1. Changing our World:
do we plant trees or
create online courses?
...and are these our most viable choices to
achieve our carbon-neutral goal?
2. Overview
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•
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Current CO2 Emissions @ NTU
Stakeholder Analysis
Analysing the Options
o E-Learning Lessons
o Planting Trees
o Purchasing Carbon Offset Credits
Alternative Suggestions
Executive Summary
3. Carbon Footprint
- “ a measure of the exclusive total amount of carbon dioxide emissions that is
directly and indirectly caused by an activity”
- Environmental issues are becoming increasingly important in the agenda of
organizations
- In order to reduce their CO2 emissions, it is important to measure the carbon
footprint.
4. Calculating Carbon Footprint
Emission categories that is mandatory to include in CO2 calculation
Electricity
Heat
Employee commuting
Paper
Emission categories that Universities might consider
Student commuting
Waste
Water
Electricity
On-campus stationary sources
Direct transportation
5. Calculating Carbon footprint
The total CO2 emission of the university should be calculated by multiplying
emission factors and activity data for all the (sub)categories; taking the sum
of these multiplications gives the total CO2 emission of the university.
Total CO2 emission = Each activity data
(kg/km/litres/etc) *Emission factor (CO2 per unit)
[and sum up all different categories]
The degree of uncertainty of the calculations can be assessed by doing a
sensitivity analysis.
6. Current CO2 Emissions @ NTU (Estimated)
Emission Source
Estimated Carbon dioxide
emission (kg)
231,560
- Other on-campus stationary
6,612
Carbon dioxide emission per
student (kg)
2,385
Carbon dioxide emission per
staff (kg)
- Direct transportation (Campus
transport)
23,484
No. of staff
Sope 1
No. of students
2,706
5,720
Scope 2
- Purchased electricity
68,731,344
- Purchased steam
75,085
- Purchased water
550,440
Scope 3
- Staff Commuting
2,551,167
- Student Commuting
1,541,346
- Waste disposal
98,081
- Paper consumption
140,989
7. Current CO2 Emissions @ NTU (Explanatory Notes)
Scope 1
-Direct transportation sources are the vehicles owned by NTU, this includes the shuttle bus services.
-On-campus stationary sources (natural gas) are life cycle emission factors. These emission factors cover
the life-cycle of a fuel, from extraction to combustion. These on-campus stationary sources are produced
from the research laboratory in NTU.
Scope 2
-Libraries, seminar rooms, lecture halls and laboratories are all air-conditioned in NTU. Therefore, there is
a huge emission for the purchased electricity.
Scope 3
-Student commuting and staff commuting are the main sources of scope 3 emissions. The main reason
why the student commuting is significantly lower as NTU has on-campus accommodation for them. Staff
commuting is relatively high as most staffs drive to NTU.
-Paper consumption in NTU is high as it is still a convention for students to use notes printed out on paper
to take down notes during classes.
8. Stakeholder Analysis
Stakeholders
Interests
Students
-Effectiveness of learning
-Conducive environment
-Cost of the education fee
Staffs (Professors,
Admin staff, cleaners)
-Safe and healthy working environment
-Their salary
-Welfare
Government
-Sustainable environment, reputation of Singapore as a “clean and green city”
Non-governmental
organization (NGOs)
-Sustainable environment, low carbon emission
Media
-Letting public know the environmental schemes of organisations
NTU
-Reputation of the university
-Good learning environment for the students to attract more students to join NTU
-Additional cost to be invested
-Desiring an environmentally sustainable campus
10. E-Learning Approach - Carbon Footprints
If we engage E-Learning
If we resume normal 3h lessons*
–Use of computer to e-learn
–Travel: Assume 20% stay in hall/walk, 70% travel (Public Transport),
10% (Private Transport)
35*0.143 = 5.005 kg CO2/hr
–Assume 20% use air con, 80% fan
7*13 = 91 kg CO2/hr
28*0.0542 = 1.5176 kg CO2/hr
–Assume 10% study in the day with
natural lighting, 90% use lighting
31*0.039 = 1.209 kg CO2/hr
Total CO2 emissions per hour:
98.73 kg CO2/hr
2*25*0.32 = 16 kg CO2/2-way trip
2*4*1.87 = 14.96 kg CO2/2-way trip
–Assume 10 sets of lights
3*10*0.039 = 1.17 kg CO2
–Assume 1 Computer, 2 Projectors, 4 Screens
3*0.143 = 0.429 kg CO2
3*2*0.3 = 1.8 kg CO2
3*4*0.735 = 8.82 kg CO2
Assuming E-Learning takes 3hrs,
total CO2 emissions:
–Assume 4 sets of central air-conditioning
296.1948 CO2
–Assume 35 sets of notes (10 pages) printed
3*4*3.25 = 39 kg CO2
35*0.2 = 7 kg CO2
*Assume 35 students per class
Total CO2 emissions per class: 89.179 kg CO2
11. E-Learning Approach
Pros
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Reduce the need for face to face
meetups with the professor at
the classrooms. Classrooms can
be vacant to reduce energy
consumption.
Students need not print notes
and can access online platforms
to complete lessons
Cons
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Effectiveness of online lessons
are questionable
Hard to track student’s progress
if major bulk of the lessons are
placed online.
Assumed energy consumption is
actually higher than in-class
lessons.
12. Planting Trees
Pros
• Constant carbon offset
throughout the year
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•
Zero effort once tree is grown
Visually pleasing
Cons
• Need to set aside large land
•
•
•
area
Hard to calculate carbon offset
amount
Additional costs to implant grown
trees
Takes 5-10 years to grow trees
and gain the benefits of carbon
offset
14. Purchasing Carbon Offset Credits
What is the Purchasing of Carbon Offset Credits?
It is a credit for greenhouse gas reduction achieved by one party that can be purchased and used to compensate
(offset) the emissions of another party.
Carbon offset credit is required when when we are unable to reduce our CO2 emission in the way we
planned.
- A way of compensation
- Carbon offsetting credit can be used if we want our net CO2 emission to be zero
Goal set in NTU (about an emission reduction over a certain period)
Call for collaboration
Demonstrating innovative solutions at the Nanyang Eco campus
- The Nanyang Eco Campus Initiative has a vision to be the greenest eco-campus in the world, the goal is to develop
a framework to achieve 50% reduction in energy, carbon, water and waste intensity.
15. Purchasing Carbon Offset Credits
Pros
Cons
- Immediate solution to meet carbon
emission target, assuming a cap
exists
- Incur additional costs to purchase
credits
- Fastest way to achieve reductions of
CO2
- Balance out carbon impact as a whole
i.e producing CO2 with the credit
purchased = an equivalent amount of
CO2 is reduced somewhere else on
the planet.
- Difficult to verify the actual reduction in
CO2 in NTU
- Reduce incentive to lower the actual
amount of carbon emission, that is in
conflict with the school’s aims of a
sustainable environment.
- Could result in concentration of carbon
emission in a certain area
17. Developing an Eco-Culture in NTU
1. Knowledge: Courses and Seminars can be offered to raise awareness of
the environment. Not only address the consequences but also the specific
ways in which students and staff can help in saving the environment.
Posters stating Eco-Facts can also be placed around the campus.
2. Affordance: Affordance is what is allowed or enabled by the physical or
social environment that an individual is in. NTU can place more recycling
bins at almost every rubbish bins around. This encourages the students
and staff to practice recycling whenever they throw something. Recycling
bins can also be placed at canteens and allow the students themselves to
practice segregating wastes.
18. Developing an Eco-Culture in NTU
3.
Social Norm
Once the population practices the environmentally friendly actions, this can
become a social norm in the school. When everyone around is doing the
same thing, you would be influenced to carry out the task as well.
4.
Attitude
The eco-friendly attitude comes from the individual and most people are
pro environmental. Many a times it is the lack of chance to practice what
they know, or sometimes they just lack the knowledge of specific actions
that they can do to reduce the environmental impacts.
19. Developing an Eco-Culture in NTU
5.
Responsibility
Changing the mindset of individuals is not achievable overnight. Individuals
often think it’s the school’s responsibility to practice recycling. To
overcome this, each staff and student in NTU can be a part of achieving
the university’s carbon-neutral goal by being assigned a certain amount of
carbon footprint to reduce/offset each year. They can earn badges based
on gamification to induce interest and fun.
21. Sustainable Architecture
Green architecture makes
use of following concepts:1)
Maximises natural forces (lighting
and wind) to minimise reliance on
artificial means
2) Incorporates greenery to offset
carbon footprint
3) Visually pleasing
*An example of utilising natural air for a house
27. But wait…
Does the problem of carbon emissions even
lie with the university in the first place?
Should the university spend more to produce carbonreduction technology that would more beneficial for the
nation or even the world?
28.
29. What are the Government’s
objectives for Singapore?
What areas can the university
help in meeting these goals?
32. Executive Summary
According to a WWF study, Singapore is currently the world’s third highest in
terms of carbon emissions per captia. Sustainability is a growing concern and
in order to achieve the university’s carbon neutral target, this presentation sets
out to consider the options in which this can be attained.
Identification the key stakeholders was done to determine who are the key
players to support this initiative, and students were found to be the greatest
influence on carbon emissions.
Conducting E-Learning or planting trees were considered to reduce the
university’s carbon emissions, but after research, results show that more must
be done. Alternative suggestions have been raised, considering the university
as a single entity. However, this presentation challenges the concept that the
university be viewed as such, and proposes that it be viewed as a stakeholder
in a national or even global initiative to achieve sustainability.
