Friday 22 April 2022 16:00-17:30, IEB122
On Earth Day, we plan a short seminar on what is behind those personal carbon footprint calculators you can find online a-plenty. What does ‘carbon footprint’ actually mean? Why is it so important a measure for climate impact? Why should we try to reduce our footprint, and more importantly, how?
This event is aimed at ‘beginners level’. If you are able to conduct simple mass and energy balances (chemical engineering 101), balance stoichiometric combustion equations (chemistry GCSE–level) and are familiar with the basic principles of Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), you are probably at too advanced a level for this event, and need to wait for a ‘Master’s class’. But we would still like to know your footprint. Please scan the QR code and chose footprint calculation only. You will be invited onto the Team and have access to Q&A about the questionnaire, and the shared results.
If you have no idea where information like ‘it took 0.2kgCO2eq to make this chocolate bar’ or ‘your lifestyle needs 2.5 planets Earth’ comes from, and always wanted to know, please join the seminar. We will try to shed light on this in the simplest terms possible.
After the information part we will fill out the questionnaire of a footprint calculator and compare our footprints. It will be discussed, using the presented information, how they arise, and thus how we can best reduce them. And how carbon emissions that cannot be avoided might be offset.
The big question this workshop leads up to is what carbon footprints tell us about how to become a ‘net-zero-carbon individual’, and help decide if such a thing is even possible?
To participate in person or in Teams, please sign up by scanning the QR code
The footprint calculator we will use is https://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx . If you have a go, please tell us and share your result. The more footprints we get, the more realistic a benchmark we are setting for our campus and the better an idea everybody will have how they compare with their peers. So, don’t be shy. But don’t worry if you are, the footprint reporting is anonymous.