The National Center for Safe Routes to School has released a new resource that highlights methods for estimating the environmental health impacts of local Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs.
Many SRTS programs want to understand the potential environmental health impacts of their work – reducing carbon dioxide emissions, for example, or improving local air quality. “Methods for Estimating the Environmental Health Impacts of SRTS Programs” provides an overview of the connection between SRTS programs and environmental health, a formula for estimating the environmental health impact of a program’s activities, and examples of how real-life SRTS programs have estimated their environmental health impact.
Representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agencyserved as an expert panel for the development of the resource.
“The five case studies in the resource represent different approaches to exploring the environmental health impacts of SRTS programs,” said Lauren Marchetti, director of the National Center for Safe Routes to School. “Using a variety of tools and methodologies, they quantified information like miles walked and biked, calories burned, pounds of carbon dioxide not emitted, and gallons of gasoline saved. Other SRTS programs can use these examples to help plan their own program measurement studies.”
To view the resource, visit www.saferoutesinfo.org/