What is a carbon footprint?

A carbon footprint represent the effect of human activities on the climate in terms of the total amount of greenhouse gases produced (measured in units of carbon dioxide). Simply, it is a measure of the impact of our behaviours and lifestyles on the planet. In fact, most of our activities generate carbon emissions, which contribute to accelerating global warming and climate change.

Thinking in a sustainable way would lead us to reduce our carbon footprint. There are many definitions for sustainable development and one simple definition is our ability to live within our planet's limits. Sustainability means living in a world where the process of building real estate projects does not dictate producing all types of waste that pollute the land. It means, producing and harvesting food does not necessarily dictate the use of pesticides that pollute the ground water. It means, transportation of people and goods does not dictate polluting our air. It also means generating electricity for our air conditioning and lighting does not mean we waste fossil fuels and pollute the air.

We need to be more aware of the environmental and social impacts of our daily business and personal decisions. One may ask, how can we think sustainably? The answer is simple - think of the impact of your decision on the environment, the economy and the society. If any of your decisions do not address the three elements then it is not sustainable.

Just as an example, part of my responsibility at the Energy and Environment Park, based in Dubai, is to foresee the Sustainable Development Policy. One major element of the policy is the sustainable development awareness programme that has been developed internally by our division team. The preparation of the programme took many hours of brainstorming before arriving at the most appropriate approach, language and content. The awareness programme for the company team members are conducted in three hours explaining the climate change and the sustainable development concept as well as the sustainable development policy. Each member gets the chance to calculate his or her carbon foot print. This exercise enables them to understand the effect of their daily decisions and choices made on the global carbon emission.

Pledge

Awareness of the carbon footprint will be followed by a personal pledge that mandates each team member to adopt three actions to reduce their carbon foot print. They are encouraged to share their thoughts and experiences on their decisions. We have noticed many decisions taken by members such as car pooling, changing the incandescent bulbs to energy saving bulbs at their homes and fixing leaky faucets.

The above experience is mentioned to show that many people are ignorant about their carbon footprints and their country's footprint and its impact on the global climate change. In fact, our daily decisions do contribute to the global climate change as well as everyone else around the world. We should start asking ourselves how we can reduce our carbon footprint. The carbon foot print can be reduced at home, work and on the road.

I once received an interesting comment from a friend: "Protecting the public is the government's responsibility through issuing timely regulations and rules." It is a fair statement, but let us agree that there are many personal choices that we, as citizens, are responsible for. It is we who decide on riding a bus or driving very expensive and high fuel consuming SUVs. It is we who decide on leaving the air conditioning on even when not in the house or office. Others leave the AC on while on vacation, simply because the electricity charges are covered by the rent.

I have noticed several people washing their front yards with fresh water instead of using a brush or other means to keep the dust away. There are many wrong practices and decisions we make without sparing a thought about the consequences. Regulations may help but we need to take some measures of ownership and act more responsibly.

By measuring the carbon footprint through tools such as carbon calculators, which are available on the internet, we can gain a better judgment of our individual impact and which part of our lifestyle demands the greatest and most immediate attention.

Everybody should commit from today to think green and act green for reducing our collective carbon footprint. Let us become responsible citizens of the Earth. Let us endeavour to make this planet a better place for our children and their children. Let us start to "think global, act local" by constantly asking ourselves what we can do to permanently alter the colour of our planet Earth to a beautiful green.

Ali Bin Towaih is the Executive Director of Energy and Environment Park.