Global Climate Change & Carbon Footprinting

February 2008Green Infrastructure and Sustainable Communities17-1

Global Climate Change& Carbon Footprinting

•resources and strategies

Module 17Mark van Soestbergen


21st Century Reality

- Highly unstable climate- Non-linear progression

- Build everything extreme-proof


Goodbye arctic, goodbye climate stability



20071017_meltseasona.mov


The age of carbon footprinting



What is carbon footprinting?

In its simplest form; energy x carbon co-efficient

For example, gasoline density is 2,791 grams per gallon, containing 85.5% carbon by weight. Therefore, one gallon contains 2,386 grams of carbon

When combusted, oxygen molecules combine with carbon, making carbon dioxide. C + O2 = CO2



Carbon weight = 12Oxygen weight = 16Combined weight = 12 + 16 + 16 = 44

Ratio of C to CO2 = 12:44, CO2 weighs 3.67 more than C



One gallon of gasoline = ~ 6lbsOne gallon of gasoline becomes ~ 19lbs of CO2

One gallon of gasoline becomes 172 cubic feet / 4.87 cubic meters of CO2



One metric tonne CO2 = 2,204 lbsOne gallon of gasoline = 19 lbs114 gallons of gasoline = 1 tonne CO2

1 tonne of CO2 easily fills up a 19,000 cubic feet / 556 cubic meter container



Scopes & Global Warming Potential (GWP)



Scopes & Global Warming Potential (GWP)

GAS GWP

Carbon Dioxide 1

Methane 21

Nitrous Oxide 310

HFC-134a 1,300

HFC-23 11,700

HFC-152a 140

HCF-125 2,800

PFCs 7,850

SF6 23,900

-Greenhouse gases (GHG’s) trap heat at different rates



Carbon footprint of a coffee maker:

-Hrs in use-Hrs x consumption rate-Consumption total x grid factor



PCA varies, differs by generating mix



Carbon footprint of this conference

- # of people- people x flights- miles driven x mpg- # of hotel nights



Carbon footprint of this conference

-Flight impact



Carbon footprint of this conference: results

- Flight impact- Driving impact- Hotel impact

- Hotel impact; about 20kgCO2/pp/n

ACEC 2008 MiamiCarbon Footprint in tCO2

1

2

3

Flight Driving Hotel



http://www.ghgprotocol.org/http://cait.wri.org/http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/egrid/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_footprinthttp://www.v-c-s.org/http://www.rggi.org/

http://www.climateregistry.org/http://cdm.unfccc.int/http://www.pi.energy.gov/enhancingGHGregistry/index.html

Mark van [email protected] direct


Recap

• Climate change will change parameters of all infrastructure and processes

• Everything can and will be expressed in carbon• A project’s carbon footprint will be an increasingly

important evaluation criteria

• Help establish your organization’s carbon footprint, extend that practice to client work


Next Session

• Calculating your organization’s carbon footprint– Class exercise

Global Climate Change & Carbon Footprinting

Documents

Transcript of Global Climate Change & Carbon Footprinting