PineMark Scoring Methodology

The PineMark score is comprised of four components. They are Energy, Transportation, Water, and Lifestyle. Home energy use and transportation contribute about 40% of an individual's direct emissions per household. Water and lifestyle are part of a person's indirect emissions. Since the PineMark score is a comprehensive score, it is not solely based on carbon dioxide emissions even though that does play a role in the calculations. Each component is rated using a 1-10 scale with 1 being the worst and 10 the best. The Lifestyle section is also scored on a 1 - 10 scale, but the individual elements of the Lifestyle section (i.e., "I eat locally grown food") will be given a 1 - 5 value by the user, representing the spectrum of Never to Always.

Energy

To account for variations by region, we start by asking for a zip code. This pinpoints the user's location, since the climate of a particular region affects how much heating or air conditioning a household uses. Once we have a location, we are able to do calculations using the state energy emissions coefficient. States vary in their use of power sources and this coefficient takes that into consideration.

Electricity

To get an accurate view of annual usage, we ask for two months of an individual's recent energy bills and come up with an average for the whole year. The equation used is total electric charges divided by # of kWh. The number obtained is the price per kilowatt hour. The final equation is bill amount divided by price per kWh, multiplied by the state emissions coefficient.

Natural Gas & Heating

The calculation for natural gas is as follows: First, the price per therm is obtained by dividing the amount of the gas bill by the number of therms. Then, the total gas charges is multiplied by 12.0593 (the number of pounds of CO2 per CCF of natural gas). This result is divided by the price per therm.

Other choices available are Electric, Solar, Wind, None, or Other. Electric heating would be included in the electricity section, and the others have no negative impact on the environment.

Transportation

We used up to date information about vehicle mileage from Fueleconomy.gov. The equation used to calculate carbon emissions is the number of miles driven annually divided by the car's MPG. The result is multiplied by 19.4 (average pounds of CO2 per gallon of gasoline) and 100/95 (which covers the other 5% of emissions that don't come from CO2). This number is divided by 12 to get emissions per month. We looked at the paper from the Rappaport Institute (http://www.hks.harvard.edu/rappaport/downloads/policybriefs/greencities_final.pdf) when calculating the average monthly pounds of CO2 per person. The paper studied the development and emissions output of suburban vs. metropolitan areas, and we used their numbers for private and public transportation.

Water

Water consumption is extremely important because it is a limited natural resource. Instead of asking for water bill information, we decided to focus on the conservation aspect; in that case, asking lifestyle based questions and how many gallons used is more important. Using this information, we calculated the score in relation to the national average of water used per person, which is about 100 gallons per day.

Lifestyle

The lifestyle section looks at lifestyle choices, which range from what type of appliances are owned to diet and recycling. These choices fall in the indirect emissions category, and scores cannot be calculated using equations. Instead, we reviewed information on whether a person made certain lifestyle choices and factored that into the overall score.