Ecological Footprint Essay - Creating A Sustainable Lifestyle

1. Go to http://www.wwf.org.au/get-involved/change-the-way-you-live/ecological-footprint-calculator and calculate your personal ecological footprint. Copy your footprint results (i.e. ‘Results By Land Type and By Consumption Category’) into your assignment document. 

2. With reference to your results perform the following tasks

1. Explain the meaning of your ecological footprint measured in global hectares with reference to the global availability of productive area per capita, and a relevant average national footprint per capita.
   
   
2. Explain the meaning of your carbon footprint (tonnes per year) with reference to a relevant forestry carbon sequestration (offset) rate expressed as the estimated number of trees needed to offset your emissions.
   
   
3. Interpret your key results by Land Type and Consumption Category.

3. By utilising your footprint analysis (results and questions), identify four major causes of the unsustainable aspects of your personal lifestyle.

4. Identify one potential solution to your unsustainable lifestyle in each of the categories of ‘City’, ‘Energy’, ‘Food’ and ‘Population’. (Note: your Ecological Footprint results provide some ideas in each of these categories).

5. Select one product that you consume for further analysis in this assignment, and identify the business organisation which manufactures this product.

6. Identify the main energy and raw material inputs needed to manufacture this product and the stage(s) in the production process where the majority of energy and materials inputs are consumed. (2 marks- Marking Criteria: Understand concepts)

7. Identify the main causes of unsustainability over the product’s lifecycle (production, distribution, consumption and disposal stages).

8. By applying the principle of the ‘waste=food model’ or the ‘waste management hierarchy’ provide one recommendation to reduce the volume of waste or pollutants discharged in the production, distribution or consumption of this product.

9. By applying the principle of the cradle to cradle design protocol, suggest one key improvement to the design of this product and explain how your idea will reduce the unsustainability of the product. (4 marks- Marking Criteria: Apply theory, Creativity)

10. Identify this organisation’s key stakeholder groups and their specific expectations of the organisation. (4 marks- Marking Criteria: Understand concepts, Depth of research)

11. Describe one major corporate social responsibility (CSR) issue which confronts this organisation.

12. Select one stakeholder group and make a recommendation as to how this organisation could improve their social impact on this group of stakeholders.

13. Explain how your recommendation will improve this stakeholder group’s wellbeing. (1 mark- Marking Criteria: Understand concepts)

14. Are you able to change your own consumption of this product to reduce your contribution to the problem and causes of unsustainability? Explain why or why not.

Identifying Unsustainable Aspects of Personal Lifestyle

My ecological footprint measured in global hectares is 2.7 gha. A global hectare defined a productivity normalized region that provided a given continuous flow goods as well as services for the purposes of human survival. 2.7 global hectare ecological footprint means I demand 5 global hectares of are over any given period of time. In a year, I need the amount of goods as well as services generate by 2.7 global hectares in that year. In two years, I will require the volume of goods alongside services generated by 2.7 global hectares in two years. In a single day, I demand the quantity of goods as well as services generated by 2.7 global hectares in a single day and so on. The average national footprint per capita for the determined footprint is applicable in Serbia that has an ecological footprint of 2.7 per capita as well as Tonga and Romania countries.

My carbon emission levels are 4.1 tonnes per years. Carbon footprint defines the cumulative amount of greenhouse gases inclusive of methane and carbon dioxide generated by the actions of an individual. The average global carbon footprint is about 4 tons. The results of my carbon footprint calculations show that my emissions are on an average scale.

From the results, it can be noted that cropland occupies significantly large parentage of the pie chart and comes immediately after the estimate carbon emissions. This means that of the 2.7 gha that I needed, a great chunk of it would be required for production of crops that I need for survival. My primary source of food as can be noted from the results are unprocessed, local and unpacked foods besides fish which is consumed once or twice a week and hence occupying a small segment of the pie chart (Hoitash et al., 2019).

3. The major causes of unsustainable aspects of my life based on the results that are derivatives of the answered questions include:

Transport-In as much as most of the time I pool travel; the means of transport used is road transport on diesel propelled motor vehicles. The vehicle that moves on fossil fuels releases significant amount of carbon dioxide into the atmospheres that adds on top of the existing amount in the air.

Consumption of animal products

Animal products are second derivative meals in which there are already concentrated levels of carbon emitting substances hence upon consumption result in increased levels of carbon emissions in the atmosphere (Lam, 2016)

Smart Solutions for Sustainable Urban Development

Waste and waste management

The amount of waste produced was yet another issue that had significant impact on resulting in unsustainability. The production from my household of wastes is averagely what is produced by the neighbours. Still, the produced wastes include both organic as well as inorganic wastes. While organic wastes are environmentally friendly and hence have minimal negative impacts on the environment, the inorganic wastes are very dangerous to the environment. Further, there are no proper mechanisms in place that can be used in the disposal of such wastes resulting in accumulation in various land fills

Non-renewable sources of energy

In the analysis, I do not have a single source of renewable energy that can be used in powering the various devices besides lighting purposes (Montiel et al., 2017). This results in reliance on non-renewable sources of energy including fossil fuels whose emissions to th atmosphere result in unsustainability. My household purely depends on non-renewable energy sources for the various energy uses that are needed in the day to day activities within the household.

4. Smart urban and development strategies including edible architecture maybe practice in apartments within the cities to supplement the supply of food and aid in shifting from consumption of packed and processed foods

The use of renewable sources of energy for instance solar photovoltaic cells that are mounted on the rooftops of residential dwelling will aid in eliminating the use of non-renewable fossil fuels. Solar photovoltaic cells can be connected through a microgrid which is linked to the national grid in cases of excess supplies; the energy can be channelled to the national grid for redistribution to the other regions (Montiel et al., 2018)

Buying food that is just enough for the number housed in the dwelling unit would aid in the reduction of wastes through excess foods or expired foods that have to be disposed and hence resulting in unsuitability. This strategy can be attained by buying more of locally and unpacked foods and sticking to only those that are consumed by family members to ensure there are no unnecessary leftovers.

Giving birth to a number of children that one can comfortably and conveniently bring up would aid in ensuring there is no pressure within a given region for the supply of goods and services (Oermann and Weinert, 2016). Population pressure serves to push land productivity beyond limits and hence resulting in the use of alternative technologies in production that in turn serve to foster unsustainability.

Improving Sustainability of the Bread Manufacturing Process

5. The chosen product for analysis is bread which is manufactured by Finsbury Food Group
6.  The raw materials for the manufacture of bread include flour, salt, yeast and water. Energy inputs are needed during baking of the bread which occurs over the oven

7. Within the industrial bakeries, the oven, cooler as well as prover alongside the related steak boiler plant account for about 50 per cent to 60 per cent of the cumulative emissions of carbon where the oven has been found to be using the highest amounts of energy. Research has established that a loaf of bread releases to the tune of 0.5 kg of carbon dioxide (Rivera and Kanashiro, 2019). About forty per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions of bread can be linked with fertilizers that are used in the growing of wheat. Out of the figures of percentage, about two thirds of the greenhouse gas emissions are from actual production of fertilizer that depends on natural gas to a great extent. Other process including irrigation, tilling of the soil, harvesting as well as the use of the power mills alongside bakeries are equally energy intensive even though they do not add up to almost as much as fertilizing.

8. Bakery processes produce volumes of wastes that may either be disposed or even recycled in numerous cases. The management of bakery wastes require clear strategy for the identification, storage, segregation as well as disposal. There are various types of bakery wastes including process wastes for example sugar dusts, dough, broken bread, burnt bread, flour dust (Semeijn et al., 2019). These wastes may be sold out to suppliers that deal with cattle feeding with precaution being taken to ensure that none of such wastes has contamination so it may be used for cattle feeding. Packaging wastes include wrappers, tins, bags, cardboard boxes, cores, and sacks alongside plastic trays. Such wastes may be managed through packaging material suppliers. On the other hand solid wastes which include papers, metallic scrap, and bakery waste dry sludge may be sold out to scrap merchants as a form of waste management.

9. One way of improving the design of the manufacture of bread using the cradle to cradle design protocol could be through the use of water from the various industrial processes for irrigation purposes. The water that is eliminated as waste during the various processes of manufacture can be treated hence resulting in an improvement in their quality, adopting it in the irrigation of the plants within the industry which serve to enhance the microclimate performance of the region (Sharma et al., 2017).

Sustainability Recommendations for Finsbury Food Group

10. The key stakeholder of Finsbury Food Group includes shareholders, customers as well as the board of directors. The group expected to:

Invest in its people and form a strong foundation for its strategy

Ensure the customer as well as consumer needs are at the center of the decision making

Generate innovative and high quality products

11. Growing investor pressure: Investors are fast changing the manner of assessing the performance of the company and are arriving at decisions depending in the criteria that are inclusive of ethical concerns. Research has established that a significant portion of shareholders take into consideration ethical issues during the sale and purchase of shares

12. The board of directors or management can enhance the social impacts through ensuring continuous consultation among the members on various issues deemed of fundamental in the running of the corporation (Voronov et al., 2018). The consultation can be attained through frequent meetings where the member gets an opportunity to share the various ideas and thoughts on effective running of the organization

13. The recommendation will increase the level of healthy social relationship through bringing the members close to one another

14.  I am able to change my consumption owing to the availability of alternative substitute foods that can be used in replacing the bread

References

Hoitash, U., Hoitash, R. and Burke, J., 2019. The Heterogeneity of Board-Level Sustainability Committees and Corporate Social Performance

Lam, M.E., 2016. The ethics and sustainability of capture fisheries and aquaculture. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 29(1), pp.35-65

Montiel, I., Delgado-Ceballos, J., Ortiz-de-Mandojana, N. and Antolin-Lopez, R., 2017. JBE-special issue-The Use of New Technologies in Ethics, CSR and Corporate Sustainability Education

Montiel, I., Delgado-Ceballos, J., Ortiz-de-Mandojana, N. and Antolin-Lopez, R., 2018. There is an App for that! The Use of New Technologies in Ethics, CSR and Corporate Sustainability Education. Journal of Business Ethics

Oermann, N.O. and Weinert, A., 2016. Sustainability ethics. In Sustainability Science (pp. 175-192). Springer, Dordrecht

Rivera, J. and Kanashiro, P., 2019. Do Chief Sustainability Officers Make Companies Greener? The Moderating Role of Regulatory Pressures

Semeijn, J., Bloemer, J., Birgelen, M. and Hofenk, D., 2019. How and When Retailers’ Sustainability Efforts Translate into Positive Consumer Responses: The Interplay Between Personal and Social Factors

Sharma, S., Aragón-Correa, J.A., Figge, F. and Hahn, T., 2017. Advancing Research on Corporate Sustainability: Off to Pastures New or Back to the Roots?

Voronov, M., Thongpapanl, N. and Clercq, D., 2018. Sustainability in the Face of Institutional Adversity: Market Turbulence, Network Embeddedness, and Innovative Orientation