- Complete the Ecological Footprint exercise at https://www.footprintnetwork.org/our-work/ecological-footprint/ and answer the following questions for next week: Summarize what your footprint indicated. Did anything about the results of your footprint surprise you?
- Post/Share/discuss research topic proposals/ideas
- Remember to post in-class group assignments under “Wk 4 Sustainable Consumption and Production”
- Reading for Wed. 2/27: “Moving Beyond GDP:How to factor natural capital into economic decision making” – Introduction and Chapter 1:A new balance sheet for a country (pgs 1- 8) https://www.wavespartnership.org/sites/waves/files/images/Moving_Beyond_GDP.pdf
- and “Voices: Greening the Gross Domestic Product”: https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/voices-greening-gross-domestic-product
additional participation points for participation in class discussion and completing footprint exercise:
1.What is the System of Economic and Environmental Accounts?
2. Discuss an example of what another economy is doing to place a value on a natural resource.
An idea I had in mind for the research topic is discussing how can green infrastructure be beneficial to environmental conservation. Also being able to talk about how different forms of infrastructure can be essential to different communities.
As for my results of the Ecological Footprint exercise, it claims that if everyone lived like me then we would need 2.1 Earths. Also my personal Earth Overshoot Day is June 23rd. Despite that I was not approximate enough with my answers, it makes me rethink some of my lifestyle choices because the actual overshoot day for humanity is August 1st.
Fadwa Mini
Sandira Ramdat
Martine Alexis
Qilun Chen
Topic: Clorox
If you look around in your household you will find that you have at least one of the Clorox Company’s cleaning products. The Clorox Companies manufacture and market household cleaning and supermarkets product for over 100 countries around the globe. One of these products including Clorox bleach, cleaning pads. Our group is focusing on Clorox bleach that comes in plastic bottles. The Clorox Companies produce thousands of Bleach bottles every month, leaving us with major issues, including environmental issues, recycling, and also the high concentration and chemical substance that each bottle contains could be harmful to our health. The question we asked is, how could we control the production of these plastic bottles and also the improper disposal.
In order for Clorox to pursue “going green”, they can utilize the “Cradle to Cradle” business model to satisfy production and consumption ends. This business model allows us to avoid improper disposing of bleach bottle containers and being able to reuse them instead. This promotes eco-efficiency as we are creating and maintaining value within products while decreasing waste. The take-make-waste model has shifted because now we are reusing the plastic containers before they become obsolete trash.
Customers are inherently drawn towards items on sale or discount. Clorox containers are regularly recycled and bleach can leak or pollute the environment. As shareholders of the company, when customer recycles their bottle, we decided to offer a 10% discount on the next Clorox purchases. Offering discounts for a limited time will attract customers into the company and probably lead to more purchases. Finally, giving customers great discount for good quality products can greatly enhance their loyalty to the company.
“Cradle to Cradle” business model can reduce GHG emissions from two ways. First, If Clorox can reuse their bleach bottle containers, that can reduce greenhouse gas while shipping. Second, it can use less plastic to make new bottles and reduce GHG while making or shipping new bottles.
According to my Ecological Footprint exercise, the general results are about the same as the average American, which is 5 Earths. It states that if everyone lived like me then we would need 5.2 Earths. My personal Earth Overshoot Day is March 11, this means that if everybody lived like me, that by this date, I would have used as much from nature as the Earth can renew in the entire year. I am surprised by the results because I thought I am being green by living in New York. I am rethinking my options for renewable energy sources and other lifestyle choices.
The project idea I am considering is sustainable farming for organic produce as a strategy for conserving the environment.
Summarize what your footprint indicated.
The footprint indicated somethings that I usually do and calculated the amount of resources that I use and if everyone else use that amount. Will the resource run out
Did anything about the results of your footprint surprise you?
It did surprise me because my results ended up in 2.7 earth but I also thought I it was not totally accurate because it just calculate a broad amount.
Natural Capital are the resources people use but are not tangible or visible. They are also not calculated in the datas that people collect.
1. My Footprint summer indicated if everyone lived like me There would need to be 9.2 ears needs. This information is defiantly surprising because in means I am not helping the environment. I must consume energy because I drive more then I should. I know I should take the train to rather than taking the car.
2.
Research Topic: Hospitality Management and the environment
There are many environmental and economics factors that both positively and
negatively affect the travel, tourism and hospitality management industry.
Positive:
Some people want to visit places with snow and others wanna visit places with sunlight.
Good Climate brings tourist to certain places to visit
If a economy is doing good, tourist are most likely to visit a location, also if its affordable
Negative:
An unsustainable location will not attract tourist
When hurricanes, and other natural disaster happen, it eliminates travel in the location
Bad climates can lead to less tourist
If crime rates are high it will also drop in tourism.
What is natural capital?
It refers to material beyond just measuring the economic activity, it includes mineral, energy, fisheries and water.
Okay, this topic is a good start but this is very broad. What main argument or main point do you wish to make? The suggestion here is to focus it more. Do you want to focus on environmental factors that can impact tourism or on how tourism can impact the environment? There are a number of ways that tourism can have both a positive and a negative environmental impact: over-building, excluding the local community, and mass tourism that results in improper disposal of wastes and pollutes the local water supply is negative. Involvement of local communities in tourism planning and in benefiting from tourism dollars – sustainable tourism – can have a very positive impact. What could be interesting here is a study of a particular place/community/destination that serves as a positive model of sustainable tourism practices.
According to the Ecological Footprint Calculator, it claims that my personal Earth overshoot day is June 15 and that if everyone lived like me we would need 2.2 Earths. What surprised me was how food was almost a third of the total consumption category.
My idea for the research topic is alternative energy sources and how they might effect the economy.
Your topic idea is good, but it needs more focus. Which energy sources are you planning to look at? In what settings would you look at their use (residential, industrial, commercial, etc.)?? In terms of the economic effects, will you look at the economic benefits and/or costs of various sources and how would you propose to measure? Think about defining a focus where one or more of these questions can be addressed.
The results from my footprint have shown that, if everyone lived like me, we would need 2.1 Earths according to my Ecological Footprint exercise. My personal Earth Overshot Day is June 22nd. It said I would have used as much of nature as the earth can renew throughout the year if everybody lived like me. In 2018, humanity’s Earth Surplus Day was August 1. As stated, by the Global Footprint Network, a personal Earth Overshoot Day earlier than August 2 means that your demand for nature is higher than the world average. If it is earlier than April 24, it is higher than Germany’s average. If it is earlier than March 14, it is higher than the US average.
Research Topic: Global Warming.
How global warming will affect production (food, fabric, electronics) and economics in the next 10 years?
According to the Footprint Ecological exercise, if everyone lived like me, we will need 5.1 earths and my personal Earth Overshoot day is 13 Mar.
After completing the ecological footprint calculator, the results show that if everyone lived a lifestyle similar to mine we would need 2.7 Earths to sustain this. My personal overshoot day is May 16. Also, my highest consumption category was “food” mostly due to the fact that I eat a lot of meat and dairy products.
Research Topic: Air pollution and the effects it has on people living in cities vs people living on the countryside.
My ecological exercise stated that if everyone lived like me we’d need 2.5 earths and my personal overshoot day would be May 28th. This shocked me because my lifestyle is fairly basic and I didn’t think it would be such a huge effect on this planet if everyone lived like I do.
Based on my Footprint calculator, my personal overshoot day is 02 Jun and if everyone lived like me, we would need 2.4 earths. It really made me think consciously, I feel like I should consider renewable energy and change my habits in a positive way for a better environment.
According to my results of the Ecological Footprint exercise, it claims that if everyone lived like me then we would need 3.6 Earths. Also my personal Earth Overshoot Day is April 11th.this means that if everybody lived like me, that by this date, I would have used as much from nature as the Earth can renew in the entire year.
changing lifestyle is necessary to save the globe and the nature.
So according to the foot print calculator, my overshoot date will be May 2, 2019. If recertified like me, we would need to have three deaths to sustain life. I believe that these results are accurate. I know that there are many other changes I can make to live a life that will be more sustainable.
For my research took I am going to explore the effects of global warming on our food supply.
*research topic.
Okay, good. See previous response regarding research proposal.
According to my results of the Ecological Footprint exercise, it says that if everyone lived like me then we would need 4.7 Earths. Also my personal Earth Overshoot Day is March 19th. This fact is shocking because if everyone lived like me we wouldn’t even have an earth exist by now. My carbon footprint is high and it needs to get lowered. Changing lifestyle is necessary for sustainability which will bring a better future.
After completing the Ecological Footprint calculator, my results claim that If everyone lived like you, we would need 3.1 Earths and my personal Earth Overshoot Day is 30 Apr. Nevertheless, this slightly surprised me because I didn’t expect these results to compare my current lifestyle. However, it can be overwhelming you to understand how serious your personal Footprint to impact this planet.
My research topic is about how to address the economic costs and environmental benefits by switching energy suppliers that would improve the natural resources.
Economic – Environmental Accounts support the implementation of the global standard by the statistic division. The environment must be based on the principle that services originating from resources do have economic value to provide a common framework that incorporates natural resources. For better decision making between the economy and the environment, this system promotes sustainable development by planning the value of natural resources including water. A monitoring framework for water that affects economic activity is indeed productive. Agricultural that is abstracted sustainable from planting that requires a lot of water to process. For example, the benefits and costs of the farm system; rice are one of the results of natural resources by agriculture.
Gabby,
Okay – good discussion on the Economic/Environmental accounts.
On the research proposal you have stated here – in what context are you talking about energy suppliers? Do you mean energy sources used in general? by homeowners? business? If you are looking to measure the environmental benefits of some change, you probably would be looking also at economic benefits, or at least some way that benefits outweigh costs.