Understanding Your Household Footprint Report - Omar Khan, Project Neutral

7/31/2019 Understanding Your Household Footprint Report - Omar Khan, Project Neutral

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TITLE

PROJECT NEUTRALTransitioning neighbourhoods to carbon neutrality.One neighbourhood at a time.


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HOUSEHOLD REPORTSGoal: To inform households about theircarbon footprint and motivate them to reduce

that footprint

Goal of this talk: To explain the reports andanswer questions concerning the reports


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NOT THE FOCUS OF MY TALKFuture Monthly Workshops: Helpindividuals and households and the

community take action to reduce their footprint

Neighbourhood Summit in June: Help todevelop strategies at the neighbourhood level

for reducing the carbon footprint


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THE REPORT TEAMI constructed the report, but many others areinvolved:

Initial analysis and first draft: Ashley Smith Methodology: Dave Bristow and Kevin Tse

Design: Cassandra Alves

Everything else: Project Neutral staff andneighbourhood volunteers


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OVERVIEW The Survey

Average Carbon Footprint for the Junction

Tips

Footprint breakdown by category

Comparisons

What we have learned

Thanks and Questions


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BACKGROUND: THE SURVEY Asked questions about household energy,transportation, water and food, and tree

coverage Completed by over 120 households

Gives us a baseline to work against

Was challenging to complete

it'll be betternext year


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SURVEY MAP


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YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINTAverage footprint per household for the Junction: 17.5 tonnes CO2e


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TIPS Reports contain tips tailored to eachhousehold

Some tips are easier than others

Some are cheap, some expensive

Tips are only the beginning workshops will

go in depth


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HOUSEHOLD ENERGY Electricity, natural gas and oil

Includes water heating

Junction average: 5.8 t CO2eq, 33% offootprint


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HOUSEHOLD ENERGY TIPS Upgrade insulation

Seal air leaks

Use a renewable energy supplier (additionalexpense approximately $1/day)


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TRANSPORTATION Personal vehicles, flights and publictransport

Considered type of vehicle, length of flights,

mode of public transport

Junction average: 11.5 t CO2e, or 66% offootprint

Biggest potential for savings


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TRANSPORTATION TIPS Reduce driving

Reduce flights and/or offset carbon

If you need a new car, consider a hybrid

Substitute with more public transit use


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WATER Transportation of your water, not heating

We may incorporate water heating into this

category next time Junction average: 0.1 t CO2e, < 1%


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WATER TIPS Install a high efficiency water heater

Reduce water usage by 15%. Some of:

shorter showers, low flow faucets andshowerheads, upgrade to efficient washingmachines and/or dishwasher


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HIGH IMPACT FOOD Home groceries only

Butter, milk, beef, seafood, poultry and pork

High carbon because of feed, chemicalfertilizer, gas, pesticides and water usageassociated with production


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HIGH IMPACT FOOD TIPS

Source: Environmental Working Group, http://www.ewg.org/


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COMPARISONS Saying your carbon footprint is 16 tonnesper year is hard to put into context

Comparisons to your neighbours,

households in Toronto, Canadians, givesmore context

Visual imagery helps too: black balloons


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BLACK BALLOONSYour footprint is equivalent to filling 1000000balloons with CO2 in one year, or about 1.9

balloons per minute

Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZLDPEQzlck

Reference: Alliance for Climate Protection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZLDPEQzlckhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZLDPEQzlckhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZLDPEQzlckhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZLDPEQzlckhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZLDPEQzlck


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NEIGHBOURS


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RIVERDALE Per capita vs Per household comparison

Average Household Footprint in CO2e

Average Footprint per person in CO2e


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TORONTO


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TORONTO vs PN

Average Footprint Per Person without Flights, Water or Food


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CANADA Canada is a diverse country

No computed Canadian average applies

Many include industrial emissions: e.g. 24tonnes CO2e per year (EnvironmentCanada's inventory divided by Canadianpopulation)


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CARBON OFFSETS Trees sequester about 1 tonne of CO2 inlifetime

Buying offsets: many organizations to

choose from

Workshop on offsets

Idea: getting carbon offsets by contributingto neighbourhood projects in the Junction


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WHAT WE LEARNED Survey needs to be shorter, clearer, havemore error checking

Need to be able to get a new report if things

change or were wrong

Faster turn around time for the report, ideallyreal-time

Caveat: we do not have the capacity domake these changes right now


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THANKS TO OUR COLLABORATORS


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QUESTIONS!

Documents

Understanding Your Household Footprint Report - Omar Khan, Project Neutral