Carbon Footprint of the Transportation of The Edgewood College Community

The Carbon Footprint of Transportation of the
Edgewood College Community

Julie Majewski, Gina Pulvermacher, Mark Helscher

Introduction:

A carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that each person or group is responsible for
CO2 is a greenhouse gas that warms the earth’s surface
The aim of this project is to determine the carbon footprint due to transportation commuting at Edgewood College
Edgewood’s carbon footprint can be compared with other communities and ways to reduce emissions can be found

Methods:

A survey was given to 20 of each; staff, students, and faculty on the days per week they commute, the number of miles driven, and the miles per gallon that their vehicle averages
The average CO2 emissions of the two Edgewood shuttles were calculated by using data collected from the Edgewood College transportation services and that was entered into The Nature Conservancy carbon calculator http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/
The average emissions for each student, faculty, and staff group were found by entering the data into the same carbon calculator
Data was collected from Edgewood College on the number of staff, students, and faculty at campus, which was used to calculate the total carbon footprint of each group

Results:

The Edgewood College Community emits 98.1 tons of CO2 during an average week of the academic school year. Each person averages 244.87 pounds of CO2 during that week (Figure 1)
The CO2 emissions emitted on average per week by each staff member was 99.84 pounds, students was 58.92 pounds and faculty was 86.12 pounds (Figure 2)
Shuttle Emissions: the Star Cinema shuttle averaged 1384 pounds of CO2 per week; the Westwood Church shuttle averaged 500 pounds of CO2 per week
Students make up 83.49% of the Edgewood Community and contribute 76.4% of CO2 emissions; faculty makes up 9.45% of the Edgewood Community and contribute 12.6% of CO2 emissions; staff makes up 7.96% of the Edgewood Community and contribute 10.9% of CO2 emissions (Figures 3&4)

Figure 4. Number of People in the Edgewood College Community Per Community Group

Community Members Graph

Figure 1. Total Amount of CO2 in Tons Emitted by Staff, Students and Faculty During an Average Academic School Week

Total CO2 Emissions by Community Member

Figure 2. Average CO2 Emissions in Tons Emitted by Staff, Students and Faculty During an Average Academic School Week

Average CO2 Emissions by Community Member

Figure 3. Percentage of CO2 Emissions Per Staff, Student and Faculty Group During an Average Academic School Week

Percentage of CO2 Emissions per Community Group

Discussion:

Each person in the Edgewood College Community averages just over 1 ton of CO2 emissions per year in the commute alone
1 tree can absorb 50 pounds of CO2 per year and to offset Edgewood College’s total transportation emissions 200,000 trees would need to be planted and maintained
If trees were planted 3 feet apart Edgewood would need to plant 41 acres of trees to offset Edgewood’s yearly CO2 emissions
A United States citizen emits 6.5 tons of CO2 per year on average
A resident of the city of Madison’s annual average is 3.21 tons of CO2 for transportation and residential use

Implications:

How much could the Edgewood College Community reduce the carbon footprint by increasing the amount we carpooling, walking, public transportation, more fuel efficient cars, and using vehicles powered by non fossil fuels (for example, plug in electric cars powered by solar energy)?
Does the shuttle service Edgewood provides help or hurt Edgewood College’s CO2 Emissions? Do enough members of the Edgewood College Community use the shuttle to make it helpful?
Efforts to find more efficient fuel sources is an obvious step to reducing our carbons emissions