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Carbon Emissions

1 September 2008

Saving the planet, one less trip at a time:

The world is in trouble. There is no more denying it. Global warming is real, and its potential effects, devastating. Travel and transport are huge factors contributing to CO2 emissions and hence changes to the climate. We are all aware of the about... what is not so obvious is how each of us, at a business and personal level can change our behaviour to contribute to reversing the trend.

RedZebra Mobile®TM not only reduces unnecessary travelling but can cut out travel altogether for many business processes saving time, money and helping to reduce carbon emission. By being able to send pictures online, instantly, the appropriate manager can view the remote problem and solve it immediately without having to make a trip potentially costly to the environment and the company. Pictures are date and time stamped and notes are date recorded which means managers can confirm and action reports without the costly expense of time and travel to verify it themselves.

It is common practice amongst certain building contractors to take pictures on site daily, and have the pictures driven back to head office the same day. This wasteful practice can be totally eliminated and the resulting pictures stored in the correct project folder, date and time stamped automatically. Email alerts advise appropriate mangers when new pictures have arrived in their folder.



In the insurance sector, insurance assessors can eliminate travelling by having their clients take a photo of, for example, the damages to their car after being in an accident. These pictures are delivered immediately to the assessor, date and time stamped, identifying the client who sent them as well as any comments or details added by the client. The assessor has all the necessary evidence and information recorded thereby doing away with the need for him to go out and assess the car himself. This not only saves the assessor time, allowing him to process claims quicker and more efficiently but contributes to reducing the company's carbon footprint.

RedZebra Mobile's GPS application can geotag exactly where a picture was taken, thereby eliminating error from rough estimates in various locations. A perfect example of this happened recently with the Volunteer Wildfire Service (VWS), a fire organisation that assists with the fighting of fires around Cape Town's Table Mountain National Park. One of the VWS members was at home in Hout Bay when he noticed a fire on the mountain. He reported it in and took a series of photos which he sent through to the RedZebra Mobile online gallery. The administrator was automatically notified that a new photo had been uploaded and subsequently enabled public access for that photo (and the other subsequent photos that came through.)

Within minutes the Fire Boss was then able to see the exact terrain and positioning of the fire and was able to immediately dispatch assistance accordingly. In this particular case it was deemed prudent to utilize the Fire Fighting helicopters from Titan Aviation which were able to quell the fire with a minimum of fuss.

With the use of RedZebra Mobile, CO2 emissions were reduced by dispersing the fire quickly and by knowing what equipment and personnel to use immediately, they could eliminate the process of bringing out the entire fire truck fleet and all the unnecessary staff.

All of this not only helps the climate but a business can save enormous amounts on travel and vehicle expenses, in this world of increasing oil prices.

Each of us has a responsibility to do what we can to help slow and reverse the world's ever increasing fossil fuel consumption and help save the planet.

So, save the trip, and send the picture!


Further environmental background reading:

According to the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) the global average temperature has increased by 1° C in the last 100 years. Lester Brown, founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute, notes in a recent article that if drastic measures aren't taken immediately, "carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning could more than double between 2000 and 2030, a trajectory that would make it almost impossible to avoid a temperature increase of 3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures."

The effects on weather, water supply, sea levels, vegetation and animal life would be disastrous for temperature increases of this magnitude. The attitude of "This is someone else's problem and I won't be around to deal with this anyway," has passed its shelf life.

The average global citizen generates an estimated 4 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. This needs to decrease to a 1 ton average per citizen rate by 2050 in order to match nature's ability to absorb these emissions, which may be as low as 10 to 20 percent of today's global emissions. That this means that each and every one of us needs to change our lifestyle is clear, but what is less well understood is that with recent technological advances, this is not so difficult as everyone seems to imagine it is. In fact we know what needs to be done and even more so, how to do it.

The average CO2 emissions rating, in the UK is 186 g/km (grams of carbon dioxide per kilometre driven). However, a report in 1997 said, "There are over 600 million motor vehicles in the world today. But, if present trends continue the number of cars on Earth will double in the next 30 years." This means by 2030 there will be 1.2 billion cars on the road leading to a rapid increase in the total emissions from cars - which the world cannot afford.

What this means though, is that we know how to make big cuts to carbon emissions right now - simply by reducing total travel distance. Small changes, adopted by everyone, can have big effects. Whether it is from car pooling, to making sure you do your grocery shopping for the whole week in one go to rather cutting out the car and opting for public transport altogether, each of us can make a contribution to tackling the biggest challenge facing mankind in the 21st Century. And yet these changes are not so drastic.

It's time to see what you can do in your daily activities to help reduce your carbon footprint. It's your world too, so it-s time to come to the party and start saving it.




References

Carbon Dioxide Emissions are Rapidly Accelerating, According to the Earth Policy Institute
By Lester Brown, Washington, D.C on 05. 8.08
www.treehugger.com


                    

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