HOW TO CALCULATE YOUR FARM’S CARBON FOOTPRINT

We all produce carbon dioxide (CO₂), directly or indirectly, when we use products produced using fossil fuels. For example, we directly produce carbon dioxide when we drive a car or take a flight. We also indirectly produce carbon dioxide when we eat food that has been produced with artificial fertilizers and pesticides (which are made from oil). In total, the amount of carbon dioxide you produce is your “carbon footprint.”

The carbon footprint is a measure of the amount of greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere by the activities of a person, company, city or state. In essence, it is a measure of how much we contribute to anthropogenic global warming. Or, to turn it into a positive, how much we contribute to slowing it down, if our carbon footprint is small.

The footprint includes direct emissions caused by burning fossil fuels (in driving a car engine or heating a building, for example) and indirect emissions, such as those related to electricity consumed, if it comes from fossil fuels. And although by convention it is measured in tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) per year, it actually includes emissions of all gases that contribute to global warming. They include methane (which, in addition to being extracted from the ground, is also produced in considerable quantities by animals on intensive livestock farms, and is part of the global emissions total), nitrogen oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

The concept of carbon footprint was preceded by that of the ecological footprint, which was introduced in the early 1990s by the ecologists William Rees and Mathis Wackernagel. A “footprint” is, of course, a small portion of land where a visible mark is left. The ecological footprint is in fact the total area of land (or sea) required to sustain a population, and so its calculation also takes into consideration the water consumed and the land used for crops and livestock.

When global warming and CO₂ emissions became the focus of environmental sustainability studies, the ecological footprint measure fell into disuse, while the carbon footprint became a key tool for monitoring compliance with international agreements on emission reduction.

 Farming systems produce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, primarily in the form of methane (mostly caused by animal digestion and respiration) and nitrous oxide (mostly from fertilisers). Trees, plants, grasses and soils take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it to grow.

A baseline carbon account for your farm will give the total GHG emissions for the farm and the carbon intensity of your products such as wool, meat and grain. This is important so that any decision on how much carbon needs to be captured (sequestration) or emissions reduced (mitigation) is based on actual emissions.

Depending on your goal, you may choose to focus on reducing your farms impact on climate change (total farm emissions expressed as tonnes per hectare of carbon dioxide equivalents: t/ha CO2 e-) or focus on producing a low carbon product (emission intensity expressed as kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents per kilogram of product: kg CO2 e-/kg product) to meet a market.  Just focussing on reducing the emissions intensity of your products may not decrease your total farm emissions as you may choose to run or grow more product.

Carbon is often focused on the most, but it actually only accounts for a small percentage of agricultural emissions.The three main greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions in agriculture are nitrous oxide, methane and carbon dioxide (CO₂).Nitrous oxide is impacted by soil management; how manures are managed, stored and applied; sources of fertiliser; application rates and methods.Methane is impacted by how livestock systems are managed, improving efficiency can reduce methane emissions, how manures and slurries are managed, stored and applied.Carbon dioxide only accounts for about 5% of total agricultural emissions. Carbon emissions are associated with fuel and electricity use on farm, manufacture and production of feed and fertiliser, and how soils are cultivated. Carbon can be lost when soil is turned over and exposed to the atmosphere.

Agriculture is unique in the ability to be able to pull CO₂ out of the atmosphere and hold it within farms by holding in within hedgerows, trees and forestry areas, and soils. This allows agriculture to offer a climate solution.By doing a carbon footprint and understanding the positive things, it allows us to change the conversation and see agriculture in a more positive light.

Calculation methods

There is no single method for calculating carbon footprint. It is a complex measurement that takes into account many factors, and it can be done at different scales.
In general, rather than measured directly, the carbon footprint is estimated: whether it is of a state, a company or an individual, the carbon footprint is approximated based on criteria defined by the scientific community and international standards.

The key reference is the guidelines and tools for national greenhouse gas inventories from the IPCC, the United Nations’ International Panel on Climate Change. These guidelines provide average criteria for calculating greenhouse gas emissions and thus a nation’s carbon footprint from its key statistical and economic indicators, and are used to define and monitor international climate agreements. Typical source data are the amount of fossil fuels consumed throughout the country during the course of a year, total electricity production, the value of industrial production, the division of land area between urban, forest and agricultural areas, the number of livestock raised, and so on.

Once the total amount of emissions has been calculated, the so-called carbon sinks are subtracted from this figure.They refer to everything that was done during the same period to absorb carbon. If, for example, a country, an organization or individual has planted a certain number of trees during the year, their CO₂ absorption power should be subtracted from the total.

For each of these parameters, the IPCC provides conversion tables that make it possible to translate liters of diesel fuel, cubic meters of methane, hectares of cropland, numbers of livestock, square kilometers of new forests, into a single unit of measurement: grams of CO₂ emitted (or absorbed). The notation CO₂ e (Carbon dioxide equivalent) is often used, because emissions of different types are also “converted” into their CO₂ equivalent.

Carbon footprint measurement can be tailored to different needs and levels of detail and must consider the difference between the emissions of a certain project and its alternatives.
For example, the construction of a bridge might have a significant carbon footprint in itself: but if its effect is to shorten the distance between two cities and reduce the number of kilometers traveled by cars passing between them, in the long run it may result in a reduction in emissions, and thus a negative footprint.

 The average Carbon Footprint for people in India is about 1.6 tonnes per year as against global average per capita emission of 4 tonnes per year.

The carbon footprint generated by a company

Calculating their carbon footprint is now an essential step for medium-sized and large companies in many industries, and particularly for large listed companies that need to show their shareholders, through their Sustainability Report, their commitment to combating climate warming.

The starting point is to identify and catalog all possible sources ofemissions – from production facilities to offices, from data center servers to the car fleet, and so on – and collect as accurate data as possible on each of them.
The company will then have to extract data from its electricity and water consumption bills, record fuel purchases and miles driven by its cars, record the tons of different types of waste disposed of, and so on.

• In the case of a farm, it will have to count its livestock (which produce methane, as previously stated), and the amounts of fertilizer or pesticides used (chemicals with a significant carbon footprint).
• In the case of a hi-tech company that uses large amounts of data, it will need to calculate the cloud storage space used.

After that, for each of these parameters the company must use emission factors such as those provided by the International Energy Agency or the Environmental Protection Agency in the US.

The calculation of a product’s carbon footprint

You may have come across an indication of a purchased product’s carbon footprint on its label.
The calculation of this parameter at the individual product level is an important tool that enables individual consumers to guide sustainability policies with their own choices. They can choose – even in the case of consumer products such as food or clothing – brands that pay more attention to reducing emissions.

The carbon footprint of an individual product is calculated using a methodology called Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). It measures all emissions caused by the generation or extraction of the raw materials needed for a product, be they, metals, precursor chemicals for a plastic product, grain or other crops for food products, and for all intermediate processing.

Some examples?
A cotton T-shirt has a footprint of 4 kg of CO₂. A pair of shoes ranges from 10 to 15 kg and a pair of jeans reaches 20 kg. A tablet leaves a 50 kg footprint, a microwave oven 80 kg, and a conventional oven is almost 200 kg. A laptop can reach 350 kg. Motor vehicles are on another scale altogether: a luxury SUV goes over 26 tons of CO₂. When it comes to food, apples and bananas have a footprint of less than 1 kg of CO₂ per kg of product, palm oil comes in at 8 kg of CO₂, meat ranges from 20 to 60 kg depending on how the animal in question is raised.

How to calculate your carbon footprint

All right, but how can I know my carbon footprint or that of my family?
As with so many things in the world, there are online resources and apps (popular ones include MyEarth, CO₂ tracker, Adva, Klima, Earth Hero) that enable you to do so, albeit in a way that is inevitably approximate.

A good example in understanding how this happens is the online calculator developed by The Nature Conservancy.

The first thing to do is to carefully monitor your consumption and activities. You need to have data to hand on the size of your home, its level of energy efficiency, how it is heated and lit. The gas bill tells us how many cubic meters we have consumed in a year, and a simple formula can translate that into the number of grams of CO₂ emitted.

Electricity bills are more complicated: in order to translate kW/h consumed into emissions, we would need to know precisely how much of the electricity we were supplied with came from fossil sources and how much from renewables. Unless the electricity in question is self-generated with solar panels, you can use an average based on the energy mix of the country you are in, and that is what apps and online calculators do.

Other important data include how much we travel and how-how many trips by train, how many by plane, how many miles per year by car, how often we take buses or subways. What kind of food we buy: consuming a lot of meat, or large quantities of exotic fruits that arrive in our country after long journeys, increases our carbon footprint. Buying single-serving packages with lots of plastic has a larger footprint than buying large packages with biodegradable packaging. How we dispose of our waste also makes a big difference: sorting is a great way to reduce our footprint compared to people who throw everything in the same trash can.

Finally, apps and online calculators typically ask us to estimate how much we spend per month on purchases other than food: clothes, electronic equipment and services of all kinds. Because the price of goods and services is very much tied to the energy required to produce them, there are in fact average estimates of the energy consumed (and thus the CO₂ produced) for every euro of products or services on the market.

The final result will tell us whether we are more or less “virtuous” than the average of our fellow citizens. According to official data from the European Commission, the per capita carbon footprint of Italians is now 5.41 tons of CO₂ per year. This is significantly lower than in the past (it peaked at 8.47 tons in 2005), slightly less than the European average of 6.25 tons, and far less than the United States where each citizen emits an average of 14.24 tons per year.

The impact of carbon footprint on the environment

The reason why there are so many efforts to calculate and, more importantly, to reduce the carbon footprint of organizations and individuals can be explained easily. Every additional kg of CO₂ in the atmosphere contributes to the greenhouse effect, whereby solar heat that reaches Earth is trapped in the atmosphere, rather than being dispersed back into space. This causes the Earth’s average surface and sea temperatures to rise.

IPCC data tell us that because of this effect, the average temperature of the Planet in the decade 2011-2020 was 1.09 degrees Celsius higher than in the pre-industrial era, and that it continues to rise by 0.2 degrees per decade. These increases are already having visible effects, such as an increased frequency of extreme weather events (floods, heat waves, exceptional precipitation and long periods of drought). Current international commitments aim to contain global warming to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Beyond that threshold, scientists believe that the Planet would be affected by a range of irreversible effects such as melting of the polar ice caps, acidification of the seas and changes in ocean currents, irreversible damage to coral reefs and reduction in fish populations, reduction or disappearance of many glaciers, and expansion of desert areas.

The impact on the living conditions of humans would be considerable. Examples include: food crises due to reduced wheat, rice and corn harvests and increased spread of infectious diseases, which are more easily transmitted in warm climates.

 

The sectors with the largest carbon footprints

Inevitably, in a world SCENARIO still heavily dependent on fossil fuels and where the energy transition is underway but still in its infancy, most of the world’s emissions come from the energy sector.

According to data from the International Energy Agency, power generation emitted just under 15 gigatonnes of CO₂ in 2022, followed by the industrial sector as a whole (9 giga tons), transportation (8), and the construction sector (5).

These aggregate figures mask large differences, however.
In the energy sector, for example, the growth of renewables prevented nearly 600 mega tons of CO₂ emissions in the 2021-2022 biennium, and future projections speak of a steadily decreasing carbon footprint. The same is true in transportation, thanks to the spread of electric vehicles and the increased efficiency of the same cars with internal combustion engines. In the industrial sector, the core of the carbon footprint is in the so-called “hard-to-abate” sectors, such as steel, petrochemicals, or cement production. They alone account for 30% of the world’s emissions, and by their nature they require a great deal of energy intensity that is not easily achieved with renewable sources. For the steel industry, for example, the best option for reducing the carbon footprint could be so-called green hydrogen, which is produced by separating hydrogen and oxygen from water by harnessing electricity from renewable sources. This is a process that in industrial settings would offer an important advantage over fossil fuels.

Global initiatives for reducing humanity’s carbon footprint

The Paris Agreement, which was signed by the United Nations on December 12, 2015, is the key reference for all global policies to reduce emissions. In particular, it proposes keeping the global average temperature increase below 2°C compared to pre-industrial levels, doing everything possible to limit it to 1.5°C; increasing adaptive capacity to the adverse effects of climate change and promoting climate resilience; and securing the necessary financing for low-emission, climate-friendly development.

The Paris Agreement was the starting point for continental – or national – scale policies: such as the European Green Deal, which aims to achieve climate neutrality in Europe by 2050 (i.e., a zero balance between CO₂ emitted and absorbed); or the recent Build Back Better plan in the United States, which sets ambitious targets for renewable energy production, energy efficiency in buildings, and the electrification of the car fleet.

 Solutions and Sustainable Actions

Ways to Reduce Carbon Footprint 

• Reduce meat in your diet and avoid wasting food.
• Walk, bike, carpool, use mass transit, or drive a best-in-class vehicle.
• Ensure car tires are properly inflated. Fuel efficiency decreases by 0.2% for each 1 PSI decrease.²¹
• Smaller houses use less energy. Average household energy use is highest in single-family houses (80.85 million BTU), followed by mobile homes (61.3 million BTU), apartments with 2-4 units (53.5 million BTU), and apartments with 5+ units in the building (33.7 million BTU).¹¹
• Whether you hand wash dishes or use a dishwasher, follow recommended practices to decrease water and energy use and reduce emissions.²²
• Energy consumed by devices in standby mode accounts for 5-10% of residential energy use, adding up to $100 per year for the average American household. Unplug electronic devices when not in use or plug them into a power strip and turn the power strip off.²³
• Choose energy-efficient lighting. Switching from incandescent to LED light bulbs saves an average household more than $200/year.^24,25
• Reduce what you send to a landfill by recycling, composting, and buying products with minimal packaging.
• Purchase items with a comparatively low carbon footprint. Some manufacturers have begun assessing and publishing their products’ carbon footprints.
• Covering 80% of roof area on commercial buildings in the U.S. with solar reflective material would conserve energy and offset 125 Mt CO₂ over the structures’ lifetime, equivalent to turning off 34 coal power plants for one year.^26,27
• Replacing the global fleet of shipping containers’ roof and wall panels with aluminum would save $28 billion in fuel.²⁸

HOW TO REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT?

Carbon footprint can be reduced and handprint can be increased by changing our lifestyle and following some simple tips mentioned below.

·         Reduce waste ·         Recycling ·         Reuse everyday items ·         Save water

·         Save electricity ·         Save fuel and reduce emission ·         Save paper ·         Adopt Green Diet

Reduce Waste

Reducing the amount of waste you produce is the best way to help the environment. According to IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), around 18% of the world’s CH₄ (which absorbs 25 times more solar radiations than CO₂) emissions ranging from 9 to 70 mega tonnes annually is generated from landfills. Reducing waste directly and indirectly helps in the carbon footprint reduction. There are lots of ways to do this. For example:

• Buy products having less packaging or are packed in materials that don’t require a lot of energy or resources to be produced and made up of recyclable material/s.
• Don’t buy something you’re not going to use very often
• Turn down the use of plastic bags, less trash would fill the landfills.
• Reduce paper wastage by using electronic medium for paying bills, mails, greeting cards and other communications.
• Carry a strong reusable shopping bag and turn down plastic bags thereby to reduce waste to landfill.

Recycling

Recycling conserves both raw materials and energy and reduces the amount of waste we produce. In today’s world the importance of recycling is becoming greater of a concern both for the general public and also to the economy. All citizens of globe share the responsibility for the environmentally sound recycling of products at the end of their useful life. You can help the environment by buying products that contain recycled materials.

• Many of the things which we use can be recycled like paper, glass, etc. Prefer buying and using things made of recyclable materials. Look for the Mobious loop (Symbol of recyclable) on their labels if they are made from recycled materials.
• Recycle your own waste by starting a compost bin. Set aside a place where you can dispose of certain food and plant materials. Over time, the materials will decompose into good natural fertilizer (compost). The compost is good for the plants in your garden or in pots. This way we can reduce the garbage as well as the use of chemical fertilizers which again require energy to be produced.
• In some cities/towns there are special services where, you can desegregate your waste in separate bins outside your home, which is collected and sent for recycling/proper disposal. Use the service if available in your city.
• Many of the things we use every day, like paper and plastic grocery bags; plastic, aluminum and soda cans; milk cartons, etc. can be sold to the kabadi store for recycling to create new products out of the materials from the old ones.
• Do not discard electronic waste unless it is repairable appropriately.
• Whatever your system is, remember it’s important to dispose your waste efficiently and leave as less as possible for the landfills.

Reuse Everyday Items

Instead of throwing things away, try to find ways to use them again! The concept of reusing is undoubtedly economic and eco-friendly. Reusing things would in a straight line decrease waste production and manufacturing demands, the processing of which increases carbon footprints. Some of the simple ways to reuse everyday items are mentioned below:

• Carry cloth bags for shopping instead of asking for new paper or plastic bags.
• Reuse plastic bags as much as possible.
• Carry a water bottle while travelling instead of buying packaged water every time.
• Use waste paper boxes, cans etc to create attractive decorative material instead of buying new ones. You can also gift these handmade materials.
• Don’t throw away clothes, toys, furniture and other things that you don’t want anymore. Somebody else can probably use them. You can bring them to a center that collects donations, give them to friends, or even have a society sale.
• Use all writing paper on both sides.
• Reuse all envelopes which you receive.
• Use paper grocery bags to make book covers rather than buying new ones.
• Use stainless steel kitchenware and dishes instead of disposable plastic utensils and plates.
• Coffee cans, shoe boxes, margarine containers, and other types of containers people throw away can be used to store things or can become fun arts and crafts projects.

Save Water

Water is very precious. It is important to use water as judiciously as possible. Global Warming may lead to serious water scarcity problem. Pure drinkable or usable water is very expensive in terms of energy requirement. Wastage of water leads to excess electricity consumption and lowering of water tables. Some quick ways to save water are;

• Repair leaking taps on time.
• Save water by turning off the tap while you brush your teeth, shave, etc. and when not in use.
• Upgrade your toilet to water efficient models.
• Wash your vehicle with bucket and sponge instead of pipe.
• Use drip/ sprinkler in your garden. Use pot plants to save gardening water while ensuring plants get enough water.
• Wash clothes by hand or if using a washing machine run it on water saving mode.
• Prefer bucket bath and don’t shower more than required.
• While washing dishes, fill one sink/tub with soap water and take another to rinse. Don’t keep the tap open while using the cleanser.
• Reuse the waste water generated from RO (Reverse Osmosis) type of water purifiers in cleaning floors, etc.
• Construct Rainwater Harvesting Structure at home

Save electricity

We use electricity everyday at home, at school, at work as an inevitable part of our life. By saving electricity, you are helping to save the world’s energy resources like coal, gas, oil and water and you’re also saving money. There are a number of things that can be done at home to save energy like,

• Replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent lights (CFL) or light-emitting diodes (LED). CFLs cost three to five times what traditional bulbs do, but consume less than a third of the power. This way household emissions can be reduced by about three hundred kilograms per year.
• Switching off lights/fans and appliances not in use would save 10-40% of power.
• Save electricity by turning off the electronic gadgets like computers, televisions, DVD players, mobile chargers etc. without keeping them on standby mode.
• Make minimal use of air conditioners. Use sleep mode in your AC and set the temperature above 24°C. This could save thousands of tonnes of CO₂.
• Don’t open the refrigerator door more than 45° angle and don’t leave fridge doors open for long.
• If you are using geysers or emersion rods, make sure you heat water to the minimum required and use immediately.
• Buy energy efficient products. Look for BEE star label (5 star rating).

Save fuel and reduce emission

India spends maximum of its foreign earnings on importing crude oil for meeting its growing energy demand. On the other hand, Global warming is the looming concern today. CO₂ is the largest contributor to the phenomenon of global warming and petroleum products are the largest source of CO₂ emission into the environment. CO₂ cannot be stopped being emitted from burning of petroleum products, but it certainly can be reduced to a great extent by way of efficient utilization of these products and by adopting following practices:

• Pay your bills online.
• Minimize transportation as fewer vehicles on the road would mean less CO₂
• Walk or cycle to travel short distance, use bike instead of car and use public transport bus or train as much as you can.
• Use an electric car/bike which emits less CO₂whenever possible.
• Switch to cleaner fuel technology like CNG, PNG and LPG for your vehicle and reduce the emission.
• Maintain recommended tire pressure in personal vehicles for optimal fuel efficiency.
• Reduce buying imported products which involves fuel and transportation costs.
• Even while driving a car, simple things like switching off the ignitions at signals, not operating the air conditioner in monsoons, regular servicing of the vehicle, would help to reduce CO₂

Save paper

It takes 17 trees and 1500 tonnes of oil to produce one tonne of paper. Thus saving paper could thus go a major way in mitigating Climate Change. You can save paper by doing the following practices:

• Print out only what you need and when necessary.
• Use both sides of the paper or reuse paper.
• For drafts prefer the economy mode.
• Shrink the size of the document and print more words per page by using narrow margins, reduced line spacing and smaller fonts.
• Proofread your document before printing using spell check and grammar check functions.
• Use track marking function rather than taking out draft prints and making handwritten comments.
• When printing web- pages use printer friendly version or text only version if available. Prefer bookmarking web-pages rather than printing them.
• Reuse envelopes.
• Communicate with emailing and scan documents for circulation instead of making paper copies.
• Apply for electronic bills.
• Send e- greeting cards rather than paper cards.
• Many newspapers and magazines are online now. Instead of buying the paper versions, you can find them on the Internet.

WHAT IS HANDPRINT?

Handprint:

The idea of Handprint is all about the positive human actions, impacts and its measurements. These impacts are concerned with three aspects of sustainability: environment, society and the economy. Every action towards sustainability can count towards creating a better world for all to live in. Our lifestyle, activities and actions we take, impacts the world around us. Handprint can be briefly explained as ‘Action towards Sustainability’.

Handprint is the brainchild of Gregory Norris, a lecturer at the Harvard School of Public Health. According to him, ‘We often hear about our negative impact on the planet – our environmental footprint. But footprints are only half the picture. The other half is just coming into view. It’s called a handprint, and it measures the positive impacts we can make, simply by changing the way we do things, at home, and at work’.

The concept of a handprint is to decrease human carbon footprints by taking more action towards Education for Sustainable Development. According to the handprint concept we need to shrink our ecological footprint so that it will have no impact, and we need to start healing the planet and transforming our ecological footprints into ecological handprints.

From Footprints to Handprints:

The footprint is the negative effect you leave on global resources; handprint is your positive efforts towards sustainability.

Carbon footprint measures our impact on the planet and its resources and handprint will help quantify what we do to tread lightly on Earth – reducing our consumption of energy and resources, and being more considerate about the waste we generate.

ADOPT GREEN DIET

Green Diet

Green diet is a low carbon diet, which adds minimum amount of carbon emission into the environment in its course of production, distribution and consumption. It is also clear that a green diet is a healthy diet.

Have you thought about how your diet affects the environment? What you eat and how you eat it, can impact your carbon footprint. Every choice you make affects the earth. Think about ways you can eat a green diet if you really want to live a green lifestyle.

It has been shown that plant-based diets are better for the environment and has the smaller environmental impact than those based on meat. While all non-vegetarian diets require significantly greater amounts of environmental resources such as land and water for live-stock.

Adopting a healthy vegetarian diet, supports a lifetime of good health and also gives protection against major diseases including heart disease, diabetes, cancer and strokes. So while saving environment you are also taking better care of your health.

The non-vegetarian diet has a higher carbon footprint compared to the vegetarian diet, as the resources like land area, energy, etc. used in agriculture for food production for the human consumption is comparatively low compared to the resources utilized for the poultry rearing and meat production. The United Nations report (of 2006) states that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined ! According to DEFRA (Deparment for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) report 1 Kg of chicken meat emits 2.9 kgCO₂e while 1 kg of potatoes emits 0.23 kgCO₂e Thus it is much more eco-friendly to eat a vegetarian diet.

Good practices for Green Diet

• Buy local Food– Local food is fresher, tastes better and has more nutrients than food that been trucked or flown in from longer distance and picked/ harvested long before. Buying locally produced foods will avoid the transportation cost and fuel consumption and can greatly reduce your carbon footprint. It not only improves the environment, it also helps the local economy.
• Eat Seasonal Food – The food that is preserved and frozen can lose its healthiness and nutrient quality. Also it consumes additional transportation, storage and maintenance cost. Thus eating the seasonally available food is healthier and eco-friendly option. Moreover, eating food in tune with the season not only provides better quality food, but also supply ingredients that suit the body’s requirement for that time of year, such as summer fruits with their high fluid content are not suitable to be taken in winters.
• Don’t waste Food– Food waste goes into landfills, creates methane gas, a contributor to global warming. According to some estimates, as much as 23% of the world’s methane emissions come from landfills. Prepare required quantity of food, reuse leftovers and compost your waste to help reduce your contribution to this problem.
• Eat Organically Produced Food– Organic food is produced using natural methods of farming such as crop rotation, green manure, compost and biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and control pests. It does not involve use of artificial fertilizers, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and genetically modified organisms. Vegetables sprayed with chemicals are often unhealthy for you and also responsible for water and soil pollution. Eating Organic protects your body and the earth from toxic pesticides and fertilizers.
• Avoiding Processed Food– The processed food requires cost of food-processing technologies, equipments for canning, dairy and food-processing, packaging, frozen food and thermo processing etc. and additional energy cost for cold chains till food retail. Moreover, the additives intentionally used in processed food such as hydrogenated oils, can cause health problems.
• Reduce Packaging – Chlorine and dioxin are just two chemical compounds that are released in the manufacture of many packaging materials. Toxic chemicals can also migrate to your food from packaging. So much of what we buy is wrapped in plastic, cardboard, paper, adhesives and other unnecessary packaging. Choose products with minimal packaging and made of recycled material.
• Eat Less “Prepared Frozen Food”– While prepared food is a convenient way to make a meal, it requires a great deal of energy to keep frozen in transport and storage, not to mention the waste produced by the packaging.
• Less is Best– It’s a simple rule: Only buy what you’re going to eat and eat what you buy so as to eliminate waste. “The biggest thing anyone can do is to pay attention to the quantities of food that you buy,” says Helene York, who directs Bon Appetite Low Carbon Diet program.

Adopt Green Diet, Live Healthy, save the planet!

Every decision we make can be good or bad for the earth. Your diet is a big part of your lifestyle. Eat a green diet and start contributing to save our planet.

Watch your GHG emissions through diet

Enter your one month consumption of each type of food mentioned below and press the calculate button

                                                     FAQ

What is the purpose of calculating the carbon footprint?

It is used in order tounderstand how much a state, company, product or person is contributing to global warming. This makes it possible to monitor compliance with international commitments to combat climate change, and make more accurate projections of future global warming trends.

 What are the consequences of a high carbon footprint?

Greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere contribute to the greenhouse effect, which traps solar heat in the atmosphere causing average land surface and sea temperatures to rise. This in turn causes extreme weather events and endangers the health of ecosystems.

 What is the carbon footprint of digital?

It is a measure of the amount of emissions caused by activities conducted on the internet, and more generally by digital applications. In particular, data centers used for delivering cloud services (from email to cloud computing to social networks) result in high electricity consumption and therefore a high carbon footprint, if the energy used to power them doesn’t come from renewable sources.

 In the intricate and dynamic ecosystems of forests, a crucial ecological process is unfolding that has significant implications for our planet’s carbon balance. Tropical forests are adept at producing 34% of oxygen . This capability is not merely a passive feature of these ecosystems but a fundamental aspect of the photosynthetic process, wherein trees and plants convert CO₂ and sunlight into energy, essential for their growth and sustenance.

The role of CO₂ uptake in forests extends far beyond mere carbon sequestration. It is intimately connected to the growth and developmental dynamics of trees, primarily through its influence on biomass accumulation. Biomass, in this context, refers to the sum of all organic material that constitutes a tree’s physical structure – a tangible indicator of its growth. Trees distribute this biomass in two primary compartments: Above-Ground Biomass (AGB) and Below-Ground Biomass (BGB) (Figure 1 [2]). Above-ground biomass encompasses the parts of the tree that are visible above the soil line, including the trunk, branches, leaves, and any fruits or flowers. Below-ground biomass consists of the roots, which, though less visible, are equally crucial for the tree’s stability and nutrient uptake.

Figure 1. Tree carbon pools

This distribution of biomass is central to understanding how trees store carbon. The CO2 absorbed from the atmosphere is assimilated into both AGB and BGB. As a tree matures, its capacity to sequester carbon increases, making older trees more efficient at absorbing CO₂. This relationship highlights the significance of forest conservation and the role mature trees play in mitigating climate change. By understanding and supporting these natural processes, we can enhance the capacity of forests to act as carbon sinks, thereby contributing to global efforts to balance our planet’s carbon cycle and combat the escalating challenges of climate change.

To accurately determine the amount of CO₂ absorbed by trees, two critical measurements are taken directly from the tree: its diameter, measured in cm, and its height, measured in meters. These measurements are essential for calculating both the Above-Ground Biomass (AGB) and Below-Ground Biomass (BGB). The calculation of these biomass values is based on a specific formula that incorporates these two parameters .

AGB = 0.25 x D² x H

Where:

• AGB: Above-Ground Biomass (pounds).
• D: tree diameter measured at 1.37 meters from the ground (inches). This measurement is globally used as a standard to get a better result. However, if your tree is below 1.37 meters, you can still use the formula.
• H: tree height (feet).

The overall green weight of the biomass is estimated to be 120% of the AGB value, based on the assumption that the BGB, which comprises the tree’s root system, accounts for approximately 20% of the AGB [3]. Therefore, BGB can be calculated as follows:

BGB = 0.2 × AGB

From these formulas, we can calculate the total biomass from a tree:

Total Biomass (TB) = AGB + BGB = AGB + 0.2 x AGB = 1.2 × AGB

On average, a tree consists of 72.5% dry matter and 27.5% moisture content. To calculate the tree’s dry weight, we could multiply the total weight of the tree by 72.5%.

Total Dry Weight (TDW) = TB × 0.725

Carbon occupies 50% of the total dry weight. Therefore,

Total Carbon (TC) = TDW × 0.5

With the value of total carbon, we can calculate the value of CO₂ equivalent sequestered on a tree. CO₂ has one molecule of Carbon and two molecules of Oxygen. The atomic weight of Carbon is 12u, and the atomic weight of Oxygen is 16u. The weight of CO₂ in trees is determined by the ratio of CO₂ to C is 44/12 = 3.67. Therefore, to determine the weight of carbon dioxide sequestered in the tree, multiply the weight of carbon in the tree by 3.67.

CO₂ weight = TC × 3.67

It is worth noting that the CO₂ weight above represents the CO₂ sequestered in the entire lifetime of the tree. To ascertain the annual or yearly rate of CO₂ sequestration, divide the total weight of CO₂ absorbed by the tree’s age.

Compiled  & Shared by- This paper is a compilation of groupwork provided by the Team, LITD (Livestock Institute of Training & Development)

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