Impact of Transportation on Our Carbon Footprint

 

Impact of Transportation on Our Carbon Footprint Group members Introduction Transportation Methods and Results University Fleet Commuter Information - Students and Faculty/Staff Air Travel Future Steps Sources

 

Group members

 

• Matt Alden
• Sarah Mann
• Samantha Williams

 

Introduction

 

Regarding transportation, there are for main categories on the Clean Ait Cool Planet Campus Carbon Calculator (CCC).  These categories are: University Fleet, Student and Faculty/Staff Commuters, and Air Travel (see below). For each category the number of miles traveled (driven or flown) per year needs to be determined, and imputed into the CCC.  These numbers will show how many Green House Gas (GHG) emissions result from our travel habits. 

 

Fiscal Year	Transportation
	Total	Fleet	Student Commuters	Faculty/Staff Commuters	Air Travel
1990	-	-	-	-	-
1991	-	-	-	-	-
1992	-	-	-	-	-
…
…
2005	-	-	-	-	-
2006	-	-	-	-	-
2007	-	-	-	-	-

 

 

 

 

 

Transportation Methods and Results

 

University Fleet

 

Transportation data from the University Fleet is calculated in annual miles driven. The calculator has a built in feature that calculates SO2, CO2, and N2O and thus computes emissions levels.

 

Ohio University does not have a central fleet, so every department operates and maintains their own vehicles. At least once per year, each vehicle must be serviced by Parking Services for Ohio’s annual motor vehicle inspection. During this inspection, mileage is recorded, however unfortunately this information is not available electronically. We were lucky that in 2005, Parking Services compiled a list of most of the vehicles in the fleet along with their odometer readings. Additionally, in 2006-07, an entire fleet inventory was conducted with the type, year, make and model of all of the vehicles in the Fleet. Marty Paulins at Parking Services was extremely helpful with supplying this information. The following chart is a small section of the origingal documents I cross referenced in order to eventually calculate CO^2 emission levels.

 

			Fleet Inventory Data
Sept 8 2005			2006-07						www.fueleconomy.gov
Unit ID	Odometer		Unit ID	Type	Year	Make	Model		Average MPG	Notes - unless noted, taken from www.fueleconomy.gov
29-101	087023		29101	SUBURBAN CHEV	1987	Chevrolet	Suburban		16	based on 1500 2wd 8cyl
29-102	299103		29102	ESCORT FORD	1995	Ford	Escort		28
29-104	080000		29104	VAN FORD 15 PASS	2000	Ford	15 pass.		14	www.bandago.com
29-106	143648		29106	BUS COACH VANHOOL	2001		Vanhool
29-109	005178
29-111	856488		29111	VAN WINDSTAR FORD	1998	Ford	Windstar		18
29-112	081688		29112	VENTURE CHEV	1998	Chevrolet	Venture		18
29-113	215951		29113	JEEP CHEROKEE	1996	Jeep	Cherokee		18	assumes automatic transmission
29-115	252811		29115	JEEP CHEROKEE 2DR	1994	Jeep	Cherokee		18	assumes automatic transmission
29-117	107169		29117	VAN FORD	1993	Ford	Van		13	2001 Ford E250
			29119	VAN DODGE	1993	Dodge	Van		19	Caravan 2wd
29-120	811911		29120	CROWN VICTORIA FORD	1999	Ford	Crown Vic		14	based on 2004 model
29-121	059172
29-122	047873		29122	CROWN VICTORIA FORD	2003	Ford	Crown Vic		14	based on 2004 model

 

 

The Connie Pollard in the Department of Environmental Plant Biology cross-referenced the vehicles on the list with the vehicles in the PBIO department. From this small test, we are assuming that the individually owned vehicles by each department are included in this list.

 

After this was completed, I sorted the combined spreadsheet by the year the vehicle was purchased by the University. Parking Services confirmed that the vehicles in the Fleet started at ‘zero’ or close to zero. Based on this information, I averaged the years the vehicle was owned and operated by the University and divided by the total mileage based on 2005 numbers. I also calculated MPG for each individual vehicle based off of www.fueleconomy.gov in order to gauge fuel efficiency.

 

I was able to create subtotals for each year dating back to 1990. The example of year 1991 is shown below. The vehicles listed were all purchased by the University and were put into use during this fiscal year.

 

 

1991 Summary Data – shows entries tallied by year.

Year	Make	Model	Avg. MPG	Year of Odometer Reading	Years Vehicle was in Operation	Current Odometer Reading divided by years of operation	Unit ID	Odometer	Unit ID	Type
1991	Dodge	Taurus	20.00	2005	14	8,372	29-128	117208	29128	TAURUS WAGON DODGE
1991	Chevrolet	Suburban	16.00	2005	14	10,573	29-138	148022	29138	VAN SUBURBAN CHEV
1991	Ford	Maxi	16.00	2005	14	21,397	29-227	299555	29227	TEMPO SEDAN 4DR FORD
1991	Chevrolet	Club Wagon	15.00	2005	14	6,724	29-228	094140	29228	CLUB WAGON CHEV
1991	Chevrolet	Minivan	20.00	2005	14	1,651	29-231	023118	29231	ASTRO MINIVAN CHEV
1991	Chevrolet	Truck	19.00	2005	14	1,532	29-564	021448	29564	TRUCK CHEV
1991	Chevrolet	1/2 Ton	18.00	2005	14	4,091	29-594	057269	29594	TRUCK 1/2 TON CHEV
1991	Chevrolet	Truck	19.00	2005	14	2,709	29-608	037922	29608	TRUCK PICK-UP CHEV
1991	Ford	Aerostar	17.00	2005	14	55,712	29-708	779971	29708	VAN AEROSTAR FORD
1991 Count							9		9
1991 Avg			17.78
1991 Total						112,761

 

 

 

From this information, I compared the number of vehicles from each year and tallied a rough estimate of how many vehicles were in the fleet during each year. To note, this data does not account for vehicles that were sold off during this period. This number would increase the total emissions of the calculator.

 

 

 

 

 

Year	Annual # of vehicles from Fleet Inventory	Annual # of vehicles from Odometer Reading	# of vehicles that are the same	Difference of…	Total est. vehicles in University Fleet *	Total of current odometer reading divided by years of operation	Annual miles driven	Annual emissions
Base	18	39			57	196,915
1990	13	15	12	3	72	48,969	245,884	15,094
1991	9	9	9	0	81	112,761	358,645	20,251
1992	13	16	13	3	97	61,946	420,591	25,490
1993	12	14	12	2	111	62,300	482,891	28,157
1994	19	23	19	4	134	197,442	680,333	39,280
1995	27	32	27	5	166	151,726	832,059	48,068
1996	23	24	23	1	190	285,082	1,117,141	69,474
1997	18	23	18	5	213	277,409	1,394,550	83,506
1998	19	22	19	3	235	451,337	1,845,887	113,733
1999	18	23	18	5	258	540,610	2,386,497	133,324
2000	20	25	20	5	283	439,117	2,825,614	168,392
2001	13	18	13	5	301	249,000	3,074,614	174,002
2002	12	16	12	4	317	423,720	3,498,334	187,177
2003	21	22	21	1	339	371,645	3,869,979	217,049
2004	19	20	19	1	359	687,965	4,557,944	250,436
2005	14	26	14	12	385
2006
2007
			Average:	3.69
Unclaimed Plates:
	13	76
*doesn't account for vehicles sold off during this time

 

The following chart is an excerpt taken from the Campus Carbon Calculator based on the numberts in the above calculations. While this section only reflects University Fleet Transportation records, it shows the exorbitant amount of annual CO^2 kg emissions.

 

 

 

Future Steps inlcude:

1. complilng a list of vehicles were sold off by the University, and the dates of the sale to complete missing carbon emissions from years prior to 2004. Parking Services definately has this information in a paper format, but another department may have this in a user friendly electronic format.
2. Caculating the total cost of converting vehicles into compressed natural gas (CNG) or other forms of alternative fuel, including the possibility of OU becoming an Ohio Department of Transportation biodiesel fueling station, steps UNH took

 

 

Commuter Information - Students and Faculty/Staff

 

 

 

Faculty, staff, and student commuter data came from a couple of sources.

 

 

Data

Students

Student information was obtained from the Ohio University Office of Institutional Research. Their data consisted of distribution of students from Ohio and their home counties, a list of out-of-state students and their home states, and the total number of foreign students with no countries of origin. This data was for fall 2006.

 

Faculty/Staff

Faculty and staff information came from the Human Resources office. This consisted of a spreadsheet which included the zip code of each current benefits eligible full time regular and part time regular employee at the Athens Campus.

 

 

Methods

 

          I was unable to calculate mileage driven by students who commute to Athens on a daily basis. Initially, I tried to obtain commuter permit records with the zip code associated with each permit. Unfortunately, this data was only available in the form of paper receipts that are located at OU Parking Services. There are approximately 3,000 student permit receipts for each of the last three years.

 

        From the data provided, I estimated the number of miles driven by students from each county or state for a round trip. I assumed that each student would make four trips to campus and back home each year. (One for each quarter, and one other weekend within the school year)

 

In-State Students

I used ArcGIS and road and county boundary layers to measure the distance from the center of each county to Athens, following major highway routes. This distance was multiplied by the number of students from each county, and by (8) (to simulate a round trip, four times in a year).  For example, there were 1,969 students from Cuyahoga County. The mileage to Athens form Cuyahoga County is approximately 210 miles.                       

 

So, 1,969 * 210 * 8 = 3,307,920 miles driven by students from Cuyahoga County, based on four trips per ear for each student.

 

Out-of-State Students

            The same basic method was used for the out-of-state students. Instead of using GIS to calculate distances, I selected a major city in that state and determined the distance from that city to Athens using       www.mapquest.com.

 

Foreign Students

            Since individual countries of origin were not given for foreign students, I estimated that each would fly the equivalent of a round trip flight to Paris (9,022

air miles) each year. 1,056*18,044 = 9,527,232 air miles. These data could be plugged into the Air Travel portion of the Campus Carbon Calculator.

 

Faculty / Staff

Faculty and staff mileage was calculated by:

1.      Totaling the number of employees from each zip code

2.      Calculating the mileage from the center of each zip code to the Athens zip code (45701) using ww.mapquest.com.

3.      Doubling the mileage to simulate a round trip.

4.      Multiplying # faculty / staff * mileage * 4.82 trips per week^†

 

 

 

^† The University of New Hampshire surveyed its faculty and staff about their commuting    

  habits when they completed their own Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventory, and   

  determined that on average, faculty and staff made 4.82 trips to the campus per week. 

 

 

Converting Miles to CO₂ emissions

 

Gasoline contains 2,421 grams of CO₂ per gallon (http://www.epa.gov/otaq/climate/420f05001.htm),

 

1 gram = 0.00220462262 pounds (http://www.google.com/search?q=grams+to+pounds&sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1B3DVFC_enUS237US237).

 

So, One gallon of gasoline contains 5.34 pounds CO₂. (2,421 * 0.00220462262)

 

The Campus Carbon Calculator uses a value of 22 miles per gallon for the average auto fuel efficiency in 2006 and 2007.

 

So if we go back to the example of Cuyahoga County, the 1,969 students who drove 3,307,920 miles, used 150,360 gallons of gasoline, emitting 802,530 lbs of CO2. ((3,307,920 / 22) *5.34))

 

 

Results

 

After applying the methods above, I calculated that

 

• 17,207 In-State students traveled 16,440,128 miles in 2006-2007.

• 1,883 out-of-state students traveled approximately 8,864,784 miles.

• 1,056 foreign students traveled approximately 9,527,232 air miles.

• 3,263 faculty and staff traveled 11,196,233 miles.

 

Total mileage for in-state and out-of-state students and faculty and staff totaled 36,501,145 miles-the equivalent of 1,659,142 gallons of gasoline-or

 8,854,845 pounds of CO₂ emissions. 

 

I was able to create two maps: one displays the distribution of in-state students, the other displays the distances driven by students from each county.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Future Steps / Recommendations

Future steps in the inventory could include:

• Compiling data from paper receipts-available at OU Parking Services for the last 3 years-to develop a baseline for commuter activity.

• Surveying commuting students to get a clear image of commuting habits, determine student willingness to participate in a carpooling program

 

 

Recommendations to decrease the miles driven by students driving to school and back:

• Promote carpooling among students who travel long distances from OU to home and back,
• Develop a shuttle bus system that could bring students back to campus after breaks, at least from areas with the highest densities of students, such as Franklin, Hamilton, Cuyahoga, and Lucas Counties.

 

 

 

Air Travel

 

For this part of the inventory process the number of miles flown for each year was evaluated using purchasing card (PCard) information was used. Only flights purchased using the University PCard were used for this analysis.  Ohio University does have a private jet that departs out Bush Airport. However the flights on the OU Private Jet from Bush Airport were not included in this stage of the inventory.   

 

 

All pcard transactions regarding air travel from 3/1997 to 9/2007 were provided from the PCard Administration office via Shannon Bruce.  In order to determine the number of flights per year miscellaneous transactions (travel agent fees, excess baggage, etc) had to be weeded out.  Once the number of flights was determined the number of miles for each flight was estimated.  This was not done for all of the flights because only about 75% of the flights had detailed notes (who, where, why) attached to them.

 

1998 was the first full fiscal year of data that was provided.  Of the 593 flights, destinations were provided for 388 of the flights.  Using Great Circle Mapper mileage was calculated for each flight and the average number of miles flown per flight was 2478 miles.   This number was used to estimate the total miles traveled for the remaining years based on the number of flights flown.

 

The number of flights and miles are shown:

 

 

Year	Flights	Est. Miles
1998	593	1,469,454
1999	1992	4,936,202
2000	2773	6,871,530
2001	3937	9,755,937
2002	3775	9,354,499
2003	4356	10,794,224
2004	4783	11,852,336
2005	4938	12,236,428
2006	4975	12,328,114

 

These figures can also been seen in the following charts:

Figure 1_Total Number of Flights.GIF

Figure 2_Miles Traveled.GIF

 

The estimated number of miles were put into the Campus Carbon Calculator (CCC) to determine what the metric tons of emitted carbon dioxide are as a result of air travel.  These emissions are shown in the following figures:

Figure 3_Carbon Dioxide Emissions.GIF

 

 

 

Air travel has become an increasingly popular method of travel for univeristy faculty and students, and as a result the number of flights flown per year increases steadily.  However, determing the number of miles that are traveled is not an easy task. One reason is because the current travel expense report (TER) used for univeristy affiliated trips does not include the number of miles that are flown, only miles that are driven.

 

Other universities had the same problems when trying to determine miles flown, because the number of miles isn't a requirement for their TERs either. At the University of New Hampshire a GHG Emissions Inventory was conducted in 2001, specific air miles were not able to be determined but and estimation of the total miles flown was made using a hypothetical scenario: if each faculty and staff member flew, round trip, to Los Angeles, CA. They used this number to compare the number of air miles to driven, and did not include air travel in their inventory.

 

Although we were also only able to make estimations at this point in the inventory, it was important to use the data that was available in order to have estimations that were more accurate to Ohio University.

 

To better improve future inventories the method of travel expense reporting needs to be improved, so that the destination for every flight and possibly include the number of miles traveled related to air trips. 

 

 

 

Future Steps

University Fleet - Many things have been suggested in order to improve the efficiency of the University Fleet and overall reduce CO^2 emissions on OU's campus. Many of these steps have already been enacted in Universities across the country, but not in Ohio!

• Transition Fleet to operate on compressed natural gas (CNG), low sulfur B20 biodiesel, bi-fuel CNG/gas-powered pickup trucks - all alternative fuel alternatives currently available for trucks, vans or shuttle busses, currently the vast majority of vehicles in the University Fleet
• Bicycle Rentals: Provide free or no-cost bike rentals available for the University community as an alternative to driving to the shops on E. State Street. This program is currently operated at UNH where bikes can be rented for up to one week and come with a lock, fender, and cargo basket.
• Covered Bicycle racks on Campus and at shops downtown: Another way to promote the efficiency of this zero-carbon mode of transportation
• Multi-task vehicles: Offer the use of the shuttle busses during large commuter periods, such as school breaks or the beginning of the quarter, as a way of car-pooling to and from large hubs of OU's student base.

 

 

 

 

 

Sources

 

1. Ron Chapman, Director of Energy Management
2. Shannon Bruce, PCard Administraion Office
3. Martin Paulins, Parking Services
4. Connie Pollard, Department of Environmental and Plant Biology

 

 We would like to thank President McDavis for signing the President's Climate Coalition and providing the opportunity to allow the creativity of Ohio University students to make our campus more ecologically sustainable.

 Also the class would like to extend our gratitude towards Kim Brown, for her dedication to this inventory and our class!

 

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