The Carbon Fooprint of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture

In order to calculate the carbon footprint for Stone Barns for the year 2009, several pieces of information had to be collected. When these data are accumulated, it would be possible to use some available calculators to summarize and attribute the various components of the carbon footprint.

Collection of Data
Surveys
Surveys of the people who drive to the facility, including their driving distances, the type of vehicle and other pertinent information were collected.
- Visitors surveys
- Employees (SBC without Blue Hill at Stone Barns) surveys
- Summer Camp

Collection of all the fuel and energy bills was the first part of the analysis. This involved getting bills and records for the following:
- Electricity bills (Blue Hill, Public Lighting, Western Barns – Greenhouses GRHS)
- Fuel (Gas Oil) bills and surveys (Employees, Visitors, Fleet, Summer Camp)
- Propane (Liquefied petroleum gas - LPG) bills (Blue Hill, Greenhouses, Chicken scalder)

The visitors to Stone Barns were surveyed during the period from 7/7/2010-8/1/2010. This may be the busiest time for the operation, with summer visitors.
The number of visitors for that time period was used in order to acquire an estimation of the visitor stream for the whole year (2009).
The amount of visitors per year was estimated to be approximately 100,000 per year.
For the employee commute data, it was assumed that each employee works fifty weeks per year, so 250 days a year (5 days a week by 50 weeks a year).
The summer camps generally run for two weeks out of the year and that is accounted for in the calculations.
The amount of mileage used by employees in non-commuting activities was accounted for and worked back from the miles driven.