The Duluth Energy Design Conference held February 26 and 27, 2008, at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center, offered 27 sessions per day for conference attendees to learn a vast array of green building techniques, small business practices, alternative energy technologies, construction financing methods, and storm water management principles. One speaker told audience members how to calculate their carbon footprints, and then once the footprint is known, how to reduce it.
Kevin Coleman of Madison Environmental Group, Madison, Wisconsin, gave a comprehensive presentation that included an overview of U.S. climate policy, the concept of sustainability and CO2 , calculations for carbon footprints, and ways to reduce carbon footprints (see presentation materials).
Using graphs and maps, Coleman demonstrated that the U.S. and China currently have the world’s largest carbon footprints. He explained that a carbon footprint is composed of all the greenhouse gases that are output for a certain length of time, usually a year.
During the period 1995 to 2005, China’s greenhouse gas emissions increased 87%, Saudi Arabia’s increased 76%, and the U.S. increased 13%. Meanwhile, Ukraine decreased 18% and Germany decreased 4%.
The U.S. per capita greenhouse gas emissions in the year 2002 were 20 tons per person per year. In Europe, people used 10 tons per person per year. In China, people used 4 tons per person per year. The world average is about 6 tons per person per year.
U.S. climate policy and individual initiatives
Coleman cited an EPA report from 2005 that indicated that U.S. emissions come from three major sources: residential (largest amount), industrial (middle amount), and commercial (smallest amount). The emissions are produced by combustion, electricity production, and transportation.
The U.S. is the only country that refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol – the international effort to reduce carbon emissions based on the year 1990. Individual states and groups of states have taken on key roles in reducing greenhouse gases, in the wake of the federal government’s failure to act.
Ten northeastern states formed the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and will hold an auction of carbon allowances in June 2008. Six midwestern states formed the Midwest Greenhouse Gas Accord, and are working to reduce carbon emissions. California has multiple laws and policies already in place to reduce CO2 emissions with the first mandatory reduction taking place in 2006. It also formed the California Climate Action Registry to count up what California is producing through utilities, heavy industry, etc., to form a baseline. By 2012, there will be mandatory caps in place. California has pledged to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and by 2050, will have their emissions 80% below their 1990 levels.
More than 800 city mayors have signed the Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement. They represent over 80 million Americans.
The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) is up and running. It is a voluntary carbon registry that buys and sells carbon allowances. Through the CCX, farmers can be paid to do no-till farming, and then sell their allowances to a company that has not met its goal of carbon reduction.
What to do?
Coleman posed this question first asked by Aldo Leopold in 1932. Leopold recognized the potential for wrecking the environment more than 75 years ago. Coleman’s answer to Leopold’s question was: create a better reality. Recognize that current practices are unsustainable. Stop putting things into nature faster than nature can break them down. Stop taking resources from nature faster than nature can regenerate them.
Coleman explained a three-part scope of emissions to be used in calculating carbon footprints: direct emissions, indirect emissions from electricity, and other indirect emissions.
Under direct emissions, he explained basic terms like therm, CCF, and BTU. He referred people to the U.S. Department of Energy website for additional information. He said that one gallon of gasoline produces 20 pounds of CO2. Although a gallon of gasoline weighs only 6.5 pounds, the gallon combines with hydrogen and oxygen during combustion and that is where the 20 pounds comes from.
Under indirect emissions from electricity, Coleman used an example of people in an office leaving their computers on all the time, 24/7. He said that each computer is used 40 hours per week and not used 128 hours per week. Each computer in sleep mode uses 150 watts per hour for 128 hours of nonuse, which equals 920 kwh per year. In the Upper Midwest, each kwh of electricity accounts for 2 pounds of CO2. So your computer sitting idle in Minnesota uses 1,840 pounds of CO2 if you leave it on all the time. Then think of a whole office building full of computers and the size of the problem becomes understandable. Multiply that by all the office buildings in a major metro area like Minneapolis-St Paul. A simple act like turning off your computer daily will reduce emissions.
Under other indirect emissions, Coleman suggested the example of airline miles we fly. Each airline mile of flight produces 1/2 pound of CO2 per passenger. Thus a 3,000 mile flight from New York to Paris with 250 people on board produces 375,000 pounds of CO2! An astounding amount.
Using your footprint to plan reductions
Coleman recommended that no one panic or go to live in a cave. Instead, he suggested people look at their footprint via an online quiz, and see what their biggest contributions are. Then see what are the easiest things to do and do them first. Ask yourself, “What changes can I make that will be a platform for future changes?” Ask how much it will cost to reduce a pound of CO2 in each area of your life. Ask yourself what you enjoy, and try to focus on those things, while reducing CO2 in areas you don’t enjoy.
In addition to using gasoline and electricity, people also produce solid waste. To reduce each person’s solid waste production, Coleman suggested simple actions like building a compost pile in the backyard and using it daily for vegetable waste, shredded newspapers, coffee grounds, tea bags, etc., to keep these things out of the landfill. Also, when shopping, ask yourself, “Do I really need to buy that? Does my neighbor have one that we could share? He recommended repairing items when possible instead of throwing them away and buying new ones; for example: shoes, clothes, lamps, lawn mowers. He recommended actively seeking out recycled items at salvage yards and buying items made from recycled materials.
Since transportation is most people’s biggest carbon impact, Coleman suggested several ways to reduce people’s transportation footprint. Use alternative transportation whenever possible, including buses, trains, light rail, bicycles, and walking. He suggested we drive less, drive small, drive smart, and carpool with others. To increase the fuel efficiency of a vehicle, he reminded us to have our cars serviced and tuned regularly, remove things from the roof and trunk to streamline the vehicle’s profile and weight, and follow speed limits.
Coleman recommended limited use of offsets – buying carbon credits from other people such as those who are building wind farms, planting trees, replacing low-efficiency boilers, etc. He said we should plant our own trees and sign up for wind power from our utilities.
To builders, Coleman directed suggestions such as building smaller homes and building with energy in mind. Because energy will become more and more expensive, builders need to talk to customers about the operating costs of their homes and the impact of decisions like siting the home on the lot, location of trees, numbers and kind of windows and their placement, choice of HVAC systems, etc.
Finally, Coleman turned to the topic of food. He said that food represents 1/3 of our impact on the environment due to emissions produced in growing, transporting, and preparing it. He recommended that people make a concerted effort to eat local through buying at farmers’ markets, sharing a Community Supported Agriculture membership, planting a garden, or participating in a community garden. He recommended that we learn to eat seasonally and not demand raspberries in January. He recommended that we buy organic, and that we consider reducing our meat intake. The United Nations reported that 18% of global gas emissions are attributed to the raising, transporting, and processing of livestock.
All in all, Coleman gave the audience many facts, explained basic principles, and provided suggestions for concerned citizens who want to reduce their impact on the world.
