Sustainability Commons^™

Sustainability For Whom? Place-Makers Of Detroit, Dominica, Ecuador, And Mexico, Emma Gaalaas Mullaney

Sponsored Events -- List

Drawing from more than a decade of work with farmers in rural and urban areas across the Americas, Professor Gaalaas Mullaney highlights some key findings about how small-scale farmers have a big influence on the conservation of cultural and ecological richness in their region. In each of these diverse places, innovative farmers work at the margins of dominant political and economic institutions with only occasional recognition of the value that they produce. What can these farmers teach us about how to cultivate place-based sustainability? How is sustainability related to social and economic justice?

Best Management Practices: A Community-Based Approach To Construction And Installation, Nathanael J. La Breche

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

The Wabash River Enhancement Corporation (WREC) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving both the health of the Wabash River and the surrounding terrestrial areas. In an effort to improve water quality, their urban cost-share program focuses on supporting green projects within a critical region surrounding the Great Bend of the Wabash River. In this essay, a Purdue student describes his experience as leader of a six-member group who worked with WREC to locate a suitable site within this critical area and implement a green project. They selected the Lighthouse Baptist Church, located in Lafayette, Indiana, since it was experiencing …

Ecological Footprint

Activities

Estimating your overall impact on the environment is a daunting task when you consider all the variables involved. Environmental scientists have developed a tool that does just this however, and presents the information in a manner that is easily visualized despite the underlying complexities. It is known as an “ecological footprint”, and it describes the area of land needed to supply the resources used and wastes produced by each individual. Nature’s ability to provide resources and process wastes is known as “natural capital”, and the goal of sustainable living is to use resources wisely so as to avoid depleting natural …

The World Is Facing A Global Sand Crisis, Aurora Torres, Jianguo "Jack" Liu, Jodi Brandt, Kristen Lear

Human-Environment Systems Research Center Faculty Publications and Presentations

When people picture sand spread across idyllic beaches and endless deserts, they understandably think of it as an infinite resource. But as we discuss in a just-published perspective in the journal Science, over-exploitation of global supplies of sand is damaging the environment, endangering communities, causing shortages and promoting violent conflict.

A Comparative Analysis Of Feed And Environmental Factors On Broiler Growth In The United States, Alexandra Gulli

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Broiler production in the United States has become an important industry within the last half century. As the demand for poultry continues to increase and the concern of climate change also increases, it will become an important part of the industry to become more sustainable. This study uses a feed optimization model, a broiler growth model, and a life cycle assessment (LCA) to determine how feed ingredients and the barn environment can affect the broiler’s growth and production emissions. A multi-criteria ration optimization model is used to produce feeds based on carbon footprint and cost. A growth model is used …

Creating Sustainable Supply Chains: Influencing Sustainable Practices In The Supply Chain, Saif Mir

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Organizations worldwide are reporting their commitment to create sustainable supply chains. Ultimately, supply chain professionals are the drivers of change within their respective organizations, so this dissertation examines the role of communication as a tool to persuade supply chain professionals to create sustainable supply chains. The three studies within this dissertation employ different methodologies to examine the role of communication in the development and implementation of sustainability initiatives. The first study, a grounded theory investigation, highlights the network, communication, and structural factors that provide a strong business case for the development of sustainability initiatives. A strong business case influences the …

University Sustainability: Assessing College Sustainability Rating Systems, James M. Albis

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

This paper seeks to assess the three major university sustainability rating systems in the United States on their ability to drive positive sustainability outcomes. Since the mid-2000s the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, the Princeton Review, and the Sierra Club have attempted to rate universities on their sustainability policies and practices. A wide range of actions are rated by these organizations, from energy usage to transportation to procurement to academic offerings in the field of sustainability. This analysis shows that each organization values sustainability in different ways – for example, academics/co-curricular activities accounted for anywhere from 16%-49% …

Fossil Fuel Asset Risk Analysis: Clark University Endowment, Travis A. Dodge, B. Maiwand Akbari

Student Works

The environmental and social risks of climate change are well known and perhaps inevitable. The economic and financial risks are less so. The many financial risks associated with climate change embedded in endowment portfolio fossil fuel holdings are leading many institutional stakeholders to enter into dialogue and take action. Divestment is emerging as an effective strategy for limiting portfolio exposure and tackling climate change itself.

Our team’s goals were to assess whether the Clark University endowment portfolio faces any of these risks and evaluate the impacts on asset values. Our findings show that the Clark endowment does face these same …

Sustainability Assessment Of U.S. Beef Production Systems, Greg Thoma, Ben Putman, Marty Matlock, Jennie Popp, Leah English

Food Systems

With increasing public concern and awareness of agricultural sustainability issues, comprehensive methodologies such as life cycle assessment are required to benchmark the beef industry and identify areas of opportunity for continuous improvement. To that end, the Beef Checkoff completed a retrospective sustainability assessment benchmark in 2013 by using Eco-efficiency analysis to compare the years 2005 and 2011. At the time of the analysis, the methodology used was the most up-to-date and comprehensive – indeed the analysis remains one of the only complete cradle-to-grave assessments of the U.S. beef industry. In 2015, a further refined version of the Eco-efficiency analysis was …

Redefining Sustainable Potential In Product Design, Alex Lobos

Presentations and other scholarship

Sustainability in product design is not determined only at the creation of an object; it can be acquired over time, just like a product that was designed with sustainability in mind is misused and underappreciated. Designers need to redefine how products and systems are created, and users need to reevaluate their relationship with them by engaging in sustainable behaviors at multiple points of their lifecycle. This paper introduces a categorization of products based on their ability to solve user’s needs and to minimize environmental impact across the lifecycle. Categories range from sub and ephemeral products, which don’t even serve relevant …

Rebuilding Silicon Valley - An Assessment Of The Silicon Valley Corporate Campus And The Potential For Suburban Sustainability, Eden Lindeman

Master's Projects and Capstones

Silicon Valley is the San Francisco Bay Area’s economic powerhouse and is herald for its innovation and success. However, Silicon Valley’s urban design is unsustainable and characterized by remote and large corporate campuses that contribute to job sprawl and heavy traffic congestion. Many of the buildings are also not performing at an efficient level and are due for deep overhauls to cut back energy consumption and costs. The inevitable effects of climate change continue to loom large over the world, heightening the importance for the built environment to be reformed into an environment that can mitigate and adapt to climate …

Continental-Scale Homogenization Of Residential Lawn Plant Communities, Megan M. Wheeler, Christopher Neill, Peter M. Groffman, Meghan Avolio, Neil D. Bettez, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Rinku Roy Chowdhury, Lindsay Darling, J. Morgan Grove, Sharon J. Hall, James B. Heffernan, Sarah E. Hobbie, Kelli L. Larson, Jennifer L. Morse, Kristen C. Nelson, Laura A. Ogden, Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne, Diane E. Pataki, Colin Polsky, Meredith Steele, Tara Trammell

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Residential lawns are highly managed ecosystems that occur in urbanized landscapes across the United States. Because they are ubiquitous, lawns are good systems in which to study the potential homogenizing effects of urban land use and management together with the continental-scale effects of climate on ecosystem structure and functioning. We hypothesized that similar homeowner preferences and management in residential areas across the United States would lead to low plant species diversity in lawns and relatively homogeneous vegetation across broad geographical regions. We also hypothesized that lawn plant species richness would increase with regional temperature and precipitation due to the presence …

Next Steps For Mentoring Program, Patrick Gray

Sustainability and Connectivity

This file provides a jump-off position for students in the fall 2017 semester who want to continue work toward a mentoring program.

Parallel Design Of A Product And Internet Of Things (Iot) Architecture To Minimize The Cost Of Utilizing Big Data (Bd) For Sustainable Value Creation, Ryan Bradley, Ibrahim S. Jawahir, Niko Murrell, Julie Whitney

Institute for Sustainable Manufacturing Faculty Publications

Information has become today's addictive currency; hence, companies are investing billions in the creation of Internet of Things (IoT) frameworks that gamble on finding trends that reveal sustainability and/or efficiency improvements. This approach to “Big Data” can lead to blind, astronomical costs. Therefore, this paper presents a counter approach aimed at minimizing the cost of utilizing “Big Data” for sustainable value creation. The proposed approach leverages domain/expert knowledge of the system in combination with a machine learning algorithm in order to limit the needed infrastructure and cost. A case study of the approach implemented in a consumer electronics company is …

Dayton Regional Green Meeting Notes, Tim Leonard, Adam Foster, Abigail Lisjak

Sustainability and Connectivity

These are notes from our meeting with Lamees Mubaslat from Dayton Regional Green. She is really excited about more mentoring programs in Dayton.

Mentoring Brochure: Longer Version, Tim Leonard, Abigail Lisjak, Adam Foster

Sustainability and Connectivity

This is a mentoring brochure we created to show different organizations our ideas. This is the longer of two versions.

Mentoring Brochure: Shorter Version, Tim Leonard, Abigail Lisjak, Adam Foster

Sustainability and Connectivity

We made these brochures to talk to different organizations about our thoughts and ideas. There are two iterations of this. This one has less words.

Dayton's Best Conceptual Design Presentation, 2017, Andrew Eckrich, Zachary Siefker, Theresa Isemann

Sustainability and Connectivity

This conceptual design presentation was given mid-semester during Spring 2017. It contains descriptions of the project team's short- and long-term goals, early strategies, results from the UD Hack-a-thon, and next steps for the project.

Presentation: Dayton's Best (Stander Symposium, 2017), Andrew Eckrich, Theresa Isemann, Zachary Siefker

Sustainability and Connectivity

This is the "Dayton's BEST" (Businesses Engaging Sustainability Together) presentation given at Stander Symposium 2017. It provides the mission, vision, and scope of the resource management project.

The Giving Trees: The (Un)Sustainability Of Palm Oil In Indonesia, Amber Rosche

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Palm oil is the main source of cooking oil for much of Africa, Asia and Brazil. Due to the increasingly high demand for palm oil, countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia have cleared millions of acres of tropical rainforests to create space for oil palm plantations. This deforestation has led to extreme environmental and social concerns such as the burning of peatlands, the endangerment of a number of species, including the Sumatran Tiger, rhinos and orangutans, and the displacement of native populations. Indonesia is the world’s largest consumer and producer of palm oil, producing almost half of the world’s supply …

Housing The Homeless: A Framework For Sustainable, Affordable Housing, Brianna Providence

Student Theses 2015-Present

New York City’s building stock is comprised of nearly one million structures. Buildings are responsible for unconscionable amounts of global energy, water, resources, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Thousands of buildings are annually constructed when the truth is that there is a significant stock of buildings that could stand to be rehabilitated. New green developments present an opportunity to increase efficiency while reducing energy use, resource consumption, and waste. If virgin new green developments provide the aforementioned opportunities, then it logically follows that sustainably retrofitting preexisting buildings represents an even greater opportunity to promote environmental sustainability and reduce inefficiencies. As …

Nitrogen Sustainability: Impediments To Action And Communication, Eric E. Jorgensen

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

“Sustainability” is widely used to imply the presence of explicit consideration of environmentally friendly needs and that high societal-value is placed on those needs. However, it is abundantly clear after 30 years that talking about sustainability and achieving it are two entirely different things. The core concept underlying sustainability is that current human practices and activities be conducted so as to not degrade prospects for future generations. With nitrogen, conflicts about sustainability in-theory and sustainability in-practice are close to the surface because of nitrogen’s central role in food production and economic activity. Measures of nitrogen inputs commonly range as high …

Assessing Sustainability Literacy, Mary Ellen Mallia, Cassidy Drasser, Elizabet Genis

Presentations

Presented for the US Society for Ecological Economics

Effective Leadership And Nonprofit Sustainability, Vaughn Orsborne Gleaves

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A sustainability plan of an organization is useless without effective leadership in its design and execution. The purpose of this case study was to explore strategies that church leaders having at least 7 continuous years of organizational fiscal sustainability and leadership used to ensure fiscal sustainability. The study included 8 face-to-face and 2 phone interviews with 4 senior pastors, 3 associate pastors, a treasurer, a finance committee chair, and a certified public accountant who lived in the Akron, Ohio area along with a review of documents including a leadership meeting agenda and financial committee meeting agenda, provided by study participants. …

Technological Modernization And Its Impact On Agriculture, Fisheries And Fossil Fuel Utilization In The Asia Pacific Countries With Emphasis On Sustainability Perspective, Rajee Olaganathan, Kathleen Quigley

Publications

Modernization is a process that moves towards efficiency. This affects most of the fields such as agriculture, fisheries, forestry, urban planning, policy, fossil fuel usage, manufacturing, technology, economic growth etc. This process plays a major role in moving forward making things faster, better and basically more efficient. The effects of modernization on all these fields bring about the major changes to aspects such as social, economic and the environment. The level of operation has increased from a domestic level; small family scale business to large commercial levels. As the level of operation increased, the utilization of natural resources increased gradually …

Eco-Cosplay: Upcycling As A Sustainable Method Of Costume Construction, Sarah West, Kathleen Smith

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

This research addresses sustainability in the apparel industry from the specific perspective of repurposing materials for use in costume development. Repurposing discarded materials, also referred to as upcycling, is examined as a viable approach to waste management and evaluated for its impact on sustainability in apparel and textile production, especially in relation to costume development. Current issues in sustainability in the apparel industry that are a focus for this research include waste from production as well as post-consumer waste. The project includes the design and construction of two costume pieces based on a style of costume known as cosplay. Cosplay …

University Of North Florida Environmental Center Annual Report 2017, Maria Mark, James W. Taylor, Natalie Sassine, Tiffany Torres

Annual Reports

2017 Annual Report of the Environmental Center at the University of North Florida

The Relationship Between Ethical Leadership And Sustainability In Small Businesses, David Amisano

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Since the 2008 financial crisis, business leaders' ethical behaviors have been under scrutiny. These leaders face uncertainty regarding ethical leadership behaviors and their impact. Because small business leadership involves multiple facets of behavior and decision-making, small business leaders may have an insufficient understanding of the impact of ethical leadership behaviors on the sustainability of their businesses. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between ethical leadership and financial, social, and environmental sustainability in small businesses. Integrated social contracts theory was the theoretical framework. The participants consisted of 80 members of a chamber of commerce located in …

Sustainability Practices That Influence Profitability In The Petroleum Industry, Lionel Bryan Small

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Petroleum industries in the U.S. attract increased scrutiny from governmental bodies, businesses, and the civil society for their lack of sustainability practices, such as air emissions control, the use of cleaner fuels, and water pollution mitigation. Although the short-term cost of implementing these practices may be high as stated by a sample of the industry's leaders, long-term benefits include lower business costs and a reduction of the adverse impacts on society, the environment, and the economy. This multiple-case study highlighted the practices of several petroleum industry leaders who demonstrated an exception to these practices-who have been clear thought leaders in …

What Green Design Activities And Mindsets Drive Innovation And Sustainability In Student Teams?, Jeremy Faludi, Alice Agogino, Sara Beckman, Alastair Isles

Dartmouth Scholarship

What sustainable design practices can also drive innovation, and what practices do people value? Previous analysis of sustainable design methods, and the opportunism of designers generally, has suggested that design methods should actually be examined at the level of their component activities and mindsets, as each of these provides different advantages that designers could mix and match. This study performed workshops of three sustainable design methods for a total of 327 students, then surveyed students about which activities or mindsets within each design method drove innovation value, sustainability value, and any other value. The design methods tested were The Natural …