How do you calculate an environmenal footprint?

Question

Hey all. I have been questioning what my school's ecological footprint is. How can I go about this and do an of you have help or suggestions?

Answer 1

32.6 x 2.7 + the size of the school + the number of idiots who believe in an "environmental footprint"= you answer

Answer 2

It isn't easy. But don't listen to the nay sayers who probably work at McDonald's or some other junk joint and don't know c**p about real environmental management. See links

Answer 3

At minimum...it's the length of the school times the width of the school (it's physical footprint)...

Answer 4

The loosely defined footprint deals with the amount of land it would take to support all your  resource demands. Conceptually at least, a carbon footprint is based on the ability of a hectare of forest to remove carbon from the atmosphere. The problem is that a hectare of forest does not consume a standardized volume of CO2. Even from one year to another a hectare of forest will consume very disparate amounts as drought severely restricts the forest's ability to use CO2.

So what is done is to take a look at the whole globe, and decide how much of it, on average is needed to absorb a ton of CO2.

That number is the height of irrelevance except for trying to compute a footprint. What is relevant is the total number of kg of CO2 that you emit, or are emitted on your behalf by others.

So if your school uses no lights, no heat or cooling, no computers, and nobody drinks any water, you still have to account for the carbon cost to build the school, pave the streets leading to it, the vehicles that transport you, and the things you use, and the manufacturing of those items, mow the lawn, level the playing field, and tune the bell curve.

Your garbage and sewage also add to your carbon footprint.

Some things society does have carbon dioxide-equivalents. things that contribute to global warming  the way CO2 does, but not necessarily the same ratio.

If your science classroom has Bunsen burners, yes they produce a trivial amount of CO2. But when someone leaves one on, unlit, the methane has much greater effect than CO2 directly.

If your town chlorinates its water, more  CO2 equivalents every bit of water used. (of course the chlorine will destroy the ozone layer too... so much better to use ozonators than using chlorine.

If your school has a septic system, the tank will produce lots of methane that eventually finds its way to the air, either burned or as methane... lots of CO2 equivalents.

The research to come up with all the equivalent numbers, and to  estimate direct CO2 production has already been done. But actually adding it up for a school, or a town, is not easy. It is not going to be terribly accurate either.

That really does not matter. If one does a diligent and documented plan to evaluate, one will learn what are the things most needing to be done. A subsequent audit, footprint analysis, using the same method and the same assumptions will hopefully tell you that you have improved.

I would likely come up with a larger number of kg of carbon dioxide equivalents than you would. But if we applied my method again, we are looking for the same thing, we would have made changes that give positive results.

Answer 5

You can't because nobody agrees on what should go into the calculation.

Answer 6

try www.footprintnetwork.com

i've never tried one for a school or business. let us know how it goes! :)