dinner plate with a small globe on it

Quantifying the Carbon Footprint of Duke Dining

2023

A team of students led by Physics professor Dan Scolnic collaborated with Duke Dining leadership to provide an in-depth, quantitative accounting of the carbon footprint of the Duke Dining program. Students used the latest research quantifying CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emissions for various food types, meals, and sources to produce calculations of the effective CO2 due to Duke Dining each day, along with a breakdown of its leading causes. This work will help inform and enable future initiatives geared toward improving community engagement with the sustainability of our food systems, as well as reducing our Carbon footprint at Duke. This project was inspired by research in Prof. Sarah Bridle’s book “Food and Climate Change Without the Hot Air,” which lays out several explicit dependencies between our food systems and climate change.

Project Lead: Dan Scolnic

Project Manager: Rebecca Chen

View the team’s project poster here: Climate+ Team 3

View the team’s video presentation here:

 

Contact

Mathematics

Related People

Data+ 2023: Quantifying the Carbon Footprint of Duke Dining (Climate+)

Data+ 2023: Quantifying the Carbon Footprint of Duke Dining (Climate+)