BRANDENBURG UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, COTTBUS-SENFTENBERG,

BRANDENBURG, GERMANY.
ENVIRONMENTAL AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (MSc)
INTRODUCTION TO ERM II (2018/2019)
TASK 1: CALCULATION OF PERSONAL CO2 SAVINGS
NAME: DAMILOLA KUTEYI MATRIC NO: 3814540

INTRODUCTION
Global attention on the effects of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, carbon footprint and global warming
have significantly increased in recent years. Carbon footprint is defined as “a measure of the exclusive
total amount of carbon dioxide emissions that is directly and indirectly caused by an activity or is
accumulated over the life stages of a product” (Wiedmann & Minx, 2008). There are several sources of
CO2 emission in daily lifestyle, however this document will focus on personal savings from the following
sources:
 Lighting – CO2 is created in the generation of the electricity that light bulbs consume
 Transportation – CO2 is generated by the combustion of gasoline/diesel fuel
CALCULATIONS
1) Lighting:
a. Switch from Incandescent bulbs to LED bulbs.
b. Total lighting usage of 8 hours per day.

Daily Kwh consumed Annual Kwh consumed CO2 produced

Type of Lighting
(@8hr/day) (@8hr/day) in a year
Incandescent bulb (60 Watts) 0.48 175.2 152.42 Kg
LED bulb (9 Watts) 0.07 25.55 22.23 Kg
Personal Savings 0.41 149.65 130.19 Kg

2) Transportation (Using Bottom-Up approach)

a. Switch from Car to Train/Bus for distance of 113 km (Berlin to TU-Mensa, BTU)
Formula: Travel activity (km) x Specific GHG emissions (kg CO2/km) = GHG emission (kgCO2)

Mode of transport Daily Travel Specific CO2 emissions Daily CO2 CO2 emission in a
switch from Car activity (kgCO2/km) emission year (KgCO2)
(km) (KgCO2)
Bus 3 km 0.070 0.21 76.65
Train 110 km 0.028 3.08 1124.2
Car 113 km 0.127 14.35 5237.75
Personal Savings 113 km - 11.06 4036.9 KgCO2

Total Personal savings (Lighting and Transport): (4036.9+130.19) = 4167.09 KgCO2 = 4.167 tonsCO2/yr.

REFERENCES
Wiedmann, T. and Minx, J. (2008). A Definition of 'Carbon Footprint'. In: C. C. Pertsova, Ecological
Economics Research Trends: Chapter 1, pp. 1-11, Nova Science Publishers, Hauppauge NY, USA