Research Publications

This article presents an algorithm to aid practitioners in determining the most appropriate method to estimate carbon dioxide emissions from an electricity load. Applications include sustainability...

With the likelihood of autonomous vehicle technologies in public transport and taxi systems increasing, their impact on commuting in real-world road networks is insufficiently studied. In this stud...

As our energy systems are transitioning towards low-carbon energy sources and their environmental and economic sustainability are assessed, their potential social impacts must also be determined. Thes...

Michigan Sustainability Cases (MSC) is an initiative of the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability producing case studies for sustainability education that presents its cases...

Plastic film waste can cause a variety of environmental impacts and pose a significant challenge for the consumer product industry. Understanding the environmental tradeoffs of various end-of-life ...

Hazardous substances are used as additives in many products. It is a challenge to monitor hazardous substance flows through complex economic systems. This study seeks to derive these hazardous mate...

Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) are poised to reshape transportation and mobility by replacing humans as the driver and service provider. While the primary stated motivation for vehicle aut...

Sustainable diets are an environmental, economic and public health imperative, but identifying clear intervention points is challenging. The Entry points to Advance Transitions towards Sustainable die...

This study models previously unknown domestic geographical transfers of toxic substances in waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) by using the minimum distance and maximum flow (MDMF) al...

Urine diversion offers the potential to enhance the environmental performance of waste management systems by reducing the resources required to remove nutrients at water resource recovery facilities (...

This paper presents the Solid Waste Management Index (SWaMI) for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The main objectives are to present how SWaMI was developed, to apply the Index in three differ...

Purpose Clinical decision making regarding the use of imaging is appropriately centered on diagnostic efficacy and individual patient factors. However, health policy and imaging guidelines may incorp...

Beyond Meat commissioned the Center for Sustainable Systems at University of Michigan to conduct a “cradle-to-distribution” life cycle assessment of the Beyond Burger, a plant-based patty designed to ...

Battery storage systems are attractive alternatives to conventional generators for frequency regulation due to their fast response time, high cycle efficiency, flexible scale, and decreasing cost. ...

Deploying large-scale wireless charging infrastructure at bus stops to charge electric transit buses when loading and unloading passengers requires significant capital investment and brings environ...

Producing, transporting, and refining crude oil into fuels such as gasoline and diesel accounts for ∼15 to 40% of the “well-to-wheels” life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of transport fuels. Red...

The United States transportation sector consumes 5 billion barrels of petroleum annually to move people and freight around the country by car, truck, train, ship and aircraft, emitting significant gre...

Freight transportation by truck, train, and ship accounts for 5% of the United States’ annual energy consumption (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2017a). Much of this freight is transported...

Emerging online car hailing services have caused many unintended consequences in urban centers such as more congested traffic and increased vehicle travels. Those unintended consequences have signi...

Quantifying greenhouse gas emissions due to electricity consumption is crucial for climate mitigation in the electric power sector. Current practices primarily use production-based emission factors...

A large body of research has explored opportunities to mitigate climate change in agricultural systems; however, less research has explored opportunities across the food system. Here we expand the ...

In the U.S. lighting represents about 9% of the average household's primary energy consumption and 20% of the average household's energy bill. Lighting in U.S. homes is in a state of transition wit...

In life cycle assessment (LCA), collecting unit process data from the empirical sources (i.e., meter readings, operation logs/journals) is often costly and time-consuming. We propose a new computat...

This project (1) explores the economic feasibility of a 600-kW renewable energy microgrid in the city of Beni, Democratic Republic of Congo, (2) creates a survey instrument to assess local farmers’...