Environmental Footprint paper

From Prof. Elston's Wiki

Spend an hour or two on the Internet assessing your own environmental footprint, and come to the second meeting of our seminar on September 1st prepared to discuss your assessment and opportunities to reduce your environmental footprint. See the list of sites below.

By our September 8th meeting, submit a 4-6 page (no longer), double spaced, Environmental Footprint Assessment. The paper should identify the Web sites you have considered with a brief discussion of each model and its strengths and weaknesses, define your own footprint in terms of energy use (including home heating, electricity and transportation), waste produced, food consumed and CO2 produced and identify opportunities to reduce your environmental footprint. Include a discussion of the difference and similarities between the measure of your own footprint and the NYC footprint described in Inventory of NYC Greenhouse Gas Emissions April 2007 and February 2009.

Conduct your personal assessment based on the sites listed below and any other useful sites you may come across. Please note: Your assessment should be designed to gauge your home’s footprint. This means that if you are staying at the dorms, you should input information based on your home’s energy, heating, water, etc. Use your family’s home energy and water bills to ensure as precise a calculation as possible.

Below is a list of websites that offer a variety of assessment models; some of them are very general, others focus on specific areas of impact (e.g. energy or water).

Footprint Assessment Sites:

• Global Footprint Network A good, thorough, basic assessment. Easy-to-use interface, cute animations. Calculates how many planets would be needed if all of the Earth’s population shared your lifestyle.
• BP.com While somewhat lacking in other areas, this one is quite thorough on home energy use. Results are given in tons of CO2.
• American Forests This site offers national averages, which are good for comparisons. Results are given in tons of CO2 emitted and in how many trees would need to be planted to offset these one’s emissions.
• EPA This one also offers averages (one might want to compare these between the various assessment models). Not the most thorough, but it does provide examples of various mitigation measures (e.g. recycling, installing energy-saving bulbs). Results in pounds of CO2.
• fightglobalwarming.com Very detailed with regards to the type of home; less so in other areas. Results in tons of CO2, with comparison to average 2-person American home.
• myfootprint.org Very thorough. Lets you compare your score to national average in every category, addresses just about everything in a moderate amount of detail. Calculates results in planets.
• The Nature Conservancy Covers all areas. Measurements rather simplistic, but helps compare easily with national average, and break results down by sector (food, energy, travel, etc). Results in tons of CO2.
• zerofootprint.netMeasures travel, flights, diet, and home. Relatively detailed with regards to food. Results given in tons of CO2, as total and broken down by sector.
• Water Footprint NewtworkCalculates water footprint only. A bit complicated, and uses kg as unit, but probably the most thorough with regards to water use. Results given in cubic meters.

RELATED SITES:

• HopStop.com Helpful for calculating transportation mileages around NYC.
• kyero.com A fairly thorough list of tips on how to lower one’s footprint; worth consulting after calculating footprint.
• Scorecard.org Has information on various communities, cities, etc. Can compare your county/zip code to others. Could be useful for various research projects.
• Buildcarbonneutral.orgTargeted solely at those considering construction projects; possibly useful for research projects.