ASSIGNMENT # 2 – Personal and Professional Footprint (30%)

The objective of this assignment is to assess your ecological impact on your immediate environment, and to reflect on what that means in global terms.

Length: 1,000 – 1,200 words (4 typewritten pages) plus illustration of process.

Structure: Please save your document as an MSWord file. Written part accepted either in essay or report format. Illustration of process could appear (as appropriate to your work) inside body of paper, or as an appendix.

References: use a minimum of 5 references: 3 at least must be peer-reviewed; any information taken from websites must be peer-reviewed or academic sources. For example, there are many peer-reviewed open-access academic sources such as the following database where you can access free scientific articles: https://www.sciencedirect.com/#open-access (scroll to the top).

All information (in addition to the site itself), like date, author, publisher, etc., must be provided. Report or Essay format, with a minimum of five complete and credible references. See https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ for a definition of credible sources and how to cite properly in APA format.

Brief description and rationale of assignment:

You are asked to use description, reflection and analysis to discuss how: (a) your personal impact on the environment, and (b) your chosen profession’s impact on the environment, relate to one another. You are also asked to (c) explain and illustrate a current scientific or technological process associated with a resource used either in your profession or in your personal life, and (d) propose an alternative process which offers a more positive solution to the environmental concerns you have described in (b) and (c).

Worth: 30% of total mark

Mark distribution: 10 marks for (a) and (b)

10 marks for (c)

10 marks for (d)

Loss of marks:

*up to -5 for grammatical errors, lack of coherence, and lack of structure.

*up to -10 for incomplete or incorrect references. If references are missing, either in the body of the paper or on the reference page, the paper will be considered plagiarized and will not be marked.

Submission of your work:

When your assignment is completed in Word , you can upload it by clicking “Footprint Assignment.” If you have questions, or you are experiencing difficulty submitting your work, consult with your professor to make other arrangements.

Extensions: Late papers will lose 2 marks per day. Extensions are possible and can be negotiated with professor provided student requests same by e-mail at least 24 hours before material is due.

Assignment Preparation:

(#1) This assignment requires you to use the results of your Footprint self-assessment that you conduct(ed) for Module 5. To measure your Footprint, you can use a number of sites:

http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/calculators/

http://web.stanford.edu/group/inquiry2insight/cgi-bin/i2sea-r3b/i2s.php?page=fpcalc&version=full

As a reminder–The EcoCalculator is a basic questionnaire that asks you about your personal activities, and then calculates an ecological footprint, based on generic data for a typical North American. In other words, it helps you to summarize your personal impact on the environment.

(#2) This assignment also requires you to research the impact of your industry’s Footprint. In other words, what kind of environmental impact does your chosen profession or vocation (also known as your industry) have on the world and its resources? During your research, you may find specific or general information about your industry’s footprint. You may also find that the information you seek is incomplete, inconsistent, or non-existent. If the latter is the case, research your topic to the best of your ability and decide to either deepen your search or to choose another topic. Your creativity and ingenuity, along with your research skills, are a definite asset.

***Your industry is the profession that you are training at GBC to enter (i.e. culinary arts, IT, nursing, hotel administration, fashion, dental or medical industry, etc.). You may also consider a job you presently hold or have held in the past (i.e. barista at a coffee shop, restaurant worker, etc.) as your chosen industry to analyze in this assignment. Please pick an industry that you are familiar with from experience or pick an industry that you will be entering upon GBC graduation that you may want to learn more about. The choice is yours!

Assignment details and guide questions:

Part (a)

In 200 words or less, discuss the general results of your eco footprint, and comment, now that you have had an opportunity to think about it, what, if anything, you would change in your own lifestyle. Were you surprised? Dismayed? Did you find it relevant? Irrelevant? Are you feeling a bit smug because you believe you consume less than the average North American?

Part (b)

Introduce your industry—the resources it uses, and the processes and systems that assist it to run better, more efficiently, and more profitably. What do you know about your industry’s general and specific impact on the environment? Discuss an aspect of environmental impact that you think is most preoccupying and that deserves attention. Explain why you think this deserves priority, and support your assertions with statistics, concepts, and ideas that are not general knowledge. See the video on how to reference material appropriately and avoid plagiarism: https://www.georgebrown.ca/LLC/studytools/plagiarism/

Remember to connect parts (a) and (b)—i.e. how your personal impact and your professional impact relate to one another.

Part (c) Explain a scientific or technological process that directly or indirectly relates to your topic Use plain, understandable language, and use an illustration, a graph, a map, to enhance your explanation. For example, show what is involved in extracting the raw material from the ground. Show what it takes to transform that raw material, even on a molecular level– to the product you or your industry use today.

Describe the negative impact of this product or this process on the environment by tracing the life of the product from the time it is created, to the time it is discarded as waste.

Part (d)

Identify or propose an alternative scientific or technological process which offers a more positive solution to the environmental concerns you have described in (b) and/or (c). Find both positive and negative comments on this process, and explain why you think the alternative is better than what exists now.

Footprint Grade Sheet

Objectives

Description, reflection and analysis (min. 1,200 words minimum, 5 references in APA format) Max. Your results

Part (a)

your personal impact on the environment *Description of personal footprint = 1 mark

*Local and world comparisons = 1 mark

*Discussion of final result = 2 marks

*Reflection of impact on the environment = 3 marks

*Rationale for personal choices and lifestyle changes = 3 marks

Part (b)

your profession’s impact on the environment *Introduce your industry and its general use of natural resources = 2 marks

*Discuss general and specific impacts on the environment = 2 marks

*Discuss one specific environmental concern attributable to your industry’s impact = 3 marks

*Explain why you believe this deserves priority and support with specific data = 3 marks

Part (c)

explain and illustrate a current scientific or technological process associated with a resource used either in your profession or in your personal life

Part (d)

propose an alternative process to the environmental concerns you have described in (b) and (c). *Explain a scientific or technological process relevant to your industry = 4 marks

*Recommend and describe an alternative process that promotes environmental justice and sustainability = 5 marks

*Include an illustration (of scientific or technological process) to enhance your explanation = 1 mark

Total 30

Loss of marks: *up to -5 for grammatical errors, lack of coherence, and lack of structure.*up to -10 for incomplete or incorrect references. If references are missing, either in the body of the paper or on the reference page, the paper will be considered plagiarized and will not be marked.