Calculating your carbon emission: aviation travel as an example

Calculating carbon emission is the first step in applying a project as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) activity to gain carbon credits. Now that CDM activity has taken root in the country (see previous post), a better understanding of the process of calculating carbon emissions is necessary.

 It is not only CDM projects that make such calculations. In the never-ending search for energy efficiency and in efforts to combat global warming, companies ranging from multinationals to rural piggeries, have launched programs to limit their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the extent of making their operations carbon neutral.

Also, big sporting events like the World Cup and the recently concluded Beijing Olympics, and large international conferences like the gathering of G8 leaders in Japan, have been under severe pressures to limit their GHG emissions and minimize their environmental impacts.

 Organizers and environmental critics would dearly love to see these events becoming carbon neutral.

 SAS, an IT vendor for business intelligence, sensing an upcoming opportunity, has already introduced into the country a carbon calculator, a software that determines a company’s or an event’s carbon footprint.

 The first step in hosting a carbon neutral event—say, a conference--is quantifying how much GHG emissions the event would likely generate. The emissions assessment should cover not only during the event itself, but throughout-- from planning, to calculating the two-way travel emissions by the participants, to recycling of materials at the end of the show.

 To do this, one should calculate the total carbon emission or footprint of the event using a carbon calculator.

 Existing carbon calculators range from order-of-magnitude estimates to fairly sophisticated devices that detail every possible source of emission and the methods backed up by reputable data. There are free carbon calculators usually offered by non-governmental organizations concerned with global warming and government institutions such as the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and there are sophisticated commercial calculators used by carbon market traders, renewable energy project developers applying for carbon credits through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) developers, and big business carrying out a corporate program towards carbon neutrality.

 Outputs also vary greatly in accuracy depending on the type of event or project being considered, on the assumptions and data used by the calculator developer and on the geographical area where the calculator is to be used.

 There are activities or projects such as aviation travel or driving a car to a given distance, wherein the carbon footprint can be calculated with reasonable accuracy. At the other extreme, there are projects wherein the calculations border on faith and questionable assumptions. These include biomass burning, reforestation and carbon sequestration by soils.

 In order for offsetting to be credible, the GHG emission has to be calculated accurately. Therefore, the most important consideration is to choose carefully the carbon calculator to be used.

 Let us take a fairly simple example relevant to carbon neutral conferences: aviation travel. Jardine (2005, p.2) presented a detailed presentation on how aviation emission per individual is calculated.

 The major assumptions in the calculation include the knowledge of the amount of fuel during the flight, the distance traveled, cruising altitude, weather conditions, the passenger and cargo load, the likely aircraft type used, etc. Even if these are accurately known, one cannot simply arrive at a general impact value per passenger.

 For example, flight distance does not scale linearly because one has to consider the extra burn required during take-off and landing. Needless to say, direct flight is far more efficient than one with a stop-over.

 Different types of aircraft burn fuel at different amount; therefore in Jardine’s (2005, p.3) study, three most likely aircraft types were considered: Boeing 737 for short-haul and Boeing 747 and Airbus 320A for medium and long-haul.

 After the emission is determined, the global warming impact has to be determined using a chosen metric. In aviation, the usual metric is radiative forcing which is defined as “the change in the energy balance of the lower atmosphere by a climate change mechanism” and is measured in units of Watts per square meter (W/m²). The ‘climate change mechanism’ is typically the emission of a greenhouse gas (e.g. CO₂ from human activity), or a collection of different gases (e.g. all greenhouse gases from the agricultural sector).

 Despite a well defined boundaries or conditions for the calculations, different calculators give different answers. For example, six different calculators gave values ranging from 2 to 6 tons CO₂ tons for a 17,900 km flight.

 The differences in the estimates arise from: (a) whether only CO₂ or all GHG gases are considered, (b) including or not non-gas components that could affect the metric used; and (c) setting the boundaries for the calculation—that is, whether the portion of airport services is considered or not.

It is preferable to choose a calculator which is most comprehensive in its calculation.

 It is also crucial to choose a provider accredited with a top accepted standard to ensure getting a comprehensive calculator. Some of the stringent standards include the Gold Standard, the Greenhouse Gases Protocol, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) ISO14064, The Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) and The Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standards (CCBS).

 After going through the rigors of understanding and choosing the most appropriate carbon calculator, one is now poised to offset his event’s carbon emissions.

 Reference:

Jardine, C.N. (2005). Calculating the environmental input of aviation emission, 14. Retrieved August 18, 2008 from http://www.climatecare.org/media/documents/pdf/        Aviation_Emissions_&_Offsets.pdf

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Note added, November 18, 2008: On Thursday this week President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will preside over an important conference billed Carbon-Cutting Congress vs. Climate Change which will showcase this adminstration's "Green Philippines" program. This program should start calculating the emissions of the 54 congressmen and the whole entourage who will be going to Peru with GMA using the procedure above if Congress is serious about its green program. The gentlemen and ladies will be in for a shock at the number that will be arrived at.

SAS introduces green IT software a.k.a. carbon calculator

SAS, an IT vendor more known for its business intelligence (BI) software and services, has recently introduced in this country a software that supposedly measures a company's eco-friendliness and carbon footprint. Its capabilities, SAS claims, include tracking the level of CO2 emissions of companies and analyzing its impact on its business operations.

Thomas Spiller, SAS senior director for international programs, said the product can be customized to the customer specifications but admitted that since it has just been launched, SAS has yet to sign up a local customer.

Just who are these customers that SAS is targeting, and why should you buy, or not buy, the product?

With the escalating cost of energy and pressures from the environmental movement, big business has started to embrace eco-friendliness and energy efficiency. Going carbon neutral, as the movement is now known, is not just a fad, Spiller assures.

For many companies, moving towards that goal not only enhances their corporate social responsibility (CSR) image, but the bottom line as well from energy savings and increased business.

Usually, the first step towards this direction is to quantify your carbon footprint--that is, how much greenhouse gases (GHG) as typified by CO2, your company is actually producing.

Without saying in so many words, SAS is actually offering a carbon calculator.

A carbon calculator is a device, usually a software, that does what its name implies: calculate the total carbon emission or footprint for a given event, an energy project or a company.

Existing carbon calculators range from order-of-magnitude estimates to fairly sophisticated devices that detail every possible source of emission and the methods backed up by reputable data. There are free carbon calculators usually offered by non-governmental organizations concerned with global warming and government institutions such as the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and there are fairly sophisticated commercial calculators used by carbon market traders, renewable energy project developers applying for carbon credits through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and big business carrying out a corporate program towards carbon neutrality.

Calculating a carbon footprint is not easy. As what any budding software developer is advised, GIGO - garbage in, garbage out. Your results will only be as good as the worst assumption built into the software.

For example, the total carbon footprint of all the employees in a company may be estimated by the average per capita footprint but if the built-in assumption is that for a developed country like Japan or the U.S. where individual energy consumption is far higher, the errors can be very significant.

To be on the conservative side, choose a calculator which is most comprehensive in its coverage. Some calculators for example, fail to take into account such as commuting habit of its employees which can amount to a large number.

If in doubt, ask.

It is also important to choose a provider accredited with a top accepted standard to ensure getting a comprehensive calculator. Some of the stringent standards include the Gold Standard, the Greenhouse Gases Protocol, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) ISO14064, The Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) and The Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standards (CCBS).

You may be passionate about making your company green. Just make sure that you have the right tools in realizing your dream.

Going carbon neutral

Are you carbon neutral?

In this country, if you ask the question chances are you would be met with blank stares, as if saying, what are you talking about? Or shall we change the topic? Try it.

It shows that we are still along way towards a culture of clean energy and energy efficiency.

Going carbon neutral as an individual is all about the good old, energy conservation and being energy efficient. Aside from the updated semantics, becoming carbon neutral takes on a new advocacy-- that of helping to mitigate global warming in your own small way by deliberately changing your lifestyle towards that goal.

The jury is still out whether global warming is caused more by human activities or natural events—one can argue from both ends of the political spectrum. Or whether global warming is intrinsically bad or there might even be hidden benefits to it, according to the devil advocates (For example, global warming could free up vast tracts of tundra for agriculture).

Whatever. But the incontrovertible scientific evidence does indeed point to measurable average global rise in temperatures at least since the rise of civilizations. The body of evidence ranges from paleotemperature measurements of ice cores in Antarctica to ocean currents and to migratory behavior of birds.

Let’s go back to becoming carbon neutral.

Carbon neutrality refers to energy policies and practices that effectively result in zero net emissions of greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases are alleged to contribute significantly to global warming. Any effort to help reduce these gases will offset the effects of global warming.

Carbon neutrality works through a combination of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, researching and utilizing renewable energy resources and offsetting whatever emissions one cannot avoid producing.

There are two groups of ways to become carbon neutral. One, by reducing your own carbon emission by deliberately avoiding activities that emit carbon gases and by becoming energy efficient. And two, by offsetting what you produce by some carbon-reducing activities somewhere around the globe.

Offsetting could also mean you pay companies to maintain carbon reduction projects worldwide like tree-planting program or the use of renewable energy sources which would nullify your carbon emissions.

Large-scale offsetting is probably familiar here in the form of tradable carbon credits granted to renewable energy projects such as the Bangui Bay wind project and the methane gas electricity generation project in San Mateo. These projects have been implemented through the so-called Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol. The mechanism is essentially trading an institution's excess carbon emissions with another’s surplus to lead to a net zero sums.

Offset projects can be classified into two types: avoided emissions and sequestration. The first category seeks to avoid emitting greenhouse gases by using less fossil fuel and switching to renewable sources for power generation.

The second category, sequestration offsets, involves removing an equivalent amount of CO2 from the atmosphere and storing it for a given time. Carbon sequestration proposals range from capturing the carbon dioxide emissions of coal power plants to research on how forests and grasslands management could be improved to increase soil uptake of these gases.

The voluntary offset market has developed into a major market which is triggered by increasing carbon compliance demands especially in more developed societies. Europe and Japan have been the largest buyers and China the largest seller. In 2006, the estimate of the regulated market is placed at $US21.5 billion and voluntary markets at about $US100 million for the first three quarters of 2006. The bulk of the purchases come from corporations with substantial carbon footprints that are looking to minimize their financial risks ahead of tightening regulation.

Examples of carbon offsetting projects are the following: solar power, wind power, hydroelectric power, fuel efficiency, fuel substitution (switching to a fuel which emits less carbon). Co-generation (generate electricity and heat from one source), efficient lighting (replacing incandescent lamps with compact fluorescent lamps), materials switch (replace input materials of industrial processes to one with less carbon emission), construction of green buildings (which are energy and materials efficient), green transport (use of LPG and hybrid cars), utilization of industrial waste (e.g., co-generation), biomass power generation (use of farm residue to generate power), reforestation and efficient pasture management.

Becoming carbon neutral requires a complete change in outlook aside from having the right information.

In the meantime, one can readily take the path to becoming carbon neutral by making improvements right within your home. Some of the things you could do at home include:

* Choose white goods such as freezers, washing machines and air conditioners with high efficiency ratings.

* Replace incandescent lamps with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and other low energy light bulbs. Try to give up your halogen lamps.

* Switch to a power supplier which uses renewable energy if possible. At the moment this is not feasible, but this might be coming your way soon.

* Improve the insulation of your room if you have an air conditioner. Switch off air conditioner earlier; with proper insulation, coolness of the room will persist longer.

* Observe proper recycling of materials

* Don’t leave appliances and lights turned on when nobody is using

* Don't waste water.

* If appropriate, install your own renewable energy systems, such as solar panels in your home.

One could add to the list.

Becoming carbon neutral is not that difficult. Aside from having that feel-good feeling of somehow helping the environment, one can save or make money on the side.