An Empirical Findings of the Carbon Footprint of Erbil City Residences Dr. Hassan Hassoon ALDelfi Interior Design Engineering. Faculty of Engineering ISHIK University Erbil, Iraq hassan.hassoon@ishik.edu.iq Rasha Alkabbanie Architecture Engineering. Faculty of Engineering ISHIK University Erbil. Iraq rasha.alkabbanie@ishik.edu.iq Abstract— Erbil is the capital city of Kurdistan Province which has experienced recently an expansive urban development and sudden population growth due to the mass movement of the displaced people from the nearby troubled zones and rural emigration. In this paper, A face to face data were collected for 72 questions, informative results have been tabulated in charts and tables. The acquired results were reached to depict the energy usage, the recycling, monthly expenditures, transportations, food, electricity and water consumptions, energy for cooking, allocated landscape, heating sources, lighting and their responses to alternative energy usage. Different models for measuring sustainability have been adopted to measure the degree of sustainability in terms of CO2 emission, and carbon footprint for many residences. An overall measured carbon footprint for Erbil city is almost double the world average and of Iraq. On the other hand, the CO2 emission is almost double of Iraq and the world. The contributions of items that led to this increase are categorized in tables and charts. Those results can be used as guide lines for limiting the lifestyles in Erbil city. Conclusive remarks and future suggestions have been drawn accordingly to achieve sustainable guidelines to be implemented in future by the local authorities and planners. Keywords- ecology, energy information; electricity; water; consumption; sustainability; residential houses; heating; transportation; food sources; life style; Cooling; ecology carbon; footprint; Carbon Dioxide, cooking, residences, mobility I. INTRODUCTION Even though methane CH4 is the most effective in the global warming phenomena but the CO2 is taken to be the most dominant in this aspect due to its large quantity emitted to the closed environmental earth system [1]. The fossil fuel as a source for heating and cooling is still in the rise. Total world energy consumption and CO2 emissions continue to increase steadily. Households consume energy in various forms, particularly fossil fuels for space heating and hot water, and electricity for lighting and appliances [2]. Households are also becoming smaller, so people tend to use more living space, energy and water and generate more waste per person [3]. The recent industrial development increases the extent to which private households consume natural resources and is a driving force behind the current overuse of natural resources [4]. Most of the of the country side inhabitants are emigrating from rural to urban cities, that is in general due to the degraded habitat and lack of proper utilities. Cities are attracting people because they are centers for economic activity and can offer a higher quality of life; there are more jobs, more services available, transport options to move within the city, trade, knowledge exchange, and connections to other cities and countries. As a result, in 2050, two-thirds of the world population is expected to live in cities. Cities are the highest consumers of energy and responsible for 70 percent of greenhouse gas emissions [5]. As a cause of negative economic, environmental and social effects, food waste is one of the sustainability issues that needs to be addressed. In developed countries, consumers are one of the biggest sources of food waste. Consumption by households affects the environment. Our lifestyle choices, the goods and services we consume, and how these are produced and disposed of all affect the extent and manner of our impact on the environment. Increased household consumption expenditure within the middle class of the society, can also be attributed to increasing consumption over time; that is, more people buying more things, not just more people buying the same things. Increased consumption can mean greater use of natural resources and generation of waste, both of which have implications for the environment. [6]. Sustainable waste management is a core issue facing local and national governments. It is widely acknowledged that although producers of goods and materials have a role to play in reducing waste, the public, in the way that we consume and utilize products, have a key role in delivering sustainable waste management [7]. Out of 1.6 million discovered creatures in our planet earth, human is considered the most pollutant of all [8]. The ecological degradation comes out because of human usage of ecological assets and its irrational activities. In this part of the world Iraq, people at large are affluent society, their lack of environmental awareness led to irrational usage of high grade electrical energy. Yet today, the general disrespect to the local laws an, the cheaply smuggled groceries from the neighboring countries to Iraq all led to mass emigration of farmers to already hard pressed large cities. The deserted lands are somehow subjected to desertification, deforestation, biodiversity loss, fisheries collapse and climate change [9]. To study those issues which are related to sustainability, a recently an urbanized city like Erbil is considered typical for the study. The authors would like to thank ISHIK University for sponsoring the research project and the use of facilities.