Not Just Your Footprint,But also what you step in!

Hadi DowlatabadiCanada Research Chair

Institute for Resources Environment & Sustainability

The University of British Columbia&

Offsetters.ca

Proven Solutions and winning with Life-cycle strategies

Carbon Offset Initiatives

2

Footprints

• Conscientious academics have a mighty struggle on their hands.

“What can I do that is actually useful rather than adding “another book on the shelf.”

• The idea of the ecological footprint has been tremendously helpful in communicating why the Western lifestyle cannot be sustainable.

3

Footprints in a complex integrated system

• So, how can we make ours smaller?

sprawl: ended

meat: banned

mayor: turfed out!

4

Goal: Minimise TransLink

Emissions!

Minimise harmful impacts of

meeting transportation needs

5

Sure winners for GHG reduction

• In transit: bus-lanes not light rail

hybrid-diesel buses

fuelled with 20%+ biodiesel

right size vehicles

hybrids for everyvehicle in urban stop-go traffic for 40,000 km/yr or more

6

Fuel Tank Heaters & Offsets

7

Blankets, Hybrid Economics

8

Not a cost but a cost savings

• Improve road maintenance road surface affects fuel efficiency by up to 10%.

HIR can recycle bitumen cement, repave roads to a higher quality, and costs at least 40% less.

same budget can pay for more resurfacing.

no waste from road building or new gravel pits

15,000 tons of CO2 savings per year from operations

50,000 tons of CO2 savings from more efficient driving

9

Not a cost but a profit centre!

• Enforce speed limits Aerodynamic cars hit their stride at higher

speeds 80-90 kph,

SUVs and trucks closer to 60-80 kph depending on how brick-shaped they are.

10

The Darwin Awards

0.75

5.0

11

Sure winners for GHG reduction?

• U-pass: a mandatory bus-pass Students at UBC and SFU pay $20/m for

the pass instead of $60+.

• Build Canada Line! Given expected use pattern, The cement

and steel alone will take more than a century to pay off.

12

June is Bike to Work Month

http://www.startsandfits.com/images/eighth_avenue_no_lane_yet.jpg

13

Even Bike Lanes Can Kill

http://www.truewheelers.org/cases/vassarst/images/DSCF0093bus%20in%20bike%20lane.jpg

14

Less GHGs is NOT Less Criteria Air Pollutants

• UK’s great experiment started in 2001. Tax cars according to GHG emissions.

- people flocked to diesel cars (13% to 45% in 4 yrs)

GHGs reduced by 400,000 tons per year.

Added air pollution leading to 90 extra deaths per year...

First they needed to wait for clean fuels and engines.

We will have these in NA for 2008 model year.

15

More Emissions ≠ More Harm

• Ozone is produced as nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) mix in the atmosphere.

Nitrogen oxides come burning fuels.

VOCs have both human and natural sources...

NOx both makes and destroys ozone.

Greening up Calgary means more VOCs

- more trees more ozone

- more auto emissions less ozone!

16

There you go!

http://www.cs.ubc.ca/labs/imager/imager-web/Photos/vancouver1.jpg

17

Beyond Transportation

• Groundsource Heat Pumps for the average Canadian home has a payback (at 7%) of 10 yrs or less.

Saves more than 40 Million tons of CO2

If implemented at the municipal scale, pay-back is closer to 5 yrs.

• We need building codes of COP3 or better.

• The net cost to medium & high rise developers is negative.17

18

Conclusions

• Footprint analysis helps us understand how big our feet have grown.

• What’s underfoot analysis allows us to avoid stepping on...

• The technical part is relatively easy - the more challenging issue is stuck-in-the-mucks & lifestyles.

• Environmental, economic and social systems involve a complex ring of interactions...

19

The new Frodo

hadi.d@ubc.ca 604.822.0008www.offsetters.ca www.cooldrivepass.ca