Principles of Sustainability: Analysis and Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Existing Households

This article discusses the principles of sustainability and how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in existing households. It includes an analysis of greenhouse gas emission data and ways to reduce emissions in transport, heating and cooling, hot water, lighting, and refrigeration. The article provides insights on how to achieve a green household in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.

Running head: PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABILITY
Principles of Sustainability
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Analysis of the Greenhouse gas emission data................................................................................2
Ways to reduce the greenhouse gas emission from the existing household....................................4
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Reference.......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Sustainability can be described as the organization of a system that can endure properly
in the long run. The three major dimensions of the sustainability appears at the three different
levels which includes the social dimension (society), and economic dimension (economy),
ecological dimension (environment) (Pintér et al. 2018). The study includes the calculation of the
gas emission from an existing household with the help of Australian Greenhouse Gas calculator.
The study will further include the ways of reducing the greenhouse gases from the household to
the level of a green household gas emission.
Analysis of the Greenhouse gas emission data
Figure 1: Graph of greenhouse gas emissions of the existing household

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Figure 2: Record of the greenhouse emission for the existing household
The greenhouse gas emission of the designated household has been analysed with respect
to the provided data and the subsequent entry into the Australian Greenhouse Gas Calculator has
showed that the transport used by the family member has contributed to the majority of
greenhouse gas emission. It is important to note that the household has 4 members and each of
the 4 members have 4 their separate cars. The transport used by the household members alone
contributes about 15.1 tonnes of greenhouse gas. The other aspects that have led to the biggest
emitter of greenhouse gas is the heating and the cooling appliances which together emits about
3.067 tonnes of greenhouse gas emission. The third most contributor of the greenhouse gas
emission is the hot water section and it contributes about 2.511 tonnes of greenhouse gases. Only
section where the greenhouse gas emission is less that the green household’s greenhouse gas
emission is the air travel. The family travels once a year in an economy class from the Sydney to
Adelaide and Brisbane. In sections like other appliances, cooking and hot water, the greenhouse
gas emission is the less compared to the greenhouse gas of a typical household. However, the

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sections like waste generation, clothes dryer (no usage found) food and shipping sections are
showing zero emissions due to the lack of information.
Ways to reduce the greenhouse gas emission from the existing household
Transport- the transport section is the major contributor of the greenhouse gas. The
amount of greenhouse gas emitted by the household is 5.4 times high that what a green
household’s greenhouse gas emission is. It is important to mentions to mentions that the
household has 4 members and each of the members uses 4 small cars. The initial greenhouse
emission was 15.1 tonnes. There are other alternatives that can reduce the greenhouse gas
emission well below a green household’s greenhouse gas emission is the usage of an electric
vehicle which will greatly reduce the amount of the greenhouse emitted from the usage of the
electric vehicle (Ehsani et al. 2018). Public transport will compensate the reduced number of
small car usages. Using the Old Melbourne Tram and the Intercity Bus on a daily basis can also
reduce the greenhouse gas emission (figure 4 and 5).
Figure 4: New changes in the transport section

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Figure 5: New changes in the transport section
Heating and Cooling- the heating and the cooling section is one of the critical section
due to the major changes being brought into the household. It is important to note that the along
with the changes made the greenhouse emission from the household cannot be reduced below the
green household’s greenhouse gas emission. after making certain changes the emission is can be
brought down to 0.997 tonnes of greenhouse gas, however it is still near the green household’s
emission of 0.843 greenhouse gas. New air conditioner can be installed that has a 6-star rating
and it will be ducted (well insulated and in a very good condition) (Saman 2013). While new
heating systems can also be installed that will be 6 star rated and ducted (well insulated and in a
very good condition) (figure 6 and 7) (Sivak 2013).

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Figure 6: changes in the cooling systems
Figure 7: changes in the heating systems
Hot water- A LPG instant hot water system can be installed which will replace the old
electric type. The rating of 7 star will provide a high rate of efficiency. A new washing machine
can be installed with a 6-star rating, new dishwasher can be installed with 6-star rating and a
water rating of 6. These steps will reduce the greenhouse gas emission to a great extent and the
final data reveals that the greenhouse gas emission is even lower (0.223) than the green
household’s greenhouse gas emission (0.881) (figure 8, 9 and 10) (Czerski and Strugała 2014).
Figure 8: changes in the dishwasher appliance

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Figure 9: Changes in the washing machine appliance
Figure 10: changes in the hot water service
Lighting- the greenhouse gas emission from the usage of lights can be majorly reduced
by using LED light in place of the Halogen lights. The new wastage of the LED lights will be 30
watts and the 10 lights will be used in place of the 18 lights. This will greatly reduce the
greenhouse emission and bring the emission close to the green household’s greenhouse gas
emission. However, during the winter the usage hour is reduced from 6 to 4 hours (figure 11)
(Byun et al. 2013).

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Figure 11: new lighting installations
Refrigeration- In order to reduce the greenhouse gas emission from the refrigeration a
new double door refrigerator can be installed which is manufactured 2009 or later and has a
rating of 6 star. It will drastically reduce the amount of the greenhouse gas emission to 0.222
which is lower that than the 0.449 tonnes of greenhouse gas emission by the green household
(figure 12) (Nethaji and Mohideen 2017).
Figure 12: New refrigeration system

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Figure 13: new and improved emission data
Figure 14: new records of greenhouse emission

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Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be concluded that the transport used by the household
members alone contributes about 15.1 tonnes of greenhouse gas. The other aspects that have led
to the biggest emitter of greenhouse gas is the heating and the cooling appliances which together
emits about 3.067 tonnes of greenhouse gas emission. The third most contributor of the
greenhouse gas emission is the hot water section and it contributes about 2.511 tonnes of
greenhouse gases. The strategies applied clearly shows that the emission of greenhouse gas has
reduced and this has helped the existing household to have attain a green household in terms of
the greenhouse gas emission (figure 13 and 14).

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Reference
Byun, J., Hong, I., Lee, B. and Park, S., 2013. Intelligent household LED lighting system
considering energy efficiency and user satisfaction. IEEE Transactions on Consumer
Electronics, 59(1), pp.70-76.
Czerski, G. and Strugała, A., 2014. The Energy Efficiency of Hot Water Production by Gas
Water Heaters with a Combustion Chamber Sealed with Respect to the Room. Water, 6(8),
pp.2394-2411.
Ehsani, M., Gao, Y., Longo, S. and Ebrahimi, K., 2018. Modern electric, hybrid electric, and
fuel cell vehicles. CRC press.
Nethaji, N. and Mohideen, S.T., 2017. Energy conservation in domestic refrigerators by cooling
compressor shell–A case study. Case studies in thermal engineering, 10, pp.382-387.
Pintér, L., Hardi, P., Martinuzzi, A. and Hall, J., 2018. Bellagio STAMP: Principles for
sustainability assessment and measurement. In Routledge Handbook of Sustainability Indicators
(pp. 51-71). Routledge.
Saman, W.Y., 2013. Towards zero energy homes down under. Renewable Energy, 49, pp.211-
215.
Sivak, M., 2013. Air conditioning versus heating: climate control is more energy demanding in
Minneapolis than in Miami. Environmental Research Letters, 8(1), p.014050.

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