Calculations and Assumptions for Fuel, Salary, and Carbon Dioxide Emissions Savings for the Webinar Series 2011
Distance:
• Distance (miles) is the sum of the miles that could have been traveled if the participants were attending the webinar at a university in their state.
• Webinar participant zip code is matched with the zip code for the university in their state that is most likely to host a similar program.
• Distance is computed between zip codes. This is straight line or "As the crow flies" distance.
• Distance calculations are computed using the Haversine formula.
Fuel and carbon dioxide:
• Fuel is the amount of fuel that would have been used if participants had to drive to the university in their state to attend the webinar.
• Used 20 miles per gallon (mpg) in the analysis. Americans average between 18 and 22.4 mpg. Source is Project America: http://www.project.org/info.php?recordID=384
• Used average travel speed of 52 miles per hour in the analysis.
• Used the EPA standard for calculating emissions which is 19.4 pounds of carbon dioxide produced per gallon of gas burned.
• Fuel cost is based on the national average for regular unleaded gasoline. Source is http://www.eia.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/wrgp/mogas_history.html
• One person per vehicle was used in the analysis.
Salary:
• Salary savings is the mean hourly wage for a professional forester multiplied by savings in travel time. The mean hourly wage for a professional forester is $26.82. Source is Bureau of Labor Statistics http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes191032.htm
This table depicts the salary and fuel savings and pounds of carbon dioxide emissions prevented for the individual webinar sessions.
Total cost savings is fuel savings plus salary savings.
The Changing Roles Webinar Series potentially saved $24,895 in costs associated with fuel ($6,180) and salaries ($18,715) and 35,197 lbs of carbon dioxide emissions.
For questions about these calculations, please contact our cooperator, Dr. Robert Bardon, at robert_bardon@ncsu.edu or (919) 515-5575.
