How To Guide - Measuring environmental impacts
Once you have an environmental management structure in place and have begun to integrate this structure with as many campus sectors and activities as possible, the next step is to begin working towards the creation of an environmental management plan (EMP). This can be done in several smaller steps, each of which will most likely require a substantial period of time for development, implementation and review (but can be carried out concurrently where appropriate). The first of these steps is to take baseline measurements of several key indicators of the university's environmental performance.
Community
- Outreach: Contact, Commitments
- Training: Professional Development, Products
- Events: Participation
- Projects: Project Time, Audits
Infrastructure
- Buildings: Green Building Rating, Green Loans
- Sustainable Landscapes: Watering, Carbon Sequestration, Native vs. Foreign Species
- Sustainable Transport: Green Commuting, Bicycle Parking, Air Travel and Offsets, Vehicle Emissions and Offsets
Natural Resources
- Energy use: GHG Emissions, Electricity, Gas, Green Energy
- Water use: Potable Water
- Procurement and Waste: Waste Reduction, Recycling and Re-use, Waste to Landfill, Total Purchases and % Green Purchases
Resources:
- It may be most cost effective to use existing systems and work out how to maximize the benefits
- e.g. use electricity/water/gas bills and embed electronic billing in contracts
- e.g. train existing staff to collect data and embed this duty in contracts
- Look for opportunities to streamline and/or standardize measurements to aid in later analysis
Resources:
SEE WORKSHEET in PDF format here.
- Determine the best quantitative units, organizational scheme and presentation format for analysis keeping the following in mind:
- Ease of use
- Relevance/effectiveness for spurring change
- Long term consistency
- Variables' ability to separate "noise" from the "signal" in a meaningful way - e.g. GHG emissions vs. time, population, floor area, or research funding
- Put the data analysis together in a report, keeping the following in mind:
- Who is the main audience of the report and what is the best format for the presentation of data to this audience?
- Will this format be useable in years to come? How can it be modified to be more flexible?
Resources:
