Contact Janet at jbrought@purdue.edu
History
In the spring of 2007, a diverse group of around 20 students and 6 faculty/staff from the areas of Civil/Environmental Engineering, Chemistry, Earth and Atmospheric Science, Agronomy, Political Science, Biology, and Forestry and Natural Resources, and Purdue Physical Facilities came together to craft a comprehensive document detailing Purdue's carbon emissions as well as a plan to mitigate those emissions. For more information on their results, as well as a copy of the document, see Purdue's Carbon Footprint.
In April 2007, a group of students from the class presented their findings to Executive Vice President and Treasurer Morgan Olsen and other important members of the administration, where they were warmly welcomed. This began our group's close relationship with the administration, which, with the help of Dan Schuster from Physical Facilities, has been very productive and holds great promise for the future.
A presentation was also made to the community in April 2007, which was well attended, including by former mayor of West Lafayette Jan Mills. Mills was very excited by our project and wanted to extend it to include the city of West Lafayette as well. This is something we may pursue with the current and future mayors.
In the fall of 2007, continuing on the amazing momentum produced, some students in the class formed the current student organization under the same name, Carbon Neutrality @ Purdue.
Then in the fall of 2008, the Carbon Neutrality @ Purdue club voted to merge with Boiler Green Initiative to better accomplish their goals.
Goals
* Calculate Purdue's 2007-2008 carbon footprint
* Create an easy-to-use methodology and program to facilitate future calculations
* Display the footprint findings at Spring Fest
Accomplishments
- Calculated Purdue's 2005-2006 Footprint
- Calculated emissions averted by the Alternative Transportation Challenge
- Stay tuned for the 2007-2008 carbon footprint findings!
2005-2006 Footprint, Calculated 2007
Purdue's Carbon Footprint
This is a snapshot of the total calculated carbon footprint for Purdue University in tC, or metric tons of Carbon, for the '05-'06 fiscal year. On- and off-campus energy sources, not surprisingly, account for the majority of emissions. The CN@P course wrote and published a report on the carbon footprint and emmision mitigation options in July 2007. If you would like to view the full document, including an executive summary, please click on the image below.
