Life Analysis

Life Analysis (or Process Analysis) is a detailed, bottom-up method to determine the energy use or greenhouse gas emission of a specific product, including the materials and packaging, use of energy in manufacturing, transportation distances and other factors.

The disadvantages of this approach are that a lot of detailed data is not available or carries significant errors. It's also hard to decide exactly where to stop calculating.

Our hybrid approach combines the best features of input-output economic analysis and lifecycle analysis for the best level of accuracy and comprehensiveness available today.

Formulas used in Event/Travel Offset Calculator

Hotel/Lodging:

According to a 2005-2007 report by the Sustainable Travel International⁽¹⁾, the average total amount of greenhouse gas emissions emitted per typical room night to be approximately 33.7 pounds of CO2 = 0.015286 Tons of CO2

Travel:

Emissions from long haul flights:⁽²⁾

Long haul (roundtrip flights to the mainland or other destinations): 0.4 lbs CO2/mile

These Conversion factors need to be multiplied by 2 (radiative forcing coefficient) to account for the overall impact of global warming due air to travel.

Atmospheric changes from airplanes manifest from three types of processes: direct emission of substances like CO2 or water vapor; emission of chemicals that create or destroy radiatively active substances (ie. NOx modifies Ozone concentration); and emission of substances leading to the development of aerosol particles or changes in natural clouds (ie. contrails). Therefore, the total equivalent emission factors for long haul flights is 0.8.

To simplify the process we took averages from the major cities in the four designations. The averages equated to:

California = 2550 miles,
Other West Coast = 2800 miles,
All other Mainland & Canada = 3300 miles
Alaska, Guam, International = 3300 miles

Total Emissions= average distance x 0.8 pounds/mile x 0.0005 Tons of CO2/pound

References:

(1)  http://www.sustainabletravelinternational.org/

(2) GHG Protocol Mobile Combustion Tool (CO2 Emissions from Mobile Combustion) www.ghgprotocol.org/templates/GHG5/layout.asp?type=p&MenuId=OTAx