Total Sustainability

In this section, we show several ways and areas where we can improve our sustainability, or better, reduce our negative environmental impact. "Total sustainability" is unlikely to ever be achievable, but at least we can make an effort to keep it as high as possible.

We first address the topic of global warming, which has become highly visible and discussed. Today, there is an overwhelming agreement among scientists that global warming is happening and that it is man made.

Global warming is caused by an increase in green-house gases in the atmosphere, most notably CO2 emissions. The graph to the right shows that while 95% of those emissions are from natural sources, close to 5% are anthropogenic, i.e. caused by humans (source: Booz Allen Hamilton analysis for the 2002 World Economic Forum). It might appear like a small share, but in fact it is the increase in these emissions that causes global warming.

With a share of 80%, fossil fuel combustion accounts for the lion share in anthropogenic emissions. 25% of fossil fuel combustion is incurred by transport (mostly road transport with cars), and 75% by non-transport sources (mostly energy producing power plants, and to some extent industrial plants). This analysis shows the main levers that we have at our disposal in order to combat global warming: transport and energy production. In the different chapters of this section, we will show how we can reduce our emissions in those areas:

The Alternative fuels section presents alternatives to traditional petrol, ranging from Hybrid Electric Vehicles to the currently much discussed topic of biofuels and fuel cells.

Sustainable Living takes a look at specific measures we can adopt for transport in general as well as in our everyday lives (at home, at work, in our shopping etc.).

Renewable energies will play an increasingly important role in our energy mix, and in the challenge to achieve a higher sustainability. Most importantly, they can be employed in conjunction with electric vehicles, which allows us to achieve almost zero emissions from well-to-wheel, or total sustainability (nice!).

Finally, we will take a look at carbon offsetting, once again a very broadly discussed topic. The objective here is to provide background information that allows to participate in discussions and distinguish those measures which are sensible from the general hype.