Impact of Transportation on Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Locally vs. Non-locally Sourced Food

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere continues to rise and the global food system is a significant contributor that often gets overlooked when it comes to solving the problem. In this study, emissions related to food transportation were studied to determine what impact getting local food instead of non-local food could make on the overall emissions of the food system. The dining service at University utilizes local food to varying extents when it is in season, and a life cycle assessment (LCA) was done on lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries, and chicken to compare the emissions associated with production of these foods. The transport-oriented GREET software was used for the LCA along with information from the sustainability coordinator at the university itself to get results. Given a lack of publicly available data regarding crop cultivation in certain areas of the U.S. some information had to be obtained from databases in Europe, but results suggest that produce coming from the west coast to the Virginia campus can have four to five times the emissions associated with production and produce from Florida can have roughly twice as many emissions associated with production. There is a relatively low number of LCAs done in America to compare this data to but it somewhat fits in with many European studies. Some LCAs do not factor in transportation processes but my results suggest that any American studies should factor in transportation since they can contribute greatly to the overall footprint of products. The current available software for LCAs lack consistency between programs, all having different strengths and weaknesses, and needs to be improved for quality results in the future.

The Queen’s Residence Energy Challenge

The Queen’s Residence Energy Challenge (QREC) is an energy conservation initiative taking place in the residence halls at Queen’s University coordinated by the AMS Sustainability Office and the Sustainability Coordinator for Student Affairs . It is a two-part competition. Part one of the competition is an interresidence competition in which each residence hall will be competing to reduce their energy expenditures. Energy use will be compared to the corresponding time in the previous year, and the residence that reduces their energy use by the highest percentage will win the competition. This part of the project is being organized by members of the AMS Sustainability Office and the Sustainability Coordinator (Office of Student Affairs), and Residence Life staff and floor dons are helping execute it. The second part of the competition is an inter-university pledge drive, in which residents will be encouraged to sign a pledge stating that they will be participating in the QREC. Queen’s will be competing against the Universities of Waterloo and Guelph, and the school that has the highest percentage of residents participating will win a set of solar panels as a symbol of energy conservation and renewable energy. This part of the project is being coordinated by the Sierra Youth Coalition who has obtained funding from the Ontario Power Authority. The goals of the QREC are to reduce overall energy use in the residences, help students living in residence learn about their own energy consumption and ways to reduce it, and create a culture of sustainability at Queen’s. In this presentation I will go through the overall timeline of executing and planning the project, provide examples of ways to reduce energy consumption in residence, and provide results of both parts of the competition.