THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF SUGAR PRODUCTION IN CUBA. CASE REPORT: ¨MELANIO HERNÁNDEZ¨ SUGAR MILL

Abstract

The Carbon Footprint (CF) quantifies the emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere from anthropogenic processes or activities;and it constitutes anuseful tool to evaluate the environmental performance of an organization considering climate change as the only impact category.

The objective of this article is To determine the contribution of the sugar production process to the global warming by the estimation of the CF of the "Melanio Hernández" sugar mill.

The Compound Method of the Countable Accounts was used, to which the environmental aspects identified as sources of greenhouse gasses were identified and quantified. The primary data corresponding to the triennium 2016-2018 were collected from the Integrated Economic System "VERSAT-Sarasola” software, and by in situ measuring. The requirements and guidelines of the ISO 14064-1:2006, NC-ISO 14001:2015 and NC-ISO 14044:2009 were integrated

The generation of biogenic residues, emissions from oxyacetylene welding, consumption of services and intangible goods, consumption of electricity, non-organic materials, liquid fossil fuels and water are the environmental aspects that contribute most to the carbon footprint. The annual emission rate amounts to 1,54±0.18 t CO₂-eq/t sugar. The high coefficient of variation corresponding to emissions associated with electricity consumption (41,53 %) reflects inefficiencies in its control.

The environmental aspects associated with oxyacetylene welding emissions and the generation of biogenic residues are those that have the greatest impact on the CF, contributing significantly to its increase in the community where the plant under study is located.