The emissions associated with food consumption make up approximately 20-30 percent of Scotland’s total greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Reducing demand for high carbon footprint food products may provide an effective instrument for reducing GHG emissions. However, there is concern that using consumption based taxes may also have negative consequences on nutrition. Therefore, this thesis investigates the likely effect of carbon consumption taxes on GHG emissions and the resulting impact on nutrient consumption. The data used for the analysis are the Scottish part of Kantar Worldpanel data for the UK for the period 2006-2013 along with various sources of carbon footprint and nutrient data. This thesis models a carbon consumption tax which is based on the carbon footprint of the products of interest. The impact of the taxes on demand for food products were measured through the use of demand systems. Two forms of demand systems were used: Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) and an Exact Affine Stone Index (EASI) which allow for the estimation of price elasticities based on time series data. These Marshallian price elasticities were then used for estimating carbon footprint and nutrient elasticities which allow for the estimated change in GHG emissions (represented as carbon emissions) and nutrients. The price elasticities were particularly important for identifying the substitutes and complements of the different food products. This is useful as some food products such as poultry have a lower carbon footprint relative to beef products. The results suggest that applying carbon consumption taxes would likely reduce carbon emissions though the reduction is relatively small. The net effect of taxing all major food products would likely reduce emissions by 543,208.75 tCO2e/y which represents approximately five percent of the total emissions in Scotland attributed to food consumption (no land use change considered). However, taxing only meat and milk food products could reduce emissions by approximately 1.6 million tCO2e/y. While this reduction is much larger than when all food products are taxed, it is considered that modelling all the major food products offers a more realistic understanding of how households will change their demand for the different food products. The effect on nutrient consumption with regards to taxing all food products suggests that households with lower socioeconomic status would likely experience some favourable changes in terms of a reduction in sugar and energy. Though a negative distributional effect is likely to occur when considering the decreased consumption of vitamin D and the increased consumption of salt. Therefore, a carbon consumption tax is estimated to reduce food based GHG emissions by a relatively small amount. Despite the mainly positive effect on nutrient intake, policy makers are still likely to be cautious when considering this instrument because of the relatively small (compared to other studies) reduction in GHG emissions.

Master of Science / Department of Architecture / R. Todd Gabbard / Almost forty percent of the global energy use and one-third of the global greenhouse gas emission comes from the building industry. Thus, this sector has the largest potential for delivering long term substantial greenhouse gas reduction. (UNEP, 2009)This dissertation starts with the energy auditing of an architectural firm to calculate the amount of energy used. It then expands into addressing the issue on a greater perspective. The whole agenda of the thesis was to develop a strategy to include the building industry in global carbon market. This thesis was performed in collaboration with nationally recognized, medium-sized mid-western architecture firm. A yearlong internship was completed under this firm, and collaborative research was carried out. To reduce the carbon dioxide emission, it is crucial to be able to measure it. This thesis aims at creating basic guidelines for architecture firms to mitigate its carbon footprint. It also examines the possibilities of carbon footprint mitigation on a bigger scale by proposing a system that would encourage architectural and engineering firms to design and produce more energy efficient buildings. The proposed system deals with calculation and incorporation of creative handprint of an architectural firm and uses the system to rebate its carbon footprint and convert the surplus handprint to a credit in the carbon market. The argument made here is that this scheme is driven by incentives and encourages more architecture and engineering firms to design sustainable buildings. The final proposal links the entire building industry to the carbon market. The proposal made is that a positive handprint of architecture and engineering firms can be converted to carbon credits and traded in the carbon markets.

This study explores the relationship among the overall nutritional quality index (ONQI), the carbon footprint and price of 90 different foods. The ONQI and carbon footprint measure the healthiness and environmental impact of a food, respectively. Two models are estimated. The first is a hedonic model of the food price and two characteristics: ONQI and carbon footprint. A positive relationship between price and carbon footprint is found, implying higher priced foods have a larger environmental impact. The second model is a regression of ONQI on price and carbon footprint. A negative, non-linear relationship between ONQI and carbon footprint is found. This implies there is a complementary relationship between the healthiness of food and its environmental impact. Both models show that healthier food is also higher priced. This could explain why poorer consumers are less healthy than richer consumers, and why taxing food would disproportionately impact the health of the poor.

Die Arbeit handelt vom Greenhouse Gas Protocol und der Anwendung auf Hochschulen. Die Untersuchung zeigt, dass das Greenhouse Gas Protocol sehr universell verfasst wurde und sich somit auch auf Hochschulen anwenden lässt. Speziell für den Hochschulkontext werden keine Leitfäden gegeben. Des Weiteren hat sich herausgestellt, dass Energieverbrauch und Pendelverkehr der Studierenden den Großteil der Emissionen ausmachen. Im Fallbeispiel der HTWK Leipzig konnten Emissionen von rund 263 tCO2e im Jahr 2022 identifiziert werden. Die untersuchten Jahre 2020 bis 2022 unterlagen allerdings der Pandemie, weshalb die reellen Emissionen deutlich höher sein könnten.:Abbildungsverzeichnis Tabellenverzeichnis Formelverzeichnis Abkürzungsverzeichnis 1 Einleitung 2 Theoretische Grundlagen der Treibhausgasbilanzierung 2.1 Carbon Footprint 2.2.1 Product Carbon Footprint 2.2.2 Corporate Carbon Footprint 2.2 Nutzen und Relevanz 3 Greenhouse Gas Protocol 3.1 Grundsätze 3.2 Grenzen der Bilanzierung 3.3 Die drei Scopes 3.4 Berechnung der Treibhausgasemissionen 3.4.1 Treibhauspotential und Emissionsfaktor 3.4.2 Formeln zur Berechnung 4. Die Anwendbarkeit des GHG Protocol auf Hochschulen 4.1 Nachhaltigkeit an Hochschulen 4.2 Praktikabilität 4.3 Anwendungsfälle 5. CO₂-Bilanz der Fakultät Wirtschaftswissenschaft & Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen 5.1 Die Fakultät Wirtschaftswissenschaft & Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen. 5.2 Methoden 5.2.1Systemgrenzen 5.2.2 Organisationsbedingte Grenzen 5.2.3 Geschäftsbedingte Grenzen 5.2.4 Datenerhebung und Berechnung 5.3 Identifizierung der Treibhausgasemissionsquellen 5.3.1 Gebäude 5.3.2 Mobilität 5.3.3 Papier 5.4 CO₂-Bilanz 5.5 Schlussfolgerungen 6 Zusammenfassung Anhang Literaturverzeichnis Eidesstattliche Erklärung

Currently, World is facing global warming, which threats especially winter tourism. Many glaciers started to melt significantly as well as winter seasons get warmer and shorter in many ski areas (Gilaberte-Búrdaloa, et al., 2014). It is a really important issue and challenge especially for ski resorts. However, in spite of ski resorts there are also millions of tourists visiting ski destinations every year. Due to that it should also be important to all those winter enthusiasts to know and reduce their own impacts on environment, if they still want to enjoy snow-based sports and natural beauty of a mountain environment. Due to that, this study chosen to focus on emissions from ski trips seeing form the perspective of the skier in one of the most famous ski region in Sweden. The carbon footprint concept was used to calculate and compare four trips to different ski destinations such as Åre, Vemdalen, Frösön and Storulvån. From each trip the following factors where considered: emissions from production of ski equipment, emissions from skier travel, from purchased electricity in the ski resort and from consumption of fuel by vehicles on the slopes. At least six transportation scenarios per destination were created to investigate possible modes of transportation and their impacts. The results showed that the total amount of carbon footprint per skier differed among the trips from 74.01 kg to 2.40 kg of CO₂-eq. per skier depends on the transportation scenario and destination. It was concluded that skier travel can be a huge source of emissions depending on the distance to chosen destination and type of the transport. However, it was found out that impact from skier travel as well as from ski equipment can be reduced by individual’s choices. Moreover, it was also concluded that the fuel consumed by vehicles on the slopes had a significant impact in all ski resorts and it should become the major issue for ski resorts to find new solutions and practices, which would reduce the amount of emissions.. / <p>2016-08-30</p>

I och med Sveriges åtaganden i Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) och de miljökvalitetsnormer (MKN) som beskrivs i ramdirektivet för vatten kommer Käppalaverket sannolikt ställas inför strängare kväve- och fosforreningskrav. Käppala kan då bli tvungna att införa en ny processlösning t.ex. efterdenitrifikation och förfällning. Hur detta kommer att påverka det totala koldioxidavtrycket utreds i denna rapport. Tidigare har stora energiutredningar utförts på verket men aldrig har ett samlat koldioxidavtryck dokumenterats. En kartläggning över Käppalaverkets totala koldioxidavtryck 2011 gjordes för att skapa en referens för framtida modellering. Utvärderingen visade att Käppalaverkets totala koldioxidavtryck var 16 kg CO2,ek/pe, år. Ryaverket, som gjort en liknande utredning, hade ett totalt koldioxidavtryck runt noll. Det höga koldioxidavtrycket för Käppalaverket, jämfört med Ryaverket, beror framförallt på den höga lustgasemissionen från aktivslambassängen. Under hösten 2012 utfördes mätningar av lustgas för att få fram ett nyckeltal på bildad lustgas per reducerad kväve. Mätningarna visade på en relativt hög lusgasbildning 1,7 % bildad lustgas per reducerad kväve. För att ge svar på vad den nya processlösningen med strängare reningskrav skulle innebära för koldioxidavtrycket, kalibrerades och utvidgades den befintliga reningsverksmodellen Benchmark Simulation Model no.2 (BSM2). I utvidgningen av BSM2 inkluderades beskrivningar över hur Käppalas processer bidrar till koldioxidavtrycket. För att uppnå de nya reningskraven kan dagens fördenitrifikation kompletteras med en efterdenitrifikation och dagens simultanfällning ersättas med förfällning. Modellens biologi kalibrerades med två perioder, ett sommarflöde och ett höstflöde. Sedan simulerades 2011 för att ha ett referensvärde att jämföra framtida simuleringar med. Förfällning visade sig ge en ökad biogasproduktion som bidrog starkt till ett minskat avtryck. Däremot bidrog den ökade energiförbrukningen och lustgasemissionen i den biologiska reningen till ett ökat avtryck. Simuleringen med dagens rening gav ett koldioxidavtryck på cirka 14 kg CO2/pe, år och framtidens processlösning för ökad kväve- och fosforrening gav ett nästan dubbelt så stort avtryck, 26 kg CO2/pe, år. Kostnaden för den totala reningen uttryckt i koldioxidekvivalenter blir i framtiden 4,2 kg CO2/NRED mot dagens 2,5 kg CO2/NRED. En simulering av strängare reningskrav samt ökad flödesbelastning från dagens 440 000 pe till 700 000 pe visade på svårigheter att uppnå de nya reningskraven. Reningskraven kunde inte hållas under de högflödesperioder som uppkom under året på grund av slamflykt från eftersedimenteringarna. Utformningen av reningskraven är betydelsefull för branschen som helhet. Samtliga simuleringar visar svårigheter att hålla kvävekravet vid vårfloden. Det är därför av stor betydelse om kraven formuleras på årsbasis eller om de formuleras månadsvis för att reningsverken ska klara de nya kraven. / In accordance with the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) and the EU water framework directive the Käppala waste water treatment plant (WWTP) could face more stringent discharge limits for phosphorous and nitrogen. To meet these limits Käppala has to change the treatment process, for example implement pre-precipitation and post-denitrification. The effect of more stringent discharge limits on the carbon footprint has not been studied at Käppala WWTP and will be studied in this report. In 2011 a static summary of the carbon footprint was made and serves as a reference for modeling. The evaluation showed that the total carbon footprint of Käppala was approximately 16 kg CO2/pe, yr. At the Rya WWTP in Gothenburg a similar study indicated a carbon footprint of 0 kg CO2/pe, yr. The difference between Käppala WWTP and Rya WWTP is explained by the large nitrous oxide emission from the activated sludge process at Käppala WWTP. During autumn 2012 the nitrous oxide emission was measured in one treatment line at Käppala, in order to get a standard value to use in the model. The measurements showed that 1.7 % of the removed nitrogen was emitted as nitrous oxide gas. An existing model, Benchmark Simulation Model no.2 (BSM2), was extended to model the effect on the carbon footprint with a future process configuration due to more stringent discharge limits. Every process that affects the carbon footprint was described by equations to simulate the emissions from the different treatment processes regarding energy consumption, chemical consumption and transport. In order to meet the new demands, current biological and chemical water treatment with pre- denitrification and simultaneous precipitation was substituted with combined pre and post denitrification and pre precipitation. The calibration of the model was made for two periods in 2011. When the suggested process configuration, with post-denitrification and pre-precipitation, was implemented it showed that the pre- precipitation increased the production of biogas and therefore decreased the carbon footprint. However, the increased nitrous oxide emission and the increased energy consumption due to the more stringent limits resulted in an increased footprint. A simulation of existing and future process configuration showed that the total footprint would increase from approximately 14 kg CO2/pe, year to 26 kg CO2/pe, year. The cost for the extra nitrogen removal would increase from 2.5 kg CO2/NRED to 4.2 kg CO2/NRED. The simulations showed that more stringent limits and increased load from 440 000 pe to 700 000 pe could be met at “normal” flow. At wet weather flow however, the process became unstable with high concentrations of effluent organic nitrogen as a result. A big question for the industry is the design of these new limits for phosphorous and nitrogen. It is of great importance whether the new limits are based on a yearly or monthly average.

Klimatförändring är en fråga som under senare år har fått mer och mer medial uppmärksamhet och svenskarnas individuella miljömedvetenhet uppskattas vara högre än någonsin. Individen pekas ut som att ha ett stort ansvar, men trots klimatkampanjer så fortsätter svenskarnas kollektiva klimatpåverkan ändå att öka. Denna uppsats syftar till att genom diskursanalys undersöka hur klimatansvar, i termer av ansvar för klimatpåverkan och klimatanpassning framställs i två Svenska dagstidningar, Dagens Nyheter och Uppsala Nya Tidning. Svenskt klimatansvar visade sig vara konstruerat på ett tvetydigt sätt där samhällets gemensamma påverkan verkar vara förenad med brist på enskilt ansvar. Individen är den aktör som oftast utpekas som förväntad att ta ansvar för klimatanpassning samtidigt som detta inte på något sätt krävs. De synsätt som präglade klimatdiskursen var de för ekologisk modernisering där fortsatt konsumtionsökning, tillväxt och grön teknikutveckling förväntas ta Sverige ur klimatkrisen utan att större livsstil- eller strukturella förändringar behöver göras. Klimatanpassning framställs gärna som något ”roligt” och enkelt och många alternativa perspektiv på klimatfrågan hamnar i debattens skymundan. / The topic of climate change has received an increasing amount of media attention during recent years and the Swedish people’s individual awareness of environmental issues seems to be higher than ever. The individual is pointed out as having a big responsibility, but despite climate campaigns, the Swedes’ collective carbon footprint continues to increase. This paper aims to, through discourse analysis; examine how responsibility for lowering the carbon footprint and adapting to climate change is construed in two Swedish newspapers, Dagens Nyheter and Uppsala Nya Tidning.Swedish climate responsibility turned out to be diffuse, the individual was encouraged to take responsibility to change but not fully expected to. The perspective that was strongest in this discourse analysis was that of ecological modernization where continued consumption, growth and development of ”green technologies" is expected to bring Sweden out of its climate crisis without noticeable changes in lifestiles or structures. Climate adaptation is portrayed as something ”fun” and easy and many alternative perspectives are kept in periphery of the current debate.

The number of applications and the significance of ultrapure water are increasing over time in both traditional and high-tech industries. For ultrapure water treatment and production, two important types of equipments are the green technology with Electrodeionization modules (EDI), and the traditional ion exchange resins with Mixed Beds (MB). Unfortunately, it is a concern that the highly polluting MB technology produces a large volume of waste-water during the regeneration process, but still owns around 90% market share of all ultrapure water systems. By contrast, although EDI, a high-tech green product of the latest generation, has excellent market advantages and a promising future of totally replacing MB, it grabs only around 10% market share as of 2010. Perhaps, the technology and timing for EDI to be widely applied are still premature. It is also likely that most industrial consumers do not fully understand the real value and deep impact of EDI, and cling to MB under the conventional cost-price consideration. However, it is a global trend to be environmentally friendly. For example, in recent years the world¡¦s major automobile companies have invested in developing and manufacturing hybrid/electric vehicles that are equally functional yet more costly than traditional cars. Moreover, governments counteract general consumers¡¦ preference for low-price products by imposing more stringent standards for cars¡¦ emissions and energy consumptions with the aid of new laws and subsidies. If there is a lesson to be learned here, isn¡¦t EDI to the ultrapure water industry what hybrid/electric cars are to the automobile industry in terms of their developing trends and values? This thesis will examine a specific case, S company, which manufactures EDI. Through the analysis of the company, advantages of its products, and potential opportunities in its business environment, empirically it can be shown that EDI will inevitably become the mainstream in the future market by gradually replacing all traditional MB. Hopefully such an empirical conclusion would inspire and educate industrial manufacturers to make their future choices between EDI and traditional MB based not only on the operating efficiency, but also on which technology contributes more to environmental protection and earth sustainability during the development of an enterprise. It is also of hope that the perspective on system designs and usages could be more objective and unbiased. For instance, instead of always chasing low costs as the first priority in the pursuit of profits and development, enterprises could take into account social responsibilities, such as environment protection, energy conservation, and carbon reduction, and become pioneers in carbon footprint reduction.

This thesis handles the need for Volvo Logistics (VLC) to calculate their total carbon footprint of purchased transportations, i.e. the total carbon dioxide emissions by all vehicles employed by VLC to transport the goods of their customers. The purpose of the thesis is therefore to determine a method with which VLC can calculate the total carbon footprint. To be able to decide upon one method that can fulfil the purpose, the authors searched for various methods, both in the academia and within the transportation sector, with which the emissions can be determined. Simultaneously the available input at VLC was studied to determine what type of method would be best suited to the current state of the company. After gathering several methods and determine what input was available and what was not available at VLC, an analysis of the found methods was done. First matching them with the available input to see which were usable as is, and then a more thorough Analytical Hierarchical Process analysis using three main-criterions; credibility, comparability, and simplicity, each with several sub-criterions. The weighting of these criterions was done in a workshop together with VLC employees, particularly the Environmental Manager and an Environmental Analyst, but also with two employees at the Global Logistics Development department at VLC. Using the weighting and the author’s comparisons of the methods within each of the criterions it was possible to obtain the methods with which further analysis should be done. After further analysis was conducted, considering VLC’s situation and possible development, the final methods was decided upon, one for each mode of transport; air, rail, road, and sea. These had to be adapted to better suit VLC and the input that was available; the distances, the weight, and the transport mode, factors which are incorporated in the methods recommended by the authors. The adaptation was then done using expertise at VLC to be able to determine what input VLC could affect as to be able to work towards lowering the total carbon footprint once it was calculated the first time. This also led to a revaluation of the method for sea transportation, forcing a change from the previously chosen one to a more suited method. This meant that three of the four modes; air, road, and sea, was covered by the NTM method, while rail used the Green Cargo method. While adapting the methods; to make them ready to use for VLC, certain changes required to obtain all the input needed was encountered and forwarded to the environmental department, letting them include it in the annual supplier survey. The thesis was concluded by four sets of instructions to be used to calculate the carbon footprint, one two tiered set for each mode of transportation. The instructions are presented in a step by step fashion of how to perform the calculations. The first part; First time usage, depicts those changes needed before the calculations can be attempted, the second part; Annual usage, cover those steps which has to be gone through every time the total carbon footprint for a period is to be calculated.

abstract: Local municipalities in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area have voiced an interest in purchasing alternate source water with lower DBP precursors. Along the primary source is a hydroelectric dam in which water will be diverted from. This project is an assessment of optimizing the potential blends of source water to a water treatment plant in an effort to enable them to more readily meet DBP regulations. To perform this analysis existing water treatment models were used in conjunction with historic water quality sampling data to predict chemical usage necessary to meet DBP regulations. A retrospective analysis was performed for the summer months of 2007 regarding potential for the WTP to reduce cost through optimizing the source water by an average of 30% over the four-month period, accumulating to overall treatment savings of $154 per MG ($82 per AF). / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Civil and Environmental Engineering 2011