Calculating Base Year Carbon Footprints: An Analysis of Carestream Health's Carbon Sustainability Model
Open Access
Author:
Dong, Anthony Kai
Area of Honors:
Supply Chain and Information Systems
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Dr. Robert Alexander Novack, Thesis Supervisor Dr. John C. Spychalski, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Carbon Carbon Dioxide CO2 Sustainability Model Calculation Data Carestream Base Year
Abstract:
Academic debates over the effect of anthropogenic, man-made, carbon emissions on global climate change have intensified over the past few decades, particularly in developed countries. The increased public awareness of the greenhouse effect, that is theorized to be amplified in the presence of ever-increasing anthropogenic carbon emissions, has caused various stakeholders to demand companies to begin quantifying, reporting, and reducing their carbon footprints. This paper uses Carestream Health, Inc. as a case study for beginning to quantify a company's base year carbon footprint. After consulting publically available corporate standards, guides, and carbon emission factors, a carbon dioxide model (built from annual operations data provided by Carestream Health, Inc.) was created to quantify the company's transportation and warehousing footprint. The resulting model required unique methodology to mitigate and estimate various incomplete data, including: vehicle specifications, intermodal shipment data, and site-specific utility consumption. This paper will provide a framework for mitigating the initial data inadequacy; will discuss the assumptions, limitations, and validity of the designed model; as well as outline next steps for more complete data gathering and for building a more accurate and comprehensive model moving forward.