The release of CO2 alongside other greenhouse gas emissions will impact the environment in future if not considered. The greenhouse gas emissions are propelled by human activities including the decision they make in the process of purchase and consumption of goods and services. GHG Emissions and the impact of it are often viewed on a global scale yet the emission from the existence and use of goods and services is observed lightly. Emissions from the production to the use of products and services also need to be considered.
This is the reason Pack 2050 exists. Pack 2050 is a standard model used to measure the life cycle GHG emissions of goods and services by the community at large as well as the manufacturers of goods and services. The life cycle greenhouse gas emissions are the emissions from the products and services that occur as a consequence of creating, transporting, storing using and recycling of goods and services. This paper is a research project exploring the application of pas 2015 to determine the life cycle emissions of dairy products.
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IBM United Kingdom got the support of DEFRA to demonstrate the ease of application of pas to the provision of a service. IBM chose the provision of an IT service, and the service chosen was the whole farm approach (WFA). WFA enables UK farmers and growers to access a free internet portal to view a range of Defra services.
IBM United Kingdom went through a five-stage analysis process to demonstrate the application of PAS 2050. The stages were: building a mapping process, checking boundaries and prioritization, collecting data, calculating footprint and checking uncertainty. After conducting their Analysis, IBM determined and reported their findings. The "extended PAS" footprint was 725 T CO2e / year of service life, and the calculated "PAS-compliant" footprint was 490 T CO2e / year of service life.
In building the mapping process, the core steps in the path to providing an IT service were determined by the team, and the steps included designing, developing, delivering, management and the use of an IT service. IBM noted that it was challenging to quickly determine the life cycle process of an IT service since PACK 2050 specifications only define those of material goods. However, the team managed to identify a mapping between the two that needed no alterations due to its robustness. The group agreed that the life cycle of an It service could be determined using the IT nomenclature and consequently three different types of products were identified; capital goods not catered for by PAS, core IT service catered for by PAS and physical goods provided for by PAS. The unit of analysis was determined to be annual analysis.
Next, IBM checked the Environmental Product Declaration website to see if any product category rules existed for whole farm approach products; however, no relevant rule existed. The next stage involved prioritization of data, and so, the team made a high-level estimation of the carbon footprint. The evaluation involved determining the carbon emission sources linked with the process map activities, making assumptions and calculating the level of carbon emission.
The third stage involved collecting of data. After checking boundaries and prioritization, IBM team focused on obtaining primary data for the following material emission areas. Offices (used by support teams), Offices (used by project team), Operation of farmer's PCs, Commuting (of project team), Data Centers (development/test), Commuting * (of support teams), Embedded emissions of buildings * (used by project team), Data Centers (production).data was also collected for immaterial emission areas and staffing levels of the development team and support team. The development team was at the manufacturing stage whereas the support team at the distribution stage. The data collected was used to calculate carbon footprints of the products.
IBM team then conducted an activity-based assessment for the service and a mass balance for the physical goods as recommended by PAS. The spreadsheet used to hold all data was used to calculate the carbon footprints and the results indicated that; the total footprint of the life cycle of a product is more than double the emission at each stage and the relative emission at each stage of a product lifecycle is nearly constant. The most notable omission in the entire life cycle of a product was at the manufacturing stage and accounted for almost 80% of the total footprint. Design development and testing are done at the manufacturing stage.
PAS recommends that a Monte Carlo analysis of the carbon footprint model should be performed. It proved, however, difficult for the IBM team to perform the analysis since it requires defining the probability density and distribution type, for each data input. IBM Notes that it was a challenge to perform any statistical test of any of the primary or secondary data since the information derived from the data does not give the required quantity and PAC did not outline any specifications for deriving the required quantities. IBM, therefore, calculated a standard distribution curve for serving the purpose.
