The mission of the Fullerton Arboretum is “Provide our visitors the opportunity to gain knowledge and appreciation of the plant world through collections that preserve and promote stewardship of worldwide plant diversity and regional agricultural heritage. Serve faculty, students and the broader community through education and scholarly activities.”

We are keenly aware of the need to preserve our natural resources and protect the environment. This is the goal of the Fullerton Arboretum and hopefully through our educational efforts, we can promote this to our many visitors and guests.

One of our goals is to provide an easy way for individuals to get a perspective on some of the environmental impacts of their everyday activities, as well as to create living and other educational tools which can help individuals find ways to reduce their personal environmental impact. Some of this is done through classes here at the Arboretum and by example through the way we operate our day-to-day activities.

Estimating environmental impacts can be very complex, depending on the boundaries selected for the study (i.e. from material extraction to product disposal) and the level of detail desired in the analysis. We are trying to focus on the scope of activities and the areas of impacts to those which individuals have direct control over. The activities and impacts included below are not a complete list of personal environmental impacts, but we hope our facility and continuing provides a useful starting point for a discussion of these issues.

How you get around can have a big impact on the environment. Cars, trucks, and other passenger vehicles spew out 20 percent of U.S. carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. CO2 is a major contributor to global warming. These vehicles also account for about half of U.S. oil consumption. Thus every driver is somewhat responsible for the millions of gallons of oil that get spilled every year. Passenger vehicles are the largest sources of carbon monoxide (a poisonous gas). They are also major producers of hydrocarbon emissions (which help form ground level ozone -- smog) and nitrogen oxides (which help form smog and acid rain).

The amount of municipal solid waste (household and commercial waste) that the average person generates varies widely by country. According to the World Resources Institute, some typical waste generation rates are:

The environmental impact of this consumption varies with how much recycling and composting is done in your region. The primary impacts are natural resource use, energy use, and the air emissions associated with energy use.

Individual water use is really a drop in the bucket. While per capita water use is about 1400 gallons per day in the U.S., the amount used directly by an individual is only a small part of that.

There are many regional differences in the amount of water used. In the West, most of the water is used for irrigation, while in the East more water is used by industry. Residential water use is affected not only by water conservation equipment, like low flow showerheads, but by personal actions, like the amount of time you spend in the shower.

Each day, you make dozens of energy-related decisions. Some of these decisions are based on comfort and convenience, and others may take into account the impact in your gas or electric bill. When making choices about appliance use, it is important to know how much it costs to operate a certain appliance, not only in dollars but in environmental impact.

Some appliances cost very little to operate, but others cost a lot. If you use efficient appliances, you can enjoy their service without worrying about your bill or the amount of pollutants that their use puts into the environment.

We strive for and hope our plant collections, education and classes will continue to support and promote effective and effective conservation and environmental awareness for our visitors.