Kyung-Min Nam

February 26, 2025

CCGL9026: Think Global, Act Local: You, Hong Kong and the World
Common Core Course
Spring 2025

Take Home Assignment

Ecological Footprints: Individual Inventories

Due: 5 PM, April 2 (Wed)

- Max 6 double-spaced pages in length (excluding the reference
and appendix sections)
- Follow standard editing styles and page layouts (e.g., Times
New Roman, font size 12, and 1-inch margins on all sides)
Electronic file (DOC or PDF) should be submitted through Moodle.
Hard copy (Original Submission + Similarity Report) should be
submitted to a submission box placed at Lift Lobby on KB 8th Floor.
Late submissions (judged by your online submission time) will
result in a grade increment down per day (e.g., A → A-)

The objective is to get real data on your individual consumption/movement patterns and
translate this into footprints/indices. This is to be done by recording your food consumption
data and travel data over a three-day period and supplementing this with monthly data (on
energy and water consumption, as found in monthly energy and water bills).

In other words, you should first calculate the following individual footprints (on an annual
basis): (i) water usage, (ii) food consumption, (iii) travel behavior, and (iv) energy use.
Then these numbers should be translated into ecological footprints in terms of: (i) land
(measured in ha/person/year), (ii) water (measured in t/person/year), and (iii) energy
(measured in kgC/person/year).

Maintain a detailed ledger of food consumption patterns and travel over a three-day period.
For example, you will have to be fairly detailed as to what types of food. Later on, you may
convert similar food items into a common measure (e.g., lumping all carbohydrate
consumption of various kinds (bread, rice, couscous, etc.) into one carbohydrate unit and
using one representative land footprint conversion rate for that one representative type of
carbohydrate), but when gathering data, keep the data as richly detailed as possible. You will
tabulate all of this data and include it in an Appendix. One efficient way to do this is to create
data ledgers or tables for you to fill in, and systematically record data each day over a week –
but you create your own method, as long as the data is recorded and summarized in the
Appendix of the report.

Then, using this detailed data, you will calculate footprints for the above resources. In the
report, show representative calculations. It is important to base your food and travel estimates
on actual data (i.e., on data gathered over the three-day period), as well as energy and water
estimates (i.e., on monthly data). Show how you basically calculated each footprint.

For the purpose of simplification, you do NOT need to calculate: (i) the energy footprint
associated with your food consumption (i.e., you just need to calculate the water and land
footprints); (ii) the water and land footprints associated with travel behavior and home
energy use; and (iii) the energy and land footprints associated with your home water use.
 Kyung-Min Nam
February 26, 2025

Although the calculation of your ecological footprints itself is an essential part of the
assignment, that is not all. Instead, your ecological footprints calculation should be followed
by the analysis, reflection, and further discussion of the results, and this analysis and
reflection component will also have a crucial weight in your final grade for this assignment.

Recommended Structure

I. Introduction
II. Data & Table of Conversion Factors
III. Estimated Land, Water & Energy Footprints
IV. Analysis, Reflection & Discussion
V. Conclusions
Appendix
Take Home Assignment
Annual
basis
Please note that for simplification, you don’t need to compute
• the energy footprint associated with your food consumption (i.e., you
just need to calculate the water and land footprints)
• the water and land footprints associated with travel behavior and home
energy use
• the energy and land footprints associated with your home water use.
550/1000 x 3300 = 1815 57 / 4 / 4 x 12 = 42.75
1815 x 365 = 662,475

65/1000*2800=182kcal 182*365=66430 kcal

55/1000*1450=79.75kcal 79.75*365=29108.75kcal

279/1000*500=139.5kcal 139.5*365=50917.5kcal

960/4*6=1440kWh

0.85 / 13 / 3 x 365 = 7.955

662475 / 3300 / 3600 = 0.0557

66430/2400=276.03

66430/2800/1000=0.0237 66430/900=73.81

29180/1450/900=0.022 29180/310=94.12

50917/220=231.4
50917/500/5000=0.020 7.96/9.1*0.614=0.56

1440*0.19=273.6

KgC≠KgCO2
1 KgC = 3.67KgCO2
Try to gather data that's relevant to the HK context.
 Important!

• It is not a calculation project. Part IV is very important. What do you find in your
consumption style? Did Hong Kong residents in general share the same kind of lifestyle?
Any improvement could be made? ...
• More detailed data could be included in the appendix section.
• It’s an academic writing. It’s crucial to clearly state the sources of your data, explain how
calculations were done, and ensure proper referencing.
 FAQ

Q1: I'm living in the hall, so I cannot find the electricity bill or water bill to calculate my
usage of water or electricity.
● (Answer: you may try to find the energy and water usage annual report issued by
the hall or by our university (or NGOs). Otherwise, you may send an email to the
property office to see if they could help to provide you some useful information. If
there is no way to find any appropriate information for your hall, you may
consider to use the average energy and water usage of Hong Kong people to
do the calculation.)

Q2: I cannot find the appropriate conversion factors to do the calculation.

● (Answer: If you really cannot find, you can use the conversion factor enclosed in
the lecture note.)
 FAQ

Q3: I am on diet that I only take breakfast and lunch in a single day.
● (Answer: ...You just honestly keep a record of your three-day consumption. You
may consider to reflect this lifestyle in the analysis and reflection part.)

Q4: Do we need to include any reference?

● (Answer: Yes, if you make reference to others' work, you need to make in-text
citation and also include the data sources either in foot-note or end-note.)
CCGL9026 City Gallery Field Trip
Time: Mar 10 (Mon) 10 AM - 13PM
Address: 3 Edinburgh Place, Central, Hong Kong
MTR: Admiralty Station B Exit, Central Station K Exit and Hong Kong Station A Exit

Group A: 10-11am Guided Tour; 11am-12noon Free Exploration

Group B: 10-11am Guided Tour; 11am-12noon Free Exploration
Group C: 11am-12noon Guided Tour; 12pm-1noon Free Exploration

Meet-up time: Group A&B: 9:45 A.M.; Group C: 10:45 A.M.

Please gather at the entrance 15 minutes in advance and report your arrival/attendance to
course tutors.
24/25 CCGL9026 Zero Carbon Building Field Trip

Time: 10 AM – 11 AM, March 11 (Tue)

Place: Zero Carbon Park Exhibition Center
Address: 8 Sheung Yuet Road, Kowloon Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong

On the day of the field trip, all participants must arrive at the Zero Carbon
Park Exhibition Center assembly point 15 minutes earlier (by 9:45 AM),
and report your arrival/attendance to a course tutor(Group 1: Xinyi Tong,
Group 2: Jess Xu).

On-site registration (through your own mobile phone) is necessary.

Thank you

CREDITS: This presentation template was

created by Slidesgo
Slidesgo, including icons by
Flaticon
Flaticon, infographics & images by
Freepik
Freepik

15