Complications Of The Carbon Footprint

The Carbon Footprint

The Time for Change Organisation, best defines the term “carbon footprint” as “The total amount of greenhouse gases produced to directly and indirectly support human activities, usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).”

“Carbon Footprint” is a metaphor to illustrate for the amount of carbon emissions the global community let into the environment. Carbon does not just refer to the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide but also the other greenhouse gases; methane, nitrous oxide, hydro-fluorocarbon and sulphur hexafluoride. These greenhouse gas emissions are standardized by calculating its global warming potential, which involves converting GHG emissions into carbon dioxide equivalents so that they can be compared.

1Global Warming Potentials over 100 years Source: ICSUSA 2015 There are two types of carbon footprints; primary and secondary. According to Ramesh Menon, author of Carbon footprint: Reducing it for the better, a primary footprint (Menon, 2014) “represents those emissions which result from individual activities.” He further states that a secondary footprint “measures the carbon emitted by those who produce the goods/services.”

The Figure 8 below illustrates the total carbon emission of each nation throughout the globe. Figure 2. 8 Global CArbon Footprint by Nation ( ECO2Foot Tagbauer.com 2015 )

Most people are not aware of just how digitized the world had become, by simply switching on a light we create carbon emissions. Figure 8 shows a typical individual’s carbon footprint on average. Figure 2. 9. Carbon Emissions of an Average individual (Carbon Jurgon 2012)

Carbon Conversion Factors

Greenhouse gas conversion factors is measured in units of kg carbon dioxide equivalent and is used to calculate the amount of GHG emissions caused by energy use; the energy use is multiplied by a conversion factor to convert energy consumed (kWh) to kg of carbon dioxide equivalent (Carbon Trust,

Table 1 shows the conversion factor values to be applied in order to evaluate the impact of transporting 1 tonne by different modes of transport (Bribian, et al., 2011). Table 2 covers the different modes of transport and its global warming potential factor.

Table 2.2 Conversion Factor of from transport phase to construction of building SOURCE: (Bribian, et al., 2011)

Transport mode Global Warming Potential 〖(kg CO〗_2-Eq/kg)

Lorry, Road 0.193

Freight, Rail 0.039

Transoceanic, Freight ship 0.011

Tables 3 show results for typologies of assessed building materials. It is worth mentioning that outcome impacts refer to 1 kg of material. The impacts could be different (depending on the density of the materials) if 1 cubic metre of material was considered as the functional unit (Bribian, et al., 2011).

Table 2.3 Common Building Products SOURCE: (Bribian, et al., 2011)

Building Product Density (kg/m^3) Global Warming Potential 〖(kg CO〗_2-Eq/kg)

Concrete 2380 0.137

Flat glass 2500 1.136

Brick 1800 0.271

Reinforced Steel 7900 1.526

Reinforced concrete 2546