greening the big brown land tackling australia’s transport carbon footprint
TRANSCRIPT
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This presentation
• ARRB Group• Australian greenhouse gas emissions• Approaches to reduce carbon emissions in
the land transport sector
cement treated crushed rock 29%
aggregate/base 21% 7% hot mix asphalt
37% concrete
2% other steel (gantries, road barriers, wire rope, steel poles)
4% steel reinforcement
cement treated crushed rock 29%
aggregate/base 21% 7% hot mix asphalt
37% concrete
2% other steel (gantries, road barriers, wire rope, steel poles)
4% steel reinforcement
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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
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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
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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.
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Research
Investing in research ensures that ARRB will be a source
of
expertise and knowledge into the future
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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.
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Consulting
International reputation for
innovation, independence, scientific integrity
and professional excellence
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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
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Technology
Developing innovative road, traffic and transport
products utilising the latest
technologies
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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
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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)
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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
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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
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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:1. shift to more carbon efficient fuel/engine
systems for future motor vehicles2. reduce the carbon emission levels of
specific transport tasks3. making more carbon-efficient use of
resources in providing and maintaining transport infrastructure
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1. Carbon efficient fuel/engine systems
Future 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
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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
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Vehicle kilometres travelled by engine type
1. carbon efficient fuel/engine systems
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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
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3. Reducing the carbon demand of infrastructure: carbon neutral construction
3. carbon-efficient use of resources
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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
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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
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Breakdown of embodied greenhouse gas emissions…..
73% from embodiedgreenhouse gas
24% from on-site transport 2% transport of materials
on site 1% on-site electricity
cement treated crushed rock 29%
aggregate/base 21%
7% hot mix asphalt
37% concrete
2% other steel (gantries, road barriers, wire rope, steel poles)
4% steel reinforcement
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• 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.
Calculation of the carbon footprint …
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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
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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
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3. Reducing the carbon demand of infrastructure- assessment of recycled materials
3. carbon-efficient use of resources
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3. Reducing the carbon demand of infrastructure- performance of recycled materials - research
3. carbon-efficient use of resources
Accelerated Loading Facility (ALF)
• Full scale accelerated pavement testing
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3. Reducing the carbon demand of infrastructure- performance of recycled materials - research
3. carbon-efficient use of resources
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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)