CEB 20003

INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL
ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY

ASSIGNMENT:
CARBON FOOTPRINT

PREPARED BY:

STUDENT’S NAME STUDENT ID

Khairul Amin Bin Ahmad Shukri 55213218051

LECTURER’S NAME:
Dr. Amelia Binti Md Som
1.0 Introduction

In the public debate about accountability and mitigation against the threat of global
climate change, the term "carbon footprint" has become extensively used. Its public profile
has risen dramatically in recent months and years, and it is now a buzzword extensively
utilised in the media, government, and business circles. (Wiedmann, 2009)

Carbon footprint refers to the total amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions produced
by a person or other entity's activity (e.g., building, corporation, country, etc.). It comprises
direct emissions from fossil-fuel combustion in manufacturing, heating, and transportation, as
well as emissions connected with the production of power for goods and services used. In
addition, other greenhouse gases such as methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons are
frequently included in the carbon footprint idea (CFCs).

The carbon footprint concept is connected to and evolved from the earlier ecological
footprint concept, which was developed at the University of British Columbia in the early
1990s by Canadian ecologist William Rees and Swiss-born regional planner Mathis
Wackernagel. The total area of land necessary to sustain an activity or population is referred
to as an ecological footprint. It takes into account environmental factors like water
consumption and the quantity of land utilised for food production. A carbon footprint, on the
other hand, is commonly expressed as a weight measurement, such as tonnes of CO 2 or CO2
equivalent per year.

Carbon footprints are not the same as per capita emissions declared by a country (for
example, those reported under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change). Carbon footprints focus on the greenhouse gas emissions connected with
consumption rather than the greenhouse gas emissions associated with production. They take
into account emissions from commodities that are imported into a country but produced
elsewhere, as well as emissions from international transportation and shipping, which are not
accounted for in typical national inventories. While a result, a country's carbon footprint may
grow even as carbon emissions within its borders decrease.
 On a global scale, home consumption accounts for 72 percent of greenhouse gas
emissions, while government consumption accounts for 10% and investments for 18 percent.
Food accounts for 20% of GHG emissions, whereas residential operation and maintenance
accounts for 19%, and mobility contributes for 17%. In developing countries, food and
services are more significant, whereas in developed countries, mobility and manufactured
goods rise rapidly with money and dominate. The value of public services and produced
goods has not been adequately recognised in policy. As a result, policy priorities are
determined by the state of development and country-level features. (Hertwich & Peters, 2009)

1.1 Ishikawa Diagram

An Ishikawa diagram depicts the causes of an event and is frequently used in

manufacturing and product development to define the many steps in a process, highlight
where quality control concerns may arise, and determine which resources are necessary at
key moments.

In the 1960s, Kaoru Ishikawa created the Ishikawa diagram as a means to measure
quality control operations in the shipbuilding sector. Fishbone diagrams, herringbone
diagrams, cause-and-effect diagrams, and Fishikawa are all terms used to describe Ishikawa
diagrams. They are Kaoru Ishikawa's causal diagrams that show the causes of a certain event.
They have the appearance of a fish skeleton, with the "ribs" symbolising the causes of events
and the end conclusion appearing at the skeleton's head. The Ishikawa diagram's objective is
to help management figure out which issues need to be handled in order to gain or avoid a
specific event.

The Ishikawa diagram can be used in clinical settings as well as in mental and
behavioural health. It provides a method for identifying and collecting potential sources of an
effect in a structured and methodical manner. Identifying the barriers, facilitators, and
incentives for a behaviour, reviewing literatures, analysing flow charts, conducting failure
mode and effect analysis (FMEA), surveying, interviewing, brain storming, conducting focus
group discussions, and using the problem driven iterative adaptation (PDIA) approach are all
examples of processes for gathering and organising potential causes. It can also be used to
connect a sequence of chronological events in a creative way. (Wong et al., 2016)
1.2. Objectives

 To calculate the value of carbon footprint of oneself per year

 To investigate the value obtained from the carbon footprint
 To understand better on the carbon footprint and raise awareness
2.0. Data & Results

Figure 1: Total Carbon Footprint per person:

3.0 Discussion

From the information generated from the data and result of the carbon footprint report
on the website, a few elements can be discussed to understand better how carbon footprint of
one self can affect the environment and also produce outcome on certain aspects. The
Ishikawa Diagram generated mainly focus on food with stating the problem as ‘High CO2
and Greenhouse Gases Produced by Food’. This problem statement were identified for five
different subtopic in terms of machine, man, environment, management and materials.

In houses, machine were commonly uses to ease the workload of human for decades.
The usage of the machine were known to have their own specific carbon footprint count or
carbon release that causes greenhouse effects on the earth. A few example that a person
usually have in a house is a refrigerator. A refrigerator was known to produce a high number
of carbon footprint as for the obvious reason; it must be functioning all the time to ensure the
freshness of the stored food. Other than that, uses of microwaves and oven also produce a
high carbon footprint count per used at high energy is consumed at one time. These reasons
by far consumed a high electrical power to generate the machine. Cooking was one of the
activity done by human for thousands of years for the main reason which to eat to stay alive.
These activity done sometimes includes a few machinery such as rice cooker or a kitchen
exhaust fan. For quite some time, these machine were let alone operated in such a long time
that also can produce a number of carbon emission. Due to the large consumption of raw
materials and energy during machining processes, low-carbon and energy efficiency in the
manufacturing industry have gotten a lot of attention as people's environmental awareness
has grown. (Zhang et al., 2014)

Mankind has also becoming one of the reason why the carbon emission are rising in
terms of food aspects. What differs a person and another person’s carbon emission is their
gender, age, appetite, types of food usually consumed and how many times does one eat per
day. This is very important aspect to be highlighted as one adult male generally needs 2500
calorie intake while an adult woman is 2000 calorie for a day. Apart from industrial activities,
crop cultivation, manufacturing processes, packaging, refrigeration, transportation, cooking,
and waste management all have major environmental costs. In light of increased public
knowledge of the environmental impact of various dietary choices, a review of many
alternatives on the path to a healthy and sustainable diet should include relevant information
on the nutritional quality of various eating habits. (González-García et al., 2018)
 Towards the environment, humans consume many types of food including meat,
plants and also fruits. These actions affects the agricultural development as more farmers
breed and farm more lifestock. Varied CO2 sources have different carbon footprints due to
their energy consumption. Future analyses of carbon capture and utilisation procedures will
be based on the presented assessment method and the carbon footprints of CO2 feedstocks
CO2. (Müller et al., 2020). These actions can even cause effects on landscape of certain area
as to comply the needs of consumptions of millions of humans all over the world.

From the management of an individual perspective on high greenhouse gases, a few

points can be extracted. A bad management of food waste can be identified when one thrown
away the waste without any planning or consideration. Other than that, letting the food to go
bad or inconsumable is a waste of food. Awareness on recycling products and waste must be
raised as this will create more landfill and consume a long period of time to let it degrade.
Malaysian authorities intend to reduce and, where possible, eliminate unsanitary waste
dumping, which puts human health and the environment at threat. The most common criteria
used to build the blueprint for updating municipal solid waste management systems are cost,
energy, and revenue, with carbon footprint emissions being a minor consideration.
(Malakahmad et al., 2017)

Materials of an object also does produce an emission of carbon to the world. Some of
them happened when buying food with packaging, uses an inefficient frying pan at home
when cooking that creates excessive heat, and uses for and spoon to eat where eating bare
hand was and still a common thing in Malaysia.
4.0 Conclusion & Recommendation

To conclude, many businesses are already working on carbon emission inventory

initiatives to establish a baseline for their carbon footprints in advance of future carbon
mitigation projects. The protocols are used by the majority of these organisations to help
them prepare their footprint inventories. Individually, one can also create changes to maintain
the world at stable rate of CO2 or greenhouse gases so that humanity can survive longer in
this world. The objectives of the studies which were to calculate the value of carbon footprint
of oneself per year, to investigate the value obtained from the carbon footprint and to
understand better on the carbon footprint and raise awareness was achieved throughout the
studies. Any number of various stakeholders in the supply chain could claim responsibility
for emissions connected with generating materials, basic chemicals, and other low-value-
added commodities that wind up embedded in final consumer goods in the case of any
intricate product. (Matthews et al., 2008)

Few recommendations can be proposed to lower down the carbon emission of an

individual. One of them is by using the technology of carbon capture. It has been proven that
carbon capture reduces greenhouse gas emissions at the CO2 source. It's crucial to remember,
though, that CO2 reductions from carbon capture aren't usually accounted for in carbon
pricing plans. Captured CO2 from processes is counted as emitted in the EU ETS, for
example, as long as CO2 is not permanently stored, and capture from ambient air is not
included at all. (Müller et al., 2020). In addition, another scenario involves anaerobic
digestion of organic waste and recycling of recyclable wastes including plastic, glass, and
textiles. This scenario with the lowest carbon footprint emissions (0.251 t CO2 eq./t MSW)
was found to be the best. Furthermore, combining anaerobic digestion and recycling
processes resulted in the lowest saved CO2 eq. emissions of 0.74 t CO2 eq./t MSW. Due to
energy recovery from biogas and recycled plastic, glass, and textile wastes that may replace
raw material consumption, the net CO2 eq. emissions of the second scenario totalled 0.489 t
CO2 eq./t MSW. (Malakahmad et al., 2017)
5.0 References

González-García, S., Esteve-Llorens, X., Moreira, M. T., & Feijoo, G. (2018). Carbon
footprint and nutritional quality of different human dietary choices. Science of The
Total Environment, 644, 77–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.06.339

Hertwich, E. G., & Peters, G. P. (2009). Carbon Footprint of Nations: A global, trade-linked
analysis. Environmental Science & Technology, 43(16), 6414–6420.
https://doi.org/10.1021/es803496a

Malakahmad, A., Abualqumboz, M. S., Kutty, S. R., & Abunama, T. J. (2017). Assessment
of carbon footprint emissions and environmental concerns of solid waste treatment and
disposal techniques; case study of Malaysia. Waste Management, 70, 282–292.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2017.08.044

Matthews, H. S., Hendrickson, C. T., & Weber, C. L. (2008). The importance of carbon
footprint estimation boundaries. Environmental Science & Technology, 42(16), 5839–
5842. https://doi.org/10.1021/es703112w

Müller, L. J., Kätelhön, A., Bringezu, S., McCoy, S., Suh, S., Edwards, R., Sick, V., Kaiser,
S., Cuéllar-Franca, R., El Khamlichi, A., Lee, J. H., von der Assen, N., & Bardow, A.
(2020). The carbon footprint of the carbon feedstock CO2. Energy & Environmental
Science, 13(9), 2979–2992. https://doi.org/10.1039/d0ee01530j

Wiedmann, T. (2009). Editorial: Carbon footprint and input–output analysis – an

introduction. Economic Systems Research, 21(3), 175–186.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09535310903541256

Wong, K. C., Woo, K. Z., & Woo, K. H. (2016). Ishikawa diagram. Quality Improvement in
Behavioral Health, 119–132. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26209-3_9

Zhang, C., Gu, P., & Jiang, P. (2014). Low-carbon scheduling and estimating for a flexible
job shop based on carbon footprint and carbon efficiency of multi-job processing.
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part B: Journal of
Engineering Manufacture, 229(2), 328–342.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0954405414527959
6.0 Appendix

Figure 2 Ishikawa Diagram