Personal Footprint and Sustainability Analysis

This document provides an analysis of personal footprint and sustainability, including ecological and carbon footprints. It discusses the calculation and significance of ecological and carbon footprints, as well as the contribution of different categories to the global footprint. The document also explores the unsustainability of air conditioners and potential solutions. Additionally, it touches upon waste hierarchy, cradle to cradle design, and corporate social responsibility. The document concludes with a discussion on the impact of air conditioners on the environment and the importance of addressing sustainability issues.

Running head: SUSTAINABLITY
Personal footprint, product and organisational sustainability analysis
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Question 1:
Figure 1: Results
Figure 1: results

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Question 2:
a) Ecological footprint can be described as the biological area that is required by an individual
for his or her survivability and sustenance. The ecological footprint can be measured in term of
the of the global hectares. The global hectares is actually the area that is required to biological
production and average world productivity. It is important to mention that 2.5 acres of land is
equal to one hectare of ecological footprint is equal to 10000 metre square. It is also important to
highlight that a total of 1.7 global hectare is area that a person requires for it sustenance and
survivability of a single person (Galli et al. 2014). It is important to mention that the calculation
has been done with the help of online calculator and this has resulted into providing a result that
highlighted that I will be requiring 4 earths equivalent area for my sustenance and survivability.
The ecological footprint that has been received and the score is 6.8 ecological footprint. Thus, it
is important to mention that the I will be requiring 54 times more space so that I can fulfil all my
consumption and survivability.
b) Carbon footprint can be defined as the quantity of the greenhouse gas that has been produced
by the human activities by both the indirect and direct activities. This is expressed in term of the
carbon dioxide (Mancini et al. 2016). After calculating from the online calculator, it has been
given a score of 9.7 tons of carbon dioxide and the per year. It is important to highlight that the
amount of carbon dioxide that is released by a typical source is calculated a specific time period.
One of the highlighting fact is that majority of the greenhouse gases are emitted from the
activities like brining fossil fuel. As per the data from the United Stes Forest survey a single tree
can sequester about 88 pounds of carbon dioxide for a period of one year. Thus, it can be said
that 220 trees will be required to sequester the amount of carbon dioxide that I am emitting due
to my activities.

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c) The ecological footprint is calculated to be 6.8 global hectares. the contribution of the global
hectares can be effectively provided by the different types like the food (0.8 gha), shelter (3.1
gha), mobility (0.1 gha), goods (1.6 gha), services (1.2 gha). The other vital categories that can
also be used in analysing the global footprint is by land type. Carbon footprint contributes about
3.3 gha, fishing ground contribute about 0.1 gha, and grazing land by 0.1 gha, cropland
contributes about 1.2 gha, forest contribute about 1.6 gha and built up and contributes about 0.4
gha. Therefore, it can be aid that the carbon footprint contributes abbot 3.3 gha which is the
greatest among all the different categories. It is important to mention that the next big category
that contributes to the carbon footprint is the forest products which is 1.6 gha.
Question 3:
The four major and the most important aspects that have contributed to the to the global
footprint and the increase in carbon footprint are the not using the renewable sources of energy,
not using vehicle pooling while commuting small distances, generate lot of wastes, do not
recycle the plastic products, usage of appliances that are not energy efficient.
Question 4:
One of the potential solution of unsustainability is the usage of the appliances that are not
at all energy efficient. It is important to mention that the energy resources are valuable because it
takes a lot of effort to generate electricity and it leads to the release the carbon dioxide. The
additional release of carbon dioxide can be minimized by the effective utilisation of the energy
and it also reduces the burden from the environment. However, it is important to mention that the
usage of the renewable sources of energy can also reduce the impact on the environment. The
appliances although not energy efficient can be paired with the renewable sources of energy so

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that it can efficiently compensate the damage done on the environment. The renewable sources
of energy can generate clean energy devoid of any kind of pollution and damage to the
environment. This will also effectively reduce the reliance and the score of carbon footprint also
reduces (Du Can et al. 2014).
Question 5:
One Air conditioner from Blue Star.
Question 6:
Air conditioners are made up of materials that are both non- traditional and traditional.
This is done to reduce the cost of the air conditioners and also to suite the purpose of building air
conditioners that will be have attractive design. Especially the spilt air conditioners have a lot of
plastic material that make it cost effective to manufacture and it gives an aesthetic appeal inside
the residences (Chen et al. 2017). The vital components that are used in the manufacture of the
air conditioners are the copper tubing and aluminium. The air conditioners are made up of
materials that are corrosion resistant and have a stainless steel casing. It is important to highlight
that the coolant or the liquid that circulates the air conditioning system have thermodynamic
characteristics of Freon, water, hydrocarbon and ammonia. it is important to highlight that sheet
metal forms are used in manufacturing air conditioners and these thin metal sheets are pressed to
give them a particular shape. the tubing system are made by bending the pipes so that condenser
and the evaporator can be tubed. The copper tubing is then joined with the aluminium plates so
give it a structural integrity. In the final stage of the manufacture, pumps are installed (Nishijima
2016).
Question 7

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Air conditioners are unsustainable because using air conditioners are not energy efficient
and it has bene seen that air conditioners consume about 33 percent of electricity in comparison
to other air conditioners. On the other hand, the refrigerant that are used in the air conditioners
causes harm to the environment. In general majority of the air conditioners are energy efficient
and it causes excessive consumption of electricity. Therefore, air conditioner can cause issues
related ot unsustainability and the it will potentially be increasing the electricity consumption of
the individuals that are using the same (Biswas and Roy 2016).
Question 8
Waste hierarchy can be defined as setting priorities that involve the disposal, recovery,
resource and the avoidance. it is important to mention that the reducing and avoiding are the first
part of the hierarchy and one of the major issues that generate from the usage of air conditioners
are the hot air. It has been seen that the hot air is the only issues that actively heats up the
environment due to the operation of the air conditioners. Therefore, it can be said that wastes
cannot be avoided but it can be recovered and at the same time it can be used for other separate
purposes like generating electricity from driving generators. it can be said that sufficient amount
of energy will be generated that will be helping to drive the other appliances in the home.
Whereas, it can be highlighted that the disposal of the waste is not applicable considering the fact
that it is not feasible to trap hot air (Dong et al. 2014).
Question 9
The cradle to cradle design protocol can be applied and considering the fact that the
design elements cannot be changes but aspects like energy efficiency can be applied so that the
air conditioners can become energy efficient. The air conditioners are highly unsustainable due

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to their high electricity consumption and it can be designed in a way that can bring necessary
changes to the aspects of energy consumption sectors. Effective technologies can be used so that
it can reduce the energy consumption and it is important to mention that waste is not generated
during the manufacturing process but during the operational processes (Bluestarindia.com 2019).
Question 10
The key stakeholders of Blue Star are the customers, employee and the supply chain
entities. It is important to mention that the major stakeholders that play a major role in the
company are the expectations of the customers. The customers are looking for affordable
products that will be energy efficient as well as good performance. The employees on the other
hand are the ones that are internal stakeholders that will be directly affected due to the
development of new policies and technologies.
Question 11
The CSR issues that has confronted the Blue Star is by their product manufacture. The
products that the Blue Star manufacture directly and indirectly affects the under privileged
section by the environmental degradation. Therefore, effective CSR framework formulation can
negate the issues (Bluestarindia.com 2019).
Question 12
The poor people that reside near the manufacturing plant of the Blue Star industries can
be provided with facilities like free education, food and shelter. This will help in scaling up the
CSR of Blue Star.
Question 13

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The wellbeing of the poor people will be increased by providing the daily needs so that it
can promote sustainability and survivability.
Question 14
My own consumption cannot be changed because considering the rise in temperature, it is
imperative that I will be using air conditioner for my personal comfort.

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