Carbon Footprint Assessment with LCA Methodology
13
of the environmental concerns have made us reach a point where we started facing
issues that came into existence due to the negligence. These concerns are discussed
earlier, one may refer it to previous sections. The expansion of human activities has
expanded the carbon footprint up to the ferocious levels. We have reached a level
where even if we stop releasing emissions from today, it will take around a decade
to retrieve the wrongdoings. This is a theoretical proposition, which looks good to
listen but restricting billion of tonnes of emissions to zero is impossible. But yes, we
can integrate methods that will slowly lead to sustainability and help in reducing the
emissions to some extent.
For the present context, we are going to assess the combined carbon footprint qualitatively. Here, the discussion will be more focused on carbon footprint assessment
and therefore the discussion of the LCA stages will be comprised of such explanations. Individual assessment will be carried out in the upcoming sections where the
real-time scenarios will be discussed in brief for each sector.
LCA is carried out in four stages. That is; defining goal and scope, inventory
generation, impact assessment, and interpretation.
7.1 Goal and Scope
Defining the goal is a kind of task, which simultaneously acts as simple yet complex
for the present investigation. One may think that how it is complex, but if we will start
outlining the world’s carbon footprint, it becomes really complex and time intensive
to cover all the aspects. Leaving any aspect behind will put up some serious questions
on the assessment and thus must be carried out with care. Let us understand this with
an example. Suppose you are preparing for your final term examination but you
are unaware of the syllabus. You can imagine the probable difficulties faced while
preparing and the consequences, as well. Similarly, even when investigating small
aspects, defining a goal and their scope becomes essential.
In the present context, the goal of carbon footprint assessment is to understand
the insights into the full lifecycle of the processes, products, and organizations that
are contributing to the frightening levels of carbon emissions. Usually, every activity
imposes a footprint during their lifecycle which is called the activity’s footprint,
and as the context here is focused on the carbon emissions, it becomes an activity’s
carbon footprint. As the context is not activity specific thus the scope also inclines
toward an extensive and nonspecific study or in other words a thorough assessment.
The assessment is going to take into the account of the previously presented statistics
as their datasets.
13
of the environmental concerns have made us reach a point where we started facing
issues that came into existence due to the negligence. These concerns are discussed
earlier, one may refer it to previous sections. The expansion of human activities has
expanded the carbon footprint up to the ferocious levels. We have reached a level
where even if we stop releasing emissions from today, it will take around a decade
to retrieve the wrongdoings. This is a theoretical proposition, which looks good to
listen but restricting billion of tonnes of emissions to zero is impossible. But yes, we
can integrate methods that will slowly lead to sustainability and help in reducing the
emissions to some extent.
For the present context, we are going to assess the combined carbon footprint qualitatively. Here, the discussion will be more focused on carbon footprint assessment
and therefore the discussion of the LCA stages will be comprised of such explanations. Individual assessment will be carried out in the upcoming sections where the
real-time scenarios will be discussed in brief for each sector.
LCA is carried out in four stages. That is; defining goal and scope, inventory
generation, impact assessment, and interpretation.
7.1 Goal and Scope
Defining the goal is a kind of task, which simultaneously acts as simple yet complex
for the present investigation. One may think that how it is complex, but if we will start
outlining the world’s carbon footprint, it becomes really complex and time intensive
to cover all the aspects. Leaving any aspect behind will put up some serious questions
on the assessment and thus must be carried out with care. Let us understand this with
an example. Suppose you are preparing for your final term examination but you
are unaware of the syllabus. You can imagine the probable difficulties faced while
preparing and the consequences, as well. Similarly, even when investigating small
aspects, defining a goal and their scope becomes essential.
In the present context, the goal of carbon footprint assessment is to understand
the insights into the full lifecycle of the processes, products, and organizations that
are contributing to the frightening levels of carbon emissions. Usually, every activity
imposes a footprint during their lifecycle which is called the activity’s footprint,
and as the context here is focused on the carbon emissions, it becomes an activity’s
carbon footprint. As the context is not activity specific thus the scope also inclines
toward an extensive and nonspecific study or in other words a thorough assessment.
The assessment is going to take into the account of the previously presented statistics
as their datasets.