The Nitrogen Working Group is currently investigating the nitrogen footprint for UVA’s sustainability lab, Morven Farm. Located 15 minutes from Charlottesville, Morven Farm houses event spaces, a kitchen garden, and hundreds of acres of active farmland. The Morven project involves an in-depth analysis of its present Nitrogen and Carbon outputs, with a focus on identifying effective measures to reduce losses to the environment. This process takes a broad look across multiple sectors of Morven’s operations including transportation, fertilizer use, energy, and food. In its current phase, the NWG team has assembled footprint-related data from 2022 that was used in the original proposal for Morven’s staff. The team is currently using this data in conjunction with footprint calculators like SIMAP to suggest changes that can make Morven more sustainable. After calculations are completed in March of 2024, recommendations to reduce Morven’s footprint will be suggested. Changes could involve less fertilizer use, more local catering for events, and/or shuttle bussing visitors in from Charlottesville. At this point, relevant data will be collected throughout the coming years and we will compare Morven’s carbon and nitrogen footprint after sustainability strategies are implemented prior to see how much of an impact was made. NWG hopes to present its calculations at a public workshop at Morven Farm in April of 2024. Additionally, the Morven team is conducting synoptic water sampling of the Morven watershed to track changes in nitrogen levels throughout the year. This serves as a proxy to the nitrogen footprint data that the team collects.
The NWG has performed analyses of Morven's water sources to check for nitrogen and phosphorous levels. Check below for some photos from our most recent collection trip!
