Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Project Renew Worcester, Danni Yue, Amy Zhang, Jing Han, Omid Ashrafi, Yiming Xu

School of Professional Studies

n The client for this capstone project is RENEW Worcester which is a fledgling solar power project whose main goals are to bring renewable energy in the form of solar power into local, primarily low-income communities and are committed to the mission of making the transition off of fossil fuels to clean, renewable power. Based in Worcester, Massachusetts, they are a local chapter of Co-op Power which is a consumer-owned sustainable energy cooperative (co-op) made up of numerous different local chapters all over the New England area as well as the state of New York. The problem that we will …

Keeping Pace With Relative Sea Level Rise: Marsh Platform Monitoring Shows Minimal Sediment Deficit Along The Louisiana Coast, Kelly Marie Sanks

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent reports estimate that the marshes of the Mississippi Delta receive just 30% of the sediment necessary to sustain current land area1. An extensive monitoring campaign by the USGS and LCPRA provides direct measurements of sediment accumulation, subsidence rates, and deposit characteristics along the coast over the past 10 years2, allowing us to directly evaluate this sediment balance. By interpolating bulk density, organic fraction, and vertical accretion rates from 273 sites, a direct measurement of organic and inorganic sediment accumulation can be made. Results show that a total of 82 MT/year of sediment is delivered to the coast. Using a …

Environmental Clearinghouse Of Schenectady, Kate Van Patten

Honors Theses

This paper analyses Environmental Clearinghouse of Schenectady, a local nonprofit environmental organization. The paper investigates the history of the organization as well as the effectiveness of its organizational and funding habits. A literary review was conducted to analyze the success of ECOS mission as well as the positive effects ECOS has on society using elements such as environmental education, the importance of early environmental education, how well the organization connects urban residents with the outdoors and the effectiveness of environmental programs. This research promotes the importance of early environmental education on our future generations health and environmental conditions. Additionally, through …

Seabird Distribution And Oil & Gas Potential Along The Northern Sea Route, Russia: An Arctic Marine Conservation Case Study, Meghan Kelly

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

Seabirds are indicator species for the marine environment. Their populations are simultaneously affected by access to food resources and anthropogenic pressures including direct disturbance and habitat degradation associated with industrial development (Parsons et al. 2007). Therefore, using seabird distribution as a policy-relevant indicator for the Arctic marine environment supports an ecosystem based management approach aimed at protecting sensitive habitats from increased offshore oil and gas development.

This research identifies seabird habitat in the Russian Arctic utilizing in situ seabird observations from the Northern Sea Route to create a species distribution model. The spatial location of these areas will be compared …

Virtuous Discourse In The Specialty Coffee Sector: How Social Responsibility Practices Fragment Pursuits For A Supply Chain, Jane H. Motsinger

Geography ETDs

A diversity of public and private initiatives strive to address the human-environment challenges confronting the global coffee industry, including certifications like Fairtrade, direct trade sourcing models, and efforts led by NGOs. Research examines the outcomes of major certification programs and the private initiatives of corporations like Starbucks. Much less is known about the business practices of the small specialty coffee businesses that increasingly advertise sustainable business practices. Yet, their collective business practices likely influence the industry-wide efforts to achieve a sustainable supply chain. This research examines how small specialty coffee roasting and importing companies represent their socially responsible business practices …

U.S. Corporate Energy Productivity, Greenhouse Gas Productivity, And Return On Equity, Terry Geonnie Tate

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Corporate leaders are expected to engage in corporate social responsibility by some stakeholders, but there is no consistent evidence that corporate social performance relates to financial performance. Grounded in instrumental stakeholder theory, the purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship among energy productivity, greenhouse gas productivity, and return on equity. The 2016 Newsweek Green Ranking U.S. 500 was the population for this study, which consisted of the largest companies in the United States with the highest corporate social performance scores. The secondary data were collected from Newsweek.com and Morningstar.com for this study. The multiple linear regression was …

Consumer Engagement With Efficient And Renewable Energy Technology: Case Studies On Smart Meter Utilization And Support For A Community Anaerobic Biodigester System In Vermont, Samantha Whitney Lewandowski

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Residential electricity consumption in the United States has many adverse impacts, such as greenhouse gas emissions, dependence on fossil fuels, and costs. Efficient and renewable energy technologies have the potential to help mitigate some of these impacts, but appear to be under-utilized in the United States. One major barrier to expanding the deployment of these kinds of technologies and maximizing the benefits they can provide is a lack of consumer engagement. The overall purpose of this thesis is to better understand the extent to which efficient and renewable energy technologies are being engaged with and what factors may influence such …

Sustainability-Efficiency Paradox: The Efficacy Of State Energy Plans In Building A More Sustainable Energy Future, Austin Zimmerman

Pitzer Senior Theses

State energy plans are created at the request of a sitting governor or State Legislature in order to provide guidance set goals for the state’s energy sector. These plans will be critical indicators of energy trends such as the future market share of coal, natural gas, and renewables. If the future of energy in the United States is to be remotely sustainable, low-carbon policies must headline state plans. The strength of a state’s energy plan in terms of sustainability is directly related to that state’s willingness to prioritize and commit to incorporating energy sources that produce negligible carbon emissions. Questions …