MEASURED IN LITRES:
(See Appendix 2)
Wednesday (Day1): 145 L
Thursday (Day 2): 86.5 L
Friday (Day 3): 79.5 L
Saturday (Day 4): 99 L
Sunday (Day 5): 191.5 L
Monday (Day 6): 115.9 L
Tuesday (Day 7): 125.5 L
Week Total: 843 L
Estimated year usage: 43,830 L
I consumed the most water on the Wednesday and Sunday. This would be because I used the washing machine, which used a lot of water per load, and was the third highest contributor to my water consumption over the 7-day period. However, the highest contributor over the 7-day period was water used in the shower (58%). Everyday, I roughly had around a 10-minute shower which used to average around 70 Litres of water. However, I noticed that after I turned the shower off, it would still drip for a bit meaning it would waste a bit of water. In the future I think it would be important to create showers that don’t drip once you’ve turned it off. When I brushed my teeth I made sure I used a minimal amount of water, by turning the top off rather than leaving it on. When turning on, I made sure that I used a lower pressure. Water used for brushing teeth was minimal, and as seen in the Pie Graph on Figure 2; only was 1% of my total water consumption.
My daily average was 120 Litres, which is lower than the average New Zealander’s use, however this would be inaccurate due to the fact that I am living in a hall. This is a limitation as I am unable to get information on water consumption from the chefs. A lot of water would be used for cooking, and I am unable to include this information in this weeks water log. Therefore, my results are not completely accurate and so my daily use would be a bit higher if I was able to get this information.
If I were to extrapolate my water consumption from this 7 day period to a year, my usage would be around 39,156 Litres in total. However, this would be inaccurate as in Winter I may have longer showers, or be drinking less water in winter. At certain times of the year I would also be using different washing machines, which may use a different amount of water to wash clothes. In this weeks log I used the washing machine three times, and this may be different at different times of the year. I would also be spending some weeks at home this year, where the showerheads may be different. Therefore, my estimated yearly usage of water is not accurate enough.
Water processing uses electricity and would therefore produce carbon emissions, however I have not calculated the carbon emissions as it doesn’t produce a significant amount. The issue with water is that water in the world is slowly running out and needs to be carefully consumed by each individual as it is a very precious resource itself. As seen in the pie graph below, there was a lot of water used that turned into Grey water (77%). There are a variety of techniques to reduce the amount of water usage of each individual or household. Since water is slowly running out in the world, I think it would be important and efficient in the future to have systems which filter grey water and turn it back into fresh water. Therefore, we would be able to reuse the Grey Water that comes from showers and sinks, and filter it into water that could be used for things such as irrigation or flushing toilets.
WEEK 3 – PERSONAL FOOD FOOTPRINT
Consumption of Food is one of the main issues towards carbon emissions. The carbon footprint from food is the greenhouse gas emissions produced by the entire life cycle of the particular food, which includes the materials (such as fertilizer) that went into growing it, and the energy that went into transporting, processing, cooking it, and even wasting it. Changing the foods that you eat or changing to a more sustainable diet has an impact on the carbon footprint. The carbon footprint of a vegetarian diet is about half that of a meat-lovers diet, and vegan diets are even more sustainable with the carbon footprint. Over the period of a week I was able to record the different types of food I ate, and calculate the amount of energy and amount of carbon emissions it has.
PERSONAL FOOD ENERGY MEASURED IN JOULLES:
(See Appendix 3)
Thursday (Day1): 6,443,000 J
Friday (Day 2): 6,317,000 J
Saturday (Day 3): 5,590,000 J
Sunday (Day 4): 4,212,000 J
Monday (Day 5): 6,823,000 J
Tuesday (Day 6): 7,159,000 J
Wednesday (Day 7): 6,001,000 J
Week Total: 42,525,000 J
Estimated year consumption: 2,212,340,000 J
Carbon Emissions total: 38,047g, or 0.038047 metric tonnes
Personal annual food carbon footprint: 1.978 metric tonnes
I was able to record my daily food and energy consumption from using energy information from the website “Eat Low Carbon”. I was able to record these energy intakes from different food groups. On Tuesday I consumed the most energy from food as on Tuesday I seemed to eat more meat, which has a high energy intake compared to other foods. Sunday was my lowest, as I didn’t eat any meat. As I am a meat eater, and mostly have meat everyday, this would mean that my contributions to carbon emissions would be higher compared to a vegetarian or a vegan. In the future I think that if I were to eat less meat (especially red meat), this would lower my carbon footprint.
As I am living in a hall, all of the food is transported from the same place in Auckland. The distance from Auckland to Wellington is a 643km drive, and assuming that it is being driven in a truck, this would mean that the approximate CO2 emissions from this distance would be about 400kg of CO2 emissions. This transportation information would become apart of the total CO2 emissions, along with the growing of the particular food such as the materials used such as fertilizer.
I was able to calculate that my yearly estimate of food/energy consumption is 2,212,340,000 J. However, this would be inaccurate as at different times of the year I would be consuming different types of foods. For example, in winter I may be eating more food compared to summer. Also, due to the fact that I am living in the Halls of residence, this would be different compared to if I was living at home. As mentioned before, the transport of the food to Wellington is much longer compared to at home where I would have to travel only a short distance of less than a kilometer to get to a supermarket. However, I would also have to consider where the food travelled from to get to the supermarket. One limitation is that I was unable to calculate how much food I wasted, however I would assume that I would waste about 0-10% of the food that is provided for me.
Meat is associated with much higher carbon emissions than plant based food, and so changing the way we eat may reduce the CO2 impact on the environment. This may be such as cutting out more red meat from our diets, or even becoming vegetarian. Decreasing the amount of high carbon foods consumed would also be another way to decrease carbon footprints, and also eating less processed foods. Another option is to also buy more seasonal and organic produce, from local markets rather than supermarkets. This produce is sold in natural sunlight rather than supermarket lighting, and the transportation of it would be a small amount. In the future, to make the planet even more sustainable, I think that supermarkets and food companies would need to get rid of plastic packaging as this plastic can have serious impacts on the CO2 emissions. Reusable shopping bags would be a much better option than plastic bags in supermarkets.
WEEK 4 – PERSONAL MOBILITY FOOTPRINT
Greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector make up about 20 percent of New Zealand’s total greenhouse gas emissions each year. (Climate Change and Energy, Ministry of Transport NZ). Over the period of a week I was able to record energy used with the type of transport I was using.
PERSONAL TRANSPORT ENERGY CONSUMPTION (measured in Kilo-Joules):
(See Appendix 4)
Thursday (Day1): 734 kJ
Friday (Day 2): 914 kJ
Saturday (Day 3): 310 kJ
Sunday (Day 4): 190 kJ
Monday (Day 5): 734 kJ
Tuesday (Day 6): 914 kJ
Wednesday (Day 7): 734 kJ
Week Total: 4530 kJ
Estimated year consumption: 235,560 kJ
Weekly Carbon emissions: 0 metric tonnes
Estimated yearly carbon emissions from log: 0.57 metric tonnes (from the possible flights)
I used the website ‘Mapometer’ to track how much energy was being used with the certain distances I was walking. As seen in the graph, the energy consumed decreases over the weekend, this would be because I was not having to walk to the Uni campuses, compared to the other days when I did quite a bit of walking between the two campuses. My energy total for the whole week was 4530 kJ. As I am walking everywhere, this does not have an impact on the CO2 emissions, and therefore my total weekly carbon emissions were 0 tonnes of CO2. However, because I am walking a lot everyday, this would mean that I would consume more food. Therefore, this would have contributed a bit more to my overall carbon footprint, as it would emit CO2.
However, these results are not an accurate representation of my estimated yearly energy expenditure. There would be some weeks in the year where I would be back home in Christchurch, and therefore I would not be walking places all the time. In Christchurch I usually use the car or bus, which would obviously have a higher amount of carbon emissions compared to walking.
At certain times of the year I would also be taking flights from Wellington to Christchurch and back again, which would produce roughly 114,055g of CO2. I would be taking about 10 flights in total this year (Wellington to Christchurch and return), and therefore, this would increase my CO2 emissions. This would mean that my possible carbon footprint from flights this year would be around 570,276g, or 0.570276 metric tonnes of CO2 emitted for the total 10 flights I might be taking.
Right now, I think that in Wellington I am doing a good job with reducing the amount of CO2 emissions with transport, as I am walking everywhere and have been walking everywhere for the past couple of months. When I get home, I will make sure to use the bus more than the car as using public transport reduces the amount of CO2 emissions. For example, a bus in Christchurch would emit around 0.09kg of CO2 per kilometer per passenger, compared to a car which would emit around 0.2kg of CO2 for every person.
Conclusion: My Personal Carbon Footprint
ANNUAL Carbon Footprint Totals (Estimated):
Electricity: 0.1758 metric tonnes
Food: 1.978 metric tonnes
Transport: 0.57 metric tonnes
TOTAL: 2.7 metric tonnes
My total yearly estimated carbon footprint total was 2.7 metric tonnes. I found out that the average yearly carbon emission per person is 20 metric tonnes. My carbon footprint seems to be signficantly lower than the average, however it is important to consider the limitations which meant that my results were not accurate. The main reason is because of living in halls, it is hard to calculate all of the carbon emissions, for example coming from the kitchen to cook the food as I am in a catered hall. It would also not be accurate as consumption of certain things may differ throughout the different seasons, such as more electricity energy being used in Winter for heating, compared to less in the Summer. I was also unable to calculate waste, and the impact from clothes. Therefore, the emissions that I calculated here would not be the accurate calculation for my actual carbon footprint total.
I used a website called ‘Footprint Calculator – Global Footprint Network’ which was able to figure out how many Earths it would take to support my current lifestyle. It may be inaccurate, but it gave me more of an idea of my overall carbon footprint. It stated that I would need ‘3 planets to provide enough resource’. It also states that to support my lifestyle, it takes 5.4 global hectares of the earth’s productive area. In 2012, there was about 12 billion hectares of biologically productive land and water on earth, and so divided by the population (7 billion), it gives a total 1.72 hectares per person for the world. I need to become more sustainable in order to reduce my CO2 emissions. However, I think that most people aren’t sustainable, due to the large amounts of transportation used for foods, packaging for foods, cheap electricity, and the easiness of just going to the supermarket to buy foods which aren’t as sustainable compared to local produce. People tend to lean towards the cheaper options such as just going to the supermarket. Unfortunately, this leads to more CO2 being emitted into the air than needed.
There are many different strategies to reduce my carbon footprint in the future, which leads to the global carbon footprint and makes the planet more sustainable. With my carbon footprint overall, I used the most energy from electricity. As I mentioned, it is important that I reduce the amount used by turning off lights when not needed and using the natural daylight for light, and also turning off chargers when not in use. For water consumption, it is important to save water such as using a lower pressure from taps, and also turning the tap off when brushing teeth. Even though water does not signficantly emit CO2, it is a precious resource that the world needs to sustain. Changing diets would also contribute to reducing carbon emissions, as meat releases a lot of it. It is important that people start to become more sustainable so that carbon emissions are reduced.
APPENDICES:
Appendix 1: Electricity Log
Appendix 2: Water Log
Appendix 3: Food Log
Appendix 4: Mobility Log
References:
1. E. (2011). Meat Eaters Guide . Retrieved April 2, 2017, from http://static.ewg.org/reports/2011/meateaters/pdf/methodology_ewg_meat_eaters_guide_to_health_and_climate_2011.pdf
2. Main sources of carbon dioxide emissions. (2016, June 01). Retrieved April 02, 2017, from http://whatsyourimpact.org/greenhouse-gases/carbon-dioxide-emissions
3. Carbon Knowledge – Ecotricity NZ Ecotricity NZ. (n.d.). Retrieved April 02, 2017, from https://ecotricity.co.nz/news/carbon-knowledge/
4. Research papers. (n.d.). Retrieved April 03, 2017, from https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/research-papers/document/00PlibCIP151/freshwater-use-in-new-zealand
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9. Footprint Calculator. (n.d.). Retrieved April 04, 2017, from http://www.footprintnetwork.org/resources/footprint-calculator/