I. Use this post as a guide and an answer sheet for your fossil fuel/CO2 emmisions audit.
II. You need to turn the following two tables with your analysis.
A. A table with all 21CC student vehicle info, vehicle fuel economy, daily, weekly and annual commutes, annual gas consumption, Annual Energy Impact (Oil Consumption – in barrels/year)), Annual Green House Gas (GHG) Emissions also expressed as “Carbon Footprint”, Vehicle Air Pollution Score.
B. A table with all of your cohort’s vehicle info, vehicle fuel economy, daily, weekly and annual commutes, annual gas consumption, Annual Energy Impact (Oil Consumption), Annual Green House Gas (GHG) Emissions, Vehicle Air Pollution Score.
(You are welcome to turn in 1 table for the entire class, and 1 table for each specialty, but everyone must sign the table. You will have to communicate and work together on this. Make sure there is a column than indicates who did the research on the vehicle/energy consumption. Student initials will be fine.)
IIb. Where do you get this data? I have used www.fueleconomy.gov in the past and found everything I need on fuel economy. I also went to http://bioenergy.ornl.gov/papers/misc/energy_conv.html for conversion factors.
You all will have to do some research to find the average price of gasline in Alabama/Jefferson Co over the past five years (for one of the analysis questions).
See next page/handout for analysis questions. I would like you to post your answers to these questions as a comment to this post, that way we can all see eachothers' responses.
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ReplyDeleteDaily Commute: 50 miles. But my parents who work at UAB and I take the same car almost everyday therefore 50/3 is ~16.7 miles. Carpool can significantly reduce your energy impact.
ReplyDeleteAnnual Commute to school: ~3116.7 miles.
Annual Gas Consumption: 129.9 gallons. My parents drive a 2001 Toyota Avalon which has a fuel efficiency of ~24MPG. It's pretty energy efficient, but I'm hybrids and smaller cars are even more efficient. Also the car is getting old, therefore it's MPG might not be as great.
Annual Energy Impact (Oil Consumption): 3.1 barrels
Annual Green House Gas Emissions: 1.7 tons of carbon dioxide emitted.
Vehicle Air Pollution Score: 2. VAP Score is based on how much smog-forming air pollution is emitted. It's on a scale of 0 to 10 (0 is the worst and 10 is the best). So a 2 is pretty bad. I looked at other cars produced in 2001, they all have VAP score of 1 to 3. Then I checked out the 2009 Toyota Avalon, its VAP Score is 6!!! Obviously people are more conscious now. Technology has enabled us to reduce impact on the environment. Of course this over production of green house gases started with the Industrial Revolution.
Next year, school year, I will be in college. I hope my commute will be less. I'm going to UAB so I do have the option of living at home. But more than likely I will dorm and will walk/bike to class more. I probably will only go home once or twice a week so my commute should decrease by about 50%.
I did this same energy audit in APES a year ago. My transportation distance did not change at all in my 5 years at ASFA. Cost of commute has since oil prince fluctuates. 2007-2008 school year had the most expensive gas.
Again carpooling is one of the best ways to reduce transportation energy. Carpool will also save you parking money. Too bad Birmingham doesn't have public buses/subways every where. Everyone wants to live out so they can have big houses and lands. Another way to decrease transportation energy is to get a more fuel efficient car. I drive a 2001 Toyota Corola which is more fuel efficient than the Avalon my parents drive. So next year my energy impact will also decrease since I will switch from driving a 24MPG car to a 30MPG car.
My Volvo 850GLT gets about 21 mpg combined (24hwy/18 city). My commute is about 60 miles per day. I commute with Azalea Vo on Mondays and Fridays, so my commute per week is about 240 miles versus 300 miles per week. That mean I commute about 8640 miles per school year. That means I produce about 4.5 tons of carbon dioxide per year and use 8.5 barrels of oil per year. I commuted similarly last year. Thus, in the last two years of me driving "alone", I have drive over 17,000 miles, produces 9 tons of carbon dioxide and used 17 barrels of oil.
ReplyDeleteHello!
ReplyDeleteMy daily commute is 25.7 miles per weekday which comes out to an annual commute of 6,682 miles per year. I carpooled with Clint and Alaina this year so my annual energy impact is 1.79 barrels of oil. Without the carpool my energy impact was 2.6 barrels of oil. My '07 Honda Civic Hybrid's Air Pollution score was 9/10. My carbon footprint is 1.4. Next year, my energy impact will decrease drastically because I will no longer be driving.
Ok, to perhaps simplify this whole process (and hopefully make life easier for everyone), I'm going to make a blog tonight with the excell spreadsheet with everyone's stuff on it that I took down. Because I do not have my laptop with me in school today, I will then proceed to link that blog with yet another comment on this post, theoretically posting everyone's consumption of fuel in their annual commutes in a nice, tidy spreadsheet.
ReplyDeleteRoundtrip per day: 14 miles
ReplyDeletePer week: 70 miles
Per year: 2520 miles
I drive a '97 BMW 528i to school. It takes medium grade gasoline and get only about 20 mpg.
Next year I will hopefully use a lot less gas. I will be at Auburn so I will dorm on campus and walk to class. This will hoepfully positively effect my carbon output. EVen the gas I use to come to visit my family will probably be less than what I use now.
Daily commute: 31.9 miles
ReplyDeleteAnnual commute: 5734.8 miles
I have been at ASFA for the past 5 years.
2004-2005:
5 person carpool, GM Yukon
average gas price-$1.88/gallon
my total gallons of gas consumed-88.1 gallons
estimated cost-$165.60
2005-2006:
6 person carpool, GM Yukon
average gas price-$2.46/gallon
my total gallons of gas consumed-73.4 gallons
estimated cost-$106.78
2006-2007:
4 person carpool, Honda Element
average gas price-$2.41/gallon
my total gallons of gas consumed-71.7 gallons
estimated cost-$172.76
2007-2008:
2 person carpool, Pontiac Vibe
average gas price-$3.01/gallon
my total gallons of gas consumed-115.28 gallons
estimated cost-$346.99
2008-2009:
1st semester-2 person carpool, Pontiac Vibe
2nd semester-4person carpool, Honda Civic & Pontiac Vibe
average gas price-$2.84/gallon
my total gallons of gas consumed-79.2 gallons
estimated cost-$224.93
Total gallons consumed by commute to ASFA: 427.67
total estimated cost:$1017.06
Next year, I will use much less energy. I will not have a car and will only being using energy to commute from college to home, whether by plane or by car depending on where I end up. The commute will be much longer, but much less frequent. The number of times I travel home will also depend how close I am. But nearly all of my transpotation will be walking, biking, or public transportation. Adding more people to our carpool would help decrease energy use. Also, getting more fuel efficient cars, such as hybrids or electric cars, would help enormously in saving energy. However, it is very difficult and costly to purchase an electric car. Statewide public transportation would be a large scale extremely beneficial way to save energy, but one that there is little support or effort being put into in Birmingham, Alabama.
Since I have to transport art back and forth to school during the 2008 – 2009 school year. I need to use a truck. I drive a Ford F-150 v8 that gets about 18 miles per gallon. I live approximately 26 miles away from Birmingham so double that because it is a forward and back trip. 52 miles per school day. Multiply that by the five days a week I go to school. 260 miles per week. Multiply that number by 36 school weeks. 9360 miles per year. Divide that number by my miles per gallon and you get 520. I used 520 gallons of gasoline this year just going to school. If the average price of gas in Alabama is $2.14 per gallon then I spent $1,112.80 on gas…I think it’s time to get a hybrid.
ReplyDeleteAt least next year at the Citadel I will not have a car.
OK! Here's everyone's stuff, for real this time. The first link is to the picture of the spreadsheet, the second link is to my Blog post where I posted the picture, should the first link not work. I hope this is informative for everyone. Also, if there's a cell missing, that's just because I couldn't get the info from whomever the cell belongs to, but for the most part, this sheet has almost everything. And, if you'd like, I'd be more than happy to e-mail the spreadsheet to whoever wants it, just send me an e-mail or post a comment on my blog.
ReplyDeletehttp://1.bp.blogspot.com/_JriVsFdQDo0/SeUlB9Ka4MI/AAAAAAAAADw/miP8uPXKqPw/s1600-h/Class+Fuel+Consumption.jpg
http://csb21century.blogspot.com/2009/04/our-consumption.html
And, as one last addendum, next year I aspire to using less fossil fuel in my daily commute (nice new years resolution, eh?). I think this is a fairly viable option simply because I live a couple of miles closer to UAB than ASFA. That, and I want to try riding my bike between classes to cut down on driving.
ReplyDeleteI make the trip from Auburn and Birmingham and back twice a week so my weekly distance is 224 miles, making my annual distance 8064 miles. I drive a 2006 Toyota Hybrid. I use 4 barrels of oil a year and my carbon footprint is 2.2. Next year I won't have a car at school because public transportation in Olympia, WA is pretty good, so my energy impact will decrease.
ReplyDeleteGreat work, you guys. Especially, Tina.
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't done so already, update your posts by including the following:
-Amount of oil consumed/year
-Amount of CO2 emitted/year
It would be helpful for you all to compare your daily oil consumption with your weekly and annual oil consumption. It's pretty amazing how these small numbers add up. Now consider 350 students and roughly 100 faculty and staff driving in every day/week/month.
I reall like the organic carpooling movement. Those intentional, common sense strategies make a difference.
--Mr. Reardon
I think I top off the class' daily commute with a whopping 85.5 miles on mon/wed, and 66.8 miles on tues/thurs/fri. That drive is mostly on a subaru outback (26 mpg), but is split on mon/wed by my dad's toyota echo (43 mpg). Which makes... 19,312.8 mi/yr! (putting over 20,000 miles per year on our family car? sounds about right...) That totals to 11.29 gallons/workweek of gas, which is a yearly 361.8 gallons. Good lord! However, I am always carpooling with at least one other person... Honestly, I'm really looking foward to skipping the hours stuck in commute every day- I REALLY dislike sitting in the car (I've had to for as long as I can remember). Cheers to a car-free college, anyone?
ReplyDeleteI have an annual commute of 6,628 miles. I have carpooled with Komal,Alaina, and Kayla. I drive a 2006 Honda Civic, it has a 1.8L engine, and gets 28 miles a gallon (thats 80% city driving).
ReplyDeleteI used approximately 69 gallons for the entire year (I only carpooled the second half of the year).
My driving should reduce significantly since I will be living on campus at college. If I end up going to college in Boston, I will not drive at all and only use public transportation, but if I go to any other college that I have applied to, then I will have a car available.