1.What is your team’s data strategy? How will you acquire, apply, analyze, and visualize data for your project?

The main data source for our project is definitely from the dining hall. So we are going to especially focus on collaboration with the Lehigh dining hall and those recipes or records. Also, the feedback from students is also important. So collecting those data is another essential part of our strategy.

 

3 kinds of data are needed in the Food carbon Footprint project.

a. The carbon emission contained in each kind of food. This would have to do with the recipes and the ingredients. The rough data has been collected by previous students; they have listed most carbon value and ingredient weight of the food although in an informal unit. And I will help to make those data more clear by integrating them. My priority is to convert those data collected in a formal and identical format or unit to help visualize them afterward. For the visualization part, python programs will be developed to determine the level of carbon emission. Then we will categorize the food as green, yellow, or red to warn and inform students.

b. The most important part of this would be the records and recipes from the Lehigh dining hall. The recipe issues have almost been solved by previous students. Records will be needed to check the progress. We will request for the data record of sale from the time before Covid and then monitor the data after our launch to see the outcomes. If there is a constant decline in the consumption of high-carbon-emission food, we could assume that we have achieved the goal.

c. Students’ survey has been conducted and will be continued during the project to get feedback or information from campus students. The data of satisfaction could help to improve the project plan or find better ways to launch the project. And survey may also help us to see the allergens situation of overall students. Seeing a high satisfaction would be a push for our project.

 

2. What data will be needed for the short-term success of your project (thinking of the next 4-6 months)? What data will you track in the longer-term (2-5 years)?

In the short term, we will be dedicated to collect more data on the recipes and related values. Data like ingredient weights, carbon value, and overall carbon emission of more kinds of food are still needed.

Also, after the soft launch, we will pay more attention to the records of high-carbon-emission food consumption in the Lehigh dining hall.

 

While in the long term, we will focus on the records of consumption of high-carbon-emission food in the Lehigh dining hall.

The satisfaction survey from more students will continue to hand out and check the results and feedback.

Additionally, the webpage view would also be an important indicator.

 

3.What data will your project create and share? Who might use that data and how? Provide three compelling examples of use cases for your data.

The essential data we would create and share is the carbon value contained in each food and ingredients from the recipes.

Students can use these data to decide their lunch or food. We would provide data of carbon emission as well as a criterion to categorize them as 3 colors indicate their overall carbon value. Students or Lehigh staff could notice those stickers in the dining hall and possibly pay attention to the carbon value data to reduce the consumption of high-carbon-emission food.

Second, we will explore and visualize the data from students’ satisfaction. This will also be shown on the webpage, where people can see the progress and be attracted to the program. And the view of the webpage would also be an important indicator that can be used by ourselves to improve our porject.

Third, we will keep visualizing the records of high-carbon-emission food to make sure others, as well as ourselves, can see the progress and outcomes. This result could be seen by our instructing professors. And Lehigh dining hall staff could also use those data to decide on the recipes. For example, if they could see a constant decline in the consumption of food that contains high carbon value, they would possibly reduce the production of those kinds of food, which leads to our ultimate goal.