Team 10. Frank and Friends
Taylor
Frank
Cayla
Elizabeth
Does wine or beer produce more CO2?
Introduction
Does wine or beer produce more CO2?
Helps producers understand alcohol-making process produces the most CO2, and what to change
Methods
Agricultural Growing
CO2 released while growing
Machinery used to farm
Harvest
Machinery
Trucking
Fermentation
CO2 Released
Bottling
Type of glass used for wine
Type of can used for beer
Is it recycled glass/aluminium?
Bottling machinery CO2 output
Distribution
Production sites
Fuel usage for transportation
Distance traveled by each product
Results
Not sure about what we expect to find.
Learning about the field as we go
Discussion
Implications: People should drink more of one than the other (whichever that may be)
Would not result in meaningful carbon inpact
Would increase sustainability knowledge in beer and wine communitys
Team 7?
Introduction:
Specific Question: How many people would need to ride the train to work (instead of drive) in order to payoff the carbon it took to build the train?
carbon payback, initial carbon compared to long term use and savings.
How does your work inform our efforts to reduce carbon emissions?
It shows how many people would need to convert to mass transit to reduce carbon emissions. It promotes mass transit.
Methods:
What are you doing to make your assumptions?
we plan to collect data from the SMART train office.
we plan to find out how much carbon it took to create the train. This includes building the track, the train itself, how much gas it uses for its diesal engines, and more.
we then plan to calculate how much carbon would be saved per person (average) if one were to switch to using this system instead of driving.
with this information, we plan to figure out how "smart" the train really is in terms of carbon emissions.
Results:
What do you hope to find?
I jope to find that we can pay back the carbon used to create the train, in a realistic manner. I hope to find positive results in that we could reduce carbon using the train (in the method above).
Discussion:
Implications of results: we aren't completely sure yet since we still have to collect more data. However, as mentioned in results, I hope to conclude that using the train will payback the carbon it took to create it, in a realistic manner.
Meaningful Carbon Impact? I think if successful, our project can show others that using mass transit system can be beneficial to carbon usage compared to driving. It would hopefully influence myself and others to participate in public transportation in order to reduce carbon footprint on the planet.
Link to assignment: link
Team 1 Suicide Squad
Erin Brown Jocelyn Keller Noah Alford
Project Outline
Please provide an outline (with topics and bullets) that shows how you are approaching your project. You can follow the template below for your outline. This is due before class on Mon. Oct. 31st.
I. Intro- How efficient are Carbon Capture and Storage systems?
II. Methods
III. Results
IV. Discussion
Link to assignment: link
Team 11 S.S.D.D
Project Outline
Please provide an outline (with topics and bullets) that shows how you are approaching your project. You can follow the template below for your outline. This is due before class on Mon. Oct. 31st.
Introduction
What is your specific question you are trying to answer? ~Do Solar panels make up for waisted energy when lights are left on in the student center overnight? What would be the Carbon payback for the addition of solar pannels to the Student Center? Would solar pannels be mmore cost effective then just turning off and shutting down energy consuming technology in the Student Center.
How does your work inform our efforts to reduce carbon? ~Carbon savings from instalation of solar panels. Inital carbon cost of solar pannel. How many average days would it take to return carbon emmision from the production of a solar pannel.
WE believe that you could reduce the carbon emission of the student Center by XYZ and here is some possible means of reducing carbon emmissions.
Methods
What are you doing to make your estimations? ~How many solar pannels could be fit on the Student Center roof. What is the average return on single solar pannel. How many days per year on average would solar pannels be efficnetly producing energy. Average student center electricity used per day. Differnce in day usage versus night usage.
How do these estimations answer your central question? ~By helping us be able to compare the values of energy created by the solar pannels and show the effecets of the solar pnnels on the reduction of energy usage for the building.
Results
What have you found? (or what do you expect to find) ~We hope to expect to find that adding solar pannels would negate the waisted energy lost when running lights and other electronics all night long. We would also hope to see that carbon mitigation from solar pannels would be greater then carbon emmisions of production within a shorter period of time rather then a longer segment of time.
Discussion
What are the implications of your results? Solar pannels could prove to be useful for the university by reducing its carbon footprint as well as the energy costs for the university.
Would pursuing your topic or idea result in a meaningful carbon impact? From the point of view of the university our results could show some possibilities for the university to reduce our carbon foot print. From a global point of view a single building may not be the most meaningful but with an accumulation of building reductions in carbon emmisions a greater impact could be seen. That being said our research could set the groundwork for future studies and furture mitigation oportunities.
Link to assignment: link
Team 9
Patsy Barr
Aubrie Franklin
Project Outline
Please provide an outline (with topics and bullets) that shows how you are approaching your project. You can follow the template below for your outline. This is due before class on Mon. Oct. 31st.
Introduction
What is your specific question you are trying to answer?
What amount of Carbon does the average woman use in her daily makeup routine? What products could this woman remove in order to reduce her Carbon cosmetics use by 80%?
How does your work inform our efforts to reduce carbon?
This informs women of the amount of carbon they use daily in cosmetic products alone.
Methods
What are you doing to make your estimations?
Find the carbon intensity of each product.
Divide this by the lifetime of the cosmetic item.
How do these estimations answer your central question?
When added together, these intensities will provide the average woman's cosmetic Carbon intensity. From here we would need to do the math to find what 80% of this carbon must be eliminated from her daily use.
Results
What have you found? (or what do you expect to find)
We expect to find thst we use much more carbon in our daily routines than we have thought. We believe that being that mascara is so pigmented black, that it uses alot of carbon and will need to be eliminated or re-constructed.
Discussion
What are the implications of your results?
Would pursuing your topic or idea result in a meaningful carbon impact?
Link to assignment: link
Team 2 Ol' Dirty Math Nerds
Project Outline
Sam Suzuki
Jon Janikowski
Nick Nobrega
Ian Busch
Introduction
What is your specific question you are trying to answer?
We are wondering how many square feet of trees we would have to plant in California ff we are trying to reduce Californias CO2 yearly emissions by 80%.
How does your work inform our efforts to reduce carbon?
Trees are often viewed as a resource for its wood but we are curious if we could use trees as a tool to reduce our CO2 emissions here in California.
Methods
What are you doing to make your estimations?
We will have to make some assumptions, such as using a fixed amount of CO2 as our goal and the peak period in photosynethesis that trees use CO2, before we can start our calculations. We will need to find the amount of CO2 a single tree can use in a year and the square footage a tree requires to grow. We also have to figure out which tree, or trees, we will focus on as they certainly have different protuctivities. We could probably get more complicated too by finding the elevations our tree, or trees, can grow in to further specify our answer.
How do these estimations answer your central question?
By finding out the information about the trees we will be able to model how many we will need and where they could go.
Results
What have you found? (or what do you expect to find)
We expect the amount of space to be relatively small, but if we can also track habitable ranges than it may prove to be considerably different or it may not. It would be interesting to see if it would make a difference, assuming that we will even be able to sequester all of our state's CO2 with trees.
Discussion
What are the implications of your results?
It could show the importance of trees as well as their potential to be used as a tool, almost as a form of bio-control, against climate change.
Would pursuing your topic or idea result in a meaningful carbon impact?
I believe it would, all over the world the Earths major rainforests are threatened with deforestation as countries look to take advantage of their environment to develope. Creating awarness of the added benefits of trees aside from their asthetic values could be an important tool to combating the elavated level we continue to affect our planet.
Link to assignment: link
Team 3 Team Nickname
Project Outline
Please provide an outline (with topics and bullets) that shows how you are approaching your project. You can follow the template below for your outline. This is due before class on Mon. Oct. 31st.
Introduction
What is your specific question you are trying to answer? How much carbon has been reduced from the water filling stations around the SSU campus?
How does your work inform our efforts to reduce carbon? The output of CO2 produced from water bottles are a sink to many different resources throughout their whole lifestyle. By informing many of the different sinks and their cost to the environment, they could change their habits as well.
Methods
What are you doing to make your estimations? The carbon produced from water bottles themselves and the reduced output from the filling station. For every one unit of water, 3 units of water are needed The impact of the empty bottle after it is used: the water bottle cycle How much carbon is produced from reusable bottles
How do these estimations answer your central question? These estimations allow us to see every aspect of the water industry from production to end and its affects. It also allows us to see a re-usable bottles lifecycle and we can compare the two.
Results
What have you found? (or what do you expect to find) We are expecting to find a strong correlation between a lowering of carbon emissions from not using water bottles.
Discussion
What are the implications of your results? The implication could mean that a simple change in many peoples lifestyle could help prevent many related problems. Ranging from less bottles in landfills to preserving water.
Would pursuing your topic or idea result in a meaningful carbon impact? Depending on the results, there could be a large carbon impact if scaled up to a national level.
Link to assignment: link
Team 4 Team Experience
Project Outline
Please provide an outline (with topics and bullets) that shows how you are approaching your project. You can follow the template below for your outline. This is due before class on Mon. Oct. 31st.
Introduction
What is your specific question you are trying to answer? If we reduce our average showering time by 1 minute, can we reduce carbon emissions enough to reach our 80% goal? Should we just use one type of energy source for heating water; gas or electricity?
How does your work inform our efforts to reduce carbon? I plan to take an average shower time, show how much carbon is emitted as a result. I also want to show what a shower heated by just natural gas emitts versus just electricity to heat water. Natural Gas is used to make electricity, so I want to show if we are wasting energy making electricity with natural gas combustion. Especially in an instence of heating water. We can combust natural gas directly to heat water, but if we combust nat gas to make electricity to then heat water, the energy input to output might be better for one versus the other method of heating water.
Methods
What are you doing to make your estimations? Taking average shower times and rates of water usage from government websites with data on this subject. Obtaining data from the US Dept. of Energy on the Carbon released as a result of combustion and Carbon released as a relust of electricity production.
How do these estimations answer your central question? I can take the combustion data whcih gives me Carbon released per kg of natural gas combusted. I can use the average shower times and rates to show a reduction percentage goal based off of 1 less minute of showering. The data will ultimately allow me to convert times and amounts of showering to the rates and amounts of emitting.
Results
What have you found? (or what do you expect to find) So far I have found that it is better to just use natural gas to heat water, or use electricty from a renewable source to heat water. It does not make sense to combust natural gas to make electricity and then use that power to heat water. Energy is lost during a conversion. One less conversion will equal far more energy total in the end.
Discussion
What are the implications of your results? A complete rethinking of our water heating systems
Would pursuing your topic or idea result in a meaningful carbon impact? Yes. A 1 minute reduction results in a 12% reduction across the board.
Link to assignment: link
Team 8 Rosé all day
Group Members
Molly Denison
Jorge Casanova
Alicia Perez
Matthew Uchiyama
Project Outline
Please provide an outline (with topics and bullets) that shows how you are approaching your project. You can follow the template below for your outline. This is due before class on Mon. Oct. 31st.
Introduction
What is your specific question you are trying to answer? molly: How much carbon dioxide is released from the beginning of growing a grape to bottling and shipping the wine.
How does your work inform our efforts to reduce carbon? molly: By dscovering the main contributers in the wine making process, we can then conduct ways to lower those said carbon emissions.
Methods
What are you doing to make your estimations? molly:I have sat with the winemaker at Christopher Creek Winery and went through the entire process, fogured out where and when electricity, water, and fuel (diesel gas) is used. We also went over the size of tanks, the amoutn of barrels, the amount of shipping and where we import our grapes and barrels from. (I will have the written numbers for class on 10/31)
How do these estimations answer your central question? molly:These estimations will help us calculate where and what produces the most CO2 in the industry.
Results
What have you found? (or what do you expect to find) molly: I expect to find that the fermentation process and the cleaning process to making wine releases the most carbon dioxide because a fermentating tank can release enough CO2 to kill a person if inhaled too deeply. The cleaning also requires much machinery that uses diesel and a lot of electricity, these numbers still need to be recorded.
Discussion
What are the implications of your results? molly: That is still to be determined as we need to do the numbers to calculate what uses the most carbon, but I believe from working in wine that the fermentation and cleaning process for the equipment releases the most CO2.
Would pursuing your topic or idea result in a meaningful carbon impact? molly: Sonoma County has over 100 wineries in the county, not to mention the amount in Napa, by finding the amount of CO2 and taking it on to find new ways to lower the emissions, like caps for tanks that transfer CO2 to another tank in order to help the fermentation without releasing CO2 from each tank. By discovering the CO2 we are informing other wineries and vineyards where their emissions come from, and how much so it may lower the emissions in our local county.
What is the yeast releasing from the fermentation process of the grapes? Could we use a more carbon neutral packing/container for the wine?
Link to assignment: link
Team 5 DTFarm
Nick Dae
Maggie Murray
Austin Beach
Taryn Wilmers
Project Outline
Please provide an outline (with topics and bullets) that shows how you are approaching your project. You can follow the template below for your outline. This is due before class on Mon. Oct. 31st.
Introduction
What is your specific question you are trying to answer?
(What will the reduction in CO2 be if beef production was transferred over to plant-based "beef"?)
(Could a switch from currrent meat production techniques to plant-based meat alternatives have an 80% reduction in CO2 released in this industry?)
How does your work inform our efforts to reduce carbon?
The meat industry, specifically beef, greatly contributes to carbon emissions, as well as methane, which is harmful to the atmosphere and environment. By switching to an alternative such as plant-based beef, foods like hamburgers could still be attainable at a much lower carbon cost. This reduction in carbon emissions is appealing economically, socially, and environmentally.
Methods
What are you doing to make your estimations? -To make these estimations we first going to get an estimate of just how much CO2 is released by the current beef industry. - we are going to research the CO2 emissions of the current industry by researching all the transportation that occurs in the current meat industry and also find out how much CO2 is produced by raising the animals and also how much CO2 is released by the animals themselves.
Then we are going to research the process of growing the plant based beef substitute and the potential CO2 output that it creates. And through this research we will find the number of plants needed to make a burger and the total CO2 emissions that we needed to create it and upscale it to the amount of beef products currently produced today.
How do these estimations answer your central question?
These estimations help answer our central question by allowing us to compare the CO2 output of both and letting us estimate how much of a reduction in CO2 that will occur if the switch over occurs.
Results
What have you found? (or what do you expect to find)
We expect to find that by switching over to a plant based "beef" industry that there will be an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, global meat production is expected to rise by 1 percent, or 612,000 tons this year. Therefore, by switching over to a plant based alternative, we can expect to see a reduction in the Meat Industries carbon footprint.
Discussion
What are the implications of your results?
Our results, should they be what we expected to find, support our hypothesis that our current process of producing and distributing meat from animals is inefficient, and that we should make the transition to meat alternatives.
Would pursuing your topic or idea result in a meaningful carbon impact? Pursuing a plant based meat alternative would result in a reduction of multiple carbon emissons; "Producing the Impossible Burger requires a quarter of the water used to produce the same burger from a cow, 1/20th of the land and 1/8th of the greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, switching from a conventional burger made from cows to a quarter-pound Impossible Burger saves as much water as a 10-minute shower. It eliminates the greenhouse gases emitted by driving 18 miles in an average car. And it liberates 75 square feet of land for wildlife"
Citation: By Understanding Meat at the Molecular Level, We Made a Juicy Burger That's Delicious, Yet Nutritious. "Impossible Foods." Impossible Foods. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.
Articles/ Research
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es200130u
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/05/23/test-tube-burgers
https://library.calstate.edu/sonoma/ebsco/record?id=bai-99710897
https://library.calstate.edu/sonoma/ebsco/record?id=eih-54459499
http://beyondmeat.com/products/view/beyond-burger
http://impossiblefoods.com/faq/
Link to assignment: link
Project Outline
Please provide an outline (with topics and bullets) that shows how you are approaching your project. You can follow the template below for your outline. This is due before class on Mon. Oct. 31st.
Introduction
What is your specific question you are trying to answer? How much carbon dioxide is released from the beginning of growing a grape to bottling and shipping the wine.
How does your work inform our efforts to reduce carbon? By dscovering the main contributers in the wine making process, we can then conduct ways to lower those said carbon emissions.
Methods
What are you doing to make your estimations? I have sat with the winemaker at Christopher Creek Winery and went through the entire process, fogured out where and when electricity, water, and fuel (diesel gas) is used. We also went over the size of tanks, the amoutn of barrels, the amount of shipping and where we import our grapes and barrels from. (I will have the written numbers for class on 10/31)
How do these estimations answer your central question? These estimations will help us calculate where and what produces the most CO2 in the industry.
Results
What have you found? (or what do you expect to find) I expect to find that the fermentation process and the cleaning process to making wine releases the most carbon dioxide because a fermentating tank can release enough CO2 to kill a person if inhaled too deeply. The cleaning also requires much machinery that uses diesel and a lot of electricity, these numbers still need to be recorded.
Discussion
What are the implications of your results? That is still to be determined as we need to do the numbers to calculate what uses the most carbon, but I believe from working in wine that the fermentation and cleaning process for the equipment releases the most CO2.
Would pursuing your topic or idea result in a meaningful carbon impact? Sonoma County has over 100 wineries in the county, not to mention the amount in Napa, by finding the amount of CO2 and taking it on to find new ways to lower the emissions, like caps for tanks that transfer CO2 to another tank in order to help the fermentation without releasing CO2 from each tank. By discovering the CO2 we are informing other wineries and vineyards where their emissions come from, and how much so it may lower the emissions in our local county.
Link to assignment: link
Team 7 SMARTies
Names
- Justin Hoijer
- Wren Wilson
- Kelsie Titus
- Mayson Lager
Project Outline
Please provide an outline (with topics and bullets) that shows how you are approaching your project. You can follow the template below for your outline. This is due before class on Mon. Oct. 31st.
Introduction
What is your specific question you are trying to answer?
In order to reduce Carbon emissions, how many people would need to ride the train?(Compared to driving instead)
Will look specifically at carbon payback. Initial carbon used in prodiction compared to long term use and savings.
-ideas(how long is the average train ride? How many gal/mile are the engines? What is the carbon intensity of Diesel?)
How does your work inform our efforts to reduce carbon?
It shows how many people need to convert to mass transit to reduce carbon emissions. It promotes mass transit.
Methods
What are you doing to make your estimations?
assumptions/math process collecting data from SMART train office
How do these estimations answer your central question?
Results
What have you found? (or what do you expect to find)
Discussion
What are the implications of your results?
Would pursuing your topic or idea result in a meaningful carbon impact?
NOTES
~70 miles of track?
How many people commute in the SMART area? Hypothetically, how -
carbon to make the train? carbon to make the cars? diesal engines - how much carbon it emits per gallon
How long will it take to pay off the carbon it took to create the SMART train?