Promoting Resource Efficiency in Small & Medium size ... - UNEP

It is evident that MIPS could be used as the entry point (or ‘base set’)
for a step-system approach in the process of eco-balancing products
and services.
Either lowering the Material Intensity (MI) for a given Unit of Service (S)
or increasing S with a fixed quantity of resources can improve resource
productivity. Both changes can be achieved through technological as
well as nontechnical changes. For example, by increasing the longevity
of goods, by leasing rather than selling a product, or by sharing
buildings, infrastructures, vehicles or machines the total number of
service units can be improved dramatically, without a corresponding
increase in the total input of natural raw material.
By following the request of hotel owners to utilise towels more than
once (“to be nice to the environment”), guests can increase the resource
productivity of providing towels without loss of convenience or hygiene
by factors 2 or 3, and save money for the hotel owner in the process. 18
‘Factor Ten’ (a 90% reduction in energy and materials intensity) and ‘Factor
Four’ (a 75% reduction) have entered the vocabulary of government
officials, academics and businesspeople throughout the world.
Country
Lifetime 20 (years)
Methane 12
Nitrous oxide 114
HFC-23 (hydrofluorocarbon) 270
HFC-134a (hydrofluorocarbon) 14
Sulphur hexafluoride 3,200
Table 2: Global warming potential (GWP) of different substances
The governments of Austria (National environmental plan 1994, 2002
and again 2009), the Netherlands (1989, 2006), Sweden (2002) and
Norway (2008) have publicly committed to pursuing Factor Four
efficiencies. The same approach has been endorsed by the European
Union (2006) as the new paradigm for sustainable development.
The concept is not only common parlance for most environmental
ministers in the world, but leading corporations such as Dow Europe
and Mitsubishi Electric see it as a powerful strategy to gain a competitive
advantage.
2.4.2 Decarbonisation: Carbon footprint
The various greenhouse gases (GHG) have a different contribution
to the greenhouse effect. 19 The strength of the greenhouse effect
is expressed by the Global Warming Potential (GWP). GWP is a
measure of how much a given mass of greenhouse gas is estimated
to contribute to global warming. It is a relative scale that compares
the gas in question to that of the same mass of carbon dioxide, whose
GWP is by definition: 1. A GWP is calculated over a specific time
interval.
To combat global warming, the Kyoto Protocol was drafted and
adopted by global governments in 1997. It limits the emissions of
the most significant greenhouse gases. For more information on the
Kyoto Protocol see Chapter 10.4.
Greenhouse gases have widely varying GWP. The GWP of the most
common GHG are indicated in Table 2. Carbon dioxide is the baseline
unit to which all other greenhouse gases are compared.
CO 2
is the waste product from the combustion of fossil fuels, which
contain - depending on the type of fossil fuel - a variable amount of
carbon (C). The specific CO 2
emissions therefore vary depending on
the composition of the respective fuel.
Energy content of various fuel types
Fuel type LCV GJ/t LCV kWh/kg
Coal 28.1 7.8
Light fuel oil 42.6 11.8
Heavy fuel oil (furnace oil) 41.2 11.4
Natural gas 50.6 14.1
Gasoline 42.5 11.8
Diesel 42.8 11.9
Energy content of various fuel types
Fuel type t CO 2
per TJ t CO 2
per t
Coal 94.0 2.6
Light fuel oil 73.7 3.1
Switching from furnace oil to natural gas for example reduces the CO 2
emissions per GJ from 77 to 55 metric tonnes. In other words, the
production of ± the same amount of heat in a boiler leads to a reduction
of CO 2
emissions by roughly 30%.
The carbon footprint relates to the amount of greenhouse gases
produced in our consumption of energy for production, heating and
transportation. Nearly everything we do emits carbon. For example, a
car’s engine burns fuel that creates a certain amount of CO 2
depending
on its fuel consumption and the driving distance. Heating a house with
oil or gas also generates CO 2
. of electrical power at a power plant will
emit a certain amount of CO 2
, unless this is a hydroelectric power plant.
Also in agriculture, pesticides and herbicides are responsible for a
certain amount of CO 2
from the energy use during production. Transport
of food also causes emissions, which are taken into consideration when
calculating the carbon footprint of a person, organization or product. A
carbon footprint is defined as:
The total amount of greenhouse gases produced directly and
indirectly supporting human activities, usually expressed in
equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (t CO 2
e).
Heavy fuel oil (furnace oil) 77.0 3.2
Natural gas 55.0 2.6
Gasoline 73.9 3.1
Table 3: Combustion values and carbon emissions of different fuels
LCV = lower calorific value
18) Shmidt-Bleek F., The Factor 10/MIPS-Concept, Bridging Ecological, Economic
and Social Dimensions with Sustainability Indicators, F., 2000
19) Time for Change, Cause and effect of global warming, undated.
20) Atmospheric lifetime describes how long it takes to restore the system to
equilibrium following an increase in the concentration of a greenhouse gas in the
atmosphere.
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