In Spring 2020, Professor Natalie Mahowald, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, and Campus Sustainability Office Director Sarah Carson co-taught a course leading undergraduate students in the study, analysis, and understanding of scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions using Cornell University's operations as a test-bed for study. Scope 3 emissions refer to all indirect emissions produced within company activities (e.g. purchased goods and services, business travel, employee commuting, investments, the life cycle of sold goods, etc.), as demonstrated in the image, above.

Students in the course compiled data from Cornell's operational teams and finance units, and created a system for analyzing financial data in order to create a holistic picture of goods and services coming into the institution, then, created scientifically-informed calculations for average greenhouse gas emissions in each area.

The preliminary findings from this course included a PowerPoint presentation, report, and recommendations on how to further refine the Scope 3 data for use in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in these areas. 

The preliminary analysis identified many difficulties in accurately categorizing purchased goods, and food, into logical "sets" that could be assigned a greenhouse gas footprint.  For instance, purchasing records may title all grain purchases as "Grains", while greenhouse gas calculations will need to be done at the level of specific types of grains and where they came from.  This preliminary analysis will require further data cleaning to ensure the greenhouse gas estimates accurately reflect purchasing, food, waste and water.