Digital Commons Network^™

Women As Sustainability Leaders In Engineering: Evidence From Industry And Academia In The U.S., Jennilee Harrison, Leidy Klotz

Leidy E. Klotz

Women are underrepresented in engineering education and practice, which limits the quality of the engineering workforce. One way to increase the participation of women in engineering is to emphasize subjects that appeal to them and require skills at which they are especially adept. A subject that may fit this description is sustainability. To examine whether the subject of sustainability may help increase the participation of women in engineering, the purpose of this research is to compare the percentage of women in selected sustainable engineering leadership positions with the percentage of women in general engineering leadership positions. Gender data were collected …

College Students' Perceptions Of Sustainability: A Regional Survey, Michael Myung Jeong, Younghan Jung, Dan Daehyun Koo

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Understanding college students’ perception of sustainability is paramount as today’s students will soon be driving our economy and taking on the responsibility of maintaining a sustainable society. This study conducted a survey of college students attending two regional universities in the United States to capture their current experience levels, expectations, and perceptions with regard to various aspects of sustainability utilizing a questionnaire consisting of structured questions about sustainability knowledge/familiarity levels, green product purchase behavior, attitude-behavior relationship, and sustainability education. The results reveal useful insights into the students’ views on these topics and the demographic data collected were further analyzed to …

Sustainability Assessment For Energy Systems And Chemical Process Industries, Michael J. Matzen

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Theses and Student Research

Sustainability has become an important factor in the chemical process and energy industries with a strong drive for process improvements towards more environmentally conscious solutions. However, there are many ways of defining sustainability and even more ways of trying to determine how sustainable a process is. This work looks into applying a conjunction of tools including; process simulation, multi-criteria decision matrices and life-cycle assessment to more quantitatively determine sustainability metrics. We have applied these tools for the production of electricity, methanol and dimethyl ether. A novel method of electricity production, in chemical looping combustion (CLC), was used that inherently involves …

Investigation Into Mechanisms And Mitigation Of Alkali-Silica Reaction In Sustainable Portland Cement Concrete Containing Recycled Glass Materials, Kaveh Afshinnia

All Dissertations

A significant portion of recycled glass from municipal waste streams is not found to be suitable for reuse as cullet in the production of new glass containers, and as a result it is disposed in landfills. One of the appropriate ways to reduce the disposal of waste glass in landfills is by using it in portland cement concrete as an aggregate material and/or supplementary cementitious material to replace portion of portland cement. The high silica content of the soda glass (approximately 70%) can potentially behave as a pozzolanic material when finely ground, which may enhance the mechanical and durability properties …

Motorizing Cbd Of Tirana. A Before And After Study In Tirana From Sustainability Point Of View, Edison Barhani

UBT International Conference

The Center Business District of Tirana (Skanderbeg Square) plays a crucial part in Tirana Transportation System. After a closure of about 2 years, being under reconstruction, CBD opened to traffic on November 14th, 2011. This study analyses performance parameters like: travel time for both cars and buses, waiting time at bus stations, and passenger boarding/alignment for bus passing through or around the CBD before and after it was opened to traffic. Route that follows Kinostudio-Kombinat bus line has been selected as a representative of all other lines passing through the center of Tirana. Opened to traffic for the supply to …

Evaluating Corrosion Resistance Of Reinforcing Steel In A Novel Green Concrete, Andrea Carolina Ramirez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Reinforced concrete structures are expected to have a long service life with minimal maintenance. Corrosion of reinforcing steel is a major factor in reducing concrete structure lifespan, as corrosion products occupy a larger volume than that of the consumed steel and generate tensile stresses that crack the concrete cover. Procedures to control corrosion in traditional concrete, which is made with Portland-cement (PC), have been well established. However, in recent years novel concrete materials based on alternatives to normally cured PC have been developed in response to global needs to reduce greenhouse gases emissions. In particular, a promising new cement has …

High-Solids Anaerobic Digestion Of The Organic Fraction Of Municipal Solid Waste State Of The Art, Outlook In Florida, And Enhancing Methane Yields From Lignocellulosic Wastes, Gregory Richard Hinds

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a biotechnology that employs natural microbial metabolism under oxygen-free conditions to stabilize organic waste. AD has been shown to be the most environmentally sustainable technology for treating the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW), as it allows for the recovery of energy and nutrients from the waste. AD of OFMSW also saves landfill space and reduces leachate generation and fugitive methane emissions from landfills. High-solids AD (HS-AD) technologies (those designed to process feedstocks with >15% total solids content) have been shown to yield additional benefits when compared with liquid AD (L-AD) for treating OFMSW, including …

Umass Amherst Green Building Guidelines 2013, Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham, Ted Mendoza, Ezra Small, Patricia O'Flaherty, Nariman Mostafavi, Mohamed Farzinmoghadam, Somayeh Tabatabaee Pozveh

Ludmilla D Pavlova

Facilities & Campus Services, Sustainable UMass and Campus Planning support sustainability and energy conservation initiatives by providing in-house resources to campus staff as well as designers and contractors working with the University. The UMass Amherst Green Building Guidelines provide a framework for approaching new construction and major renovation projects at UMass Amherst that are undergoing LEED certification by focusing the conversation on green building aspects that are most important to the campus. They are intended to be the beginning of a dynamic conversation between designers, environmental consultants and constructors, university stakeholders, and users of new high performance buildings.

University Of Massachusetts Amherst 2012-2021 Capital Improvement Projects, Douglas Vigneau, Juanita Holler, John Mathews, Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham, Ezra Small

Ludmilla D Pavlova

In 2013 the University of Massachusetts, on behalf of the University of Massachusetts Building Authority and Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM), submitted an Expanded Environmental Notification Form for the University's 2012 - 2021 Capital Improvement Plan to the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EOEEA) Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office (MEPA). Taken individually, the majority of the Projects, comprising of 13 building/space, 7 site/landscape, and 5 facility/ utility scale improvement projects, do not require MEPA review as most of the Project sites are confined to infill areas on campus that are currently or have been …

Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactors To Treat Municipal Wastewater At Ambient Temperatures, Matthew D. Seib

Dissertations (1934 -)

Anaerobic biotechnology is viewed as a sustainable alternative to aerobic biotechnology for municipal wastewater recovery. However, anaerobic processes have not been successful in cold climates. Past examples have not been able to meet low organic effluent concentrations, or have failed due to biomass washout resulting from low temperature operation and short hydraulic residence time. Recently, the anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) has been shown to achieve low effluent organic concentrations and maintain stable anaerobic biomass. However, shortcomings have included high energy demands for membrane operation and poor understanding of microbial community structures within AnMBRs. This dissertation describes efforts to improve AnMBRs …

The Effect Of Urbanization On The Embodied Energy Of Drinking Water In Tampa, Florida, Mark Vincent Eli Santana

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increasing urbanization has serious implications for resource and energy use. One of these resources is drinking water. The increased amount of impervious surfaces associated with urban development is responsible for increased runoff during rain events, which may have a negative impact on the quality of nearby bodies of water, including drinking water sources. The growing populations associated with urbanization require a higher water demand. In addition, urban drinking water systems use energy to collect, treat, and distribute a safe reliable effluent to users. Therefore, this study focuses on the degree to which urbanization influences the embodied energy of drinking water …

Implementation Of Sustainability Improvements At The Facility Level: Business Motivations And Impact Of P2 Intern Recommendations, Vincent D. Kuppig

Department of Environmental Engineering: Theses and Student Research

Many sustainability and pollution prevention (P2) technical assistance programs exist across the Unities States. There is a need to quantify the actual impact using various metrics and, in addition, to identify the driving forces behind a company’s decision-making process. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Partners in Pollution Prevention and the Kansas State University Pollution Prevention Institute intern programs partnered to complete 30 reassessments in 2014 to obtain specific information related to each P2 recommendation. After being reassessed, the clients were surveyed concerning their motivations for implementing and not implementing each recommendation; 23 clients responded to the survey.

The clients surveyed were …

A Review Of Life Cycle Assessment Method For Building Industry

Faculty of Engineering University of Malaya

A recent study suggested that buildings globally consume up to 40% of energy and responsible for half of world greenhouse gas emission. Introducing life cycle assessment (LCA) to the building industry is important because it can measure every environmental impact involved in every process from cradle to grave systematically. Within the last decade, research on LCA has increased covering from construction process to manufacturing of building materials. The methods to assess buildings are diverse as buildings have different functions, materials, sizes and locations. The aim of this article is to review the LCA methods and to distinguish phases and materials …

Towards Sustainability In The Oil And Gas Sector: Benchmarking Of Environmental, Health, And Safety Efforts, Jennifer Schneider, Salim Ghettas, Nacer Merdaci, Mervin Brown, Joseph Martyniuk, Waleed Alshehri, Anthony Trojan

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

The environmental, social and climate change issues that face the world today have all industries considering how they will address sustainability in the future. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the maturity of environmental, health and safety (EHS) efforts and progress toward sustainability in the oil and gas sector. Ten major oil companies have been analyzed based on public information including their published annual reports. Companies refer to voluntary initiatives when reporting their performance yet the assessment suggests that the sector overall continues to make progress and is maturing in its sustainability efforts. Many management system gaps were …

Syllabus: Transportation Sustainability, Eleni Christofa

Sustainability Education Resources

An overview of sustainable transportation planning practices and management strategies and policies; current transportation trends; environmental and energy policies; non-motorized modes (mainly bicycles and pedestrians); public transportation; life-cycle assessment for transportation infrastructure; alternative fuel vehicles; vehicle emission estimation models; demand management strategies (including parking policies, pricing strategies).

The Use Of Jatropha Curcas To Achieve A Self Sufficient Water Distribution System: A Case Study In Rural Senegal, Alexandra Archer

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

The use of Jatropha curcas as a source of oil for fueling water pumps holds promise for rural communities struggling to achieve water security in arid climates. The potential for use in developing communities as an affordable, sustainable fuel source has been highly recommended for many reasons: it is easily propagated, drought resistant, grows rapidly, and has high-oil-content seeds, as well as medicinal and economic potential. This study uses a rural community in Senegal, West Africa, and calculates at what level of Jatropha curcas production the village is able to be self-sufficient in fueling their water system to meet drinking, …

A Management Framework For Municipal Solid Waste Systems And Its Application To Food Waste Prevention, Krista L. Thyberg, David J. Tonjes

Technology & Society Faculty Publications

Waste management is a complex task involving numerous waste fractions, a range of technological treatment options, and many outputs that are circulated back to society. A systematic, interdisciplinary systems management framework was developed to facilitate the planning, implementation, and maintenance of sustainable waste systems. It aims not to replace existing decision-making approaches, but rather to enable their integration to allow for inclusion of overall sustainability concerns and address the complexity of solid waste management. The framework defines key considerations for system design, steps for performance monitoring, and approaches for facilitating continual system improvements. It was developed by critically examining the …

Planning Rural Water Services In Nicaragua: A Systems-Based Analysis Of Impact Factors Using Graphical Modeling, Jeffrey P. Walters, Paul S. Chinowsky

Faculty Publications - Biomedical, Mechanical, and Civil Engineering

The success or failure of rural water services in the developing world is a result of numerous factors that interact in a complex set of connections that are difficult to separate and identify. This research effort presented a novel means to empirically reveal the systemic interactions of factors that influence rural water service sustainability in the municipalities of Darío and Terrabona, Nicaragua. To accomplish this, the study employed graphical modeling to build and analyze factor networks. Influential factors were first identified by qualitatively and quantitatively analyzing transcribed interviews from community water committee members. Factor influences were then inferred by graphical …

Eco-Design Integration Into New Product Development Processes: Comparison Between Lca Software And Cad-Integrated Tools, Maria I. Hernandez Dalmau

Purdue Polytechnic Masters Theses

The constant growth of environmental concerns and in order to satisfy the increasing population demands, designers have started to integrate eco-design parameters in early design stages. The technological development that happened in the last decade has started to integrate LCA methods within CAD tools, allowing non-geometric data to be integrated in a typical geometrical model. The main research interest of this thesis is focused on the evaluation of the use of these emerging CAD tools, as tools capable to evaluate the futures environmental impacts of products and processes. This thesis studies through three comparative case studies if SolidWorks Sustainability as …

Economic Viability And Societal Benefits Of Integrated Multimodal Freight Corridors And Sustainable Passenger Transportation, Seth Austin Cobb

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Reflections On Interdisciplinary Sustainability Research With Undergraduate Students, Can B. Aktas

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

Purpose – The purpose of the article was to convey experiences with pioneering interdisciplinary sustainability research by involving undergraduate students. Experiences with initiating and conducting multiple research projects spanning engineering and sustainability are described, and recommendations for programs and faculty in other institutions of higher education that plan to implement or support similar endeavors are discussed. Design/methodology/approach – The article and presented conclusions are based on three separate research projects, where specific examples as to how those projects were developed as well as challenges and rewards faced during the project are described. Findings – It is concluded that faculty should …

Advanced Sustainable Concrete Materials For Infrastructure Applications, Kaylea Ann Smith

Masters Theses

"This study was performed to examine the effects of cement replaced by high volumes of Class C fly-ash on durability characteristics of concrete up to 120 days. Specifically, this study investigates possibility of amending American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) to allow High Volume Fly-ash (HVFA) concrete to cure until later ages prior to testing instead of 28 days. Five mix designs were compared with varying fly-ash percentages from 0 to 70% (by total cementitious mass). No other additives were present in any of the five mix designs. Water-to-cementitious ratio (w/cm) and total cementitious material remained constant as 0.40 …

Ecological Sanitation In Uganda: Promotion Through Demonstration Facilities And Potential For Ascaris Reduction By Free Ammonia Inactivation Using Stored Urine, John Thomas Trimmer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As Uganda works to transform itself into an industrialized, middle-income country in the coming decades, the country is faced with a number of problematic trends that could hinder this transition. High population growth and urbanization are quickly forcing small towns to deal with issues of limited space and the aesthetic conditions within sanitation systems, while declining soil fertility in surrounding rural areas calls into question the future nutritional security of the growing population. Ecological Sanitation (Eco-San) systems, which are designed to recover nutrients from human excreta, may help to address these trends.

Improved sanitation coverage in Uganda is currently estimated …

A Framework For Determining Building Water Cycle Resilience Using A Dynamic Water Resilience Assessment Model (Wram), Caryssa Joustra

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this project was to quantitatively measure the resilience of the building water cycle. In order to accomplish this goal, a framework was developed that outlines how building water resilience can be evaluated. The framework presented assumed that resilience describes the fulfillment of system functions; in this case, the system functions considered are those actualized by the building water system. A building water resilience assessment model (WRAM) was developed with the ability to simulate different building water cycles and resilience scenarios. Resilience is dependent on the type and magnitude of a disturbance. Therefore, unique disruption scenarios were developed …