——————————————————

Footnotes

*1. Gasoline, diesel, fuel oil, propane and natural gas conversion factors http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/archive/gg96rpt/btabs.html The factors yield millions of metric tons of carbon per quadrillion Btus. Resulting amounts have been converted to pounds.
2. Electricity emission factors differ by state and utility. These state averages are provided by DOE at http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/FTPROOT/environment/e-supdoc.pdf
3. Air and train travel factors found at http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/carboncalculator/howitwascalculated.html
4. Bus factors were derived from ttp://www.aef.org.uk/. (Aviation Environment Federation, UK)
5. Waste. Landfill garbage produces methane as well as C02. A carbon equivalent is used here to combine the two. Matthews, E. and N. J. Themelis, Potential for reducing global methane emissions from landfills, 2000-2030, Proceedings Sardinia 2007, Eleventh International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium, S. Margherita di Pula, Cagliari, Italy, 1-5 Oct. 2007. Sullivan County is having an electricity plant built using landfill methane; once that is done this factor should be reduced for Sullivan County residents. http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/WARM?openform
6. Diet. Estimates from The Green Guide website, http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/119/calculator. Unfortunately, they do not specify how strictly they are defining vegetarian, i.e. as vegan, vegan plus dairy, or vegan plus dairy and fish.

Notes on constructing the worksheet

In constructing the carbon emissions worksheets for households and businesses, we wanted to be as complete as possible while keeping the sheets practical to use, and the calculations on which they are based reasonably accurate.

A complete accounting of the carbon emission for which a household is responsible would include practically every dollar spent, as not only fuel but furniture, clothes, electronics and almost every good purchased and service produced results in emissions of greenhouse gases of one sort or another. However, it is not currently feasible to try to account for all the emissions connected to, say, a dress or pair of shoes that one buys in the store. In addition, there is an issue of double-counting: if the consumer is to be “charged” for the gashouse gases associated for everything he or she buys, then no emissions would be charged to businesses. Theoretically this makes sense; but for the purpose of individual entities in the society measuring their impact and taking action, this approach is not of much use.

We therefore created a separate sheet for businesses. It includes all the same categories as the household worksheet, with one exception: diet. It also has one additional category: paper.

The ideal worksheet for a business would be custom-made for that business. A construction company will engage in very different activities, with very different impacts, than a lawyer’s office. For just one example, choices like using bamboo rather than oak for flooring probably have a net impact in terms of the earth’s forests and their ability to absorb CO2. But to come up with custom-made worksheets for every business is obviously beyond our capability—though we would be happy to work with any companies that would like to take up our challenge to come up with something closer to their needs. In the meantime, paper is one item that even bricks-and-mortar companies consume in fairly large quantities, and we have therefore added it to the business sheet.

The other difference between the business and household worksheets is that we have attributed gasoline burned while commuting to the business, not the employee. This is because it is the businesses, not the employees, who are, at least sometimes, in a position to do something about it. While many businesses need employees to be physically on hand all the time, many also have at least some employees who can do their jobs from home, if not every day, then one or two days a week. Software programs now exist that make it easy for people to connect to their office computers from home and use their full capabilities. If every employer in Sullivan, Pike and Wayne counties were to take advantage of this option in those cases in which it was possible, there would be a significant drop in gasoline use in our area overnight.

If you have any suggestions to expand or modify this worksheet, or think you would like to join the challenge and would like to work on adding categories, please contact us at climatechallenge@riverreporter.com.