Personal Footprint and Sustainability Analysis

This article discusses personal ecological footprint and carbon footprint, and provides tips for reducing carbon emissions and promoting sustainability. It also explores the sustainability of the dairy industry and ways to improve it.

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APPLIED ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
By Name
Course
Instructor
Institution
Location
Date

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Personal footprint, product and organisational sustainability
analysis
1

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a
My ecological footprints prove that if everyone else lived like me, we would require close to 4
earths to accommodate us. My ecological footprint stands at 6.6 gha. Most of my consumption is
on food followed by transport and movement. Shelter takes the least amount of my consumption.
The measurement of ecological footprint is measured in global hectares. This is because it is the
worldly comparable and standardized hectares with global average productivity. Estimates of
Worldwide ecological footprints prove that the natural capital is being used by humanity close to
1.8 times faster than it can be renewed. This implies that the ecological footprint foe humanity
corresponds close to 1.8 planet earths.

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b
Carbon footprint represents the overall greenhouse emission to the environment within a given
period of time either by an organization or an individual. It covers the amount greenhouse gas
that is emitted in equivalents of CO2. My carbon footprint is rated at 50 representing half of my
ecological footprint. My rate of CO2 emissions for the carbon footprint is rated at 9.6 tons per
year. Calculating the footprint will help me reduce the output of carbon through increasing the energy
efficiency in homes as well as burning little fuel in daily activities.
c
By land type- carbon footprint represents 50% of my total ecological footprint. This implies that
I’m directly involved in several activities that lead to emission of greenhouse effects to the
environment. It is closely followed by cropland (Bagliani et al, 2014). Forest products and built
up land represent almost similar levels. The least allocated grounds are for fishing and grazing
land.
By consumption category- food accounts for my highest consumption level. This implies that
most of my expenditure regarding to consumption is spent on food. Transport and movement
follows closely. This might have been some of the factors that could have led to the higher
carbon footprint due to the carbon emitted from food consumption and movement. Goods and
shelter accounts for an almost similar level whereas shelter taking the least of my expenditure.
3
Air travel- travelling by air has got higher rates of carbon emissions to the environment as
compared to other means of transport.

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Driving- statistics prove that an average person spends 18 days of a year in a car. This reflects a
higher level of carbon emissions to the environment (Folke et al, 015).
Consumption of meat- lamb and beef greatly constitute to an individual’s level of carbon
emissions.
Local environment initiatives- local farming as well as purchase of local vegetables and fruits is
a more healthy practice and is more organic to the environment (Gössling et al, 2012).
4
City- most city dwellers are often fond of using cars as their main mode of transport. It is
advisable to use public transit, bikes r even carpooling. The fewer the number of cars on the
road, definitely means less level of carbon emissions within the city.
Food- developing a healthy living standard is a vital practice to reduce ecological footprint.
Some main practices involve limiting the consumption of meat as well as majoring on the
consumption of local or home grown fruits and vegetables (Hoekstra, 2011).
Energy- this involves reducing the energy consumption rate as much as possible. This can be
achieved by adopting renewable sources of energy such as sunlight. Installation of solar power
collectors to act as the main source of energy will help reduce the carbon emissions when non-
renewable energy sources like fuel is used.
Population- with the projected increase in the world population, there is a need to adopt effective
strategies for urban planning and development that will enable proper management of resources.
This will ensure that the limited resources can be shared amongst the high population
(Jorgenson, 2013).

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5
Product- Yoghurt. It is manufactured by the dairy industry.
6
Energy in the dairy industry is used in the following departments, production of steam, cold
production for all cooling services needed and power transformer station (Kautsky et al, 2010).
Raw materials include; milk, flavors, fruits, bacterial culture and stabilizers.
7
Increased concern on lifestyle diseases
A lot of fresh water is needed for drinking, processing and washing.
Waste disposal menace (Liu et al, 2015).
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Avoid/ reduction
Recycle/ reuse
Treatment
Proper disposal
9

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Developing modern technologies and concepts that facilitate heat supply, power and cold and
integrating the whole concept into the various steps of processing (Monfreda et al, 2014). Key to
this is integrating the innovative and effective technologies into a green and sustainable dairy
concept that will ensure energy and water savings are maximized. Key features include
Adopting new technologies of chilling
Adoption of techniques for heat generation and distribution
Adoption of techniques of membrane filtration
Adoption of innovative pre-concentration of milk (Niccolucci et al, 2011)
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Consumers- they are the end users of the milk and related milk products. They expect safe and
quality products that will be a good return for their money
Public health department- performs inspection of all the dairy premises and products to ascertain
they meet the meet the required set standards. They subsequently issue health certificates to
institutions who meet the standards (Turner et al, 2015).
The local dairy board- they coordinate all activities in the dairy industry, facilitating research as
well as leading in development of required policies.
Input providers- all individuals who provide various inputs and raw materials to the to the
industry. The inputs include information and training.
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Sustainable use of resources- this mainly focuses on the on the long range initiatives aimed at
lowering the emission of CO2 from the production, reducing the food waste as well as making
the packaging of dairy products more recyclable (Wackernagel et al, 2014).
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Dairy cooperatives- several dairy cooperatives perform the task of assisting the dairy industry in
marketing, availing the required inputs as well as providing different services to dairy farmers.
They can play a major role in addressing the major challenges and emerging issues that could
arise in various segments of production, distribution as well as consumption
13
Taking part in addressing the emerging issues will help improve sustainability in the dairy
industry given that they are more likely to be listened to (Wackernagel et al, 2016).
14
I would not change my consumption of this product. Most unsustainability issues within the
dairy industry occur during production. Consumption of dairy products is a safe practice that can
promote sustainability.

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References
Bagliani, M., Galli, A., Niccolucci, V. and Marchettini, N., 2014. Ecological footprint analysis
applied to a sub-national area: the case of the Province of Siena (Italy). Journal of
Environmental management, 86(2), pp.354-364.
Folke, C., Kautsky, N., Berg, H., Jansson, Å. and Troell, M., 2015. The ecological footprint
concept for sustainable seafood production: a review. Ecological Applications, 8(sp1),
pp.S63-S71.
Gössling, S., Hansson, C.B., Hörstmeier, O. and Saggel, S., 2012. Ecological footprint analysis
as a tool to assess tourism sustainability. Ecological economics, 43(2-3), pp.199-211.
Hoekstra, A.Y., 2011. Human appropriation of natural capital: A comparison of ecological
footprint and water footprint analysis. Ecological Economics, 68(7), pp.1963-1974.
Jorgenson, A.K., 2013. Consumption and environmental degradation: A cross-national analysis
of the ecological footprint. Social Problems, 50(3), pp.374-394.
Kautsky, N., Rönnbäck, P., Tedengren, M. and Troell, M., 2010. Ecosystem perspectives on
management of disease in shrimp pond farming. Aquaculture, 191(1-3), pp.145-161.
Liu, J., Mooney, H., Hull, V., Davis, S.J., Gaskell, J., Hertel, T., Lubchenco, J., Seto, K.C.,
Gleick, P., Kremen, C. and Li, S., 2015. Systems integration for global sustainability.
Science, 347(6225), p.1258832.
Monfreda, C., Wackernagel, M. and Deumling, D., 2014. Establishing national natural capital
accounts based on detailed ecological footprint and biological capacity assessments. Land
use policy, 21(3), pp.231-246.

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Niccolucci, V., Galli, A., Kitzes, J., Pulselli, R.M., Borsa, S. and Marchettini, N., 2011.
Ecological footprint analysis applied to the production of two Italian wines. Agriculture,
ecosystems & environment, 128(3), pp.162-166.
Turner, K., Lenzen, M., Wiedmann, T. and Barrett, J., 2015. Examining the global
environmental impact of regional consumption activities—Part 1: A technical note on
combining input–output and ecological footprint analysis. Ecological Economics, 62(1),
pp.37-44.
Wackernagel, M., Monfreda, C., Schulz, N.B., Erb, K.H., Haberl, H. and Krausmann, F., 2014.
Calculating national and global ecological footprint time series: resolving conceptual
challenges. Land use policy, 21(3), pp.271-278.
Wackernagel, M., Onisto, L., Bello, P., Linares, A.C., Falfán, I.S.L., Garcıa, J.M., Guerrero,
A.I.S. and Guerrero, M.G.S., 2016. National natural capital accounting with the
ecological footprint concept. Ecological economics, 29(3), pp.375-390.