CEB 20003

INTRODUCTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL
ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY

Assignment :
CARBON FOOTPRINT

PREPARED BY:

STUDENT’S NAME STUDENT ID

Khairul Amin Bin Ahmad Shukri 55213218051

LECTURER’S NAME:
Dr. Amelia Binti Md Som
1.0 Introduction

The term "carbon footprint" describes the total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that a
person or other entity produces via their activity (e.g., building, corporation, country, etc.). It
consists of direct emissions from the burning of fossil fuels in transportation, heating, and
manufacturing, as well as emissions related to the creation of electricity for use in producing
goods and services. The concept of a carbon footprint is frequently expanded to include other
greenhouse gases including methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

The previous ecological footprint idea, which was created at the University of British
Columbia in the early 1990s by Canadian ecologist William Rees and Swiss-born regional
planner Mathis Wackernagel, is related to and evolved from the idea of a carbon footprint.
An ecological footprint is the total amount of land required to support a certain activity or
population. It considers environmental aspects including water usage and the amount of land
used for food production. On the other hand, a carbon footprint is typically stated as a weight
measurement, such as tonnes of CO2 or CO2 equivalent annually.

With per emissions that a country declares are not the same as carbon footprints (for
example, those reported under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change). Instead of the greenhouse gas emissions linked with production, carbon footprints
concentrate on the greenhouse gas emissions related with consumption. They include
emissions from goods manufactured abroad but imported into a nation as well as emissions
from international shipping and transportation that are not typically included in national
inventories. As a result, a country's carbon footprint could increase despite declining
domestic carbon output.

In the public debate about accountability and mitigation against the threat of global
climate change, the term "carbon footprint" has become extensively used. Its public profile
has risen dramatically in recent months and years, and it is now a buzzword extensively
utilised in the media, government, and business circles. (Wiedmann, 2009)
 1.1 Ishikawa Diagram

In manufacturing and product development, Ishikawa diagrams are widely used to

outline the many steps in a process, highlight potential quality control issues, and identify
which resources are required at crucial junctures. An Ishikawa diagram shows the reasons of
an event.

The Ishikawa diagram was developed by Kaoru Ishikawa in the 1960s to assess
quality control procedures in the shipbuilding industry. Ishikawa diagrams are also known as
fishbone diagrams, herringbone diagrams, cause-and-effect diagrams, and Ishikawa diagrams.
The causal diagrams by Kaoru Ishikawa depict the reasons behind specific events. They
resemble a fish skeleton, with the "ribs" standing for the causes of events and the head
representing the final conclusion. The Ishikawa diagram is intended to assist management in
determining which issues must be addressed in order to benefit from or prevent a particular
event.

The Ishikawa diagram can be used in clinical settings as well as in mental and
behavioural health. It provides a method for identifying and collecting potential sources of an
effect in a structured and methodical manner. Identifying the barriers, facilitators, and
incentives for a behaviour, reviewing literatures, analysing flow charts, conducting failure
mode and effect analysis (FMEA), surveying, interviewing, brain storming, conducting focus
group discussions, and using the problem driven iterative adaptation (PDIA) approach are all
examples of processes for gathering and organising potential causes. It can also be used to
connect a sequence of chronological events in a creative way. (Wong et al., 2016)
1.2. Objectives

 To investigate the value obtained from the carbon footprint

 To understand better on the carbon footprint and raise awareness
 To calculate the value of carbon footprint of oneself per year

2.0. Data & Results

Figure 1: Total Carbon Footprint per person:

3.0 Discussion

A few factors can be explored to better understand how one's own carbon footprint
might impact the environment and have an impact on many aspects based on the information
obtained from the data and results of the carbon footprint report on the website. The problem
stated in the Ishikawa Diagram, "High CO2 and Greenhouse Gases Produced by Food,"
focuses mostly on food. In terms of machine, man, environment, management, and materials,
this problem statement was recognised for five distinct subtopics.

For many years, machines were frequently used in homes to reduce human labor-
intensive tasks. The machine's use was recognised to have its own unique carbon footprint or
carbon emission, which has a warming effect on the planet. A refrigerator is one example of a
few things that are typically seen in homes. For the apparent reason that it must run
continuously to maintain the freshness of the food within, refrigerators are known to have
huge carbon footprints. In addition, using microwaves and ovens results in a significant
carbon footprint per use because a lot of energy is used at once. By far, these factors required
a lot of electrical power to power the machine. Since the beginning of time, cooking has been
one of the activities performed by humans in order to provide food for survival. A kitchen
exhaust fan or a rice cooker may be used as part of these activities occasionally. These
machines have been in use for a while, not to mention that they have been run for so long that
they have the potential to emit a lot of carbon. Due to the large consumption of raw materials
and energy during machining processes, low-carbon and energy efficiency in the
manufacturing industry have gotten a lot of attention as people's environmental awareness
has grown. (Zhang et al., 2014)

Several points can be drawn from the management of an individual perspective on

excessive greenhouse emissions. When food waste is disposed of carelessly or without any
thought, it has been improperly managed. Aside from that, food is wasted when it is allowed
to spoil or become unusable. Raising awareness about recycling products and waste is
necessary because doing so will increase landfill space and take a long time to disintegrate.
Malaysian authorities intend to reduce and, where possible, eliminate unsanitary waste
dumping, which puts human health and the environment at threat. The most common criteria
used to build the blueprint for updating municipal solid waste management systems are cost,
energy, and revenue, with carbon footprint emissions being a minor consideration.
(Malakahmad et al., 2017)
 Materials do contribute to carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Some of these
occurred while purchasing packaged food, cooking at home in an ineffective frying pan that
generates excessive heat, and using a fork or spoon when eating with just the hands was and
is still customary in Malaysia.

4.0 Conclusion & Recommendation

To sum up, many companies are already engaged in carbon emission inventory
studies to create a baseline for their carbon footprints ahead of future carbon mitigation
projects. The majority of these organisations rely on the standards to assist them in creating
their footprint inventories. To ensure that greenhouse gases like CO2 remain stable and that
humanity may continue to exist in this earth for a longer period of time, each individual can
make improvements to the environment. Through the course of the research, it was possible
to calculate one's annual carbon footprint, look into the value derived from one's carbon
footprint, gain a better understanding of carbon footprints, and spread awareness. In the case
of any complex product, any number of different stakeholders in the supply chain could
assign blame for emissions related to raw materials, basic chemicals, and other low-valued
commodities that end up being included into final consumer items.

A few suggestions can be made to reduce a person's carbon footprint. One of these
entails the use of carbon capture technologies. It has been demonstrated that carbon capture
lowers greenhouse gas emissions at the CO2 source. But it's important to keep in mind that
CO2 reductions from carbon capture are typically not taken into account in carbon pricing
proposals. So long as CO2 is not permanently stored, for instance, captured CO2 from
processes is counted as an emission under the EU ETS, but ambient air capture is not taken
into account at all. (Müller et al., 2020) Another possibility is the anaerobic digestion of
organic waste and recycling of recyclable wastes including plastic, glass, and textiles. This
scenario with the lowest carbon footprint emissions (0.251 t CO2 eq./t MSW) was found to
be the best. Furthermore, combining anaerobic digestion and recycling processes resulted in
the lowest saved CO2 eq. emissions of 0.74 t CO2 eq./t MSW. Due to energy recovery from
biogas and recycled plastic, glass, and textile wastes that may replace raw material
consumption, the net CO2 eq. emissions of the second scenario totalled 0.489 t CO2 eq./t
MSW. (Malakahmad et al., 2017)
5.0 References

Wong, K. C., Woo, K. Z., & Woo, K. H. (2016). Ishikawa diagram. Quality Improvement in
Behavioral Health, 119–132. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26209-3_9

Malakahmad, A., Abualqumboz, M. S., Kutty, S. R., & Abunama, T. J. (2017). Assessment
of carbon footprint emissions and environmental concerns of solid waste treatment and
disposal techniques; case study of Malaysia. Waste Management, 70, 282–292.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2017.08.044

Zhang, C., Gu, P., & Jiang, P. (2014). Low-carbon scheduling and estimating for a flexible
job shop based on carbon footprint and carbon efficiency of multi-job processing.
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part B: Journal of
Engineering Manufacture, 229(2), 328–342.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0954405414527959
6.0 Appendix

Figure 2 Ishikawa Diagram