Integrated Footprint Tool

Full Title

Towards a practical environmental footprint tool

Abstract

This project will first develop the Integrated Environmental Footprint Tool (IEFT) for campus sustainability management, and we will then use that campus tool in conjunction with individual consumer footprints to explore strategies for reducing the consumer-driven portion of the campus footprints. 

The IEFT will be applied specifically to sustainability assessment in institutions of higher education in the US because campuses provide an ideal setting for assessing, studying, and reducing footprints. This campus-level analysis will form the basis for a long-term further development towards general institution, personal, community, regional and country IEFTs. The IEFT will be the first footprint model to bring together the nitrogen, carbon, phosphorus and water footprints. In addition, this will be the first analysis that connects a footprint on a broader scale (in this case, campuses) with individual consumer choices (e.g., food, commuting, energy use). The joint analysis will explore how and to what degree consumer decisions affect campus footprints. To promote broad use of the IEFT, we will develop a user’s guide and user-friendly interface. 

To develop the IEFT and make it practical, we will bring together the communities of scientists (e.g., hydrologists, biogeochemists, ecologists) that have developed the carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and water footprint tools. Our team will also include economists, social scientists, psychologists, nutritionists, and others with expertise relevant to other sustainability metrics, big-data and the synthesis of multiple indicators. Additionally, our proposed workshop team will include expertise in integrating human behavior into environmental decision-making and/or integrating scientific knowledge into public policy and governance. 

 

Project Type
Team Synthesis Project
Date
2019
Principal Investigators
Allison M. Leach, University of New Hampshire
James N. Galloway, University of Virginia
Participants
Jennifer Andrews, University of New Hampshire
Larry Band, University of Virginia
Stacy Ann Blondin, Harvard University
Elizabeth Castner, University of California, Davis
Jana Compton, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Otto Doering, Purdue University
Libby Dukes, University of Virginia
Morten Graversgaard, Aarhus University
Peter Groffman, City University of New York
Tingting Liu, University of Nebraska
Graham MacDonald, McGill University
Genevieve  Metson, Linköping University
Kate Mulvaney, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Michael Pace, University of Virginia
Michael Pennino, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Carson Reeling, Purdue University
Richard Waite, World Resources Institute
Albert Bleeker, National Institute of Public Health and Environment
Rachel Rymaszewski, University of New Hampshire
Shoshana Blank, Tufts University
Erin Biehl, Johns Hopkins University
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