Motivation for this audit
Why greenhouse gas emissions?

Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for global warming. The science identifying this is extremely robust and widely accepted. Reducing our greenhouse gas emissions is necessary and urgent in order to prevent irreversible damage to the climate 1 1. See Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis, produced by the IPCC Secretariat. .

Auditing greenhouse emissions provides a basis for action that is reasoned and sound. Not all large sources of emissions can be avoided, but without some idea of our emissions, we cannot make rational decisions about ways to mitigate environmental impact. This study looks specifically at greenhouse gases (GHG) rather than a wider Environmental Footprint Analysis for several reasons: it is the first study of its kind at MIT2 2. Other audits have looked at material consumption, waste, recycling etc. See footprint.mit.edu for details
3. See City of Cambridge Climate Protection Plan, 2002, and so there is already a local focus on issues relating to the study, with proposed steps to reduce emissions at the city level. S and so needs to be realistic in its scope; secondly, Cambridge has a specific target of 20% decrease in GHG emissions from 1990 levels within the city by 20103.

Why look at DUSP?

Considering the greenhouse gas emissions of a single department is a more tangible unit of measurement and action than institute-wide assessments. DUSP is an operational unit, with a cohesive group of students, staff and faculty. Understanding the environmental impact that we have as a group will be a greater motivation to help us to bring about change. For example, although detailed information on the environmental impact of energy generation at MIT's cogeneration plant is available, this information does not get translated into department-level figures. There is a disconnect between the Institute wide campaigns on sustainability issues and our organizational unit. This study is a first step towards making this vital information more tanglible. Since DUSP is relatively small, repeating this study using an established methodology will not be too time consuming, so it will be possible to conduct comparison audits to assess progress at intervals in the future.

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