1 / 33

Greening the Big Brown Land

Greening the Big Brown Land. Tackling Australia’s transport carbon footprint. This presentation. ARRB Group Australian greenhouse gas emissions Approaches to reduce carbon emissions in the land transport sector. ARRB Group Ltd. Company Overview. Our company.

fleur
Download Presentation

Greening the Big Brown Land

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Greening the Big Brown Land Tackling Australia’s transport carbon footprint

  2. This presentation • ARRB Group • Australian greenhouse gas emissions • Approaches to reduce carbon emissions in the land transport sector

  3. ARRB Group Ltd Company Overview

  4. Our company • ARRB Group is a leading provider of value-added research, consulting and technologyaddressing transport problems. • Established 1960 as the Australian Road Research Board • Public company whose members are federal, state and local government authorities in Australia and New Zealand

  5. Our knowledge and experience Our purpose: Collaborating with the road industry to turn knowledge into practice • International reputation for innovation, independence, scientific integrity and professional excellence • Highly qualified and experienced research professionals and specialist technical and support staff • NATA certified laboratory and testing facilities • National network of offices • International agents and business links

  6. Our business operations Research • our founding purpose was to conduct public interest research, and this endeavour continues in ARRB Research. Consulting • provides a fully commercial range of professional services to the roads, transport, planning, infrastructure sectors. Technology • a commercially competitive division. Competes on the worldwide market as a developer of innovative road, traffic and transport products.

  7. Research Investing in research ensures that ARRB will be a source of expertise and knowledge into the future

  8. Research • Initial focus on materials and road pavement design. Now a multi-disciplinary approach to transportation research • ARRB Research operates as a not-for-profit entity • Expertise in the following areas: • bituminous surfacings and pavement materials • asset management • road safety engineering • transport economics and evaluation • concrete technology.

  9. Consulting International reputation for innovation, independence, scientific integrity and professional excellence

  10. Consulting • Providing a total commercial service across a wide variety of disciplines • ARRB Consulting capabilities include: • transport policy, parking, and management • road asset management services • pavements and materials services • vehicle dynamics: simulation and testing • road data collection services • road safety and traffic engineering • training programs and capacity building • crash investigation and analysis • software tools and other products

  11. Technology Developing innovative road, traffic and transport products utilising the latest technologies

  12. Technology • State-of-the-art products utilising the latest technologies • Designed and manufactured in Australia to meet international standards • Main areas of product development include: • pavement profiling systems • digital imaging systems • road geometry and mapping systems • network survey vehicles • software tools • traffic information systems

  13. ARRB Group Offices • Headquarters – Melbourne, Australia • Regional offices in Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide International support offices include: • China (ARRB China) • Europe (Grontmij | Carlbro) • Thailand (STS Instruments) • India (Taisei International) • U.S.A (Humboldt)

  14. Australian Greenhouse Gas Emissions Approaches to reduce emissions for land transport

  15. Australian Greenhouse Gas Emissions(2005 figures) • Total Australian GGE = 510 million tons of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) • Road transport = 71 million tons (14%) • Transport second highest after power generation and marginally higher than agriculture • 71 Mt x A$30 per ton = A$2bn per annum • A$30/t is looking a bit light; EU use €40 = A$120 • commercial vehicles 23Mt per annum • light motor vehicles 48Mt per annum • average Australian car 3.5t per annum

  16. Australian Government policy • Newly formed Department of Climate Change • Overlap with Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts • Committed to an emissions trading scheme (ETS) by 2010 • The rest – (!!!) - is still being debated • At present, the tendency is to follow European models in climate change matters • President Obama’s green agenda may provide an alternative model

  17. In the absence of policy….. • Can still develop technical strategies/ technologies that will help, regardless of policy • There are primarily three major approaches open for the land transport sector: • shift to more carbon efficient fuel/engine systems for future motor vehicles • reduce the carbon emission levels of specific transport tasks • making more carbon-efficient use of resources in providing and maintaining transport infrastructure

  18. Carbon efficient fuel/engine systemsFuture Fuels Forum A CSIRO-led partnership in strategic analysis of thefuture fuel mix in Australia Fuel for thought wasreleased 11th July 2008 future scenarios most likely drivers of change challenges/ barriers to change

  19. The transport sector will have the hardest job… Proportional targets and relative contributions of the electricity and transport sectors (emissions target 95% below 2000 levels by 2050) 1. carbon efficient fuel/engine systems

  20. Vehicle kilometres travelled by engine type 1. carbon efficient fuel/engine systems

  21. 2. Reducing carbon emissions from specific transport tasks • Congestion reduction/ITS – • national priority area in transport policy • Logistics planning/real-time onboard systems • high interest to private sector logistics/freight companies • Town and regional planning – planning efficient transport from the start • preserve of State (not Federal) governments • constrained by existing settlement patterns

  22. 3. Reducing the carbon demand of infrastructure: carbon neutral construction 3. carbon-efficient use of resources

  23. Carbon neutral road construction- a pilot project Aim:to reduce the impact of road construction on the environment Approach:measure the carbon footprint thenreduce and offset the carbon emissions

  24. Carbon offsets…2.4 km Mickleham Rd duplication • construction carbon footprint was 1,750 t • project was made‘carbon neutral’ • GGE offset involved purchase of carbon credits • 4,500 trees were planted

  25. 4% steel reinforcement cement treated crushed rock 29% 2% other steel (gantries, road barriers, wire rope, steel poles) 37% concrete aggregate/base 21% 7% hot mix asphalt Breakdown of embodied greenhouse gas emissions….. 73% from embodiedgreenhouse gas 24% from on-site transport 2% transport of materialson site 1% on-site electricity

  26. Calculation of the carbon footprint … • Identify greenhouse emissions generated from: • on-site electricity • transport of materials supplied to site • on-site transport • embodied energy of materials • (energy generated from production of materials such as concrete, crushed rock, steel and asphalt)Eg: 1 tonne = ave. 3 tonnes of embodied gas emission • a framework to calculate gas emission from road construction has been developed by VicRoads.

  27. The way forward… • other VicRoads initiatives include using: • energy efficient traffic signals – 40% more efficient • trials of emerging technologies for street lighting • use of solar panels – for power generation • eco office – improve office energy efficiency • greening the vehicle fleet - improve vehicle emission standards

  28. 3. Reducing the carbon demand of infrastructure • Material selection • embedded energy considerations • untreated basecourse low carbon footprint for placement • concrete or cemented materials high • placement considerations • frequent activity = low carbon footprint, often • less frequent activity = high carbon footprint activity less often • Street lighting and roadway/lane delineation • alternative energy eg: solar energy • The road surface as a solar collector?? 3. carbon-efficient use of resources

  29. Reducing the carbon demand of infrastructure- assessment of recycled materials 3. carbon-efficient use of resources

  30. Reducing the carbon demand of infrastructure- performance of recycled materials - research • Accelerated Loading Facility (ALF) • Full scale accelerated pavement testing 3. carbon-efficient use of resources

  31. Reducing the carbon demand of infrastructure- performance of recycled materials - research 3. carbon-efficient use of resources

  32. Use of Alternative Materials

  33. What is ARRB doing in amongst all this? • Strategic – low carbon transport forum • partnership ARRB, BITRE, CSIRO and DCC • assessing the knowledge needed to make technical strategies viable • Program/project activities: • national research programs in asset management, pavements, surfacings for Austroads • high level consulting e.g. • climate change frameworks for some States • working with several states on congestion issues • getting our own ‘greenhouse’ in order!(ARRB’s carbon footprint)

More Related