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AMS Lighter Footprint StrategyDoherty, Eric 31 January 2008 (has links)
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.
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Energy consumption and the ecological footprint of tourism in an island destination : the case of Koh Samui, ThailandPongsakornrungsilp, Pimlapas January 2011 (has links)
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.
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Modeling the per capita ecological footprint for Dallas County, Texas: Examining demographic, environmental value, land-use, and spatial influencesRyu, Hyung Cheal 29 August 2005 (has links)
This study addresses factors driving the variation in the per capita Ecological
Footprint (EF) in Dallas County, Texas. A main hypothesis was that scientifically
estimated demography, environmental values, spatial attributes, and land-use patterns
surrounding an individual are significant factors in the size of per capita EF. This study
was based on the survey method and GIS routines. Additionally, a multiple regression
method was employed to address the study question. The survey measured respondents??
EF using an ??Ecological Footprint Quiz?? consisting of sixteen questions regarding
individual food, mobility, housing, and goods/services consumption. GIS technologies
were used to objectively measure spatial attributes. The environmental values were
measured by selected questions regarding ecological crises.
This study found from the descriptive analysis that Dallas County??s average
personal EF was 26.4 acres: food (5.1), mobility (3.3), shelter (8.3), and goods and services (9.8). The study indicates that the residents need ecologically productive land
more than 105 times the area of the county.
Based on the explanatory analysis, the following summary points can be made
about the factors driving of the variance, not only in the per capita composite footprint
but also in each of the personal footprint components:
First, a highly educated, non-married, older male living in a high income
household located in a low population density area is more likely to have a larger
personal composite footprint. Second, a person with a weak environmental awareness
living where the ratio of employment opportunities (places to work) is worse, and living
far from freeways and major lakes but close to major malls, is more likely to have a
larger personal food footprint. Third, a younger person living in a high income
household located close to major malls but far from Dallas/Fort Worth Airport is more
likely to have a larger mobility footprint. Fourth, a highly educated non-married older
male living in a highly developed area is more likely to have a larger shelter footprint.
Fifth, a highly educated non-married older male living in a high income household
located in a low population density area is more likely to have a larger goods and
services footprint.
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Ekologiskt fotavtryck av metallerna i en smartphoneOlerud, Jon, Gullström, Niklas, Wesslander, Niklas, Åstrand, Robin, Söderqvist, Victoria January 2019 (has links)
This bachelor thesis aims to decide the ecological footprint of a smartphone and examine the ways the production of asmartphone can be improved. This is done by examining the ecological and the social aspects that are related to theproduction of smartphones. We focused on the production of metals, because metals represent a major part of asmartphones environmental impact. Ten metals were chosen based on earlier studies regarding smartphonesenvironmental impact. These metals were aluminium, lead, gold, cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel, palladium, silver andrare earth metals. To be able to evaluate the metals, a Multiple-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) was done. Sevenrelevant aspects were chosen: i) problem at production ii) health risk iii) Job opportunities iv) recycling v) CO2emission vi) use of land vii) use of water. For these aspects each metal was assigned a grade representing how criticalthe metal is regarding the specific aspect. The results show that land use and health risks when spillage in environmentare the aspects where the metals have the highest negative impact. Further, several metals were critical when it comesto environmental impact. For instance, cobalt mining involves bad working conditions, gold production contributes totoxic spillage in the environment and lithium requires large quantities of water. Opportunities of improvement thathave been identified is to further focus on recycling, improve the transparency regarding the manufacturing of asmartphone, as well as implementing life cycle assessment in the design of smartphones.
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Aging of Development: the Saemangeum Tideland Reclamation Project (STRP) in South Korea and Sustainable Development of the Two Townships in and out of the STRPChoi, In Huck 2012 May 1900 (has links)
Is the biggest tideland reclamation project in the world (the STRP) sustainable? Since 1991, the STRP which aims at converting mudflats into 401 km2 farmland and industrial complex has been carried out in the southwestern coast of South Korea. I designed a comparative study between two neighboring rural townships with nearly identical social and ecological features except that one is within the project area and no longer has mudflats, and the other is outside of the project area and has retained its mudflats (an important source of clams). This dissertation answers the question above by comparing, sustainable development indicators and quality of life indicators in the two townships. I expected to find that people living in the township within the project area would be more sustainable because they have gone through with the environment versus development controversy in their own villages and many of them participated in person in protests with the national/local environmental movement organizations.
This study uses one of the best known consumption-based sustainable development indicators (SDIs) - Personal Ecological Footprint (PEF), combined with the ethnographic data from the two townships (Gyehwa-township and Simwon-township) – to demonstrate that the PEF values of the two townships appear to be the same and the status of quality of life is quite similar.
As an explanation of the unexpected result, this study contends that the level of sustainable development of the people in the in-project area (Gyehwa-township) has been more affected by nation-wide economic development trajectory than by a major regional development project (the STRP). The first stage of the STRP - the construction of the dykes - has brought about a significant effect of displacement, which cannot be said to be sustainable. However, the total influence on sustainable development in South Korea by the STRP will be determined by the progress of the second stage - internal development.
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Exploring the Ecological Footprint of Tourism in OntarioJohnson, Peter January 2003 (has links)
Once considered a 'green' industry, tourism and its associated ecological impacts are now widely acknowledged. Focus within tourism planning has aimed to reduce the ecological burden placed on a destination area, and move towards a more sustainable tourism industry. This research proposes the use of the Ecological Footprint (EF) as a tool to compare the ecological costs of different types of tourism. The EF shows the relative amount of productive land appropriated by the activities and choices of an individual tourist.
The main goal of this study was to analyse and compare the ecological resource use of tourism in Ontario. Surveys were conducted with tourists staying at 9 different types of accommodations throughout Ontario. Additional data were collected from personal interviews with accommodation managers at each location and incorporated into the EF calculation. Four areas of tourism ecological impact were identified; tourists' personal consumption, transportation, activity, and accommodation costs. These four components contributed in varying degrees to each tourist Ecological Footprint, and this variation became the main area of analysis.
The findings of this research demonstrated that air travel contributes significantly to the total ecological cost of a particular tourism experience. Comparably, travel by personal car made a much smaller contribution to the tourist EF. Thus, local area tourists who could drive to a destination had a smaller EF than those long-distance domestic and international tourists who flew. Accommodation ecological costs were primarily a factor of the amount of built space available, and total energy usage per guest. Accommodations that had a large number of occupants for a given area and level of energy consumption achieved a scale of efficiency. In this manner, larger, more efficiently constructed accommodations often made smaller contributions to the tourist EF than small-scale, but inefficient accommodations.
The main conclusion was that the ecological impacts of tourism can be quantitatively recorded, and that a complete trip view of tourism ecological resource use is necessary. When considering practical applications in the tourism industry, an Ecological Footprint analysis could be used by tourism managers as an evaluative tool to compare the ecological outcome of various construction, programming, and operational changes. For the tourist, the EF can serve as an 'eco-label', to distinguish one type of 'green' tourism from another, creating a more informed consumer. Ultimately, the Ecological Footprint serves one purpose- to demonstrate that less ecologically consumptive tourism choices are possible for both tourists and tourism managers.
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Exploring the Ecological Footprint of Tourism in OntarioJohnson, Peter January 2003 (has links)
Once considered a 'green' industry, tourism and its associated ecological impacts are now widely acknowledged. Focus within tourism planning has aimed to reduce the ecological burden placed on a destination area, and move towards a more sustainable tourism industry. This research proposes the use of the Ecological Footprint (EF) as a tool to compare the ecological costs of different types of tourism. The EF shows the relative amount of productive land appropriated by the activities and choices of an individual tourist.
The main goal of this study was to analyse and compare the ecological resource use of tourism in Ontario. Surveys were conducted with tourists staying at 9 different types of accommodations throughout Ontario. Additional data were collected from personal interviews with accommodation managers at each location and incorporated into the EF calculation. Four areas of tourism ecological impact were identified; tourists' personal consumption, transportation, activity, and accommodation costs. These four components contributed in varying degrees to each tourist Ecological Footprint, and this variation became the main area of analysis.
The findings of this research demonstrated that air travel contributes significantly to the total ecological cost of a particular tourism experience. Comparably, travel by personal car made a much smaller contribution to the tourist EF. Thus, local area tourists who could drive to a destination had a smaller EF than those long-distance domestic and international tourists who flew. Accommodation ecological costs were primarily a factor of the amount of built space available, and total energy usage per guest. Accommodations that had a large number of occupants for a given area and level of energy consumption achieved a scale of efficiency. In this manner, larger, more efficiently constructed accommodations often made smaller contributions to the tourist EF than small-scale, but inefficient accommodations.
The main conclusion was that the ecological impacts of tourism can be quantitatively recorded, and that a complete trip view of tourism ecological resource use is necessary. When considering practical applications in the tourism industry, an Ecological Footprint analysis could be used by tourism managers as an evaluative tool to compare the ecological outcome of various construction, programming, and operational changes. For the tourist, the EF can serve as an 'eco-label', to distinguish one type of 'green' tourism from another, creating a more informed consumer. Ultimately, the Ecological Footprint serves one purpose- to demonstrate that less ecologically consumptive tourism choices are possible for both tourists and tourism managers.
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Measuring and Characterizing the Ecological Footprint and Life Cycle Environmental Costs of Antarctic Krill (Euphausia superba) ProductsParker, Robert 11 April 2011 (has links)
The fishery for Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) has received considerable attention in recent years, owing largely to the possibility of its significant expansion and the ecological implications of increased extraction of a keystone species. This thesis employed Ecological Footprint (EF) analysis and life cycle assessment (LCA) to measure the resource use, energy use, and emissions associated with three krill-derived products: meal and oil for aquaculture feeds, and omega-3 krill oil capsules for the nutraceutical market. The product supply chains of one krill fishing and processing company, Aker BioMarine, were used as a case study to examine Antarctic krill-derived products. Antarctic krill products were compared to products from similar fisheries targeting other species for reduction into meal and oil, including Peruvian anchovy (Engraulis ringens), Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus), blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou) and Gulf menhaden (Brevoortia patronus), on the basis of marine footprint, carbon footprint, and fuel use intensity.
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Sustainable community development - impact of residents' behaviour on total sustainability of a sustainable communitySeidel, Volker Patrick 18 July 2013 (has links)
Planners and designers of sustainable communities claim they design them according to sustainability principles, but residents must also embrace those principles in their private lives in order to reduce the community's ecological footprint. One such sustainable community is the "UniverCity" on Burnaby Mountain next to the Simon Fraser University. This research investigated the influence of the residents' individual behaviour on the total ecological footprint of this sustainable community and how planners can influence their residents' behaviour. Using the UniverCity as a case study, this research demonstrates that not all sustainable community planners attempt to influence the residents' behaviour to be more sustainable and that the planners do not always measure the ecological footprint of a community. The study recommends that community planners should attempt to measure this or similar indicators and use direct and indirect influencing methods to build an active and engaged community and foster sustainable behaviour.
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Integrating life cycle analysis and the ecological footprint calculator to foster sustainable behaviorsAnderle, Kathryn 12 1900 (has links)
Many tools have been developed to assess global, national or regional sustainable development policies. However, as governments develop sustainable policies, individuals must also feel empowered to affect their personal impact on the planet. This thesis integrates three sustainability concepts that lend themselves to individual sustainability: The natural step, life cycle assessment, and the ecological footprint. TNS serves to provide the meaning and substance toward sustainable development. LCA helps provide the framework for assessing sustainability. The EF calculator determines the driving components and measures the qualitative decisions made through TNS and LCA. From the analysis of the household footprint calculator a simplified footprint calculator was developed to assist individuals and communities in setting benchmarks and goals as they move away from over-consumption and towards a sustainable lifestyle.
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