Reference no: EM133191375 , Length: Word count: 2 Pages
Assignment Task: Your decisions have the potential to impact our climate. Everyday choices like turning on the lights, driving, food/clothing purchases, and travel decision directly and indirectly emit greenhouse gases (e.g., CO2, methane) to our atmosphere, with the cumulative sum of these emissions (expressed as CO2 equivalents) defining our personal carbon footprint. Greenhouse gases trap heat at the Earth's surface and increasing global emissions have contributed to surges in global air/ocean temperatures over the past 100 years. While it is true that large corporations utilize vast quantities of energy, it is equally true that their activities only serve to feed consumer demand for the products that we choose to engage with every day. We have the capacity to become informed consumers and carefully choose products and activities that limit greenhouse gas releases, and as a result, energy sustainability really starts with us!
Hence, the goal of the final project in this lab course will be to collect, analyze, and discuss real data about the choices you make that impact your carbon footprint. You will log your actual decisions (rather than your approximation or recollection of decisions) over a relatively long period of time, and this comprehensive sampling approach will allow you to gain insights about the greenhouse gas emissions that result from your actions. Data will be collected in a digital logbook (provided) and analyzed using the Cool Climate online carbon footprint calculator developed by the University of California - Berkeley. The inputs for this project will include:
Electricity usage: Your residence is served by electricity, which powers each plug and light in your home, and your monthly electric bill provides the number of kilowatt-hours (kwh) of electricity utilized by your residence. This value serves as a cumulative measure of electricity usage during the preceding month. For those of you living in residences that receive an electric bill, determining the kilowatt-hours of electricity usage will be as easy as reading the value off of your bill and dividing this value by the number of people living in your residence. For those that do not receive an electric bill (e.g., this expense is included in your rent), your task will be slightly harder. You may want to reach out to your landlord or property manager to obtain an electric bill for your residence. For those living in Campus Village (or any other high student occupancy residences), the lab coordinator will actively seeking help from staff to calculate an average electricity usage for residents of this location and will disseminate these data. The goal of this exercise is to obtain at least one electric bill that ideally covers most of March, as electricity usage during this period will be used to approximate an average electricity usage that will be prorated to the remainder of the year. Any complications in obtaining an electric bill should be brought to your lab instructor, and a mutually agreeable solution will be found.
Natural Gas Usage: Your residence is also likely served by a natural gas line, which fuels a furnace, and (perhaps) a hot water heater, cooking range, and/or fireplace. Similar to the electric bill above, your monthly natural gas bill provides a cumulative measure of the gas used during the previous month, as determined by a meter outside your home. The units on this value will be either 'therms' or 'cubic feet (ft3)', and the online calculator can accept either type of data.
Again, you may need to reach out to your landlord or property manager to obtain this bill, and the lab coordinator is actively seeking these data from the staff at Campus Village. You will ideally obtain one natural gas bill that cover most of March, which will be used to approximate an average natural gas usage that will be prorated to the remainder of the year. March is an ideal month from which to calculate your average natural gas usage as it likely contains an average heating requirement (i.e., not as much as January, but not as little as July).
Driving: Greenhouse gases are produced by (even optimally-functioning) internal combustion engines and directly released to the atmosphere through the tailpipe of a car. In this project, you will read and log your vehicle mileage (using the vehicle odometer) at each fuel fill-up, which will allow you to meticulously quantify your vehicle's usage and fuel efficiency. Both of these values will be needed to establish the quantity of greenhouse gas that is released from your vehicle.
You should start and stop logging these data with fresh fuel fill-ups, and the total elapsed time between the first and last fill-up should be at least four weeks. You will then use these data to prorate your dataset to an entire year. If you use Uber/Lyft rideshares, these will be separately logged and entered into the Cool Climate Calculator as a 'Driving' entry (see digital logbook).
Public Transit Usage: While public transit is an outstanding option to limit your personal carbon emissions, these options are not immune from greenhouse gas release. Denver has many city and regional bus lines, as well as commuter- (the A-Line, B-Line, and G-Line) and light- (all other lines) rail systems, with each having different energy efficiencies. Each time you ride one of these options over a four week period between now and the project due date, you will log the type of transit used and the distance that you traveled. You may log repeat journeys (e.g., your daily commute) one time, and then simply keep track of the number of times this journey occurs. Amtrak usage will be logged separately. You will then use these data to prorate your dataset to an entire year.
Air Travel: Air travel can significantly impact a personal carbon footprint, but for many of you, occurs only episodically (e.g., holidays or infrequent vacation travel). Prorating infrequent events to an entire year risks significantly over- or under-estimating their contribution to your yearly greenhouse gas emissions. Hence, in order to get a clear snapshot of your air travel throughout this year, you will log the one-way distance (with round-trip travel equaling two flights) of any air travel that occurred beginning January 1, 2020, as well as any air travel that occurs during the semester or that you reasonably expect to occur through December 31, 2020.
Food: Logging your daily food intake for several weeks during the semester is an unreasonable request. Hence, for ten random days prior to the project due date, you will log your food intake. For each of these days, you will record the number of 'servings' that you consumed for each food category listed in the digital logbook. Note that for packaged food items, you may use the serving size on the package to determine the number of servings you consumed, while the number of servings consumed for fresh food and restaurant/takeout meals should be estimated (do your best!) after consulting with the American Heart Association serving suggestions website (link provided in your logbook). To the extent possible, randomize the days that you collect these data by pointing blindly at a calendar, picking dates out of a hat, using a random number generator, or some other similar approach. At the very least, decide which days you will collect data long in advance of the day, so you are not just collecting data for the 'easy' days (whatever that may mean in your life) and instead get a more holistic snapshot of your food choices. You will then use these data to determine your average daily food intake.
Shopping: While not entirely intuitive, every item that we purchase has a certain amount of energy usage embedded within it, as every item requires energy to make and transport. For a four week period prior to the project due date, you will record the dollar amount spent on clothing, entertainment (not including restaurant meals, which are logged under 'Food' above), paper/books, and home/cleaning supplies (split any shared purchase), as provided in your digital logbook. You may exclude second-hand clothing purchases. The dollar value of your shopping preferences over your four week period will then be entered directly into the online calculator.
Please be aware that the Cool Climate calculator accepts several other categories (e.g., 'Services') of data that we will either disregard or consider with national average value assumptions (e.g., water usage). Please discuss any unique circumstances in your life with your lab instructor if you believe these circumstances will impact this project.