A Consideration of Whole-Life Carbon Emissions by Indiana Manufacturers in Efforts to Gauge Lifecycle Sustainability Records in the Multinational Automobile Industry
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47672/ajscm.1898Keywords:
Whole Life Car Emissions, Sustainable Manufacturing, Global Supply Logistics, Multinational Automobile Industry, Emissions RatesAbstract
Purpose: The Ricardo Report (2020) recommends a holistic analysis of the effects of the global auto industry on sustainability by assessing the impacts of automobiles on the environment throughout their lifecycle. Much of the literature on sustainability in the transportation sector focuses on vehicle exhaust emissions and their contribution to urban smog, and there has been little consideration of emissions produced during the automobile manufacturing process itself.
Materials and Methods: This study builds on the lifecycle emissions approach recommended by the Ricardo Report. Specifically, data on the pounds of pollution emitted was collected from the Toxic Release Inventory report of major multinational automobile producers and analyzed via piecewise linear regression analyses to provide insight about the pollution emitted during a vehicle's production.
Findings: The findings in this study will fill a gap in Ricardo's "birth to grave" proposal to quantify whole-life carbon emissions in the automobile sector.
Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: As sustainability efforts within the automotive market continues to evolve, it is important to analyze automobile whole-life carbon emissions rather than just what is emitted from the tailpipe, and this study fills a gap in the Ricardo Report by providing data related to the rates of pollution emitted during the manufacture of vehicles at multinational automobile factories in America.
Downloads
References
Anenberg, S., Miller, J., Henze, D., Minjares, R., & Achakulwisut, P. (2019). The Global Burden of Transportation Tailpipe Emissions on Air Pollution-related Mortality in 2010 and 2015. Environmental Research Letters, 14(9), 094012.
Antisdel, T. (2017). Specialist/Database Administrator for the United States EPA; personal communication.
Bej, D., & Chattaraj, N. (2023). Air Pollution from Vehicle-tailpipe Emissions and Diagnostic Approaches Through Cyber-physical Platform-a review. Microprocessors and Microsystems, 104805.
Berners-Lee, M., and Clark, D. (2010). What's the Carbon Footprint"¦of a new car? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/green-living-blog/2010/sep/23/carbon-footprint-new-car.
Campbell, R. (2022). Car Pollution Facts: From production to disposal, what impact do our cars have on the planet? Retrieved from: https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/sustainability/358628/car-pollution-production-disposal-what-impact-do-our-cars-have-planet.
Carlson, A., & Burtraw, D. (2019). Lessons from the Clean Air Act: Building durability and adaptability into US climate and energy policy. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Carson, R. (1962). Silent Spring. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Chen, H., Li, Q., Kaufman, J., Wang, J., Copes, R., Su, Y., & Benmarhnia, T. (2018). Effect of Air Quality Alerts on Human Health: A regression discontinuity analysis in Toronto, Canada. The Lancet Planetary Health, 2(1), e19-e26.
COP 28. (2023, December). United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Crawley, M. (2012). The R Book. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Davidson, J., & Norbeck, J. (2011). An Interactive History of the Clean Air Act: Scientific and policy perspectives. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Publishing.
Dey, S., & Mehta, N. (2020). Automobile Pollution Control Using Catalysis. Resources, Environment and Sustainability, 2, 100006.
Els, P. (2021). The Truth About The Carbon Footprint Of A New Car That No One's Talking About. Retrieved from: https://www.hotcars.com/the-truth-about-the-carbon-footprint-of-a-new-car-that-no-ones-talking-about/.
EPA. (2024). Smog, Soot, and Other Air Pollution from Transportation. Retrieved from: https://www.epa.gov/transportation-air-pollution-and-climate-change/smog-soot-and-other-air-pollution-transportation.
Ewing, J. (2017). Faster, Higher, Farther: The inside story of the Volkswagen scandal. New York, NY: Random House.
Faiz, A., Weaver, C., & Walsh, M. (1996). Air Pollution from Motor Vehicles: Standards and technologies for controlling emissions. Washington, DC: World Bank Publications.
Gardiner, B. (2019). Choked: Life and breath in the age of air pollution. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Giechaskiel, B., Lähde, T., & Drossinos, Y. (2019). Regulating Particle Number Measurements from the Tailpipe of Light-duty Vehicles: The next step? Environmental research, 172, 1-9.
Iguchi, M. (2015). Divergence and Convergence of Automobile Fuel Economy Regulations A Comparative Analysis of EU, Japan and the US. Hanover, PA: Springer International Publishing A&G.
Innes, R. (1996). Regulating Automobile Pollution Under Certainty, Competition, and Imperfect Information. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 31(2), 219-239.
Issitt, M. (2019). Opinions Throughout History: The environment. Amenia, NY: Gray House Publishing.
Jeffrey, M. (2016, September 10). Doesn't the Obama EPA's $68 Billion Assault on the Rust Belt Make Your Stomach Turn? Retrieved from: https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/ 2016/09/doesnt-the-obama-epas-68-billion-assault-on-the-rust-belt-make-your-stomach-turn.
Jung, J., & Sharon, E. (2019). The Volkswagen Emissions Scandal and its Aftermath. Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 38(4), 6-15.
Kalghatgi, G., Agarwal, A., Leach, F., & Senecal, K. (2023). Engines and Fuels for Future Transport. Hanover, PA: Springer Publishing.
Kekatos, M. (2023). Toxic Smoke from Canadian Wildfires Could Impact Health of Millions in the US. ABC News. Retrieved from: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/toxic-smoke-canadian-wildfires-impact-health-millions-us/story?id=99837839.
Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Dec. 10, 1997. 2303 U.N.T.S. 162.
Lee, K. (2012). Carbon Accounting for Supply Chain Management in the Automobile Industry. Journal of Cleaner Production, 36, 83-93.
Li, L., McMurray, A., Xue, J., Liu, Z., & Sy, M. (2018). Industry-wide Corporate Fraud: The truth behind the Volkswagen scandal. Journal of Cleaner Production, 172, 3167-3175.
Lisowski, S., Berger, M., Caspers, J., Mayr-Rauch, K., Bäuml, G., & Finkbeiner, M. (2020). Criteria-based Approach to Select Relevant Environmental SDG Indicators for the Automobile Industry. Sustainability, 12(21), 8811.
Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership. (2020). Lifecycle Emissions from Cars. Retrieved from: BOARD-P-05-00X (zemo.org.uk).
Muggeo, V. (2008). Segmented: An R package to fit regression models with broken-line relationships. R News, 8(1), 20-25.
Munzel, T., Sorensen, M., Gori, T., Schmidt, F., Rao, X., Brook, J., Chen, L., Brook, R., & Rajagopalan, S. (2017, February). Environmental Stressors and Cardio-metabolic Disease: Part I-epidemiologic evidence supporting a role for noise and air pollution and effects of mitigation strategies. European Heart Journal, 38(8), 550-556.
Paris Agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Dec. 12, 2015, T.I.A.S. No. 16-1104.
Perkins, H. (1974). Air Pollution, International Edition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Publishing.
Pott, P. (1775). Chirurgical Observations: Cancer"¦ Farmington, Hills, MI: Gale ECCO, Print Editions.
Rapp, V. (2015). Protecting Earth's Air Quality. Minneapolis, MN: LernerClassroom Publishing.
Regulatory Timeline. (2024). Transportation, Air Pollution, and Climate Change. US EPA. Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/transportation-air-pollution-and-climate-change/timeline-major-accomplishments-transportation-air.
Rhys-Tyler, G., Legassick, W., & Bell, M. (2011). The Significance of vehicle Emissions Standards for Levels of Exhaust Pollution from Light Vehicles in an Urban Area. Atmospheric Environment, 45(19), 3286-3293.
Ricardo Energy & Environment. (2020, September). Ricardo Delivers Major European Report on the Lifecycle Impacts of Road Vehicles. Retrieved from: https://www.ricardo.com/en/news-and-insights/press-releases/2020/ricardo-delivers-major-european-report-on-the-lifecycle-impacts-of-road-vehicles.
Ricardo Report. (2020). Determining the Environmental Impacts of Conventional and Alternatively Fueled Vehicles Through LCA. European Commission. Retrieved from: https://climate.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2020-09/2020_study_main_report_en.pdf.
Sachdev, P. (2022, June). 10 Worst Smog Cities in America. WebMD, Asthma Guide. Retrieved from: https://www.webmd.com/asthma/ss/slideshow-worst-smog-cities; https://www.stateofglobalair.org/resources/health-in-cities; https://www.c40knowledgehub.org/s/article/Why-clean-air-is-vital-for-your-city-s-health-and-prosperity?language=en_US.
Savage, C. (2023). Unhealthy Air Quality Lingers Across Parts of U.S. from Drifting Canadian Wildfire Smoke. AP News. Retrieved from: https://apnews.com/article/air-quality-smoke-fire-hazy-canada-bd2cb7203ab4e22249ecf68a374b4bfc.
Schulte, K. (2022). "˜Real-time' Air Quality Channels: A technology review of emerging environmental alert systems. Big Data & Society, 9(1), 20539517221101346.
Selim, T & Gad ElRab, M. (2020). The Global Auto Industry Self-Driving, Artificial Intelligence, and Autonomous Vehicles. World Economic Forum- Global Agenda Council on Fourth Industrial Revolution, World Economic Forum.
Siano, A., Vollero, A., Conte, F., & Amabile, S. (2017). "More Than Words": Expanding the taxonomy of greenwashing after the Volkswagen scandal. Journal of Business Research, 71, 27-37.
Solaymani, S. (2019). CO2 emissions patterns in 7 top carbon emitter economies: The case of transport sector. Energy, 168, 989-1001.
Stern, A., Turner, B., Boubel, R., Vallero, D., & Fox, D. (1984). Fundamentals of Air Pollution. Cambridge, MA: Academic Press.
Swenson, S. (August-October, 2023). Email conversations and workshops administered. TRI Program Communications Lead, Stakeholder Engagement Branch, Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, US Government.
Tan, X., Mu, Z., Wang, S., Zhuang, H., Cheng, L., Wang, Y., & Gu, B. (2011). Study on Whole-life Cycle Automotive Manufacturing Industry CO2 Emission Accounting Method and Application in Chongqing. Procedia Environmental Sciences, 5, 177-172.
Taylor, T. (2008, May). From Georgia v. Tennessee Copper Co. to Massachusetts v EPA: An overview of America's history of air pollution regulation and its effect on future remedies to climate change. The University of Memphis Law Review, 38(3), 763-797.
United Nations Press Release. (2019, May). UN Secretary-General António Guterres' message for World Environment Day. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/press/en/2019/sgsm19607.doc.htm.
Yanowitz, J., & McCormick, R. (2009). Effect of E85 on Tailpipe Emissions from Light-duty Vehicles. Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 59(2), 172.
Zhang, W., Lu, J., Xu, P., & Zhang, Y. (2015). Moving Towards Sustainability: Road grades and on-road emissions of heavy-duty vehicles-a case study. Sustainability, 7(9), 12644-12671.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 James Tanoos
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
