Making the world’s longest subsea tunnel sustainable

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ketil Søyland ◽  
Christer Wolden ◽  
Christopher Garmann ◽  
Debbie Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Infrastructure Projects ◽  
Subsea Tunnel ◽  
Engineering Practices

<p>How can large-scale infrastructure projects be sustainable? The purpose of this paper is to discuss how engineering practices were changed in order to reduce the carbon footprint of the E39 Rogfast project, the world’s longest roadway sub-sea tunnel. The project will generate greenhouse gas (GHG)-emissions exceeding 1% of Norway’s total annual GHG-emissions. The paper covers the project process, including some of the challenges to be overcome.</p>

scholarly journals Carbon Footprint Assessment of Spanish Dairy Cattle Farms: Effectiveness of Dietary and Farm Management Practices as a Mitigation Strategy

Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 2083
Author(s):  
Ridha Ibidhi ◽  
Sergio Calsamiglia
Keyword(s):  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
System Model ◽  
Feeding Strategies ◽  
Management Scenarios ◽  
Dietary Practices ◽  
Enteric Methane ◽  
Increase Milk Production

Greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon footprint (CF) were estimated in twelve Spanish dairy farms selected from three regions (Mediterranean, MED; Cantabric, CAN; and Central, CEN) using a partial life cycle assessment through the Integrated Farm System Model (IFSM). The functional unit was 1 kg of energy corrected milk (ECM). Methane emissions accounted for the largest contribution to the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The average CF (kg CO2-eq/kg of ECM) was 0.84, being the highest in MED (0.98), intermediate in CEN (0.84), and the lowest in CAN (0.67). Two extreme farms were selected for further simulations: one with the highest non-enteric methane (MED1), and another with the highest enteric methane (CAN2). Changes in management scenarios (increase milk production, change manure collection systems, change manure-type storage method, change bedding type and installation of an anaerobic digester) in MED1 were evaluated with the IFSM model. Changes in feeding strategies (reduce the forage: concentrate ratio, improve forage quality, use of ionophores) in CAN2 were evaluated with the Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein System model. Results indicate that changes in management (up to 27.5% reduction) were more efficient than changes in dietary practices (up to 3.5% reduction) in reducing the carbon footprint.

Carbon Footprint Analysis of an Educational Institution

2015 ◽  
Vol 787 ◽  
pp. 187-191
Author(s):  
P.M. Sivaram ◽  
N. Gowdhaman ◽  
D.Y. Ebin Davis ◽  
M. Subramanian
Keyword(s):  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emission ◽  
Educational Institution ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Liquefied Petroleum Gas ◽  
Diesel Generator ◽  
Working Paper ◽  
Corporate Carbon Footprint ◽  
The Impact

Global warming and climate change are the foremost environmental challenges facing the world today. It is our responsibility to minimize the consumption of energy and hence reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases. Companies choose ‘Carbon Footprint’ as a tool to calculate the greenhouse gas emission to show the impact of their activities on the environment. In this working paper, we assess the carbon foot print of an educational institution and suggest suitable measures for reducing it. Greenhouse gas emitting protocol for an academic institution in terms of tones of equivalent CO2 per year is projected using three basic steps includes planning (assessment of data’s), calculation and estimation of CO2 emitted. The estimation of carbon foot print is calculated by accounting direct emission from sources owned/controlled by the educational institution and from indirect emission i.e. purchased electricity, electricity produced by diesel Generator (DG), transport, cooking (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) and other outsourced distribution. The CO2 absorbed by trees are also accounted. Some of the options are identified in order to reduce CO2 level. The information of corporate carbon footprint helps us identifying the Green House Gases (GHG) emission “hot spots” and identifies where the greatest capacity exists in order to reduce the GHG emissions. The main prioritization goes to transport and then followed by DG, cooking and then electricity. The per capita CO2 emission and the total CO2 emission for a typical educational institution are estimated.

Take actions or outsource? An empirical examination of strategic environmental options on greenhouse gas emissions

2020 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 753-776
Author(s):  
Wayne Fu ◽  
Hung-Chung Su
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Pollution Prevention ◽  
Empirical Examination ◽  
Environmental Practices ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Environmental Consequences

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the effects of three strategic environmental options on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Namely, we examine the effects of pollution prevention and waste management (PPWM) practices, green supply chain (GSC) practices, and outsourcing on reducing local and supply chain GHG emissions.Design/methodology/approachUsing ASSET4 and deploying first-differencing fixed-effects panel data models, the study conducts a large-scale empirical examination on the effects of these focal strategic environmental options on GHG emissions.FindingsThis study finds that PPWM practices reduce local GHG emissions and that GSC practices reduce supply chain GHG emissions. The results also show that outsourcing does not reduce local GHG emissions and has an adverse effect on supply chain GHG emissions.Practical implicationsThe study findings indicate that environmental practices are effective in reducing GHG emissions. However, they are effective only in their corresponding domain. Further, outsourcing is not a viable strategic option, and managers should be mindful of its undesired environmental consequences.Originality/valueFirms undertake strategic environmental options, such as implementing environmental practices and reallocating production activities, to improve their environmental performance. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of these options on reducing GHG emissions has not been thoroughly examined.

Analysis of Calculation Methods for Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Road Sector

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viktoras Vorobjovas ◽  
Algirdas Motiejunas ◽  
Tomas Ratkevicius ◽  
Alvydas Zagorskis ◽  
Vaidotas Danila
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Road Construction ◽  
Evaluation Methods ◽  
The Road ◽  
Construction Methods ◽  
The Impact

Climate change is one of the main nowadays problem in the world. The politics and strategies for climate change and tools for reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and green technologies are created and implemented. Mainly it is focused on energy, transport and construction sectors, which are related and plays a significant role in the roads life cycle. Most of the carbon footprint emissions are generated by transport. The remaining emissions are generated during the road life cycle. Therefore, European and other countries use methods to calculate GHG emissions and evaluate the impact of road construction methods and technologies on the environment. Software tools for calculation GHG emissions are complicated, and it is not entirely clear what GHG emission amounts generate during different stages of road life cycle. Thus, the precision of the obtained results are often dependent on the sources and quantities of data, assumptions, and hypothesis. The use of more accurate and efficient calculation-evaluation methods could let to determine in which stages of road life cycle the largest carbon footprint emissions are generated, what advanced road construction methods and technologies could be used. Also, the road service life could be extended, the consumption of raw materials, repair, and maintenance costs could be reduced. Therefore the time-savings could be improved, and the impact on the environment could be reduced using these GHG calculation-evaluation methods.

scholarly journals Determining the 2019 Carbon Footprint of a School of Design, Innovation and Technology

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1750
Author(s):  
Guillermo Filippone ◽  
Rocío Sancho ◽  
Sebastián Labella
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Renewable Sources ◽  
Innovation And Technology ◽  
Design Innovation

As a contribution to the fight against climate change, ESNE’s 2018/19 carbon footprint has been evaluated using the CarbonFeel methodology, based on ISO 14069 standards. In the scenario studied, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced by direct and indirect emissions have been included. For comparative purposes, a second scenario has been analyzed in which fossil fuels used for heating are replaced by electrical energy from renewable sources. A decrease of 28% in GHG emissions has been verified, which could even reach 40% if the energy for thermal conditioning was replaced by renewables.

scholarly journals Greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation potential of hybrid maize seed production in northwestern China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Liu ◽  
Wushuai Zhang ◽  
Xiaozhong Wang ◽  
Yanjun Guo ◽  
Xinping Chen
Keyword(s):  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Seed Production ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Electricity Consumption ◽  
Northwest China ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Maize Seed ◽  
Quantitative Evidence ◽  
Hybrid Maize

Abstract Although hybrid maize seed production is one of the most important agriculture systems worldwide, its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and potential mitigation measures have not been studied. In this study, we used life cycle assessment (LCA) to quantify the GHG emissions of 150 farmers run by 6 companies in an area of northwest China known for hybrid maize seed production. The results indicated that the average reactive nitrogen (Nr) losses and GHG emissions from hybrid maize seed production were 53 kg N ha− 1 and 8077 kg CO2 eq ha− 1, respectively, which are higher than those of the conventional maize production system. Furthermore, the average nitrogen and carbon footprints of the process were 12.2 kg N Mg− 1 and 1495 kg CO2 eq Mg− 1, respectively. Nitrogen fertilizer and electricity consumption for irrigation were the main contributors to high GHG emissions, accounting for 60% and 30% of the total, respectively. The GHG emissions from seed production for different companies varied greatly with their resource input. There was also a large variation in environmental burdens among the 150 farmers. Based on an analysis of the yield group, we found that the carbon footprint of the first group (the one with the highest yield) was 27% lower than the overall average. Scenario analysis suggests that a combined reduction of N input rate, optimizing irrigation, and increasing yield can eventually mitigate the carbon footprint of hybrid maize seed production by 37%. An integrated systematic approach (e.g., ISSM: integrated soil-crop system management) can reduce the GHG emissions involved in producing hybrid maize seeds. This study provides quantitative evidence and a potential strategy for GHG emissions reduction of hybrid maize seed production.

Modelling of greenhouse gas emissions from European croplands with the biogeochemical model ECOSSE

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Kuhnert ◽  
Michael Martin ◽  
Matthew Mcgrath ◽  
Pete Smith
Keyword(s):  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Production Model ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Biogeochemical Model ◽  
Annual Data ◽  
System Variable ◽  
Nitrogen Emissions

&lt;p&gt;Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions contribute to climate change. Agricultural production contributes 10 &amp;#8211; 14 % of the global anthropogenic GHG emission, including 37 % from soils (Paustian et al., 2016). Monitoring and analysis of emissions from agriculture is the basis for reducing GHG emissions and applying mitigation options. Measuring and estimating emissions from the agricultural sector are challenging and modelling is a useful tool to capture the heterogeneity of the dynamics. Agricultural management is the main driver for the carbon and nitrogen dynamics in croplands, which makes model approaches difficult, as potentially there is great heterogeneity in the influencing factors, but also a lack of robust data for management data for larger scales. Additionally, measurements of GHG emissions are scarce, on small (spatial and temporal) scales, or do not reflect the entire range of system variable combinations. This hinders the evaluation of large scale simulation results. The objective of the study was to simulate the GHG emissions (CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; and N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O) for European croplands and use national inventory data for the evaluation of the results. We used the model ECOSSE which is based on the carbon model RothC and the nitrogen model SUNDIAL. For yield production, the primary production model MIAMI is coupled with ECOSSE. The model structure allows small scale differences (resolution for simulation is 0.1&amp;#176;) to be captured, while simulating monthly time steps. This balances the uncertainty of the available input data with the accuracy of the simulated results. The model shows reasonable results for the CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; emissions, but underestimates heterotrophic respiration, which leads to an overestimation of carbon fluxes to the soil. Nitrogen emissions are underestimated due to underestimation of fertilizer applications in some hot spots. The comparison with national inventories that depend mainly on statistics using simpler approaches shows differences to the simulation approach, which indicates the strong dependency of the emissions on the management data. The model approach provides the spatial distribution of the emissions as well as inter-annual dynamics. The changes on the model showed already the improved performances by the model and the extension to include more target variables. More sub-national and sub-annual data sets for evaluation will allow a further improvement of the model performance.&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;

scholarly journals Users’ Experiences with the Use of Transaction Data to Estimate Consumption-Based Emissions in a Carbon Calculator

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (18) ◽  
pp. 7777 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolmet Barendregt ◽  
Aksel Biørn-Hansen ◽  
David Andersson
Keyword(s):  
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ◽  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Bank Account ◽  
Gas Emissions ◽  
Technical Problems ◽  
Perceived Safety ◽  
Transaction Data ◽  
User Input

With global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions ever increasing, we are currently seeing a renewed interest in carbon footprint calculators (or carbon calculators for short). While carbon calculators have traditionally calculated emissions based on user input about e.g., food, heating, and traveling, a new development in this area is the use of transaction data to also estimate emissions based on consumption. Such carbon calculators should be able to provide users with more accurate estimations, easier input possibilities, and an incentive to continue using them. In this paper, we present the results from a survey sent to the users of such a novel carbon calculator, called Svalna. Svalna offers users the possibility to connect their bank account. The transaction data are then coupled with Environmental Extended Multi Regional Input Output data (EE-MRIO) for Swedish conditions which are used to determine a continuous overview of the user’s greenhouse gas emissions from consumption. The aim of the survey was to (a) understand whether people are willing to connect their bank account, (b) whether they trust the calculations of their emissions, and (c) whether they think the use of Svalna has an effect on their behaviour. Furthermore, we wanted to know how Svalna could be improved. While the results of the survey showed that many users were willing to connect their bank account, a rather large part of the users perceived safety risks in doing so. The users also showed an only average level of trust in the correctness of the estimated greenhouse gas emissions. A lack of trust was attributed to experiencing technical problems but also to not knowing how the emissions were calculated and because the calculator could not capture all details of the user’s life. However, many users still indicated that the use of Svalna had helped them to initiate action to reduce their emissions. In order to improve Svalna, the users wanted to be able to provide more details, e.g., by scanning receipts and get better options for dealing with a shared economy. We conclude this paper by discussing some opportunities and challenges for the use of transaction data in carbon footprint calculators.

scholarly journals Carbon footprint for wheat and maize production modulated by farm size: a study in the North China plain

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Liantao Hou ◽  
Yinsheng Yang ◽  
Xiaoyi Zhang ◽  
Chunming Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
North China Plain ◽  
North China ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Farm Size ◽  
Maize Production ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The North ◽  
The North China Plain

Purpose The relationship between farm size and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has not been clearly defined. This paper aims to assess and compare the impact of farm size on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions derived from wheat and maize production in the North China Plain (NCP), one of the most important agricultural regions in China. Design/methodology/approach A field survey through face-to-face interviews was conducted to collect the primary data, and life cycle assessment method, a worldwide comparable framework, was then adopted to characterize the farm-size effect on greenhouse gas (GHG) wheat and maize production in NCP. Findings It was confirmed that GHG emissions from N fertilizer production and use were the primary contributor to total carbon footprint (CF). As farm size increased, maize yield increased but wheat yield barely changed, while area-scaled and yield-scaled CF declined for both crops. These results were supposed to relate to utilize the inputs more efficiently resulting from increased application of modern agriculture methods on larger operations. It was also found maize not only had higher grain yields, but possessed much smaller CFs. More notably, the reduction of CF with farm size seemed to be more sensitive for maize as compared to wheat. To further mitigate GHG emissions, farm size should better be larger for wheat than for maize. Originality/value This study provides useful information guide for Chinese agriculture in increasing crop production, raising farm income and relieving environmental burdens caused by the misuse of agricultural resources.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document