Personal Ecological Footprint Analysis and Mitigation Strategy

Based on the online test I undertook, I don't seem to have helped save the earth from eminent destruction, especially with regard to my ecological footprint that reflected astonishingly high consumption on food and traveling. High consumption in food was associated with my preference for packed food, which saw me report very high consumption of natural resources that go into manufacturing of these foods, their packaging material and the environmental degradation caused by some of these packaging materials that end up in landfills. On the other hand, I seemed also to register very high consumption in traveling mainly because as a foreign student, I travel by air to and from my home country. In the end, a lot of resources to cater for this comfort of travel, from fossil fuel to materials used to manufacture the means, cost the ecosystem a lot more than I ever knew would be possible. My mitigation strategy to reduce this ecological footprint that left me in utter shock, is to prepare my food at home and also to plan for my travel earlier enough so I can find much cheaper and eco-friendly means back to my home country. Meanwhile, I will stick to eco-friendly bicycling both at home and abroad.

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The Automotive Industry's Footprint Analysis

The automotive industry is certainly one of the major industries that have transformed mobility in dynamic ways. Yet this is also another industry whose products and processes pose major environmental threats. As of 2007 alone, there were a total of 53 million passenger cars on the roads worldwide, with another 20 million commercial vehicles, bringing the total to about 73 million vehicles (McKinsey & Company, 2013). Worse still, researchers foresee huge number of cars on our roads should automobile manufacturers continue to produce at the current rate, apparently pouring a massive 3 billion cars onto the roads by 2050.

For this paper, focus will be on environmental impact of automotive industry since conception of a car model, to its production and final use and end of life management. While most environmental impact of the automotive industry is often associated with vehicle use after production due to concerns with pollution from use of fossil fuels, it is apparent that production processes are also of impact to the environment. For instance, the automotive industry depend on Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) (McKinsey & Company, 2013), which use both natural and artificial resources to make motor vehicle parts. This means that, with such high productions, it is likely that the production process results in exploitation of natural resources at the expense of quality of the environment. More specifically, large ecological footprint during production is associated with emission of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), high water and energy consumption, and solid waste (Nunes & Bennet, 2010).

In terms of environmental impact resulting from use of automobiles, some of the serious concerns to the environment include emission of gases such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulphur and nitrogen oxides (Nunes & Bennet, 2010). Other emissions from exhaust of vehicles that remain threat to the health of the environment are aldehyde compounds, ozone, particulate material, and hydrogen compounds. These add to the effects caused by greenhouse gases of global warming, respiratory diseases, and lose of aesthetic value of the environment that can, for instance, destruct proper vision. Moreover, end-of-life management has seen most vehicles damped in landfills without recycling, leading to contamination of aquifers and soil. In the most recent comparative analysis of ecological footprint of transport means used in Beijing, China, Zheng Tao and Chen Chang (2016) find that ecological footprint of personal cars is about 19,402 times that of bicycle transport. This tells why there is general pressure on the automotive industry to devise ways to produce eco-friendly products and do adopt equally eco-friendly production processes.

Green Strategies in the Automotive Industry

Due to continued pressure on automobile firms to produce energy efficient and eco-friendly automobiles and additionally due to stricter environmental laws, automobile firms have initiated various greening projects that will see them meet this pressure. However, production and profitability in the automobile is complex and calls for diligence in striking balance between profitability, competition and ethical practices with regard environmental stewardship. Since technology is one of the major drivers of profitability and transformation in this industry, it is also a major turnaround for firms that now consider greening strategies (McKinsey & Company, 2013). As such, innovation is a major driving force toward meeting environmental stewardship challenge for the automotive sector. These innovations are done in design of eco-friendly engines, green building, and green supply chain management (Nunes & Bennet, 2010). Furthermore, the companies also make investment into reverse logistics that help in end-of-life management of vehicles.

Toyota Motor Corporation, which is a major motor vehicle producer and certainly the leading automobile firm today, has implemented a number of eco-design strategies even as it continues to experiment with a number of these approaches. The company's main breakthrough is with the hybrid engine that aims to improve fuel efficiency, increase fuel diversification, and lower emissions (Nunes & Bennet, 2010). The most recent innovation by Toyota is its technology with hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles that it has done in collaboration with other producers. These are meant to encourage use of "green" sources of energy such as electricity, electrical batteries and hydrogen fuel-cells (Townsend & Calatone, 2013). The company also makes efforts in greening its production processes by considering renewable materials such as eco-plastics, recycled materials as well as natural fiber as it continues to research best methods to eliminate VOCs from its products and their production processes.

Other firms that join Toyota in these major undertakings are General Motors and Volkswagen Group, which are making investment into eco-design and green building for both manufacturing and non-manufacturing facilities. Green Motors has obtained Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for its efforts in green building(Nunes & Bennet, 2010). A major challenge that remains is that "greening is expensive" and as at now, companies are experimenting with various technologies, not sure about which will be a breakthrough in future (McKinsey & Company, 2013). Also, lower fuel prices pose serious challenge to greening strategies as it lowers prices of large models such as SUVs, driving consumer demands to this otherwise inefficient direction.

Alternative "Greening" Strategy for the Automotive Industry

It is apparent from the foregoing discussion that the automobile industry is making major strides in terms of adopting eco-friendly measures in their production activities. While the practices are still limited to a few major industry players, it is likely that this will set trends for other players who will be left little option but to adopt greening strategies too. However, I consider development of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and empowerment of consumers as the best practices in terms of greening strategies for automobile manufacturers.

Technological/Scientific Solution: Hybrid Electric Vehicles

A major cause of pollution in vehicles is incomplete combustion in internal combustion engines and inefficient fuel consumption. It is incomplete combustion that result in high emissions of greenhouse gases. Also, inefficient fuel consumption associated with incomplete combustion and vehicles with large and inefficient fuel chambers result in high quantity of emissions. Adding to traffic congestion in major cities, it is easy to see why smog caused major inconveniences in Chinese cities including Beijing. Solution lies in the design of hybrid vehicles that use both fossil fuel and alternative energy sources, preferably, electricity.

Hybrid electric vehicles(HEVs) have hybrid power trains that use both fossil fuel and electricity, but its fuel engine is developed such that it burns fuel more efficiently to lower rate of emission of green gases by allowing almost a complete combustion(Onat, Kucukvar, & Tatari, 2015). That is to say, the fuel engine is placed such that it receives enough air flow to ensure almost complete combustion while improving fuel efficiency due to high energy production for several miles an hour. However, in order to improve effectiveness of this hybrid engine to meet fuel efficiency and cut more on emissions, the new technology should incorporate an automated system for switching between electric and fuel engines. Such a system should allow time for each engine to drive the vehicle based on energy efficiency requirements and availability of powering for each engine. This will ensure that electric engine does not run for too long to cause thermal pollution and equally for fuel engine that would result in higher emissions.

Behavioral Solution: Consumer Empowerment

One of the challenges to greening strategies discussed is consumer attitude and purchasing patterns, which sees more fuel guzzlers on high demand due to low fuel prices (McKinsey & Company, 2013). When such purchasing patterns continue to prevail and be major drivers of demand, then the way to eco-friendly mobility may be just too long. As such, a change of attitude on the side of consumers is required. Without this, even efforts to transform the automotive industry may be useless. This alternative strategy thus suggests consumer empowerment, mainly through education, to facilitate change of attitude in favor of green purchasing pattern. While this strategy still faces the challenge of high cost of green driving, it is the only way to lower this cost as demand increases and offset high upfront costs in producing green cars.

References

McKinsey & Company. (2013). The road to 2020 and beyond: What's driving the global automotive industry? McKinsey Quaterly, pp. 1-21.

Nunes, B. & Bennett, D. (2010). Green operations initiatives in the automotive industry: An environmental reports analysis and benchmarking study. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 17(3), 396-420. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14635771080001423

Onat, N., Kucukvar, M., & Tatari, O. (2015). Conventional, hybrid, plug-in hybrid or electric vehicles? State-based comparative carbon and energy footprint analysis in the United States. Applied Energy, 150, 36-49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.04.001

Tao, Z. & Chang, C. (2016). Analysis of the Improved Green Transportation Ecological Footprint: A Case Study of Beijing. Ecological Economics. Retrieved 12 Feb. 2017, from http://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTotal-STJJ201603020.htm

Townsend, J. and Calantone, R. (2013). Evolution and Transformation of Innovation in the Global Automotive Industry. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 31(1), pp.4-7