Franklin Square DREAM is going GREEN!

-notes from Franklin Square's Meeting

Last night at our meeting, a mentor proposed purchasing carbon offsets to cover all of our CO2 impact from our weekly driving activities. With overwhelming support from all of those at the meeting, we decided to purchase those offsets, for $20, which will make St. Michael's DREAM carbon neutral for the 2007-2008 year!

Here are some figures of our van driving impact:

We drive (3) large vans with a poor fuel efficiency of approximately 15 mpg, 6 miles each way from Franklin Sq to SMC (6 miles x 4 trips each week x 3 vans = 72 driving miles each week! Multiply that by 30 weeks in the school year, and we get 2.160 miles of driving just from Franklin Square and back!! Divide this by our 15 mpg (2,160 miles/15mpg = 144 gallons of fuel!!) Each consumed gallon of fuel emits approximately 20 lbs of CO2 into the atmosphere. Multiply this by our consumption (144 gallons x 20 lbs of CO2), and our program alone emits 2,880 lbs of CO2 into the atmosphere every year! This figure does NOT take into account our extra trips or any one-on-one mentoring excursions.

Purchasing our carbon offset will ensure that reforestation projects or other CO2 sequestering projects will be undertaken to offset our CO2 emissions. For more information on the CO2 offsets we will be purchasing, please go here: http://www.carbonfund.org

Please note that our driving causes a lot more damage than just CO2 emissions - carbon monoxide, particulate matter, formaldehyde, and other noxious chemicals are also emitted while burning our fuel and using our vans.

Thanks again to all the DREAMers that supported this initiative!!

This is the first DREAM Program to take on this initiative. They will also be handing out compact florescent bulbs to their families after the semester finale Pasta Dinner.