NAME _____________________________________
LAB DAY: Tuesday Wednesday Thursday
CARBON FOOTPRINTS
at GINGER ROOT 1 (part 2)
WEEK 13
Bring your week #12 write-up to lab
(except Thurs lab – we’ll return yours).
Also bring a laptop. A calculator would
be handy as well.
Asking Questions
Now you have eaten at Ginger Root. You have estimated the
carbon footprint of getting the food from farm to table. What
about the other CO2-emitting processes?
Check Canvas for the location of your investigations.
This week, you will find answers to questions such as:
1. What data are available to help you estimate the CO2
emissions for an ingredient?
2. What is a Life Cycle Analysis?
3. What are the limitations of a Life Cycle Analysis?
Food supply chains are complex, and the carbon emissions in these supply chains come from
many sources. To give you a better sense of the complexities, you will use two different tools to
estimate the CO2 emissions from last week’s meal at Ginger Root.
Here’s the plan for today’s investigation:
1. Discuss the value (or not) of posting CO2 footprints at Ginger Root
2. Do Life Cycle Analysis #1
3. Do Life Cycle Analysis #2
Materials
Laptop computer
Week #12 lab manual write-up
Your copy of Bananas
1
This laboratory activity was developed by Tom Bryan (graduate student, Nelson Institute) and Dr. Cathy
Middlecamp, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Expertise was provided by Carl Korz, associate director of dining
services and Scott Kesling assistant manager at Union South restaurants. Funding to develop this experiment was
provided by the Office of Sustainability.
2 – Carbon Footprints at Ginger Root, Part 2 (WEEK 13)
Pre-lab Survey
Name ______________________
TA________________
Lab day:
Tuesday Wednesday
(circle one)
Thursday
Here is your survey question for
this week.
Is labeling meals at Ginger Root
with their CO2 footprints a good
idea?
A. Yes
B. No
Your answer represents the direction in which you are leaning.
How strongly are you leaning? Circle a number:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Not strongly
Very strongly
Tell us more about why in a sentence or two:
(hand in this sheet when you arrive in lab)
3 – Carbon Footprints at Ginger Root, Part 2 (WEEK 13)
4 – Carbon Footprints at Ginger Root, Part 2 (WEEK 13)
Making Predictions
1. Test your carbon instincts! Which food has a lower carbon footprint? Circle it.
The first one is done for you.
MEAL #1
MEAL #2
Chicken Tikka Masala
4 oz chicken thigh
1 oz masala paste
2 oz heavy cream
Lamb Curry
4 oz lamb
4 oz yogurt
1 oz curry paste
Turkey/Cheese Sandwich
3 oz turkey, 1 oz cheese
2 oz tomato & lettuce
2 oz whole wheat bread
Beef/Cheese Sandwich
3 oz roast beef, 1 oz cheese
2 oz tomato & lettuce
2 oz whole wheat bread
Tofu Stir Fry
2 oz tofu
1 oz peppers
1 oz onions, 1 oz broccoli
1 oz mushrooms
Salmon
wild-caught from far-away,
purchased fresh
4 oz
Spaghetti with Meatballs
0.5 oz ground beef
0.1 oz dry pasta
0.4 oz carrots, 1 oz onions
0.1 oz oil, 0.35 oz garlic
3.2 oz tomato, 0.75 oz bread
Explanation
Spices: same weight of paste
Dairy: hard to call. 4 oz yogurt, is
a higher weight but likely
contains more water. So 2oz
cream is likely higher CO2e.
Meat: Lamb is one of the highest
carbon foods around. Sheep are
ruminants and produce CH4.
Vegetable Stir Fry
1 oz peppers,
1 oz onions, 2 oz broccoli
2 oz mushrooms
1 oz water chestnuts
Tuna
purchased frozen
4 oz
Milk chocolate bar
1 oz chocolate
1 oz milk, 1 oz sugar
Beef & Cheese Burrito
3 oz beef
1 oz cheese
one 12’’ tortilla
3 oz beans, 1.5 oz brown rice
2 oz tomato sauce
Chocolate chip cookies
0.28 oz chocolate
0.25 oz butter, 0.63 oz sugar,
0.75 oz flour
Apple
(local, in season)
6 oz
Strawberries
(out of season)
4 oz
5 – Carbon Footprints at Ginger Root, Part 2 (WEEK 13)
2. Here are 6 Ginger Root ingredients and their serving sizes:
Tempura Fried Chicken
White Rice
Brown Rice
Marinated Beef
Tofu
Broccoli
150 grams
130 grams
70 grams
100 grams
100 grams
45 grams
Predict their rank in order of CO2e. Place the highest CO2e as item #1.
1. _______________________________
2. _______________________________
3. _______________________________
4. _______________________________
5. _______________________________
6. _______________________________
Question #1 in this section was taken from www.eatlowcarbon.org. This web site was created by
Bon Appetit Management Company, a California-based food service that services colleges &
universities across the United States.
6 – Carbon Footprints at Ginger Root, Part 2 (WEEK 13)
Preparing to Investigate
Today, you will conduct a Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) on the meal you ate last
week at Ginger Root. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 2
defines an LCA as:
“Compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs, and the potential
environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle” 3
An LCA aids in decision-making. For example, Carl Korz at Union South had to decide whether
to offer metal or plastic cutlery. He had to consider economic costs, environment costs, and
community-related costs. The LCA revealed that metal cutlery is more profitable and has fewer
environmental impacts if the cutlery isn’t thrown away or stolen by the people who dine at
Union South.
In Just Food, James McWilliams, also describes LCAs.
“What LCAs ultimately uncover are the hidden links in the food-supply
chain that are the most environmentally damaging and in turn most in
need of repair.”
“A life-cycle assessment is like a full physical. It’s a thorough energy
evaluation that takes into consideration as many factors of production
and consumption as can reasonably be measured.”
LCAs and Carbon Emissions
LCAs can measure many things, including CO2e, costs, resource use, water
use, and labor. The utility in LCAs lies in their ability to see the (normally) unseen.
To determine the CO2e emissions of a supply chain, actions that emit CO2e need to be
accounted for. Every single action? For example, the cashier exhales as he or she rings up your
meal at Ginger Root. Do we have to count this CO2?
No. When an analysis is conducted on the life cycle of a food, boundaries must be set, often
arbitrarily. Last week, for example, you estimated transportation emissions for your meal, but
you were limited by which food mile data were available.
This week, your mission is to generate a number that summarizes the CO2e impact of the
numerous, geographically enormous supply chains to your meal. Fortunately, databases and
computer programs can you help you.
“ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is the world’s largest developer of voluntary International
Standards. International Standards give state of the art specifications for products, services and good practice,
helping to make industry more efficient and effective.” http://www.iso.org/iso/home/about.htm
3 Environmental Management: Life Cycle Assessment – Principles and framework, International Organization for
Standardization, ISO 14040:1997. http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=37456
2
7 – Carbon Footprints at Ginger Root, Part 2 (WEEK 13)
Gathering and Analyzing Evidence
LCA#1
Why are we doing this?
•
•
•
to apply the concept of Life Cycle Analysis to your meal at Ginger Root
to extend CO2 emission calculations to include production, transport, and waste
to identify the limitations of CO2 emission calculations
1. From the Calendar entry in Canvas, download the Excel file for this week. It contains the
instructions and calculations for both LCA#1 and LCA#2.
2. Save it to your laptop.
3. Immediately fill in your name at the top of the Excel worksheet, the green bar below in
the screenshot.
4. Follow the instructions in the spreadsheet, entering ingredients and serving sizes for
your meal at Ginger Root.
5. Save your document again!
8 – Carbon Footprints at Ginger Root, Part 2 (WEEK 13)
Interpreting Evidence
LCA#1
1. Rank each ingredient by its CO2e for your meal, with #1 as the highest.
1.
3.
2.
4.
2. From highest to lowest, rank each step in the supply chain by its CO2e for your meal:
___Production
___Transport
___Waste
What assumptions go into this Calculator? Fortunately for you, the answer to this question is
right on the website. Look under FAQs, question #5.
3. First, refresh your memory on methane.
Give the chemical formula of methane: ___________
As a greenhouse gas, methane is _________ potent than carbon dioxide.
(more, less)
4. For food waste disposal, this calculator assumes that the food went to an anaerobic landfill.
What does anaerobic mean?
If the landfill were aerobic (like a compost heap), this carbon-containing compound
would be produced instead of methane: ______________
“It is slightly better to compost waste food than to throw it into landfill, but it doesn’t get you
away from the main issue that the carbon footprint of that food has been needlessly
incurred. “ – How Bad Are Bananas, page 179
5. FAQ #5 reports: “If you are composting all of your food waste, you can set the waste
percentage to zero to get a close approximation of the overall impact of waste disposal.” Explain
why this can be true even though composting generates CO2.
9 – Carbon Footprints at Ginger Root, Part 2 (WEEK 13)
Gathering and Analyzing Evidence
LCA #2
For LCA#2, you will use FoodCarbonScope™, a web-based tool that models greenhouse gas
emissions, energy use, and water use in foods and beverages.
Here is a screenshot:
As of 2015, it is available only by subscription: $1000 for 3
months or $3000 for 1 year. As a result, you will not access
FoodCarbonScope directly. Instead, you will refer to sheet in the
same Excel file you used for LCA#1.
Before we go any further, visit the website of CleanMetrics, the
company that produced FoodCarbonScope:
http://www.cleanmetrics.com/html/foodcarbonscope.htm
On the CleanMetrics web site, find the panel “Food LCA with
FoodCarbonScope” (shown in the screenshot to the right).
Familiarize yourself with this program:
1) Watch the recorded demo “The cooking of potatoes.”
2) Examine the sample food LCAs for “Cooked potatoes.”
FoodCarbonScope can be customized to fit your needs. For
example, you can apply the PTPTDTRC&W model using this
software.
The screen shot to the right shows this in reverse
order, WCRTDTPT&P!
10 – Carbon Footprints at Ginger Root, Part 2 (WEEK 13)
Gathering and Analyzing Evidence
LCA#2
Data from FoodCarbonScope has been compiled for you in the same Excel file you used
forLCA#1.
1. Click on the tab to display FoodCarbonScope Data. The red arrow in the image below
points to this tab.
The sheet will looks like this:
2. Follow the instructions in the spreadsheet to complete LCA#2.
3. Save your document again!
11 – Carbon Footprints at Ginger Root, Part 2 (WEEK 13)
Interpreting Evidence
LCA #2
1. From highest to lowest, rank each ingredient in your meal by its CO2e.
1.
7.
2.
8.
3.
9.
4.
10.
5.
11.
6.
12.
2. From highest (1=highest) to lowest, rank each step in PTPTDTRC&W by its CO2e emissions.
___Production
___Transport (Distributor->Union South)
___Transport (Manufacturer->Distributor)
___Retail
___Processing/Packaging
___Cooking
___Distribution Facilities
___Waste
3. Which ingredients were you able to carbon footprint using both programs?
Item
LCA#1:
Production
CO2e
LCA#2:
Production
CO2e
%
difference
4. Refer back to last week’s investigation, Data Sheet #3b.
Calculation Method
By Hand
Data Sheet #3b
Transportation Emissions
LCA#1:
Transport
CO2e
LCA#2:
Transport
CO2e
%
difference
% difference from calculations in Data
Sheet #3b last week
N/A
LCA #1
LCA #2
12 – Carbon Footprints at Ginger Root, Part 2 (WEEK 13)
Reflecting on the Investigation
1. Everybody eats. Impacts from food are unavoidable. Even so, it
is possible to lower the impact and preserve good taste and
nutrition.
Here is a list of tips for eating a lower carbon diet, all
from Eatlowcarbon.org. Explain the carbon basis for
each one.
Carbon basis for tip#1:
Carbon basis for tip #2:
Carbon basis for tip #3
Carbon basis for tip #4:
Carbon basis for tip #5:
13 – Carbon Footprints at Ginger Root, Part 2 (WEEK 13)
Reflecting on the Investigation (-continued-)
2. Revisit How Bad are Bananas, pages 175-182, “More about food.”
Here is the list of low carbon tips from Bananas. The first four overlap
with those on the previous page from Eatlowcarbon.org.
Eat what you buy (~25% CO2e savings)
Reduce (not necessarily eliminate) meat and dairy (~25% CO2e
savings)
Go seasonal and avoid air freight (~10% CO2e savings)
Avoid excess packaging (~3-5% CO2e savings)
Here are more low carbon tips from Bananas. How does Mike Berners-Lee explain
carbon basis for each one?
Avoid low yielding varieties, e.g., cherry tomatoes and baby corn (~3% savings)
Recycle your packaging (~2-3% CO2e savings)
Buy misshapen produce (~1% CO2e savings)
Lower-carbon cooking (~5% CO2e savings)”
3. “The first thing to say about transport emissions is that, for all the talk that we hear about
food miles, they are not the most pivotal thing to think about.”
– How Bad are Bananas, page 177
Examine the data for your meal.
a. Were food miles the most pivotal thing to think about? Yes No (circle one)
b. If Yes, go find your TA immediately!
c. If No, which emissions were the most pivotal to think about?
14 – Carbon Footprints at Ginger Root, Part 2 (WEEK 13)
Reflecting on the Investigation (-continued-)
Recall that sustainability has three parts: the economy, the community,
and the environment. Today, you calculated a carbon footprint of a
meal. CO2e is not the whole story.
Triple Bottom Line – Healthy Environment
4. Producing food also requires water and releases air pollutants: CO,
NO, and fine particles.
Give examples of how by adding two entries to each of these lists.
List #1: Water is used in growing the food
1. To supply animals with drinking water
2. To
Water is used at V. Marchese:
3. To
4. To
List #2 Air pollutants are generated by fossil fuels burned in growing the food
1.
To supply electricity to pump water
2.
To
Air pollutants are generated by electricity used at V. Marchese:
3.
To
4.
To
15 – Carbon Footprints at Ginger Root, Part 2 (WEEK 13)
Reflecting on the Investigation (-continued-)
Triple Bottom Line – Healthy Community
5. Metcalfe’s, a local Madison grocery store, gets its fish from around the
world. It was voted #1 in WI by Greenpeace for sustainable seafood.
a. How many people were directly involved in moving the fish from
farm/wild to your local Metcalfe’s?
List as many as you can think of:
b. When you buy fish, you are supporting those whose hands touched the fish you will eat.
Name two items connected to workers that would make fish production more
sustainable.
c. While waiting for the butcher to package some fish for you, you read this sign:
“The premium quality fish and seafood found at your neighborhood Metcalfe’s is flown
in fresh six days a week. We offer more than 50 varieties every day.”
Argue why flying in fish makes sense.
Now argue against this practice.
16 – Carbon Footprints at Ginger Root, Part 2 (WEEK 13)
Reflecting on the Investigation (-continued-)
Triple Bottom Line – Healthy Economy
6. “The True Cost of a Burger” is in Canvas. Go find this article.
a. Bittman defines external costs (“externalities”). Write his
definition here.
b. Using a cheeseburger wrapper as an example, Bittman gives an example of an external
cost. Name it.
c. Now consider a Union South hamburger. Name 2 external costs associated with the
paper liner under this hamburger that are different from the external cost named by
Bittman.
Hint: consider the landfill in which the paper liner is likely to end up.
1.
2.
d. “Cheeseburgers are the coal of the food world,” says Bittman, pointing out that they have
external costs “in spades.” Name two reasons why coal has high external costs.
1.
2.
e. Name two reasons why cheeseburgers have high external costs.
Hint: see Bittman’s article.
1.
2.
f. According to Bittman, the total external costs range from ______ to _______ per
burger.
Carbon emissions are just one of these externalities. Bittman calculates the carbon costs
of a burger to be __________, on average.
17 – Carbon Footprints at Ginger Root, Part 2 (WEEK 13)
7. From Bitmann: “The cost of carbon is hard to nail precisely, but the government’s official
monetary valuation of greenhouse gas pollution is roughly $37 per metric ton of CO2
emissions. Many experts double that rate. Others multiply it nearly tenfold.”
Using both values, $37 and $370 per metric ton of CO2 emissions, let’s calculate the external
carbon costs of your Ginger Root meal. Use the data from your Excel worksheet.
1 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡
$37
×
1,000,000 𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔
1 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 𝐶𝐶𝑂𝑂2
= $_________C𝑂𝑂2 e costs of meal
________ total grams C𝑂𝑂2 e for meal ×
1 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡
$𝟑𝟑𝟑𝟑𝟑𝟑
×
1,000,000 𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔𝑔
1 𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚 𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 𝐶𝐶𝑂𝑂2
= $_________C𝑂𝑂2 e costs of meal
________total grams C𝑂𝑂2 e for meal ×
Your opinion: Should our campus add a carbon cost to some meals served at campus
eateries, such as those with much higher CO2e costs?
NO ------------------------------------------- YES
1
2
3
4
5
(circle one)
Argue why campus should not add a cost to any meals:
Now argue why campus should add a cost to some meals:
18 – Carbon Footprints at Ginger Root, Part 2 (WEEK 13)