Sustainability Commons^™

University Of North Florida Climate Action Plan, University Of North Florida Environmental Center

Campus Sustainability

The UNF Climate Action Plan, which was developed by the UNF Sustainability Committee, outlines how UNF will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and become carbon neutral by the year 2050. The plan defines UNF institutional capacities and current initiatives for which ongoing support is necessary for success. Additionally, the CAP outlines actions essential for building UNF's capacity to effectively prepare for, implement and track mitigation projects. The plans include improving data collection systems, cultivation of student, faculty and staff support, and securing financial resources. These efforts will be completed in three phases and includes infrastructural improvements, operational changes and a …

West Chester University Climate Action Plan: Carbon Neutral By 2025, Tim Lutz, Executive Director Of Facilities Management, Climate Action Planning Team

WCU Campus Sustainability Initiatives

WEST CHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT GREG WEISENSTEIN signed the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) in October 2010, pledging the University to a series of actions that will ultimately reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to zero. In doing so we joined more than 600 institutions in expressing our deep concern about global warming. More importantly, we accepted the challenge to provide leadership in our own community by “modeling ways to minimize global warming emissions, and by providing the knowledge and the educated graduates to achieve climate neutrality.” Since 2010 we have completed an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), …

Carbon Farming In Wa, Department Of Agriculture And Food, Western Australia, Department Of Regional Development And Lands, Western Australia

Natural resources published reports

Fact sheets:

1. Applying biochar to improve soil quality and crop productivity

2. Reducing methane emissions from cattle using feed additives

3. Cattle breeding for lower greenhouse gas emissions

4. Managing genetic codes to reduce methane emissions from cattle

5. Managing pastures and stocking rate to reduce methane emissions from cattle

6. Claying as a method of increasing soil carbon content

7. Green and brown manuring as part of carbon farming

8. Permanent environmental plantings to earn carbon credits

9. Nitrous oxide emissions from agricultural soils

10. Sheep genetics in methane reduction

11. Managing sheep pastures to reduce methane production …

Sawmill Slough Preserve At The University Of North Florida, James Taylor

Professional Presentations

Taylor, J.W., J. Lemmons and C. Hubbuch. 2013. Sawmill Slough Preserve, University of North Florida. Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Annual Conference. Nashville, TN. (Powerpoint)

An Investigation Of Waste Glass-Based Geopolymers Supplemented With Alumina, Mary U. Christiansen

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

An increased consideration of sustainability throughout society has resulted in a surge of research investigating sustainable alternatives to existing construction materials. A new binder system, called a geopolymer, is being investigated to supplement ordinary portland cement (OPC) concrete, which has come under scrutiny because of the CO2 emissions inherent in its production.

Geopolymers are produced from the alkali activation of a powdered aluminosilicate source by an alkaline solution, which results in a dense three-dimensional matrix of tetrahedrally linked aluminosilicates. Geopolymers have shown great potential as a building construction material, offering similar mechanical and durability properties to OPC. Additionally, geopolymers have …

Optimization Of Biomass Logistics System Using Genetic Algorithm And Particle Swarm Optimization For Biofuel Production, Ethel Regina Martinez-Schabez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As time goes by, Renewable Energy keeps proving to be an important and potential replacement for fossil fuels. All the different types of Renewable Energy offer a relief to the environmental aftermaths of the prolonged reliance on fossil fuel energy. Bioenergy is one of the types of Renewable Energy that can help by minimizing the emissions of fossil fuels. The Energy Independence and Security Act mandates the use of 21 billion gallons of advanced biofuels including 16 billion gallons of cellulosic biofuels by the year 2022. Biomass and Biofuels can clearly become a significant aid to sustainably supply energy in …

Managing Soil Microbial Communities With Organic Amendments To Promote Soil Aggregate Formation And Plant Health, Shawn T. Lucas

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

The effects of managing soil with organic amendments were examined with respect to soil microbial community dynamics, macroaggregate formation, and plant physio-genetic responses. The objective was to examine the possibility of managing soil microbial communities via soil management, such that the microbial community would provide agronomic benefits. In part one of this research, effects of three amendments (hairy vetch residue, manure, compost) on soil chemical and microbial properties were examined relative to formation of large macroaggregates in three different soils. Vetch and manure promoted fungal proliferation (measured via two biomarkers: fatty acid methyl ester 18:2ω6c and ergosterol) and also stimulated …

Potential For Electrical Power Generation Using Forest Wood Biomass In Rural Areas Of Catalonia, Arnau Gonzalez

Open Access Theses

Biomass is a renewable energy source that has been used for many years. However, its usage as an electricity source in Spain is not well developed due to many causes, among which highlights the lack of knowledge about the available technical potential. This research sought to close this gap assessing the technical potential for electricity generation using forest wood biomass in rural areas of Catalonia. The study characterizes the amount and type of biomass available in Catalonian forests that can be used to produce electricity without going beyond the capacity of regeneration of the forest, as well as the state-of-the-art …

Sustainable Systems Thinking In Communication Design Education, Yvette M. Perullo

Open Access Theses

Design ingenuity and sustainability can, and should, work together. Designers have an ethical responsibility to provide ideas that do no harm, and better yet, create positive solutions that nourish the environment, social and cultural structures, and the economy. This approach, referred to as sustainable systems thinking--in contrast to more common design approaches--looks at a problem as an integrated component of an entire network. Sustainable systems thinking helps designers, clients, and consumers to consider who or what is connected to the design outcome, where the project will have positive and negative ecological, financial, cultural or social impacts, and make the entire …

The Essentials Of Economic Sustainability By John Ikerd [Book Review], Charles A. Francis

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Essentials of Economic Sustainability is the latest challenging statement on innovative economic philosophy from an alternative opinion leader John Ikerd, retired agricultural economist from University of Missouri, Columbia (Columbia, Missouri, United States). His perspective is that accelerating changes surrounding us require more than small adaptations, but rather a thoughtful reconsideration of basic principles about how the world works and our role in this dynamic reality. Ikerd paraphrases the challenge of the 1988 Brundtland Report of the United Nations that we must design strategies ‘to meet the economic needs of the present without diminishing economic opportunities for the future’ (page 1). …

Food Webs And Food Sovereignty: Research Agenda For Sustainability, Charles A. Francis, Michelle Miller, Molly Anderson, Nancy Creamer, Michelle Wander, Jacob Park, Thomas Green, Brent Mccown

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Future food production will be constrained by the scarcity of fossil fuel and fresh water as well as increasing intensity and unpredictability of weather events and climate changes. The assurance of food security and equity for many consumers is complicated by concentration of ownership of land and other production resources, as well as a global corporate food systems model that is driven by profit at the expense of people and the environment. To assess potential alternatives to the contemporary global food chain, well focused research is needed on local food production and food webs where small- and midscale family farms …

Global Land Governance: From Territory To Flow?, Thomas Sikor, Graeme Auld, Anthony J. Bebbington, Tor A. Benjaminsen, Bradford S. Gentry, Carol Hunsberger, Anne Marie Izac, Matias E. Margulis, Tobias Plieninger, Heike Schroeder, Caroline Upton

Geography

This article reviews recent research on contemporary transformations of global land governance. It shows how changes in global governance have facilitated and responded to radical revalorizations of land, together driving the intensified competition and struggles over land observed in many other contributions to this special issue. The rules in place to govern land use are shifting from 'territorial' toward 'flow-centered' arrangements, the latter referring to governance that targets particular flows of resources or goods, such as certification of agricultural or wood products. The intensifying competition over land coupled with shifts toward flow-centered governance has generated land uses involving new forms …

Leadership Development For Pro-Environmental Behavior Utilizing Peer To Peer Communication And Learning: An Academic Pilot Project, Mark Wayne Carrera Ma

All Student Scholarship

There is a cultural perception that the onus of responsibility for shark conservation falls on the shoulders of environmental and scientific communities’ leaders. Given the diminutive size of these two communities when compared to the vastness of American society, responsibilities should be shared by leaders of educational organizations who can communicate with greater populations. The general public must be encouraged to act pro-environmentally for effective shark conservation to ever take place in the world.

Take Pride In America Phase Iii - Further Development Of A Local Litter And Desert Dumping Cleanup Program: Project Compendium, Margaret N. Rees

Anti-littering Programs

The Take Pride in America in Southern Nevada project began as a collaboration of four federal agencies committed to working together to combat the litter and desert dumping problem on the nearly seven million acres of public lands in Southern Nevada. In 2005, with funding from the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act (SNPLMA), SNAP created an interagency anti-litter and desert dumping team and developed a partnership with the Public Lands Institute (PLI) at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. SNAP and PLI managed the Take Pride in America in Southern Nevada project and launched the Don’t Trash Nevada messaging …

Estimation Of Performance Indices For The Planning Of Sustainable Transportation Systems, Alexander Paz, Pankaj Maheshwari, Pushkin Kachroo, Sajjad Ahmad

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

In the context of sustainable transportation systems, previous studies have either focused only on the transportation system or have not used a methodology that enables the treatment of incomplete, vague, and qualitative information associated with the available data. This study proposes a system of systems (SOS) and a fuzzy logic modeling approach. The SOS includes the Transportation, Activity, and Environment systems. The fuzzy logic modeling approach enables the treatment of the vagueness associated with some of the relevant data. Performance Indices (PIs) are computed for each system using a number of performance measures. The PIs illustrate the aggregated performance of …

Stories Of Money: Building Social Capital Through Time Banking, Stacey Anne Jacobsohn

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This study explored communication and ethical investment in social capital to improve quality of life through the lens of time banking, a model of alternative currency. Previous studies of time banking noted a distinct set of characteristics of time banks that contrast with capitalist-based systems while using similar language; these were compared to research of social capital and social networks. Seven participants were interviewed at-length as representatives of the time bank movement. Stories of money framed theoretical constructs in practice on a daily basis and future visioning of the movement. Further analysis using the dialogic ethic of Martin Buber and …

Can Education Improve The Environment? Applying The Pressure-State-Response Environmental Indicator Framework To Environmental Education Program Outcomes, Brian Johnson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the ways in which environmental education (EE) programs are contributing to environmental quality (EQ) improvement. The research applied the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) environmental indicator framework to the reported outcomes of 103 EE programs in order to 1) determine the extent to which existing EE programs are reporting EQ improvement outcomes; and 2) examine the extent to which these programs are impacting indicators in the three areas of the PSR framework. The study consisted of three research phases: evaluation synthesis, semi-structured interviews, and multiple-case study. The study found that 42 of 103 programs (41%) …

Computational Fluid Dynamics (Cfd) Modeling Of A Laboratory Scale Coal Gasifier, Kiel S. Schultheiss

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Furthering gasification technology is an essential part of advancing clean coal technologies. In order to seek insight into the appropriate operations for the formation of synthetic gas (syngas) a numerical simulation was performed to predict the phenomena of coal gasification in a laboratory scale entrained-flow coal gasifier. The mesh for the model was developed with ICEM CFD software and the chemical and physical phenomena were modeled using the fluid flow solver ANSYS FLUENT. Mesh independence was verified. The model was validated with experimental data from several studies performed on a laboratory scale gasifier.

Systematic examination of the model was performed …

Investigation Of Wastewater Treatment Plant Sustainability Potential In Terms Of Resource Recovery Essentials, Aoife Moloney

Theses

This thesis aims to explore the sustainability potential which exists in Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP's); particularly focusing on nutrient, energy, and water recovery and reuse. The core of the research will focus on the establishment of a sustainable Resource Recovery Treatment Plant (RRTP) plan for Limerick Main Drainage (LMD) WWTP, and potentially utilising this as a case study plant which could act as a foundation example within the sector.

There is a genuine need to investigate more sustainable options in wastewater treatment (WWT); increasing energy and sludge management costs are a real issue for non-sustainable WWTP's given that thousands of …

Exploring Local Food System Practices And Perceptions: Insights From Florida's Snap-Authorized Farmers' Markets, Leslie Babiak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite heightened interest in creating local food systems that enhance health of ecologies, economies, and all members of communities, the public space of farmers' markets is far less than inherently equitable. This is particularly concerning given America's unprecedented crisis of food hardship and related disease, which disproportionately affects lower income populations. This research addresses the social justice implications of SNAP (food stamp) operations for locally oriented food systems. Pioneering practices of three of Florida's SNAP-authorized farmers' markets, and the attitudes and behaviors of one-hundred-seventy-six market patrons, were explored through customer surveys, market manager interviews, and environmental assessments. Qualitative and quantitative …