A new tool was developed this past weekend that allows individuals to calculate their "nitrogen footprint." The online calculator, part of an International Nitrogen Initiative project, now offers an additional resource to people wanting to measure their environmental impact.
The project was created by James Galloway, associate dean for the sciences in the College of Arts & Sciences and the Sidman P. Poole Professor of Environmental Sciences, Allison Leach, a staff research assistant at the University and colleagues from the University of Maryland and the Netherlands. The announcement came Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington.
Galloway won the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in 2008 and used the earnings to develop the nitrogen footprint calculator, Leach said. She added the invention hopefully will raise awareness about the harmful effects that nitrogen can have on the environment, an issue which often is dominated by discussion of problems caused by carbon.
The tool is part of a web-based program, Leach explained.
"An individual goes to the calculator, which is pretty similar in many ways to the carbon footprint calculator and asks about your daily habits," she said. These habits include how much electricity people use, what and how much food they consume and how they travel.
The tool website includes tips for how to change one's nitrogen footprint, which includes a range of sustainable practices from eating less meat or choosing a less nitrogen-intensive meat to using more energy efficient appliances in households.
"Nitrogen is a unique issue," Leach said. "It is necessary for life. We need to consume it to survive, but too much of it causes a cascade of environmental problems."\nGalloway is hoping to reduce the negative impacts of excessive nitrogen such as smog, acid rain and biodiversity loss.
"There are readily available solutions to reducing nitrogen pollution," Galloway said in a press release. "By connecting consumers, producers and policymakers, we can solve it."
Leach said the eventual goal is to be able to optimize the element's use in this world while minimizing its negative effects.
Environmental Science Prof. Michael Pace reflected that sentiment, noting nitrogen's damaging effects on the environment.
"It is clearly an important pollutant, and it is being enriched globally through a variety of human activities, and that's the problem," he said.
Leach said the tool is primarily meant for educational purposes, adding that recently, "people are trying to learn more ways to be sustainable. Sustainability is a word we are hearing more and more."
Pace agreed, saying that he imagines the tool will expose people to the impact of their actions and "eventually will make a difference. You have to go from understanding to policy in order to have some kind of an impact."
Leach hopes the nitrogen footprint calculator will be a success and added professors are already incorporating it into their lectures.
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