Understanding and controlling its impact

"When I shower more than ten minutes, I think of the polar bear I'm killing.
When I'm bored in traffic, I picture an iceberg melting.
If I leave my TV on standby, I fall asleep but don't sleep well.
And if I'm naughty at night, I can't justify my Carbon Footprint.
Is there a quiet spot, where my presence would be neutral?"

Excerpt from the song "Bilan Carbone" ("Carbon Footprint")

Tools to assess our impact

Carbon footprint, Ecological footprint, Life cycle analysis, Greenhouse effect. All of these words, which were still unknown a few years ago, will now be part of our everyday vocabulary for a long time, despite the fact that we don't really know what they mean. Everyone knows what "balance sheet" means, but few people are able to explain how it was created and how to interpret it. The same goes for all of the tools used to assess our impact on the environment.

For most of these tools, the general principle is simple: assess data that corresponds with our actions, such as lighting, heating, eating, consuming, moving about, communicating, etc.

It is then necessary to estimate or record the amounts of kilowatt-hours of gas or electricity that are used, the number of kilometres that are driven, the kilograms of meat that are consumed, the amount of paper that is printed, the square metres of buildings that are built, etc. Depending on the diagnosis that is required, we will then translate this information into individual impacts: litres of water consumed, the quantity of resources used, the volume of gases emitted into the atmosphere, the quantity of waste generated, the volume of pollutants discharged, animal and plant species destroyed, etc. We can also aggregate these impacts to obtain simplified indicators: the number of planets that are "consumed", the equivalent number of tons of carbon emitted, the equivalent number of tons of oil that are burned, etc.

The principle is simple, but these assessments are very complex and doing them requires good engineering and mathematical skills.

Impacts quantified

Once this impact has been evaluated, it is possible to say how many tons of CO₂ the production of an apple from New Zealand emits into the atmosphere compared with a Calvados apple, or one kilometre travelled by train compared with the same distance by plane. It is thus possible to set numerical targets, such as an unemployment rate that should be lowered, a percentage of GDP that needs to be increased or a restaurant budget that shouldn't be exceeded. Everyone can do this: citizens, businesses, communities, the State.

We know, for example, that today's annual global emissions (as of 2005) represent 43 billion tons of CO₂, that France emitted 516 million tons in 2008 (or 1% of all global emissions), and that, on average, each French citizen emits approximately 8 tons of CO₂ per year. But we do not stop here when it comes to assessing the impact, we go even further: what are the consequences of emitting tons of CO₂?

The scientists with the most experience on the subject (the IPCC, a group of hundreds of international experts working under the aegis of the UN - in charge of studying climate and human impact on it) estimate with a certain margin of error (as this is all very complex) that 100 billion tons of CO₂ emitted by humans (two years of human activity) would result in global warming of 0.15° C on average. The potential consequences of such long term global warming are numerous: droughts, extreme events (tsunamis, tornadoes, floods and fires), changes in soil, rising sea levels, melting glaciers, loss of biodiversity, migration of viruses, etc.

Objectives and steps to reduce our impact

Once goals have been set for what we wish to achieve, such as saving a species from extinction, or not heating up the global temperature more than 2° C in 2050 (this is the objective which failed to be agreed upon during the Copenhagen climate negotiations), we can figure out the action that is necessary to avoid or reduce a specific impact.

We then proceed in the opposite direction of our initial calculations and look back to our traditional data: travelling fewer kilometres in polluting vehicles, eating less off-season and endangered species, insulating our homes (to consume less energy), recycling our waste, reducing the amount of disposable products used, etc.

At the company level, this means rethinking the production process and fully integrating a new concept: social and environmental responsibility (CSR), which requires them to assess the impact generated by their activities, and to publish such assessments as well as the corrective actions taken.

Proactive public action

At the government level, we must implement comprehensive policies which take into account the impacts generated throughout the territory. These policies are now known as the Agendas 21. The Agenda 21 is the roadmap for the community (whether a city hall, a community of towns, a department or a region). Six main themes make up the Agenda 21:

• Efforts against climate change;
• The preservation of biodiversity;
• Respect for cultural diversity and efforts against exclusion;
• Support of environmental networks and the social economy;
• International cooperation;
• Education on the subject of sustainable development.

On a national level, the Grenelle Environment Round Table has defined a number of systems which were adopted by French parliament in the June 2010 law, known as "Grenelle 2". Among other items:

• A green tax accompanied by eco-loans and energy funds;
• Investments in infrastructure for public transport and renewable energies;
• An assessment of greenhouse gas emissions, mandatory for all companies with over 500 employees;
• Quality labels for buildings, constructions and renovations;
• Environmental labelling of consumer products;
• Green and blue infrastructure for biodiversity.

Today, all of these tools and systems are being structured, appropriate educational degrees are becoming available and specialised professions are emerging and being organised. The road ahead is still long, but this is nevertheless a groundswell that forebodes the much talked about "green" economy, which will be responsible for lasting change in our patterns of consumption and production.

Written by Shafik Asal (sustainable development consulting company Eco2Initiative) for "One year for the Planet" (translated by Anyword).

Find out more…

1. ADEME’s carbon footprint: www.ademe.fr/bilan-carbone
2. Personal carbon footprint: www.bilancarbonepersonnel.org
3. Compute your ecological footprint: www.agir21.org/flash/empreinteecoweb/loadcheckplugin.html
4. Agenda 21 in France: www.agenda21france.org
5. French "Grenelle de l’Environnement": www.legrenelle-environnement.fr