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The Environmental Fingerprint. A Case Study.

ArticleJanuary 2012 with 232 Reads
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1st Antonia Odagiu 2nd Oroian Ioan Gheorghe

14.32 University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine

3rd Tania Cecilia Mihaiescu +1

Last Manuela Camelia MIRZA
16.42 University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary ...

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Bulletin UASVM Agriculture 69(2)/2012

Print ISSN 1843-5246; Electronic ISSN 1843-5386

The Environmental Fingerprint. A Case Study

Antonia ODAGIU1), Ioan Gh. OROIAN1), Tania MIHAIESCU1), Aurel MAXIM1),

Manuela Camelia MIRZA2)
1)
Faculty of Agriculture, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Cluj-Napoca,
Calea Mntur, no. 3 - 5, 400372 Cluj-Napoca, Romania; antonia.odagiu@gmail.com
2)
Faculty of Medicine, Iuliu HaieganuUniversity of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca,
str.Victor Babes 8, 400012Cluj-Napoca, Romania; mcm1967@yahoo.com

Abstract. The new concept of ecological fingerprint is approached in this paper, together with a
case study concerning the carbon fingerprint. The scientific bases of this concept were elaborated by
Rees and Wackernagel, at University of Columbia in early 90s. Their overall significance last in the
ability of our planet to produce all resources needed for a healthy food, goods, and services supplies,
in order to satisfy the consumption needs of population, and also to absorb the waste produced by the
earth population and their activities. Thus, the concerned resources, consumptions, waste, etc. are
transformed into a single variable. The basis of this approach is represented by the ratio between the
human consumption of natural resources and the global capacity of earth to regenerate natural
resources. The global hectares represents the measure unit for the ecological fingerprint, and it has
four components. These four components of the ecological fingerprint are represented by: the carbon
fingerprint, the food fingerprint, the housing fingerprint, and the goods and services fingerprint.

Keywords: carbon, housing, goods and services, food, global hectares

INTRODUCTION

Because in last century a continuous decreasing of natural resources supplies was

recorded, increasing attention has been given to both planet resources and impacts of
anthropic factor on their deployment, and also on finding a method able to allow us to
quantify the remaining Earth resources, the rhythm of consumption and ecosystems health
status (Bastianoni et al., 2004; Kalacska, et al., 2007).
In last two decades, a new ecological concept was launched the ecological
fingerprint. The scientific bases of this concept were elaborated by Rees and Wackernagel, at
University of Columbia in early 90s (Rees, 1992; Wackernagel et al., 1995).
An interesting and valuable trait of the ecological fingerprint is represented by the
capacity of this sintagm to comprehend an entire methodology, which allows the capacity to
combine data from all ecological interesting fields and express them as an equation with four
variables. Their overall significance last in the ability of our planet to produce all resources
needed for a healthy food, goods, and services supplies, in order to satisfy the consumption
needs of population, and also to absorb the waste produced by the earth population and their
activities (Wackernagel et al., 1995). Thus, the concerned resources, consumptions, waste,
etc. are transformed into a single variable.
The basis of this approach is represented by the ratio between the human
consumption of natural resources and the global capacity of earth to regenerate natural
resources. The global hectares represents the measure unit for the ecological fingerprint,
and it has four components (Fig. 1).

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THE CARBON THE FOOD

FINGERPRINT FINGERPRINT

THE ECOLOGICAL
FINGERPRINT

THE HOUSING THE GOODS AND SERVICES

FINGERPRINT FINGERPRINT

Fig.1. The structure of the ecological fingerprint

The components of the ecological fingerprint include the followings: carbon

fingerprint, food fingerprint, housing fingerprint, goods and services fingerprint, and they all
contribute by specific ways and means to creation of the global ecological fingerprint
(Kalacska et al., 2007; http://khidr.org/Green_Fingerprint.pdf).
The carbon fingerprint represents the land and water areas, necessary to absorb the
associate emissions:
energy consumption;
transport facilities.
The food fingerprint is the quantity of vegetal and animal food, needed for:
annual consumption by person;
area needed in order to absorb the carbon dioxide associated to food
production, processing and transport.

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The housing fingerprint includes the following components:

land area needed for construction, arrangement and furniture supplies for one
house;
land area needed for one house water supply
land and ocean area needed for the absorption of carbon dioxide produced by one
house.
The goods and services fingerprint is represented by the land and ocean area necessary for:
absorption of the carbon dioxide emissions associated to goods production,
transport and storage;
commercial activities.
A series of factors have considerable contribution in creating the global ecological fingerprint,
from simple components as agricultural land, up to complex factors as those involved in industrial
areas (industrial constructions, mining and hydrocarbons industry) up to infrastructure, or reforestation
issues (Fig. 2).

Agricultural Marine Areas occupied by industrial

lands fishing areas constructions

Infrastructure Urban and rural Areas destined to waste

arrangements human settlements storage and neutralizing

Forestated Areas recently

Mine products or hydrocarbons
areas reforested
extraction and storage

Fig.2. Example of carbon fingerprint calculation

THE CALCULATION OF CARBON FINGERPRINT - A CASE STUDY

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The public illuminate in a medium size town is supplied by 1.50 millions bulbs, with
total power of 130 kW.
The main objectives of our study consist of calculation of the quantity of carbon
dioxide emissions as consequence of using these sources of energy during one year with an
average daily functioning of 8 hours, and how many global hectares of wood trees are needed
to assimilate that quantity of carbon dioxide released in atmosphere, by the mentioned source.

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These objectives can be achieved by following means: calculation of the total

functioning time of the public illuminate, calculation of the total energy consumption
expressed in kWh, transformation of the energy consumption in kJ, calculation of the
correspondent carbon quantity, and calculation of the corresponding carbon dioxide quantity,
calculation of the global hectares needed for absorption of released carbon dioxide.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The calculation of the total functioning time of the public illuminate:

3556 days x 8 hours/day = 2.848 hours
The calculation of the total energy consumption expressed in kWh:
2.848 hours x 130 kW = 370,240 kW
370,240 kW x 3.60 = 1,332,864 kWh
1,332,864 kWh x 3.60 = 4,798,310.40 MJ = 4,798.31 GJ
The transformation of the energy consumption in J and gasoline:
4,798.31 GJ/ 43.97 GJ/tone gasoline = 109.13 tones gasoline
109.13 tones gasoline x 1,356 L/tone = 147,980.28 L gasoline
The calculation of the correspondent carbon quantity:
147,980.28 L gasoline x 2.42 : 3.79 = 94,488.72 kg carbon
The calculation of the corresponding carbon dioxide quantity:
94,488.72 kg carbon x 3.66 = 345,828.74 kg CO2
345.83 tones CO2
The calculation of the global hectares needed for absorption of released carbon
dioxide:
Taking into consideration that 1 hectare of wood is able to assimilate 5.20 tons of CO2:
345.83 tones CO2/5.20 = 66,505.53 ha of wood
and
1 hectare of wood corresponds to 1.40 global hectares, results
47,503.95 global hectares

CONCLUSION

The quantity of carbon dioxide emissions as consequence of using these sources of

energy during one year with an average daily functioning of 8 hours is equal to 345.83 tones
CO2 , and the number of global hectares is 47,503.95 global hectares).

REFERENCES

1. Bastianoni, S., F.M. Pulselli, Tiezzi E. (2004) The problem of assigning responsibility for
greenhouse gas emissions, Ecological Economics 49: 253 - 257.
2. Kalacska, M., G.A. Sanchez Azofeifa, T. Caelli, H. Peter White, J.C. Calvo-Alvarado
(2007). Ecological fingerprinting of ecosystem succession: Estimating secondary tropical dry forest
structure and diversity using imaging spectroscopy, Remote Sensing of Environment 108 (1): 82 - 96
3. Rees, W.E. (1992) Ecological footprints and appropriated carrying capacity: what urban
economics leaves out, Environment and Urbanization 4(2): 121-130.
4. Wackernagel, M. (1994). Ecological Footprint and Appropriated Carrying Capacity: A Tool
for Planning Toward Sustainability. Vancouver, Canada: School of Community and Regional
Planning. The University of British Columbia.
5. Wackernagel, M., J. Silverstein (2000). Big things first: focusing on the scale imperative
with the Ecological Footprint, Ecological Economics 32: 391-394.

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