In January 2007 the AMS approved an Environmental Sustainability Policy designed to make the AMS’s well-established environmental actions more effective and consistent. The Policy vision includes the responsibility the AMS has with respect to the current ecological crisis and strongly states our commitment to meeting this obligation: The AMS recognizes the ecological crisis humanity faces and the special responsibility universities, and university students, have in finding and implementing solutions. We acknowledge our obligations as global citizens and strive to create a sustainable and equitable future for all. The AMS will be a leader in reducing the university campus’ ecological footprint to sustainable levels and in fostering environmental justice in our own operations and through our relationships with the University community and the broader community. The AMS will be an engine for new ideas and innovation, and will be a model for the University and for other student organizations to follow. The purposes of the Strategy defined in the AMS Environmental Sustainability Policy include: • To guide the AMS’s work to areas where we can have the greatest effect. • To establish procedures for monitoring and reporting on progress. • To showcase the AMS’s leadership in order to distinguish the AMS and our businesses from the University as a whole.

The number of publications on environmental footprint indicators has been growing rapidly, but with limited efforts to integrate different footprints into a coherent framework. Such integration is important for comprehensive understanding of environmental issues, policy formulation and assessment of trade-offs between different environmental concerns. Here, we systematize published footprint studies and define a family of footprints that can be used for the assessment of environmental sustainability. We identify overlaps between different footprints and analyse how they relate to the nine planetary boundaries and visualize the crucial information they provide for local and planetary sustainability. In addition, we assess how the footprint family delivers on measuring progress towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), considering its ability to quantify environmental pressures along the supply chain and relating them to the water-energy-food-ecosystem (WEFE) nexus and ecosystem services. We argue that the footprint family is a flexible framework where particular members can be included or excluded according to the context or area of concern. Our paper is based upon a recent workshop bringing together global leading experts on existing environmental footprint indicators.

Environmental and carbon footprints have recently come to the fore of the media’s, governmental and general public’s attention. They offer an excellent indication of humanity’s demands upon Nature and allow evaluation of ecological deficit by contrasting supply and demand. The ecological debt many nations find themselves in is unsustainable, globally inequitable and adds to the growing effects of climate change. These footprints need to be further investigated, looking at historic and future trends in order to better understand, not only the global overuse of natural capital, but also the imbalance between nation states of the world. The value and limitations of the footprint must be recognised; the footprint alone cannot represent the full anthropogenic impacts upon the Earth. This thesis focuses on developing the definitions of the ecological and carbon footprints, analysing the significant factors that affect their composition. The selected parameters are diverse, ranging from a host of economic, geographic and climatic factors. It is shown that both the carbon and ecological footprints are primarily driven by economic welfare, a result that reflects the consumptive nature and fundamental basis of the footprint. Analysis of the resultant correlating equations, for both the environmental and carbon footprints, highlights the differences between the developing and industrialised world in terms of their profligate or frugal use of Nature’s resources. This concludes the stark contrast between these regions of the globe in terms of their per capita and total footprint values. The disparity between the populous South and the prosperous North is further investigated to the year 2100, with the use of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s scenarios and adaptation of the correlating ecological footprint equation. Four separate scenarios are adopted, each having different underlying assumptions regarding economic development, demographic transition and environmental awareness for various regions of the world. For all scenarios the Southern regions rapidly increase their levels of total ecological footprint; in contrast the industrialised world maintains a relatively conservative evolution. Although different scenarios suggest contrasting future pathways, the hope of contraction and convergence among global footprint levels is not completely lost. The intensification of carbon emissions from both the affluent North and the majority South are considered with respect to population, economic and energy use trends from 1900 to the end of the twenty-first century. It is overwhelmingly shown that affluence will drive growth in carbon emissions across the world by the end of the century. Global inequality must be reduced; the footprint is utilised to demonstrate the trends in resource misuse and contrast between the ecological debtors and ecological creditors of the world.

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.

Growing populations and periodic drought conditions have exacerbated water stress in many areas worldwide. Consequently, it would be valuable to manage both supply and demand of water to fully address water sustainability. Additionally, the inextricable link of water and energy -- energy is required to pump, treat, and distribute water and water is often used in the production of energy -- creates the need to study the use of these resources together. In response to water stress, some municipalities have considered desalination of saline water as a freshwater supply. Unfortunately, desalination requires a sizeable energy investment and causes significant carbon emissions with conventional approaches. However, renewable energy technologies can be paired with desalination to mitigate concern over the environmental impacts of increased energy use. At the same time, desalination can be operated in an intermittent way to match the variable availability of renewable resources. Both wind and brackish groundwater resources are plentiful in the Panhandle region of West Texas, making an integrated wind-powered desalination facility an option for meeting increasing water demands. Integrating wind power and brackish groundwater desalination generates a high-value product (drinking water) from two low-value resources (saline water and wind power without storage). This thesis presents a thermoeconomic, geographic, and operational analysis of an integrated wind-powered reverse osmosis facility treating brackish groundwater in West Texas. The results demonstrate the favorability of the integrated facility under certain economic, geographic, and operating conditions. Also in response to water stress, corporations are becoming increasingly interested in identifying water vulnerabilities in their operational portfolios to minimize physical, reputational, regulatory, and financial risks associated with potential water shortages. The water footprint is one tool available to assess water use, identify vulnerabilities, and guide mitigation strategies. This thesis provides an accounting methodology for water reporting that includes direct water uses and indirect (embedded in energy, services, and products) water uses in the operations. Further, a case study is considered to illustrate the methodology by assessing the water impact of a mixed-use facility in Palo Alto, California. The results demonstrate the importance of considering the indirect water uses, which requires a more exhaustive analysis. / text

ICA vill utveckla sitt miljöarbete i vattenfrågor. Denna rapport syftar till att öka medvetenheten hos ICA om verksamhetens miljöpåverkan genom att analysera vattenfotavtrycket – vanligen kallat Water Footprint – för ett livsmedel. Vattenfotavtryck är ett verktyg inom miljösystemanalys som används för att kartlägga sambandet mellan produktion och konsumtion av produkter och vattenanvändning. Studien visade att vattenfotavtrycken är ungefär 14 500 liter/kg och 16 500 liter/kg för svensk respektive irländsk nötfärs. Ursprunget till fodret samt vilka sorters vatten som används visade sig vara avgörande för vilka konsekvenser vattenfotavtryck ger upphov till. Utvärdering av de negativa konsekvenserna är en genomgående svårighet med vattenfotavtryck, en lösning kan vara att relatera vattenfotavtryck till den lokala vattenstressen samt hushållens vattenkonsumtion. / ICA is one of the leading companies in retail trade in northern Europe and is established in Sweden, Norway and the Baltic countries. ICA is interested in developing the business environmental management by taking into account water-related issues. The purpose of this study is to illuminate the link between company activities of ICA and water use, by applying the tool of water footprint. It is an environmental systems analysis tool that was developed by Professor Arjen Y. Hoekstra at University of Twente and the Water Footprint Network and it is mainly used to calculate the consumption of fresh water that is linked to the consumption of a product. The water footprint concept covers three different types of water; blue, green and grey water, where the green water is rain water, blue water is fresh water and groundwater, and grey water is a theoretical volume of water consumed as a consequence of emission of pollutants. In this study, the blue and green water footprint of Swedish and Irish minced beef has been analyzed. The results showed that the total water footprint of Swedish minced beef is about 14 500 liters per kg, of which about 14 200 liters is green water and 200 liters is blue water. About 98% of the water footprint is domestic since the majority of feed materials origins from Sweden. The total water footprint of Irish minced beef is about 16 500 liters per kg, of which about 15 000 liters is green water and 1 500 liters is blue water. Approximately 21 % of the total water footprint is external due to imports of water intense feed materials. Assessing the environmental and social impacts of the water footprint showed to be difficult because they are multidimensional. As an example, the consequences of a relatively small water footprint in countries with extremely scarce water may be severe, while a much larger water footprint in countries such as Sweden has a relatively small impact. In order to identify water footprints with the potential of causing major environmental and social impacts, data on regional water stress and water availability was used. For example, total household water consumption in water scarce Pakistan is about 58 liters per person and day, roughly 10 times lower compared to the U.S. This water is almost equivalent to the water footprint (52 liters per kg) in Pakistan caused by the production of Irish minced beef. The analysis section also showed that there are substantial difficulties in comparing water footprints of foods in order to identify products with minimum environmental impact. This has two main reasons: First, green water, i.e. evapotranspiration, is a part of the natural cycle of water which varies regionally. Secondly, foods are not always comparable, because different foods provide different nutrients. One solution would be to compare foods on the basis of a common denominator, e.g. animal based foods could be compared on the basis of protein content.

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 thesis aims to apply the concept of the Ecological Footprint (EF) to examine the impact that the tourism industry has on the environment through energy consumption and also investigates patterns of energy-consuming behaviour among tourists and tourism businesses. EF is becoming an increasingly popular analytical tool in tourism studies. However, at present most attention has fallen on its value for studying tourism in international level. Moreover, very few studies have taken account of the influence of social factors when making EF calculations linked to tourism. As a consequence of these biases, there is currently a need for studies of tourism which take account of EFs at the destination level and how the behaviour of tourists and tourism businesses affects energy consumption at holiday destinations. This study addresses this gap by investigating the EF of energy-consuming behaviour linked to tourists and tourism businesses at a particular holiday destination, namely Koh Samui in Thailand, and also by exploring the factors which influence this kind of behaviour. The findings of this study show that most tourists rely on modes of transport which release high levels of CO2 (especially long haul flights). In the case of Thailand, a majority of tourists fly from Bangkok to Koh Samui and then use private cars to get around the island. Energy intensive electrical appliances such as air conditioning and tankless hot water heaters were widely used in accommodation, while beach activities, which generally have a low carbon footprint, attracted the largest numbers of tourists. It was also found that demographic factors, including travel behaviour and concern for the environment, influenced these kinds of behaviour in various ways. As regards different types of tourism business, in the accommodation sector hotels used the largest quantities of electricity while tour operators used more diesel and petrol than any other type of tourism business. Furthermore, it was also found that even though respondents who stayed in five-star hotels expressed the greatest level of concern for climate change, they still considered their own convenience and satisfaction to be their highest priorities. Tourism on Koh Samui consumed about 54.55 PJ of energy in 2007 and thus needed 3.41 gha of forest land to absorb the resulting CO2 emissions. Given that this figure exceeds the current world-average biocapacity of 1.8 gha, it can be stated that tourism on Koh Samui is currently unsustainable. This study highlights the relationship between the EF of tourism at a particular holiday destination and the energy-consuming behaviour of both tourists and tourism businesses. In this way, it is shown here that excessive energy consumption combined with a lack of effective energy management in the business sector can lead to the development of an unsustainable EF. In response to this finding, practitioners and policy-makers should consider ways of mitigating EFs linked to tourism.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1993 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / A very restrictive down-range flight area for a small ground-to-air missile required the interruption of the flight after the missile had flown past a specialized target and telemetry data had been transmitted to a receiving station. Explosive bolts separated the missile into two sections and cables loosely attaching the two sections caused the system to tumble and therefore interrupt the flight. Because of the high dynamic forces exerted on the attaching cables, soft material "shock absorbers" were used to assure the integrity of the cables.

The Environmental footprint is a very powerful tool that helps an individual to understand how their everyday activities are impacting environmental surroundings. Data shows that global climate change, which is a growing concern for nations all over the world, is already affecting humankind, plants and animals through raising ocean levels, droughts & desertification and changing weather patterns. In addition to a wide range of policy measures implemented by national and state governments, it is necessary for individuals to understand the impact that their lifestyle may have on their personal environmental footprint, and thus over the global climate change. “My Footprint Calculator” (myfootprintcalculator.com) has been designed to be one the simplest, yet comprehensive, web tools to help individuals calculate and understand their personal environmental impact. “My Footprint Calculator” is a website that queries users about their everyday habits and activities and calculates their personal impact on the environment. This website was re-designed to help users determine their environmental impact in various aspects of their lives ranging from transportation and recycling habits to water and energy usage with the addition of new features that will allow users to share their experiences and their best practices with other users interested in reducing their personal Environmental footprint. The collected data is stored in the database and a future goal of this work plans to analyze the collected data from all users (anonymously) for developing relevant trends and statistics.