What is climate change?
Climate change is the largest threat ever posed to our planet. This will impact every living being on this earth, and the crisis will only increase in magnitude if it doesn't become a priority right now. The increase of greenhouse gas emissions in the earth's atmosphere causes a multitude of impacts, including the rise of temperatures globally. Some of the largest contributors to climate change are the fossil fuel industry, agriculture, and transportation. It is important for any institution to hold themselves accountable and work to reduce their emissions so that they are not contributing to the devastating effects of climate change.
What are greenhouse gas emissions?
Greenhouse gases are the gases released during the combustion of fossil fuels and other processes in the natural and human world. There are six main greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulphur hexafluoride. Three of these are are the primary concern because they are associated with human activity: carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.
What is a greenhouse gas inventory?
In order to make The Northwest School campus as low-impact as possible we must calculate the greenhouse gas emissions produced by our community. In order to obtain a thorough inventory, we must include the emissions produced by natural gas and electricity usage and transportation. This inventory does not include the emissions produced from food from the dining program, waste, or refrigerants and chemicals.
Each type of greenhouse gas emissions falls into Scope 1, 2, or 3:
Scope 1: All direct emissions from the activities of an organization or under their control.
Scope 2: Indirect emissions from electricity purchased and used by the organization.
Scope 3: All other indirect emissions from activities of the organization, occurring from sources that they do not own or control.
When greenhouse gases are emitted it contributes to the greenhouse effect, where greenhouse gases act like a blanket, absorbing infrared radiation and preventing it from escaping out of the earth's atmosphere, and contributing to climate change.
For this inventory, the emissions produced from the three scopes were tracked and are represented in the data. Organizing the emissions into scopes helps us determine how to reduce our emissions. This allows the trends to become clear so it is apparent how or why the emissions were lower or higher during certain times. After these trends are analyzed it is evident what steps can be taken to reduce these emissions in the future. If appropriate steps are taken, the institution will be closer to becoming carbon neutral.
A few stats:
There are 510 students and 160 faculty at The Northwest School
2016-2017 school year: bus transportation
2017-2018 school year: faculty commuting data
2018-2019 school year: international student flights, student airplane trips, student commuting, administrative airplane trips, and natural gas
What does one ton of CO2 mean?
In one year, the average person in the US produces 23 metric tons of carbon emissions. This is hard to imagine, so think of a 27' x 27' x 27' cube. This cube would hold the amount of carbon emissions that the average American produces in roughly two weeks: one metric ton of carbon dioxide. This inventory accounts for the GHG emissions of the school in terms of metric tons of CO2 equivalent.