Letter of transmittal

Environmental Awareness
An Analitical Report by Karen Obregon
November 13, 2014
Abstract: As industries grow, as well as their methods, the environment is exposed to
harmful substances that damage our natural resources and the environment. Sustainability
is now days accepted by all stakeholders as a guiding principle for both public policy
making and corporate strategies. However, the biggest challenge for most organizations
remains in the real and significant implementation of the sustainability concept. The core
of the implementation challenge is the question, how sustainability performance can be
measured, especially for products and processes.

Letter of Transmittal

From: Karen Obregon

To: American Consumers and
Suppliers

Subject: To inform the public about
the current environmental issues in
our country and to address the
possible solutions

It is crucial to identify the current
environmental problems that arise
because of industries and their
material handling in America. Other
harmful activities will also be studied
and the benefits of sustainability will
be proven.

As industries grow, as well as their
methods, the environment is exposed
to harmful substances that damage
our natural resources and the
environment. It is important to
measure the actual emissions released
by an industrial process.

The measurement of carbon footprint
and the identification of Acidification
potential, Ozone depletion potential
and photochemical ozone creation
potential among others can help
reduce the process harm to the
environment. By lowering those
numbers the process will be less
hurtful. The following questions were
researched from this thesis:

What is carbon footprint and how
can we measure it? The amount of
carbon dioxide emitted by any
process, person or group. It can be
measured through an LCA

What is an LCA and what does it

involve? It means Life Cycle
Analysis, were a process is analyzed
from cradle-to-grave.
How do industries and their
processes affect the environment
and what is being done? Any
production process releases
emissions that damage the
environment. Sustainability thinking
is being implemented now days.
What is the meaning of being
sustainable or sustainability itself?
It is the endurance of systems and
process and involves thinking for the
future generations.

A consumer and the supplier must be

considerate of the processes used in their
daily activities and their hazards to the
environment. The provided information
and tools are recommended to be
implemented by the people interested in
bettering the planets resources and to
meet the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of the future
generations to meet their own needs.

Karen G. Obregon Analytical Report-November 2014 - Page 1

 Executive Summary

Introduction
It is necessary to identify the current
environmental problems that arise
because of industries and their material
handling in America. The current
problems of gases released, are derived
from atmospheric observations and
represent accumulations of past
anthropogenic (primarily of
environmental pollution and pollutants)
releases. Future burdens depend almost
exclusively on industrial production and
the release of gases to the atmosphere.
Purpose
To inform and educate the public about
the current environmental issues arising
due to the material handling of industries
and their processes, as well as to create
awareness to individuals and their
everyday actions which also disturb the
environment, while introducing new
terminology and concepts regarding the
conservation of earths resources.
Scope
The goal is to identify some of the
actions done by groups and individuals
and their environmental harms. By
identifying the current problems we can
introduce methods that can be
implemented by anyone in order to
lower the environment decay. To
achieve this goal, research will analyze
the following questions:
1. What is carbon footprint and how
can we measure it?
2. What is an LCA and what does it
involve?
3. How do industries and their
processes affect the environment
and what is being done?

4. What is the meaning of being

sustainable or sustainability itself?
Methods
While analyzing the four research
questions, the best supporting material
came from the several scholarly articles
as well as from the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) website.
Limitations
The information in this report is limited
to the references used for research. The
results and conclusions are based on the
concept of sustainability and other
options might also be accountable for
application.
Conclusion and Recommendations
The amount of carbon dioxide and other
carbon compounds emitted due to the
consumption of fossil fuels by a
particular person, group, etc. It is
important to determine the impact
categories of any processes and analyze
them with tools such as the Life Cycle
Analysis (LCA). The life cycle
perspective is inevitable for all
sustainability dimensions in order to
achieve reliable and robust results.

Karen G. Obregon Analytical Report-November 2014 - Page 2

 Table of Contents

AbstractCover page

Table of Figures:

Letter of Transmittal...1

Figure 1. Sustainability Overlap

Triangle.4

Executive Summary.2
Table of Contest...3
Introduction..4
Study Focus One: Carbon
Footprint5-6

Figure 2. Main Elements that

Contribute to Carbon Footprint.5
Figure 3. Life Cycle Assessment
Stages.7
Figure 4. Comparison of Sugar
Refineries..8

Study Focus Two: LCA7-8

Study Focus Three: Industries and the
Environment9-10
Study Focus Four:
Sustainability.11-12

Figure 5. Materials with high content

in embodied energy..9
Figure 6. Sustainability
Pyramid...11

Conclusions and
Recommendations..13
References...14
Glossary..15

Karen G. Obregon Analytical Report-November 2014 - Page 3

 Introduction

The projected growth in emissions of
greenhouse gases and other pollutants in
the IPCC SRES scenarios for the 21st
century are expected to increase the
atmospheric burden of CO2 greenhouse
gases substantially and contribute to the
overall increase in radiative forcing of
the climate. These changes in
atmospheric composition may degrade
the global environment in ways beyond
climate change. Increasing greenhouse
gaseous concentration in the atmosphere
is perturbing the environment to cause
significant global warming and
associated consequences.

This report will identify the current

environmental problems that arise
because of industries and their material
handling in America. The current
problems of gases released, are derived
from atmospheric observations and
represent accumulations of past
anthropogenic (primarily of
environmental pollution and pollutants)
releases. Future burdens depend almost
exclusively on industrial production and
the release of gases to the atmosphere.
There are other consumer activities that
are also harmful, and can be studied
while providing knowledge to the public
about terms such as sustainability,
carbon footprint and greenhouse
emissions.
This report will focus on the following
outlined research questions:

What is carbon footprint and how

can we measure it?
What is an LCA and what does it
involve?
How do industries and their
process affect the environment and
what is being done?
What is the meaning of being
sustainable or sustainability itself?

The overall goal of this report is to

create awareness to the public about the
environment, and also to provide some
recommendations for industries and
consumers as well as to educate about
new methodologies and concepts that
relate to the engineering field.

Karen G. Obregon Analytical Report-November 2014 - Page 4

 Study Focus one: Carbon Footprint

A carbon footprint is traditionally
defined as the total sets of greenhouse
gas emissions caused by an organization,
event, product or person. The total
carbon footprint cannot be calculated
easily due the large amount of data
required and the fact that carbon dioxide
can also be produced by natural
incidences. Carbon footprint can also be
defined as a measure of the total amount
of carbon dioxide (CO2)
and methane (CH4) emissions of a
defined population, system or activity.
This is calculated in the form of carbon
dioxide equivalent (CO2e) using the
relevant 100-year global warming
potential.
Greenhouse gases can be released

These are distinguished from emissions,

which come from burning fuel directly
in ones car, or stove, generally referred
to as direct sources of the consumer's
carbon footprint.
The concept name of carbon footprint
originates from ecological footprint,
discussion, which was developed by
Rees and Wackernagel in the 1990s. The
number of "earths" that would
theoretically be required if everyone on
the planet consumed resources at the
same level as the person calculating their
ecological footprint was estimated.
Carbon footprints are much more
specific than ecological footprints since
they measure direct emissions of gases
that cause climate change into the
atmosphere.
According to Pandley, the importance of
carbon footprint is the fact that,
Carbon footprint, being a quantitative
expression of GHG emissions from an
activity, helps in emission management
and evaluation of mitigation measures.
Having quantified the emissions, the
important sources of emissions can be
identified and areas of emission
reductions and increasing efficiencies
can be prioritized.1

through transport, land clearance, and

the production and consumption of food,
fuels, manufactured goods, materials,
wood, roads, buildings, and services.
Most of the carbon footprint emissions
for the typical U.S. household come
from indirect sources such as fuel burned
to produce goods far away from the final
consumer.

Carbon footprint can be measured by

undertaking a GHG emissions
assessment or other calculative
activities. Once the size of a carbon
footprint is known, a strategy can be
planned to reduce, for example by
technological developments, better
process and product management,

1 Pandey, D., Agrawal, M., & Pandey, J. S.
(2011). Carbon footprint: current methods
ofestimation. Environmental monitoring and
assessment,178(1-4), 135-160.

Karen G. Obregon Analytical Report-November 2014 - Page 5

 Study Focus one: Carbon Footprint

changed Green Public or Private
Procurement, carbon capture,
consumption strategies, carbon offsetting
and others. Several free online carbon
footprint calculators exist, these websites
ask you to answer more or less detailed
questions about your diet, transportation
choices, home size, shopping and
recreational activities, usage of
electricity, heating, and heavy appliances
such as dryers and refrigerators, and so
on.
The main influences on carbon
footprints include population, economic
output, and energy and carbon intensity
of the economy. These factors are the
main targets of individuals and
businesses in order to decrease carbon
footprints. Scholars suggest the most
effective way to decrease a carbon
footprint is to either decrease the amount
of energy needed for production or to
decrease the dependence on carbon
emitting fuels.

Karen G. Obregon Analytical Report-November 2014 - Page 6

 Study Focus two: LCA

The goal of LCA is to compare
the full range of environmental effects
conveyable to products and services by
quantifying all inputs and outputs of
material flows, and assessing how these
material flows impact the environment.
This information is used to improve
processes, support policy and provide a
basis for informed decisions. The
term life cycle refers to the notion that a
fair, complete assessment requires the
assessment of raw-material production,
manufacture, distribution, use and
disposal including all intervening
transportation steps necessary or caused
by the product's existence. Life Cycle
Thinking represents the basic concept of
considering the whole product system
life cycle from the cradle to the grave.2
There are two main types of LCA;
Attributional LCAs seek to establish the
burdens associated with the production
and use of a product, or with a specific
service or process, at a point in time
(typically the recent past). Consequential
LCAs seek to identify the environmental
consequences of a decision or a
proposed change in a system under study
(oriented to the future), which means
that market and economic implications
of a decision may have to be taken into
account.

2 Finkbeiner, M., Schau, E. M., Lehmann,
A., & Traverso, M. (2010). Towards life
cycle sustainability assessment.
Sustainability, 2(10), 3309-3322.
real world decision-makers in
public and private organizations.

Social LCA is under development as a

different approach to life cycle thinking
intended to assess social implications or
potential impacts. Social LCA should be
considered as an approach that is
complementary to environmental LCA.
The procedures of life cycle assessment
(LCA) are part of the ISO
14000 environmental management
standards: in ISO 14040:2006 and
14044:2006. GHG product life cycle
assessments can also comply with
standards such as PAS 2050 and the
GHG Protocol Life Cycle Accounting
and Reporting Standard.
There are several scholarly articles in
which they have compared two different
products and their LCAs in order to
make the decision of which one is the
superior one in terms of environmental
impact. For example, According to the
EPA, Current research demonstrates
that paper in today's landfills does not
degrade or break down at a substantially

Karen G. Obregon Analytical Report-November 2014 - Page 7

 Study Focus two: LCA

faster rate than plastic does. In fact,
nothing completely degrades in modern
landfills due to the lack of water, light,
oxygen, and other important elements
that are necessary for the degradation
process to be completed.3 In this article
the disposal effects of two products
plastic and paper bags) was analyzed.
The LCA data did not demonstrate a big
difference between them. Which leads to
the conclusion that a better product
should be created, since both of them are
harmful to the environment. The
following graph is an example of an
LCA implementation on sugar refinery
companies:

3 The ULS Report. (2007, June 01). Review
of life cycle data relating to Disposable,
Compostable Biodegradable, and Reusable
grocery bags. Retrieved from,
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/deq/de
q-oea-p2-recyclingPaperPlasticSummary_
2_446379_7.pdf

Karen G. Obregon Analytical Report-November 2014 - Page 8

 Study Focus three: Industries and the Environment

A perfect example of how industries and
the processes that they use are harmful
to the environment, is The Tragedy of
the commons, were the principal
argument was that a society permitted
perfect freedom of action in activities
that undesirably influenced common
properties was eventually doomed to
failure. Hardin cited as an example a
community pasture area. Each herdsman,
seeking to maximize his financial well
being, concludes independently that he
should add animals to his herd. In doing
so, he develops additional income from
his larger herd but is only weakly
influenced by the effects of over sizing.
At some point, depending on the size
and lushness of the common pasture and
increasing population of animals, the
overgrazing destroys the pasture and
disaster strikes.4 In this story we can see
how industries may make decisions on
their processes based on seeking
financial benefits, without caring too
much about the impacts they will have
on the environment.

described5.
The building industry uses great
quantities of raw materials that also
involve high-energy consumption.
Choosing materials with high content in
embodied energy entails an initial high
level of energy consumption in the
building production stage but also
determines future energy consumption in
order to fulfill heating, ventilation and
air conditioning demands. In a recent
report, a full LCA (life cycle analysis) of
the construction methods of building
industries was shown. Several materials
used were compared and data of the
results was shown.

The EPA states that in an industry, each

subsystem requires inputs of materials
and energy; requires transportation of
product produced; and has outputs of
products, co-products, atmospheric
emissions, waterborne wastes, solid
wastes, and possibly other releases. For
each subsystem, the inventory analyst
should describe materials and energy
sources used and the types of
environmental releases. The actual
activities that occur should also be

4 Hardin, G. The Tragedy of the
Commons. Science, Vol. 162, No. 3859.
(1968, December 13). pp. 1243-1248.
DOI:10.1126/science.162.3859.1243

5 United States Environmental Protection
Agency. Scientific Applications
International Corporation. (2006). Life Cycle
Assessment: Principles and
Practice.Retrieved from,
http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/std/lca/pdfs/chapt
er1_frontmatter_lca101.pdf

Karen G. Obregon Analytical Report-November 2014 - Page 9

 Study Focus three: Industries and the Environment

According to Zabalza, generally, the
materials used for the structure of
buildings represent more than 50% of
the embodied energy in the building. In
this sense, the use of alternative
materials, such as hollow concrete
blocks, stabilized soil blocks or flyashes, instead of materials with a high
embodied energy such as reinforced
concrete could save 20% of the
cumulative energy over a 50-year life
cycle6.
To avoid the production of materials
affecting the natural resources it is
necessary to promote the use of the best
techniques available and innovation in
production plants and to replace, as far
as possible, the use of finite natural
resources with the waste generated in
different production processes.
Currently, the demolition of buildings at
the end of their service life makes it very
difficult to separate the different
materials, and most end up in landfills
and/or incinerators. According to
Zabalza, The public institutions must
urge the manufacturers of materials to
use EPDs, verified by independent
entities that provide standardized
information based on the LCA of the
real impact of every product.

6 Zabalza Bribin, I., Valero Capilla, A., &
Aranda Usn, A. (2011). Life cycle
assessment of building materials:
comparative analysis of energy and
environmental impacts and evaluation of the
eco-efficiency improvement potential.
Building and Environment, 46(5), 11331140

Karen G. Obregon Analytical Report-November 2014 - Page 10

 Study Focus four: Sustainability

The word sustainability can mean to
maintain, support, or endure. Since the
1980s sustainability has been used more
in the sense of human sustainability on
planet Earth and this has resulted in the
most widely quoted definition of
sustainability as a part of the concept of
sustainable development, sustainable
development is development that meets
the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs.
The goals of sustainable development
are: economic development, social
development and environmental
protection. This view has been expressed
as an illustration using three overlapping
ellipses indicating that the three pillars
of sustainability are not mutually
exclusive and can be mutually
reinforcing. The three pillars have served
as a common ground for
numerous sustainability standards and
certification systems in recent years, in
particular in the food industry.
Sustainable development consists of
balancing local and global efforts to
meet basic human needs without
destroying or degrading the natural

environment.

A major driver of human impact on

Earth systems is the destruction
of biophysical resources, and especially,
the Earth's ecosystems. The
environmental impact of a community or
of humankind as a whole depends both
on population and impact per person,
which in turn depends in complex ways
on what resources are being used,
whether or not those resources are
renewable, and the scale of the human
activity relative to the carrying capacity
of the ecosystems involved.
Careful resource management can be
applied at many scales, from economic
sectors like agriculture, manufacturing
and industry, to work organizations, the
consumption patterns of households and
individuals and to the resource demands
of individual goods and services. One of
the initial attempts to express human
impact mathematically is called the I
PAT formula. This formulation attempts
to explain human consumption in terms
of three components: population
numbers, levels of consumption and
impact per unit of resource use. The
equation is expressed as:
I=PAT
Where: I = Environmental impact,
P = Population,
A = Affluence,
T = Technology
The underlying driver of direct human
impacts on the environment is human
consumption. This impact is reduced by
not only consuming less but by also
making the full cycle of production, use
and disposal more sustainable.
Consumption of goods and services can
be analyzed and managed at all scales
through the chain of consumption,
starting with the effects of individual
lifestyle choices and spending patterns,

Karen G. Obregon Analytical Report-November 2014 - Page 11

 Study Focus four: Sustainability

through to the resource demands of
specific goods and services, the impacts
of economic sectors, through national
economies to the global economy.

Karen G. Obregon Analytical Report-November 2014 - Page 12

 Conclusion and Recommendations

In conclusion, this analytical report
researches areas in the environment
subject, so that the consumers and
industries have the information required
to help the environment instead of
damaging it. The following four
questions focused the research towards
concepts and the implementation of
sustainability.
1. What is carbon footprint and how can
we measure it?
2. What is an LCA and what does it
involve?
3. How do industries and their process
affect the environment, and what is
being done?
4. What is the meaning of being
sustainable or sustainability itself?
Carbon footprint or the amount of
carbon dioxide and other carbon
compounds emitted due to the
consumption of fossil fuels by a
particular person, group, etc. has a
negative effect on the environment and
therefore, it is important to determine the
impact categories of any processes and
analyze them with tools such as the Life
Cycle Analysis (LCA), Life Cycle
Thinking, Carbon and Water Foot
printing, Life Cycle Assessment, and
Resource- and Eco-efficiency
Assessment. These tools can be useful
for supporting sustainable production
and consumption if their results are
interpreted with proper consideration of
their respective limitations. However,
the concept of LCSA is ultimately the
way to go. The life cycle perspective is
inevitable for all sustainability
dimensions in order to achieve reliable
and robust results.

problems throughout the past century are

the result of the industrial expansion, the
increase in social explosion and the
emergence of the consumer society;
Some recommendations that can be
made are to recognize that
environmental matters, as everything
pertaining to governmental actions,
require information, awareness and the
participation of the entire population and
also that it is necessary to oppose at the
international level the production and
consumption models that affect the
environment and restrict human
development.
Further recommendations are to demand
the recognition of sustainable
development as the fundamental axis of
all public policy as well as to require the
strengthening of a social leading role
capable of generating environmental
justice, as the equivalent of social justice
and to also demand sustainable
agricultural policies with emphasis on
family, community and medium-scale
production and its implementation.
Responsibility for promoting its
availability in a sustainable manner
should be taken by the states
government; assuming the commitment
to create the normative framework for
the States to lead an ecological
restructuring of the industrial sector.

Because the current ecological problems

and their interrelation with social

Karen G. Obregon Analytical Report-November 2014 - Page 13

 References
Ehhalt, D., Prather, M., Dentener, F.,
Derwent, R., Dlugokencky, E. J.,
Holland, E., ... &
Pickering, K. (2001).
Atmospheric chemistry and
greenhouse gases (No. PNNLSA- 39647). Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory (PNNL),
Richland, WA (US).
Finkbeiner, M., Schau, E. M., Lehmann, A.,
& Traverso, M. (2010).
Towards life cycle
sustainability assessment.
Sustainability, 2(10), 3309-3322.
real world decision-makers in
public and private organizations.
(Finkbeiner, p. 3320)
Hardin, G. The Tragedy of the
Commons. Science, Vol. 162,
No. 3859. (1968, December 13).
pp. 1243-1248. DOI:
10.1126/science.162.3859.1243
Hauschild, M., Krewitt, W., & MiillerWenk, R. (1999). Best Available
Practice Regarding
Impact Categories Category
Indicators in Life Cycle Impact
Assessment. Int. J. LCA,
4(3), 167-174.
Pandey, D., Agrawal, M., & Pandey, J. S.
(2011). Carbon footprint:
current methods of
estimation. Environmental
monitoring and assessment,
178(1-4), 135-160.

The ULS Report. (2007, June 01).

Review of life cycle data
relating to Disposable,
Compostable Biodegradable,
and Reusable grocery bags.
Retrieved from,
http://www.michigan.gov/docum
ents/deq/deq-oea-p2recyclingPaperPlasticSummary_
2_446379_7.pdf
United States Environmental Protection
Agency. Scientific Applications
International Corporation.
(2006). Life Cycle Assessment :
Principles and Practice.
Retrieved from,
http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/std/lca
/pdfs/chapter1_frontmatter_lca10
1.pdf
Williams, A. (2009, November 05).
Books vs. eBooks A life cycle
comparison. Sustainable
Electronics Initiative Blog.
Retrieved from,
http://wp.istc.illinois.edu/sei/2009/11
/05/books-vs-ebooks-a-life-cyclecomparison/
Zabalza Bribin, I., Valero Capilla, A., &
Aranda Usn, A. (2011). Life
cycle assessment of building
materials: comparative analysis of
energy and environmental
impacts and evaluation of the
eco- efficiency improvement
potential. Building and
Environment, 46(5), 1133-1140

Searchinger, T., Heimlich, R.,

Houghton, R. A., Dong, F.,
Elobeid, A., Fabiosa, J., & Yu, T.
H. (2008). Use of US croplands for
biofuels increases greenhouse gases
through emissions from land-use
change. Science, 319(5867),
1238-1240.

Karen G. Obregon Analytical Report-November 2014 - Page 14

 Glossary

B

Biodegradation - the chemical

dissolution of materials by bacteria or
other biological means. Although often
conflated, biodegradable is distinct
in meaning from compostable.
Biotic resources - describes a living or
once living component of a community;
for example organisms, such as plants
and animals. Biotic means living
organisms.

C
Carbon footprint - the amount of
carbon dioxide and other carbon
compounds emitted due to the
consumption of fossil fuels by a
particular person, group, etc.

G
Goal Definition and Scoping - the
phase of the LCA process that defines
the purpose and method of including life
cycle environmental impacts into the
decision making process.
Greenhouse emissions - The major nongas contributor to the Earth's greenhouse
effect, clouds, also absorb and emit
infrared radiation and thus have an effect
on radioactive properties of the
greenhouse gases. Clouds are water
droplets or ice crystals suspended in the
atmosphere.

Individual benefits - reimbursement of

self-welfare, often economical, through
certain action.

L
LCA (life cycle analysis) - LCA is a
technique to assess the environmental
aspects and potential impacts associated
with a product, process, or service, by:
Compiling an inventory of relevant
energy and material inputs and
environmental releases. Evaluating the
potential environmental impacts
associated with identified inputs and
releases.
LCSA (Life Cycle Sustainability
Assessment) - a technique to assess the
environmental aspects and potential
impacts associated with a product,
process, or service.

T
Trace gas - A trace gas is a gas, which
makes up less than 1% by volume of the
Earth's atmosphere, and it includes all
gases except nitrogen (78.1%) and
oxygen (20.9%). The most abundant
trace gas at 0.934% is argon. Water
vapor also occurs in the atmosphere with
highly variable abundance.

Greenhouse Gases - gasses that

contribute to the greenhouse effect by
absorbing infrared radiation, e.g., carbon
dioxide and chlorofluorocarbons.

Karen G. Obregon Analytical Report-November 2014 - Page 15