Project Overview

• Problem Overview – 

There is always a consequence for everyone's actions and daily activities in ones daily life is something people don't think about what they cause. This problem is carbon footprint, or the amount of carbon dioxide that gets released into the environment due to these day to day routines. Since everyone has a carbon footprint, it has come to the attention of many that such activities people do are harming the earth we live in, more importantly causing the greenhouse effect to get even stronger. Since this is such a big spectrum of people in the world, focusing on opposite sides of the country is something more feasible. Drexel University is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania which is one of the biggest cities in the county that has a highly dense population of about 1.5 million people. Looking over at the opposite side of the country, there is UC Berkeley in Berkeley, California where the population is more spread out, totaling at about 100 thousand.  Comparing these two different worlds is a way to see the main factors that cause the most greenhouse gas production among students. Activities included can be anything from traveling, to how much time is spent in a building, to other forms of energy sources used and other smaller things a student may do during a day. This research will allow us to help these students and universities to reduce their carbon footprint and therefore slow the rate of global climate change. Going even closer, the research will target the freshman of both schools; the reason for this is it is a transition from high school to close to real world experiences that individuals will have a routine that follows most of their life. It is a median between those two and by focusing on freshman; it will gain a better focus on to what might be a leading factor to carbon footprint release among individuals.

• Design Constraints –

Since doing this research, there are some design constraints. First of all, Drexel University has more than 3,070 freshmen in 2011 [4], and Berkeley has 5,600 freshmen [5]. Due to the fact that the huge population of freshmen in those two universities, it is really hard to calculate the carbon emissions that all of the students produce per week accurately. What can we do just take the average number of those data. Besides, different people have different lifestyles. It might be huge difference between two students that live in the same place. Secondly, Berkeley’s climate and people’s lifestyle may different between people in Philadelphia, thus, we just can doing research through internet and asking the freshmen in Berkeley about their lifestyle, because it is really hard to measure the exactly data of Berkeley . Another problem that arises with this project is that certain activities may be difficult to measure between person to person, which means that there may be varying data or data that cannot be obtained readily.

• Pre-Existing Solutions –   

There are many different theories currently in place to help lower people’s carbon footprint. They range from harnessing alternative energy sources to feeding cows more garlic [6]. Almost every time you hear something about becoming more environmentally friendly, it is to help lower your carbon footprint.

The most noticeable solutions are being taken large companies. Solar panels, hydroelectric dams, wind turbines, nuclear power plants, and more efficient ways of harnessing fossil fuels are all being used by power companies and major corporations to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) gasses. Specifically, the Exelon Corporation, a power provider, has reduced its emissions in its Exelon 2020 strategy by harnessing all these different types of alternative energy [7].

There are also many websites online to inform people of what a carbon footprint is, what a carbon footprint does, and how to calculate their own carbon footprint. Carbon Trust is an organization devoted “…to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy” [8].

Additionally, there are many things that are being done on a personal level that can really make a difference. Switching from an incandescent bulb to a fluorescent bulb reduces CO₂ [9]. Feeding cows more garlic was proven to reduce bovine emissions of methane (CH₄).  [8] Buying a more fuel efficient car reduces CO₂. Even becoming a vegan is proven to reduce CO₂ [10]. There are many pre-existing solutions, it’s whether people use them or not.

• Design Goal – 

We aim to create an estimate carbon footprint of an average Drexel and UC Berkeley student so that we can determine the activities that are the largest contributors to global warming in these students’ weekly schedules. We will then use this information in order to suggest ways that both individual students and universities may decrease their impact on global climate change. Our approach differs from other groups who determine carbon footprints because we will be determining the environmental impact of students at these schools both in their leisure time and while they are in class instead of focusing on a household or a company, which would only track a person’s impact during part of their day. Our approach also takes into account the location of the students and how that affects their greenhouse gas contribution by comparing students at two different universities in different parts of the country.

• Project Deliverables – 

The physical deliverables of this project are a blog post each week which describes where we are in our research and a report at the end of the term detailing the findings of our research.

• Project Schedule –

Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7
Define Student activities and track how often they occur among Drexel and UC   Berkeley students				Compare findings and come to conclusions
		Determine greenhouse quantities produced by each  activity			Determine large- and small-scale actions that can decrease the carbon footprint of   these students and universities

• Projected Budget –

There are no projected costs associated with this project, although further research done may encounter some financial costs for the group.