1. Information from How Bad Are Bananas?
Carbon Footprints
Information from How Bad Are Bananas?
By Mike Berners-Lee

2. Carbon Footprint
Best estimate of full climate change impact of something
Carbon – Usually talking about CO2e (CO2-eq) not actually just carbon
Footprint – Total impact

3. CO2e
Total climate change impact of all greenhouse gasses caused by item or activity

4. Direct vs. indirect emissions
Direct emissions of an item
Manufacturing process
Transportation of item to retailer
Indirect emissions
Everything else
Example: offices in the factory use paper clips made of steel that were mined and have their own carbon footprint

5. Context for numbers
1 gram of CO2e would be produced if you burned a pea sized blob of gasoline
1 Kilogram (2 lbs) of CO2e would be produced if you burned 2 cups of gasoline
1 Ton of CO2e would be produced if you burned 60 gallons of gasoline

6. Context for numbers
The average American has a carbon footprint of 28 tons CO2e / year
World GHG emissions are 34 Gt CO2e / year
The global average carbon footprint is ~6 tons CO2e / year / person

7. Carbon footprint of items
A pint of beer
Cycling a mile
Manufacturing a car
A web search
Walking through the door
A banana
Spending 1$
Road trip (NY to Niagara falls)
10 lbs of trash
Leaving the lights on
Having a child
A forest fire
A Burger
A bottle of water
2.5 acres of deforestation
Using a cell phone
A computer
International flight (LA-Barcelona)

8. Which type of beer would have the highest carbon footprint per pint?
Locally brewed at the bar 
Store bought, locally bottled
Store bought, bottled elsewhere, imported long distances

9. Pint of beer Locally brewed at the bar Store bought, locally bottled
300g CO2e
Store bought, locally bottled
500g CO2e
Store bought, bottled elsewhere, imported long distances
900g CO2e

10. Which food would produce highest carbon footprint for cycling a mile?
Air-freighted asparagus
Bacon
Bananas

11. Cycling a mile Powered by bananas Powered by cereals with milk
65g CO2e
Powered by cereals with milk 
90g CO2e
Powered by bacon 
200g CO2e
Powered by cheeseburgers 
260g CO2e
Powered by air-freighted asparagus
2,800g CO2e
A hummer has a lower carbon footprint per mile

12. The carbon footprint of manufacturing a new car is ____ compared to the carbon footprint of driving that car over its lifetime
Very small
Roughly equivalent
Very large

13. A new car Citroen C1, basic spec Ford Mondeo, medium spec
6 tons CO2e:
Ford Mondeo, medium spec 
17 tons CO2e:
Land Rover Discovery, top of the range
35 tons CO2e:
The CO2e emissions associated with producing the car are comparable to the CO2e emissions out of that car’s tailpipe over its lifetime

14. A web search
Goggle estimates 0.2 g CO2e for the electricity it uses when you enter a search term
0.1g CO2e for 20 seconds of use from an efficient 20 watt laptop
Local network and servers would use 0.1 g CO2e
Maintenance on the whole system (replacing parts ect.) doubles the above figures
Total = 0.8 g CO2e

15. A web search Desktop computers are more power Hungary ~150 watts
0.75 g CO2e for 20 seconds of use
Increases in maintenance and network CO2e
Total = 4.5 g CO2e
Google accounts for just 0.2 g CO2e of that (4%)

16. A web search Searching the web non-stop for a year Does not include
5 tons CO2e
Does not include
Wearing clothes
Keeping warm
Burning calories
Getting closer to your next need for medical attention
Living in a building that needs maintenance
Ect.

17. Walking through a door Automatic door
6.5 feet wide by 8 feet high
Stays open for 18 seconds
Power from electric motors to open door is 1 g CO2e
If the temperature inside is equal to that outside then this is the entire carbon footprint
If it's cold outside (say 20°f) then the footprint jumps to 84 g CO2e because of the energy required to heat that air

18. Bananas
Bananas have very low carbon footprints compared to other foods
Grown in natural sunlight (not in a heated greenhouse)
They don’t spoil quickly
So instead of shipping them by plane, you can ship them by boat (1% the carbon footprint of flying)
No packaging
Total = 80 g CO2e if shipped from across the world

19. Spending 1$
In our current energy system it is very difficult to spend a dollar without it adding to your carbon footprint

20. Spending $1
Exception would be spending on something that reduces net emissions
Minus 220 kg (485 lbs) CO2e on a well executed rainforest preservation project
Minus 2 kg (4.4 lbs) CO2e on solar panels

21. Spending $1
In the middle of the spectrum would be spending on groceries
620 g (1.37 lbs) CO2e per $1
Flying is among the worst activities for carbon emissions
10 kg (22 lbs) of CO2e per $1

22. Road trip San Francisco to LA and back (~800 miles)
Banana powered bike
53 kg (117 lbs) CO2e
Bus
66 kg (146 lbs) CO2e
Small efficient car
330 kg (728 lbs) CO2e
Plane
500 kg (1,100 lbs) CO2e
Large SUV
1,100 (2,530 lbs) CO2e

23. 10 lbs of trash
The average US citizen sends 1,250 lbs of garbage to landfills each year
The average US citizen recycles 640 lbs of garbage each year
Landfill emissions are produced when the garbage decomposes (methane)
Sending metals, glass, plastics and paper to landfills (rather than recycling them) forces new materials to be produced for future products
It takes much more energy to make a new product from raw materials than it does to make one from recycled materials

24. 10 lbs of trash Garden waste Average trash contents
910 g (2 lbs) CO2e
Average trash contents
3.1 kg (7 lbs) CO2e
Aluminum and copper
41 kg (90 lbs) CO2e

25. Leaving the lights on Light on continuously for 1 year
Depends on where you are
Iceland produces almost all of its electricity from fossil fuel free geothermal and hydroelectric power plants
The US produces much more of its electricity from fossil fuels

26. Leaving the lights on Assuming US electricity generation
Low energy bulb
1 year
90 kg (198 lbs) CO2e
100-watt incandescent bulb
500 kg (1,100 lbs)

27. Having a child
The decision to reproduce ends up being one of the biggest carbon choices people ever make
Assuming that the child lives to 75
Assuming the child lives a nationally typical lifestyle
Assuming that GHG emissions are reduced in the coming decades
700 tons CO2e
150 tons for a carbon conscious child
2,000 tons for high-impact child

28. A forest fire If you chose to start a forest fire
One of only decision you could make that has a larger carbon impact than having a child
Your lifetime carbon footprint would increase by 1000s of times
2008 California forest fires
231 million tons CO2e
A certain portion of the carbon releases will be taken back over time as the forest regrows

29. A bottle of water Most emissions come from packaging and transport
80 g CO2e just from the plastic

30. A bottle of water Locally sourced and using local distribution
110 g CO2e
Traveling 600 miles by road
215 g CO2e
Bottled water is 1000X more carbon intensive than tap water
The world consumes 53 billion gallons of bottled water a year which accounts for 1/6th of a percent of TOTAL world GHG emissions

31. 2.5 Acres of Deforestation
32 million acres of rainforest are cleared per year
17 percent of all human emissions
Why?
35-45% Small farms
20-25% for cattle grazing
15-20% Intensive agriculture
10-15% logging
~5% other (urbanization, mining, roads, ect.)

32. 2.5 Acres of Deforestation
2.5 acres = 1 Hectare
500 tons of CO2e
Equivalent to driving the average car 28 times around the world

33. A Burger

34. The energy that you use to live and move around came from the sun
The energy that you use to live and move around came from the sun. Which is a more efficient way to transfer energy from the sun to you? :
1 and 2 are equal

35. A Burger
Animal products tend to be more carbon intensive than vegetables and grains because animals consume a lot of energy just to keep themselves warm and move around
Converting animal feed into meat and milk is inherently inefficient

36. A Burger In addition to being inefficient… Cows/sheep are ruminants
They belch out methane (CH4)
Beef/lamb has double the carbon footprint (per kilogram of meet) of pork
Excessive demand for meat provides an incentive for deforestation to provide more grazing land

37. A Burger Beef cheeseburger Veggie Burger
2.5 kg (5.5 lbs) CO2e
Veggie Burger
1 kg (2.2 lbs) CO2e
If you ate nothing but cheeseburgers for a year, your carbon footprint from food alone would be 4.6 tons CO2e

38. Using a cell phone Depends on how often you use it
Components of footprint
Manufacturing of phone
16 kg (35 lbs) CO2e
Power over 2 years
6 kg (13 lbs) CO2e
Energy required to transmit calls across network
66 kg (146 lbs)

39. Using a cell phone
1 minute cell-to-cell phone call has the same carbon footprint as an apple =

40. Using a cell phone
As of 2009 there were 2.7 billion cell phones in use (almost half the world)
Cell phone calls account for about 125 million tons CO2e
1/4th of a percent of global emissions
Texting is a much lower carbon option

41. Using a cell phone
A year’s typical usage of just under 2 minutes per day
47 kg (103 lbs) CO2e
A year’s usage of 1 hour per day
1,250 kg (2,760 lbs) CO2e

42. A Computer Machine itself Electricity consumption
inch iMac
720 kg (1,590 lbs) CO2e
Electricity consumption
69 g (0.2 lbs) CO2e per hour
Use of servers and networks
55 g (0.1 lbs) CO2e per hour
Overall computing may be only a few % of your carbon footprint

43. A Computer (and using it)
Most of the manufacturing footprint comes from the microprocessor
The electricity emissions typically equal the footprint of manufacture after 15,000 hours
9 hours every day for 5 years

44. An International Flight
Economy class
3.4 tons CO2e
Average
4.6 tons CO2e
First class
13.5 tons CO2e
One trip is equivalent to 340,000 disposable plastic bags

45. An International Flight
First class tickets are particularly high in impact because the seat uses up more of the plane and by paying more money you provide more of a commercial incentive for the flight

46. An International Flight
When a 747 takes off about 1/3 of its weight is fuel
As the fuel burns, it creates 3 times its weight in CO2

47. Carbon footprint ranking
Forest fire – 100 million tons CO2e
Having a child – 700 tons CO2e
2.5 Acres deforestation – 500 tons CO2e
A new car – 17 tons CO2e
Flight (LA to Spain) – 4.6 tons CO2e
A new computer – 720 kg CO2e
Road trip: SF to LA – 500 Kg CO2e
Light on for a year – 400 kg CO2e
$100 on groceries – 62 kg CO2e
Moderate cell phone use (year) – 47 kg CO2e
10 lbs of trash – 3.1 kg CO2e
Beef cheeseburger – 2.5 kg CO2e
A pint of beer – 500g CO2e
Bottle of water – 200g CO2e
Cycling a mile – 100g CO2e
Banana – 80g CO2e
Walking through a door – 10g CO2e
A web search – 2g CO2e