Greening the Big Brown Land

Tackling Australia’s transport carbon footprint

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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

ARRB Group Ltd

Company Overview

4www.arrb.com.au

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)

Australian Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Approaches to reduce emissions for land transport

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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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Use of Alternative Materials

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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)