...EAS510 Homework 1 Huang Hua A. Calculate your ecological footprint (EF), and indicate how many planets would be needed if all humans on earth had your footprint. Answer: My ecological footprint is 30.40gha. If everyone one the planet live my lifestyle, we will need 1.93 Earths. Figure 1. Ecological Footprint calculated with www.myfootprint.org. B. Describe the principles and assumptions used in the metho. Answer: The Ecological Footprint Quiz estimates the area of land and ocean required to support our consumption of food, goods, services, housing, and energy and assimilate our wastes. The ecological footprint is expressed in "global hectares" (gha) or "global acres" (ga), which are standardized units that take into account the differences in biological productivity of various ecosystems impacted by our consumption activities. Our footprint is broken down into four consumption categories: carbon (home energy use and transportation), food, housing, and goods and services. Our footprint is also broken down into four ecosystem types or biomes: cropland, pastureland, forestland, and marine fisheries. My life style currently is: a family of three living in a family house of around 200 square meter, own a car, healthy food diet, and once per year family trip. C. Explain quantitatively the relative impact of each of the input items on the footprint. Figure 2 Composition of my Ecological Footprint and it’s comparison with the country’s average (note that the...
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...First of all I would like to start with how astounded I was that I had an ecological footprint that was that far above the national level. I like to consider myself someone who is very environmentally conscious but I clearly still have some work to do. In today’s society it has become very important that the peripheral nations develop and become economic equals with the rest of the world, and it will definitely be a challenge to make sure that they do it in a way that is environmentally sustainable. This though is very possible as I believe if while they are developing they need to focus on transportation and their sources of energy. It is a widely known fact that transportation (mainly cars) is the main source of CO2 released into the atmosphere and the main cause of air pollution, which contributes to global warming. This is important because when peripheral countries are developing this becomes a priority to make sure that they develop in a sustainable way with the best ways of transportation. While peripheral countries are developing core countries should work with them and stress the importance of the development of hybrid cars and public transportation. This would allow for a large reduction in air pollution as public transit removes a lot of cars from the streets which reduces CO2 emissions. Hybrids would help as they reduce all greenhouse gases from when the car is idling or just sitting at a traffic light. If hybrids are a not successfully introduced a suggestion that...
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...IMPACT OF MEDIA ON SOCIETY Media has continuously pervaded and defined society and has advanced with technology. The traditional forms of media propagation including television, newspapers, posters and mail remain as efficient as before the introduction of newer methods. Email, websites, e-zines and social online media have replaced expensive media production such as magazines and photographic paper. Media imparts and shapes society’s opinion on the subjects of politics, business, culture and sports. It reflects on the freedom of speech and freedom of expression within a country. The positive aspects of free media far outweigh the negative effects that may occur. In the case of internet based media, control is difficult. Control of the Internet has however been imposed in China. Media has the ability to bring relief to disaster prone areas while at the same time it may be responsible for nurturing prejudice against certain regions. For example, the perception that Africa is an extremely underdeveloped region although it is actually bustling with megacities. In the world of social media, gossip columns have the potential to ruin lives of individuals or boost their popularity. Advertising through modern media has led to the rise of fortune 500 companies. It has been argued that media has resulted in a generation of couch potatoes who rarely engage in outdoor activities. It has become rarer to find someone who has good handwriting since typing is now the preferred skill...
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...the changes will be of an entirely different nature. We will no longer be able to depend on the input of energy from fossil fuels, partly because oil production is set to peak and start its inevitable decline, threatening everything that depends on it. Increasingly, sustainability becomes a struggle not only to ensure that future generations have the means to survive, but also to meet the needs of the present in the deteriorating conditions of the world, needing a careful plan to transition our society. To walk in the correct path is required sustainability literacy which, in this book, indicates necessary attributes to survive and thrive in the declining conditions of the world. Ray Anderson provides an example of a business that, with ecological intelligence, changed to a company that rents out carpet tiles, reuses them when no longer required, replacing only those that have worn out, and even then recycling the discards using energy generated from wind and the sun. To explore the skills demanded of people in the twenty-first century, this book brings leading specialists from many areas, and the interaction with them is provided by workshops firstly exploring skills such as social conscience, permaculture design, or futures thinking, after that the book provide a list of resources for gaining a deeper insight into the skills described. The book aims to bring different perspectives that can shift the debate away from the narrow focus of the dominant discourse on ‘skill set’ for...
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...Spain or Google Inc. be required to remove the personal data relating to him, so that it no longer appeared in the search results. EU Court of Justice on 23rd May 2014 declared: • On the territoriality of EU rules: Even if the physical server of a company processing data is located outside Europe, EU rules apply to search engine operators. • On the applicability of EU data protection rules to a search engine: Search engines are controllers of personal data. Google can therefore not escape its responsibilities before European law. • On the “Right to be Forgotten” : Individuals have the right - under certain conditions - to ask search engines to remove links with personal information about them. Ecological Footprint The Ecological Footprint measures how much biologically productive land and water area is required to provide the resources consumed and absorb the wastes generated by a human population, taking into account prevailing technology. The annual production of biologically provided resources is...
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...by 2020. Overall, the Authority is building a sustainability initiative which will align with the 50% reduction needed by 2055. Vision The NTA is driven towards a 15% reduction in GHG emissions by 2015 and a 25% reduction by 2020. Overall, the Authority is building a sustainability initiative which will align with the 50% reduction needed by 2055. Mission The NTA is committed to provide new and expanded levels of service to the community. The D.R.I.V.E program is intended to incorporate sustainable practices in all that we do both now and in the future to lower our greenhouse gases carbon footprint for generations to come. Mission The NTA is committed to provide new and expanded levels of service to the community. The D.R.I.V.E program is intended to incorporate sustainable practices in all that we do both now and in the future to lower our greenhouse gases carbon footprint for generations to come. Northern Transit Authority...
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...enterprises (SMEs), they have to compete with cheaper labor, production costs and regular supply from producers outside the EU. The EU-funded EUPHOROS project increased the efficient use of inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides in protected horticulture. The four-year study, completed in August 2012, developed a sustainable greenhouse system that does not fully rely on fossil fuels for energy and minimizes the carbon footprint of agriculture. The project achieved a 50% reduction in the amount of energy used as well as a sizeable saving of chemical inputs: a third less fertilizers and a tenth less pesticides. The result was a number of structured components that can be used by farmers across the EU, three of which contain innovative tools and systems to reduce energy, water, fertilizer, pesticide consumption and waste. Another intervention optimizes the growing environment, developing innovative and robust monitoring tools. A theoretical analysis was also conducted throughout the project to quantify the reduction of resource inputs and carbon footprint delivered by each component, together with financial and economic consequences. The project identified several energy-saving areas in protected agriculture. “We tried to focus on the most typical greenhouses in Europe. The heated glass house and the plastic multi-tunnel are the most common in the Mediterranean region,” says Dir. Cecilia Stanghellini, project leader of EUPHOROS. “The environmental impact from protected...
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...services you purchase? After got more information about nature resources, I think I have bad habits for using the goods. Before that, I usually throw the paper which I did not use the both side of it. And I always buy something which I do not have to buy it in supermarket. When I learned this class, I need to change some bad habits in my daily life. If everyone can do some activities for protect the nature resources, the world will be better. 3. How would your ecological footprint be different if you lived in a less industrialized country? If I live in a less industrialized, the market will have less kinds of products. And the number of cars on the road will less than developed countries. Also, I will buy bus or just walk to a place, it will protect the environment better. The purchasing will lower that others. So it will affect the ecological footprint. 4. How would your ecological footprint be different if you ate a vegetarian diet or a vegan diet? 5. How would your ecological footprint be different if you ate a lot more beef at every meal?...
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...GSK Corporate Responsibility Report 2013 62 Taking a scientific approach to sustainability The sourcing of raw materials and the complex, energyintensive chemical processes involved in transforming them into our products accounts for around half of our value chain carbon footprint. Over the last five years, we have been using innovative technology to reduce environmental impacts associated with manufacturing active pharmaceutical ingredients – the substances in our drugs that treat or prevent illness. Following trials in Jurong, Singapore, teams at the eight facilities where we produce active ingredients are implementing holistic improvement plans which are bringing significant environmental benefits and cost reductions. Infrastructure investments included installing a biogas plant at Irvine, UK, a combined heat and power facility in Worthing, UK, and a photo oxidation system for waste treatment in Singapore. Our site in Cork, Ireland, where we are now bio-treating waste and recovering the energy produced, achieved zero waste to landfill for the third year running in 2013, and has cut water use by 57% and carbon emissions by 41% since 2008. in the world). This innovative process will significantly cut our carbon emissions by reducing cooling requirements, as well as producing less organic waste. Many of the improvements we are making take time to We are also making changes implement. But across all to the chemical processes ...
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...city of our earth. Our ecological footprint already disastrous will become much more detrimental with the staggering population growth.1 Our ecological footprint is largely comprised of three main elements of consumption: food, wood, and land. However, components such as energy consumption also need to be accounted for.2 Food availability, to a great extent, determines the carrying capacity for every population of species. The growth of industrial agriculture has caused a tremendous increase in food production around the world.3 Be that as it may, these practises consist of mechanization and fertilization both of which are dependent on petroleum. The United States uses 12% of its oil intake on food production alone. As the amount of oil in the world begins to decrease, so will the production of food.4 As Thomas Robert Malthus quotes in his An Essay on the Principle of population, “... the power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.” 5 Malthus explains that the production of food cannot keep up with the rapidly increasing population.6 Wood consumption includes all the paper, packaging, wood furniture and firewood that we use day after day. 7 This part of the ecological footprint also needs to include the wood products that an individual uses in the systems and organizations that support them. Today, the world’s consumption of wood products, and therefore its ecological impact, is far greater than the carrying capacity of our ...
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...Name:________________________________ Cornerstone 1: Biology Carbon Footprint Exit Ticket Directions: Compare the pairs of mitigation actions by filling in with ‘>’ (greater than), ‘<’ (less than) or ‘=’ (about the same) in terms of how many tons of CO2 does each action save. 1. Moving from a house to an apartment _______ Changing to energy efficient light bulbs 2. Reducing two loads of laundry per week. _______ Starting to turn off the TV when not watching it. 3. Stop using air conditioning in some of the rooms during the summer. _______ Switching from a large SUV to a midsized car. 4. Flying in an airplane one less time per year. _______ Eating one less time a week at a fast food restaurant. 5. Starting to recycle plastic. _______...
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...responsibly on behalf of future generations to achieve economic, environmental and social progress: • For the environment, Siemens is providing innovative products and solutions to improve both its own eco balance and those of its customers and suppliers. • For business, Siemens is focusing on long-term value creation. • For the society, Siemens is developing its own employees and striving to be good citizens in all the communities in which the company is active. The Siemens CSR strategy includes Focus, Implementation & Budget. According to the company’s current sustainability-related portfolio, Siemens is focused on: • Environmental Portfolio • Integrity • Innovation • Human rights • Occupational health and safety • Own ecological footprint • Sustainability in the...
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...SWOT analysis and sustainable business planning Introduction IKEA is an international home furnishing retailer. Its vision is ‘to create a better everyday life for many people’. It carries a range of nearly 10,000 products. IKEA has 18 UK stores as well as online ordering through its website. IKEA has responded to the public’s rising concern for sustainability. It believes a strong environmental stance is good business practice. SWOT analysis IKEA uses SWOT analysis to help reach its goals of sustainability and environmental design. It is a strategic planning tool to help businesses identify key issues. It looks at the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats involved in a project. Strengths and weaknesses are internal aspects. They may refer to marketing, finance, manufacturing or the organisation’s structure. Opportunities and threats are external aspects. These may come from the environment, the economy, social changes or technological advances. Businesses must create opportunities and counter threats by utilising their strengths and managing weaknesses. Strengths Strengths are aspects of a business that add value to its products or services. IKEA’s strengths include: • a strong global brand • clear vision • strong concept • ‘Democratic design’ (which balances function, quality, design and price). IKEA uses Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to help measure its performance. KPIs show how IKEA is making progress towards its vision. IKEA also...
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... In the article, An urban metabolism and ecological footprint assessment of Metro Vancouver (2013), Moore, Kissinger, and Rees present extensive data regarding urban metabolism analysis (UMA) of residential consumption and ecological footprint analysis (EFA) of the Metro Vancouver region for the year 2006. The authors first collect Metro Vancouver’s urban metabolism data from local and provincial government, and provincially owned corporations and include: Metro Vancouver reports, Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority reports, Province of British Columbia reports, as well as BC Hydro reports (Moore et al, 2013, p. 54). The authors then collect Metro Vancouver’s ecological footprint estimates, in global average hectares (gha), of the ecosystem area required on a continuous basis by the region’s population to produce the products and carbon emissions in which it produces (p. 54). The third figure accompanying the article (p. 57), which summarizes the urban metabolism and ecological footprint of Metro Vancouver for 2006 (p. 56), indicates that water represents the largest material flow through Metro Vancouver of 424,860,000 m3, but has the smallest ecological footprint of 34,550 gha (p. 57). The results on figure three (p. 57) also display that food (1,753,000 tonnes) contributes the largest component to the ecological footprint of 4,514,400 gha (p. 57). The authors determine that Metro Vancouver’s total ecological footprint in 2006 is equivalent to 10,054,400 gha, which...
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...Calculating Ecological Footprints A major reason Bangladesh has a relatively small ecological footprint is that it is a mainly agricultural and fishing nation of generally low income people (Bangladesh.) Thus they consume basically what they can grow and catch. With low income they have little import and export and do not affect the world ecological system as much as nations who have large import and export, such as the United States. The United States on the other hand has a large footprint because it is an industrial country with a high level of income, with the higher level of income there is a much greater demand for goods from other countries. The U.S. is the world’s largest importer and the third largest exporter (World’s 10) having a tremendous impact just in those factors alone. Importing goods means we are affecting other parts of the world by consuming the resources of that particular area. Also, since we are consuming more goods, we also affect the pollution of not only the originating areas but our own, we generate more waste and this waste affects our soil and air. Since we are a country of wealth and power we need to use it to help save our planet for ourselves and future generations, by setting and implementing standards in sustainability. Based on the data in the table, average per capita income does affect ecological footprints but the major factor according to Global Footprint Network, is the nation’s consumption based on adding or subtracting imports...
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