Changing Our World: Do we plant trees or create online courses

Luke ChanKenneth ChenGrace Xaveria

Li Mengzhu

Overview

Introduction

Scope 1

Scope 2

Scope 3

Alternatives

NTU• 25,728

• Ranking: 41

Erasmus• 14,000• School

Ranking: 92

NTU

Reference University

‘E-Learning reduces

carbon emission.’

Introduction

• Fiscal year of 2010

• 32 teaching weeks

Scope of calculation:

• 15 teaching weeks

Duration of e-learning week to be discussed:

• 10 teaching weeks

• 5 teaching weeks

Other Alternatives:

‘Buying carbon credits achieves carbon neutral

target.’

• New school policies

Scope 1

Number of vehicles owned by school: 6 (Estimated based on NTU bus schedule)

Types of vehicles owned by school: Tong Tar Bus Kilometer travelled by the all vehicles per year: 432,000km Emission factor: 90g/km

Research emission/kg Education emission/kg Total emmsion/kg

Scope 1Direct transportation sources

23328 15552 38880

Direct

transportation

sources

Data collected:

Data collected:

Scope 2

Energy consumption in buildings of NTU:50 kWh/m2/yr

Building area of NTU:15014.96m2 *38= 570568.48 kWh/m2/yr

Emission factor of natural gas: 0.185; Petroleum product: 0.245

Fuel mix: 80% Natural gas; 18% Petroleum product;

Research emission/kg Education emission/kg Total emmsion/kg

Scope 2 Purchase electricity 65763.723 43842.482 109606.205

Purchased heat

Scope 3

Scope 3 Commuting by bus 2803.733856 1869.155904 4672.88976

Commuting by train 88313.92248 58875.94832 147189.8708

paper consumption 41.29308 27.52872 68.8218

water consumption 61.257672 40.838448 102.09612

food wastage 89.32356 59.54904 148.8726

Employee/

Student

commuting

undergraduates staying in hall 9200post-graduates staying in hall 3285.6863total student population staying in hall 12485.6863

total student population who don't stay in hall 19,381

2-way distance travelled/person(km) emission factor(kgCO2/km)

CO2 emission/person/day(kg)

CO2 emisson/day (kg) CO2 emisson/year (kg)

average travelling time 50min

average travelling time by bus 18min 9.2 0.0132 0.12144 4672.88976 747662.3616

average travelling time by train 32min 52.4 0.073 3.8252 147189.8708 23550379.33

Campus Carbon Footprint

Research emission/kg

Education emission/kg Total emmision/kg

Scope 1Direct transportation sources

23328 15552 38880

Scope 2 Purchase electricity 65763.723 43842.482 109606.205

Scope 3 Communting by bus 448597.417 299064.9446 747662.3616

Commuting by train 14130227.6 9420151.731 23550379.33

paper consumption 41.29308 27.52872 68.8218

water consumption 61.257672 40.838448 102.09612

food wastage 89.32356 59.54904 148.8726

Total 14668108.61 9778739.074 24446847.69

Emission per student 460.2914806 306.860987 767.1524676

Emission per employee 2218.407231 1478.938154 3697.345385

Allocation of CO2 emissions in the model

• Data of NTU is not available

Research: 60%

Education40%

Reference to data from Erasmus University which has similar ranking as NTU, thus we assume that both universities

conducts similar amount of research work

Benefit of E-Learning

• Individual/Personal carbon emission • (3.08kg CO2 emission per average Singaporean per week)

• 2 week of e-learning (1 e-learning per sem): 6.15kg of CO2 emission• 4 week of e-learning (2 e-learning per sem): 12.31kg of CO2 emission• 6 week of e-learning (3 e-learning per sem): 18.46kg of CO2 emission• 8 week of e-learning (4 e-learning per sem): 24.62kg of CO2 emission• 10 week of e-learning (5 e-learning per sem): 30.77kg of CO2 emission• 12 week of e-learning (6 e-learning per sem): 36.92kg of CO2 emission

160kg CO2 emission per average Singaporean per year

carbon emission/person/week(kg) 3.075

School population 38,479

Total personal carbon emission/week (kg) 118323

Total carbon emission/week if no eLearning being conducted(kg) 763964

Total reduction in carbon emission due to eLearning/wk (kg) 645641

No of eLearning weeks Carbon emission reduction(kg)

5 3228205.326

10 6456410.652

15 9684615.977

Benefit of eLearning

Online learning can help school reduce carbon emission, thus reducing the cost of buying carbon credits and can even help school earn by selling carbon credits to external parties

Alternatives

• Build in solar panel to generate electricity

• Design of school building to allow natural sunlight to enter classroom to reduce lights needed to be switched on to brighten up classroom

• Create facilities booking system that ensures venue are allocated closely to number of participants, to prevent powering up a big venue unnecessarily

• Set double-printing as the default function in school printers

Proposed Alternatives

Impact on Stakeholders

• School: Cost saving, better reputation (opportunities to attract partnership with environmental firms/environmental engineering experts)

• Students: E-learning more efficient for student staying far from campus

• Staff: On the short run, might require more time to develop online lessonOn the long run can re-use same material and hence do not have to be physically present for classes, more time for research work

Stakeholders

• National Environmental Agency: University reduction in emission may be significant enough to improve environment around campus

Executive SummaryThis presentation seeks to present the environmental impact of the activities that our university engages in, which can be broadly classified into providing education, research work as well as supporting activities, such as transport.

The presentation aim to discover the change that we can make if we were to bring in e-learning, which cuts down on activities on campus that consume energy. We will also discussed effects of purchasing carbon credits as an alternative.

Our group also suggested alternatives ideas that can help our campus become more environmentally-friendly and sustainable, in view of rising energy cost.

Lastly we discussed the implication to the stakeholders of the university and explored the possible impact to various stakeholders. While being a greener university will allow us to become more cost-efficient and improve our reputation on environmental efforts. We should also note that the quality of education and support given to research work should not be compromised.

http://www.carbonindependent.org/sources_bus.htm

http://www.sustainapore.sg/pdf/iconicCuttingEdge.pdf

http://www.ema.gov.sg/media/files/facts_and_figures/fuel_mix/Fuel_Mix%20extracted%20from%20Singapore%20Energy%20Statistics.pdf

ENERGY MARKET AUTHORITY http://www.ema.gov.sg/media/files/publications/EMA_SES_2012_Final.pdf

PERSONAL CARBON FOOTPRINT CALCULATOR http://www.resurgence.org/education/carbon-calculator.html

Reference

Appendix A