Calculate Your Nitrogen Footprint
Dr Carly Stevens of Lancaster University developed the new tool in collaboration with the University of Virginia with the aim of raising the awareness of the problem. ‘I think nitrogen pollution both in the air and the water is less recognized than some other pollutants,’ she says. ‘I’m hoping that the tool will allow people to see that small changes, particularly to their diet, can cut their nitrogen footprint.’
If you enter information on what you eat, how you travel and how much energy you use in your home, the N-Calculator will work out your nitrogen footprint. You can then see how you could reduce your footprint - for example by eating less meat, driving and flying less or switching to renewable energy.‘The more meat you eat, the higher your nitrogen footprint,’ explains Stevens. Nitrogen fertilizer is used to grow the grass or crops that livestock eat, and some of this nitrogen is then excreted as manure. The larger the animal, the higher the nitrogen footprint because it takes longer for the animal to reach its market weight, so more nitrogen is lost along the way. So beef generates twice as much nitrogen as pork, and almost three times as much as chicken or fish.
The tool is already being used as a teaching aid at US and UK universities, and Dr Stevens hopes that it will also be used in schools. ‘It’s a really good way of understanding where nitrogen pollution comes from,’ she says. ‘Even quite young children can put in what food they eat and see what their footprint is.’
Article : Calculate Your Nitrogen Footprint