University of Cape Town - Carbon Footprint Report

A report on the carbon emissions produced by the vehicle fleet and air travel of UCT.Produced by team Green Initiative

(Hussain Kajee, Donald Silinda, Martin Nkala and Ellen Madiagkoadi)

WHY?UCT is a member of the ULSF

Data Providers

John Pretorious (Vendor Management UCT)

Gwamaka Mwalemba Sandra Rippon

Data Analysis

Vehicle Fleet Data•Bankfin

•Staff Reimbursements•Budget Car Hire

Air Travel Data• Various Travel Agencies Data

• Total Money Spent on Air Travel

Bankfin and Reimbursement DataFuel for vehicles is filled by using the bankfin card system

or staff members fill and reclaim the amount

Bankfin data Staff reimbursement data

Total liters of diesel used

50,693.58 Total mileage amount claimed (km)

320,871.77

Total liters of petrol used

181,920.08 Total money claimed back(ZAR)

4,052,219.97

Air Travel DataTotal cost for international flights (ZAR):

47,116,326.57Total cost for domestic flights (ZAR): 15,849,974.29

Travel Agency Money paid (ZAR)

Sta travel 4,565,834

Club travel CC 3,908,952

Prospur travel 341,561.10

Ikapa tours and travel 372,936

Harvey world travel 274,971

Concord travel 17,584

Rennies travel 49,761

Worldwide travel 42,108.30

Link travel 67,743.20

Total 9,641,450.60

Calculating The Carbon FootprintScopes and what they mean

Scope 1: Emissions are direct GHG emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by the entity. Scope 1 can include emissions from fossil fuels burned on site, emissions from entity-owned or entity-leased vehicles, and other direct sources.

Scope 2: Emissions are indirect GHG emissions resulting from the generation of electricity, heating and cooling, or steam generated off site but purchased by the

entity.

Scope 3: Emissions include indirect GHG emissions from sources not owned or directly controlled by the entity but related to the entity’s activities.

Calculating The Carbon Footprint

Vehicle fleet (SCOPE 1)Bankfin data converted to carbon emissions

Conversion of raw fuel data to CO2e (kg) emitted x  Emission

factors

Total emission

s

Fuel used Total units used Units x kg CO2e

per unit

kg CO2e

Diesel 

 50,693.58 

Liters x 2.6769 135,702

Petrol 

 181,920.08 

Liters x 2.3144 421,036

Calculating the Carbon FootprintStaff reimbursements converted into emissions

Conversion of mileage claimed by staff to CO2e

(kg) emitted

 x

Emission factor

Total emissio

ns

Size of car Total units travelled

Units x kg CO2e

per unit

kg CO2e

Average medium car (unknown fuel)

320871.77 km x 0.19443 62,387

Calculating The Carbon Footprint

The total vehicle fleet emissions amount to: 619,125 kg CO2e

0

100000

200000

300000

400000

500000

600000

700000

Graph of different emissions sources within the vehicle fleet

Mixed(paid for by staff and reim-bursed)Diesel(through bankfin)Petrol(through ban-fin)C

O2

e (

kg

)

Calculating The Carbon FootprintFuel trend throughout the year

March/April

May/Jun Jul/Aug Sept/Oct Nov/Dec02468

101214

Percentage of total fuel filled per months using the bankfin system

Months

Perc

eta

ge o

f fu

el fi

lled

Calculating The Carbon Footprint

Air Travel (SCOPE 3)Process used to estimate total distance flown

•The total money spent on international and domestic flights is known.•A large amount of data from Millway and STA travel indicating the various destinations of flights is available

Common occurring destinations (domestic and international separately) are selected and an average of the distance from South Africa to these destinations is taken. The average cost for a flight ticket from Cape Town to these destinations is also taken. The average ticket cost is then divided by the total money spent on flights, the result of which is the total number of trips taken for the year. This total number of trips is then multiplied by the averaged distances obtained earlier and this gives the estimated total distance travelled.

Calculating The Carbon FootprintAverage distance from SA to International Locations

Destination Distance to destination from South Africa (km)

Australia 10,240

Mexico 14,628

Japan 14,038

United Kingdom 9,531

Canada 14,354

Switzerland 8,569

Sweden 10,119

United States 14,543

United Arab Emirates 6,687

India 7,860

Botswana 775

France 8,598

Mauritius 3,518

Kenya 3,640

Ethiopia 4,399

Average 8,766.60

Calculating The Carbon FootprintAverage Distance from Cape Town to Domestic Locations

Destination Distance from Cape Town (km)

Durban 1,273

Johannesburg 1,264

Port Elizabeth 662

Average 1,066.33

Calculating The Carbon FootprintCalculating the Average Ticket Price From SA to International

Destinations

Destination Cost of ticket (ZAR) including return

Australia 16,063Mexico 16,077Japan 15,895United Kingdom 11,771Canada 17,747Switzerland 14,403Sweden 15,196United States 13,838United Arab Emirates 49,444India 8,331Botswana 4,065France 12,198Mauritius 10,534Kenya 8,044Ethiopia 11,476

Average 15,005.46

Calculating The Carbon FootprintCalculating the Average Ticket Price From Cape Town to Domestic

Destinations

Destination Cost of ticket (ZAR) including return

Durban 3,280

Johannesburg 2,348

Port Elizabeth 2,857

Average 2,828.30

Calculating The Carbon FootprintCalculating Distance Travelled by Air

Conversion of flight distance travelled to CO2e emissions

      Emission factor

Total emission

s

Method of travel   Distance travelled (km)

x km uplift factor

x kg CO2e

per km

kg CO2e

Flight type Cabin class          

Domestic Average  5,975,713.32 x 109% x 0.03439 224,000

international Average  27,527,124 x 109% x 0.02247 674,203

Calculating The Carbon Footprint

The total air travel emissions amount to: 898,203 kg CO2e

0100,000200,000300,000400,000500,000600,000700,000800,000900,000

1,000,000

Graph of emissions from domestic and international flights

DomesticInternational

CO

2e (

kg

)

Calculating The Carbon FootprintComparison of vehicle and air travel emissions

(Note: This is a comparison of Scope 1 and Scope 3 emissions)

898203

619125

Total vehicle and flight emissions (kg CO2e)

FlightsVehicles

RecommendationsRecommendations to Vehicle Fleet Data Capturing

Overall the vehicle data availability was of an acceptable standard; however there are recommendations that need to be taken into account. The reason for these recommendations is that the data can be grouped into more useful categories, for example, listing the vehicle emissions per faculty/department.When staff members make a claim for reimbursement, the liters of fuel filled should be stored and not just the distance travelled, this will result in more accurate emissions calculations. Concerning the overall bankfin data, the staff name is not always recorded; sometimes the name is just listed as ‘pool’. A staff name should always be recorded, if there are multiple staff members, then list all their names. This is essential in identifying the department/s and faculties responsible for the emissions from this trip, ultimately a clear trend of the carbon emissions from each faculty/department can be gathered. Concerning the monthly bankfin data, the liters of fuel filled is not complete for every record, some of the records have 0 or 1 filled in place of fuel filled rather than actual values for fuel filled. This is only an issue with the monthly records; the aggregated yearly record is fine. Concerning the overall vehicle data, a record of the vehicles destination/s for a trip/s should be kept, this allows for the grouping of emissions by area of travel. As mentioned above one of the major advantages of recording this extra data is that the emissions can be analyzed according to different categories, such as emissions per faculty/department at the university and emissions by various locations. This sort of analysis is very important as the university can look into feasible ways of reducing its emissions and even costs. Take for example, if the emissions by each faculty/department and emissions by locations had been available. Patterns can be found in which multiple departments/faculties go to nearby areas; these trips can be grouped together and the vehicles used can be minimized, this will save costs and reduce emissions at the same time.

RecommendationsThe current flight data available is incomplete and the relevant details are not

stored.  

Whenever a staff member books a flight, the total distance for that flight is easily calculable and should be stored upon the university authorizing payment for the

flight. This will allow an aggregation of all the distances and result in a final accurate distance travelled by air for the entire year

 Staff member names for each flight need to be recorded, allowing for the calculation

of emissions by department/faculty to be analyzed.  

Locations for ALL flights need to be recorded, currently partial data regarding locations of flights is available

 Once again patterns regarding department/faculty flights and their locations would result in the university being able to group these staff members together and book their flight as a ‘group booking’ these group bookings are different from individual bookings in that the airline offers reduced rates. So the university can save quite a

bit of money.

Proposed ERD

Recommendations to Reduce Carbon Emissions

Reducing flight emissionsAlternatives to international flights should be provided such as e-

conferencing as well as group bookings.

Reducing vehicle emissions Possibly implementing monitoring systems on vehicles) to ensure the vehicles are not driven in an abusive manner (harsh driving results in

much greater carbon emissions) also ensuring vehicles are not used for personal affairs where not permitted. Another suggestion is changing all

current vehicles to an electric range of vehicles. Group Travel.

Limitations and Challenges

•Coming up with a solution to calculating the distance travelled buy air

•If time wasn’t an issue might have been able to get more accurate estimates

Reflexion

Project management concepts

Soft Skills