Baseline Data

Part 1 - Baseline Data sheet is designed for students at Skidmore College. It can be easily modified for your campus. Part 1 - Baseline Data is available as an Adobe® Acrobat® PDF® file by clicking on the link. You can get a free copy of Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® by clicking on the link.

The lifestyle project is an opportunity for you to modify the impacts of your lifestyle to the environment. It will continue for several weeks.

The chart below shows a simplified version of the types of impacts from our lifestyles.

Part 1 of this project involves recording your baseline activities in three of the categories given above. The baseline is your "normal" behavior. Part 2 will be calculations of those impacts, and Part 3 will be our attempts to minimize the negative impacts of our lifestyles.

We will start by measuring our baseline activities over a 48 hour period. You will do this during the week after Spring Break (Mon.-Tues. or Tues.-Wed), and we will proceed with Part 2 on the Thursday after break (March 30).

First, you must choose your categories. Everyone must do all three parts of category 1 (A, B, and C) Energy Consumption. In addition to that, you should choose two other categories from the remaining three. Follow the directions below for the three categories you choose.

For a 48 hour period, record the number of miles driven or ridden in a car. Record each trip separately.

Much of the energy used during industrial processes is reflected in the products we buy. For a 48 hour period, record everything you buy, except food.

Hot Water-

Record the amount of hot water you use in any of the following ways.

Example		Day 1	Day 2
	hot shower	_________ minutes	_________ minutes
	sink	_________ minutes	_________ minutes
	Laundry (hot)	___________ loads	___________ loads
	Laundry (warm)	___________ loads	___________ loads
	dishwasher	___________ loads	___________ loads
	other

Electricity-

Record the amount of time in hours that any of the following appliances are operating.

Example		Day 1	Day 2		Day 1	Day 2
	refrigerator (large)	______	______	microwave	______	______
	refrigerator (med)	______	______	stove top	______	______
	refrigerator (small)	______	______	oven	______	______
	washing machine	______	______	clock	______	______
	clothes dryer	______	______	dryer	______	______
	incandescent lights	______	______	iron	______	______
	fluorescent lights	______	______	hair dryer	______	______
	radio	______	______	electric razor	______	______
	tape player	______	______	fan	______	______
	CD player	______	______	humidifier	______	______
	TV	______	______	blender	______	______
	VCR	______	______	computer	______	______
	answering machine	______	______	other _______	______	______
	other __________	______	______	other _______	______	______

2. Food

For the 48 hour period, record everything you eat and drink!

Example	Mon.	Breakfast	bagel with cream cheese, tea
		Break	orange
		Lunch	grilled cheese, salad, 2 glasses root beer, brownie
		Break	Hershey bar, Snapple
		Dinner	3 slices pizza, 2 glasses juice
		Break	ice cream, coffee
		Bed time	glass of water

3. Water

Record your water usage in the chart below.

Example		Day 1	Day 2
	shower (minutes)	______	______
	bath (minutes the tap runs)	______	______
	sink (minutes the tap runs)	______	______
	toilet flushes	______	______
	dishwasher loads	______	______
	washing machine loads	______	______
	other ______________	______	______

4. Waste

Record everything you throw out or recycle in a 48 hour period. Keep the recycling in a separate category.

Example	Garbage	CD wrapper, plastic bag, juice box, candy bar wrapper, pizza box, envelope, paper cup with lid and straw, paper plate.
	Recycling	soda bottle, 12 sheets paper, cardboard box

Notes

BE HONEST! You will not be graded or judged on your use of energy or creation of garbage. This part of the exercise is simply to establish what your normal habits are, for your own purposes. If you are not honest on this part of the project, it will throw off you results for the remainder of the project (several weeks). So just record it all, and don't worry about how scary it looks when it's down on paper! (several weeks). So just record it all, and don't worry about how scary it looks when it's down on paper!

An Adobe® Acrobat® PDF file of Lifestyle Project Part 1 Baseline Data is available by clicking on the link.

If you do not have a copy of Adobe® Acrobat® Reader®, you can get a free copy by clicking on the link.

Return to the top.