Lab 2 Carbon Footprint Calculator

1
Group 1 Lab 2 Carbon Footprint Calculator
2
Social Groups Engaged in Carbon Calculations

• Nature Conservancy
• Is a conservation organization working around the
  world to protect ecologically important lands and
  waters for nature and people.
• Inconvenient Truth
• Interactive movie extension intent on pushing a
  specific political agenda - Political will is a
  renewable resource
• U.C. Berkeley Institute of the Environment
• The CoolClimate Calculator has been designed to
  help US households evaluate their complete
  climate footprints, including all direct and
  indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from
  transportation, household energy, food, goods and
  services.

3
Nature Conservancy

• Relevant factions involved in production
• Nature Conservancy
• Relevant factions involved in the use of this
  technology
• Nature Conservancy members
• Concerned public
• Agenda
• There is a carbon offset program offered by the
  Nature Conservancy that is prominently displayed
  upon the completion of the interactive tool.
• As an organization the Nature Conservancy
  carefully avoids the radical leftist fringe and
  tries to remain neutral in its goal of preserving
  land and water for the benefit of natural
  communities. Preservation efforts that inherently
  involve controversy.

4
Inconvenient Truth

• Relevant factions involved in production
• The tool was co-developed by WE and TakePart and
  uses information from the Energy Information
  Administration (EIA), Terrapass, and other
  undisclosed sources
• Relevant factions involved in the use of this
  technology
• Concerned public
• Agenda
• Offers an opportunity to offset carbon through
  the Native Energy Program.
• Al Gore remains a political figure and the tool
  continues the political themes that arose in the
  movie.
• This tool is used to promote special interests.

5
UCB Institute of the Environment

• Relevant factions involved in production
• The Berkeley Institute of the Environment (BIE),
  which is co-directed by Professors Dan Kammen and
  Inez Fung.
• Christopher M. Jones was the lead researcher,
  who, along with graduate student Sally Maki
  developed the tool.
• Relevant factions involved in the use of this
  technology
• Concerned public
• Agenda
• Academic institution which remains fairly neutral
  in its agenda.

6
Not a stable technology

• Varying results show that there has not been a
  standard established to calculate carbon
  emissions.
• Even when the calculators ask similar questions,
  the results among calculators vary by several
  metric tons of carbon for individual output.
• The methods given for each calculator are very
  vague which makes comparing calculators difficult
  and invalidating calculators very easy.
• The consistency of all calculators must be
  improved, and transparent methods should be
  readily available to show how the calculator was
  created and how it should be used by individuals.

7
Nature Conservancy

• Non profit conservation organization, does not
  provide details about who developed their carbon
  calculator or what their instruments for carbon
  measurement are.

8
Inconvenient Truth

• GHG Protocol Mobile Combustion Tool
• Energy Information Administration
• Fuel efficiency of the car from a database
  provided by TerraPass,
• Electricity bills- we take the mid-point of the
  estimated range and divide by the cost of
  electricity in their state (provided earlier in
  the calculator), which we get from the Energy
  Information Administration (EIA), to come up with
  the electricity used

9
Air Travel

• Different emissions factors are used for each
  flight length, as follows
• Short flight .64 lbs/mile
• Medium flight .45 lbs/mile
• Long flight .39 lbs/mile
• Extended flight .39 lbs/mile

10
(No Transcript)
11
Cool Climate Calculator

• Developed by researchers at the Berkeley
  Institute of the Environment (BIE) at the
  University of California, Berkeley. Default
  expenditure values from data at the Bureau of
  Labor Statistics.

12
Berkeleys Calculations

• GHGs/mile gCO2/mi Vehicle manufacturing
  emissions gCO2/vehicle / Vehicle lifetime
  mi/vehicle
• Miles driven mi/yr / Miles per gallon mi/gal
  Fuel used gal/yr
• Fuel used gal/yr (direct indirect fuel
  emissions gCO2/gal) Fuel emissions gCO2/yr
• Miles driven mi/yr (Vehicle manufacturing
  emissions gCO2/ton Vehicle size ton /
  Vehicle lifetime mi) Vehicle manufacturing
  emissions gCO2/yr
• Total driving emissions Fuel emissions
  gCO2/yr Vehicle manufacturing emissions
  gCO2/yr

13
Feedback

• In addition to suggesting more accurate measures
  of an individual's carbon emissions, it would be
  helpful if the websites provided
• application where one could enter specifics about
  each question (more options available to the
  consumer in general)
• 2. provide resources for the consumer to compare
  which companies they are using as a provider for
  electricity, gas (in the home), and gas used for
  transportation, ect.

14

• This could make a difference in the amount of
  emissions used due to the policies of particular
  companies because each one is different and
  therefore offers more varieties in terms of
  consumer preference.
• 3. Also, I would suggest that feedback be given
  to the individual who is tracking their carbon
  emission, to better understand specific steps one
  can do to reduce that amount, based on the
  information given. (Maybe have the information
  blogged or e-mailed to the website for further
  correspondence to the individual.)

15
Calculator Design

• Different variables are used to calculate
  emissions in tons. Each calculator/technology has
  different standards for calculating the carbon
  footprint of the respondent.
• Nature Conservancy calculator uses the US per
  capita carbon footprint and subtracts or adds
  points depending on where the respondent lives
  and how they differ from the mean.
• Another calculator adds up all the components of
  the persons lifestyle and uses these variables to
  find the total carbon footprint. These
  differences in design reflect a lack of a
  generally accepted principle for calculating
  one's carbon footprint.

16
User Engagement

• Some carbon calculators are adaptable. These ones
  are able to provide a interface which can be
  completed very quickly, but also provides
  additional information that can be used to create
  a more in-depth response.
• One carbon calculator showed the incremental
  carbon footprint of carbon producing actions,
  this interface gives the user a more in depth
  explanation to their carbon footprint by
  explaining the each of the components of the
  carbon footprint.
• Most the calculators show how the users footprint
  compares to the nations average and then to the
  world's average. This engages the user by putting
  their carbon footprint in perspective with the
  global community and the nation.

17
What tradeoffs do designers of this technology
make in designing their particular carbon
footprint calculators?
18

• -Simplicity allows for wider participation but
  less accuracy in results
• -Need boiler plate answers to certain questions
• Ex. Living in a certain room, type of house, in
  a particular state, automatically gets you a
  certain carbon footprint

19

• Nature Conservancy(4 bed single family home
  California V. Alaska 4 v 9.2)
• Cool Climate (California v. Alaska is 38 v. 41
  at beginning)
• If data for your city was not available,
  your prices were not adjusted for cost of living
  differences. (Cool Climate)