Welcome to Santa Clara University's very own Carbon Footprint Calculator created by SCU students.
Or, if you prefer, welcome to a user-friendly device to measure our Bronco Hoofprint. We want to track the carbon that goes into a day in the life of an SCU student whether you're living on or off campus, eating meals in Benson, falling asleep during your 8 a.m. class (yes: we've done that, too), or flying back home after a stressful fall quarter.
We invite you to take this calculator to find out the size of your carbon footprint.
You may be wondering - "what is a carbon footprint calculator?" Well, it is a device that measures how much carbon dioxide it takes to support a lifestyle. We're referring to carbon dioxide as a gas emitted from fossil fuel sources. Immense amounts of these emissions have contributed to the unnatural warming of the atmosphere and the earth.
With this Bronco-based calculator, we'd like each member of the SCU community to see the connection between their everyday actions, the amount of fossil-fuel-related carbon dioxide those actions produce, and the effect on the world of such an amount of emissions. But don't worry: We're not in the catastrophe camp of environmentalists. We're not interested in suggesting that you have to buy sky-is-falling scenarios about what will happen if you don't change this or that aspect of your behavior. What we are interested in is inviting you to consider the connections: My actions produce these emissions with this effect on our world. And then we're interested in posing the question: What do you think you should do about it?
To get started please choose from the following:
On Campus
Off Campus or Full-time Commuter Student
Part-time Commuter Student or Faculty and staff
Approximately how many soft-cover books do you buy/quarter?
books
Approximately how many hard-cover books do you buy/quarter?
books
How often do you buy a new article of clothing in a given month?
clothing/month
If you drink your water from nonrefillable plastic bottles, how many do you buy/week?
bottles
Do you own a: Smart Phone mobile phone
How long have you had your current cell phone? Please approximate in years.
years
Do you own a: iPad Kindle
How long have you had your current eReader? Please approximate in years.
years
Do you own an iPod? Yes No
How long have you had your current iPod? Please approximate in years.
years
If you're an on campus resident choose from the following dorms:
From the following list of appliances, electronics, lighting, etc, input how many of each item are in your dorm room and how many hours a day each item is plugged in. If you own an item not listed below please be sure to fill in extra fields: What is the item and wattage? You can find the wattage on the bottom of most appliances. Be sure to multiply by 1000 if the wattage is given in kilowatts.
| ITEM | # of items | Watts | USAGE: hrs/day plugged in |
| Refrigerator | 160 | ||
| Microwave | 1000 | ||
| Clock radio | 10 | ||
| Coffee maker | 1200 | ||
| IPod dock | 100 | ||
| Stereo sound system | 150 | ||
| Computer desktop | 225 | ||
| Computer monitor 15" | 35 | ||
| Computer, laptop | 60 | ||
| Printer | 100 | ||
| TV | 115 | ||
| DVD/CD player | 30 | ||
| Air conditioner | 1,100 | ||
| Portable fan | 115 | ||
| Space heater | 1000 | ||
| Halogen floor lamp | 300 | ||
| Incandescent light bulb | 75 | ||
| Compact fluorescent light bulb | 20 | ||
| Vacuum cleaner | 1440 | ||
| Other |
Please select which meal plan you are currently on.
Preferred
Basic
Junior Senior
No meal plan
Please select which diet best applies to you. " width="20px" />
Vegan
Vegetarian
Omnivore
X-treme meat eater
If you drink coffee please select from the following options:
Do you buy food at farmers markets?
yes
no
From the following scale decide how much of your waste is recycled (the average person recycles around 17% of their waste)
Below Average
Average
Above Average
From the following scale choose the amount of trash you accumulate/day (A bag of sugar weighs 4 lbs. The average person accumulates 4lbs trash/day)
Less than 4lbsAbout 4lbs
Greater than 4lbs
On average how long are your showers? minutes
On average how many showers/week? times
On average how many loads of laundry/month? times
Average toilet flushes/day? flushes
Average cups of water you drink/day from tap or water fountain? cups " width="18px" />
Do you use a refillable water bottle? yes no
Why does sustainability even matter? The concept of sustainability is used pretty often. We've found ourselves tuning it out. But sustainability, when you strip away all the rhetoric and politics, poses a pretty good question: Do we have an obligation to hand on to the next generation a world that will allow them to have at least as good a life as the one we have? "Obligation" may seem like a pretty strong word. But "obligation" captures the significance of the equal right that a person of the future has for a good and healthy life compared to a person of the present – a person like all of us. But, if "obligation" does seem too strong, then why not think of sustainability in terms of the notion of "care." For instance, for the sake of the care of future children and grandchildren, should we act sustainably now?
Let's also bring this, so to speak, down to earth. So please consider the following:
- We're all insanely busy students who don't think we have time to do this calculator, much less the time to change various habits in our lives that may be emitting an undue amount of carbon dioxide.
- We all need to consider: Even the smallest changes can make a difference.
- These changes can be things we, so to speak, give up: For instance, giving up meat once a week yields a significant reduction in CO2 emissions.
- Or these changes can be things that we do: Buy our own re-usable water bottle and drink from the tap. Or buy carbon offsets – they're pretty cheap – to account for the high emissions generated by our airplane travel.
- Or we may already be dreaming big about a better world, moved by the beauty of the earth and dazzled by its complexity. If so: Let's make those dreams a reality!
- Overall, please remember this calculator was created by Santa Clara University students just like yourself – students who want our kids and grandkids to enjoy mother earth as much as we do!
| Category | KgCO2e / year |
Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Transportation | empty | empty |
| Partying | empty | empty |
| Consumption | empty | empty |
| Energy | empty | empty |
| Food | empty | empty |
| Waste | empty | empty |
| Water | empty | empty |
| Total:: | empty | empty |