Research Publications

Lockdown and social-distancing policy drove U.S. workers to switch to telecommuting during the pandemic of Covid-19 in 2020. Telecommuting has been widely perceived as a sustainable way of working t...

Eco-driving benefits and automation energy use burdens are important factors impacting the energy consumption of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs). However, challenges exist ...

This project was conducted to address recommendations from the University of Michigan’s President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality by footprinting the institution's Scope 3 purchased goods and servic...

According to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting standard, Scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions constitute emissions that result from indirect a...

Plastic materials have become pervasive in 21st century economies, yet 60% of all plastics ever produced globally have been discarded either in landfills or elsewhere in the environment.This represent...

Aluminum and steel represent the two most dominant metals in light-duty vehicles, yet the flows of these materials into the American automotive industry have not been well characterized. This study...

Electrification of delivery vehicles will play an important role in decarbonizing the transportation sector. As electricity-generating technologies vary regionally and temporally, where electric ve...

Automated long haul trucking is being developed for commercial deployment in the United States. One possible mode of deployment for this technology is a “transfer-hub” model where the operationally...

Residential energy use represents roughly 17% of annual greenhouse gas emissions in the United States (U.S.). Studies show that legacy housing policies and financial lending practices have negative...

Ride sharing or pooling is important to mitigate negative externalities of ride-hailing such as increased congestion and environmental impacts. However, there lacks empirical evidence on what affec...

Shifting consumer behavior towards more sustainable diets can benefit environmental sustainability and human health. Although more frequent home cooking is associated with a better diet quality and...

Hundreds of indicators are available to monitor progress of countries and regions towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the sheer number of indicators poses unprecedented chall...

The Center for Sustainable Systems at University of Michigan conducted for Borealis Foods a “cradle to grave” life cycle assessment of Chef Woo (CW) instant ramen noodle, a unique product that supp...

Environmental footprint analyses for China have gained sustained attention in the literature, which rely on quality EEIO databases based on benchmark input-output (IO) tables. The Chinese environme...

The objective of this work is to evaluate the life cycle impacts of recovering superabsorbent polymers from absorbent hygiene products (AHPs). AHPs, which include baby diapers, feminine hygiene pro...

Estimates show that 6.2 gigatons of carbon dioxide (CO2) can be captured and utilized across three pathways, concrete, chemical, and minerals, by 2050. However, it is difficult to compare the clima...

Electricity grid planners design the system to supply electricity to end-users reliably and affordably. Climate change threatens both objectives through potentially compounding supply- and demand-s...

The high saturation potential of highly hygroscopic desiccants makes their drying potential reuse an energetically unfavorable challenge. Perhaps there are other ways beyond dehydration the extract...

Increased E-commerce and demand for contactless delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic have fueled interest in robotic package delivery. We evaluate life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for aut...

To explore electrification as a climate change mitigation strategy, we study US residential heat pump adoption, given the current US housing stock. Our research asks (a) how the costs and benefits ...

Electrification of delivery fleets has emerged as an important opportunity to reduce the transportation sector’s environmental impact, including reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. When, where...

Purpose Many consumers are transitioning away from single-use plastic products and turning to reusable alternatives. Oftentimes, this change is being made with the assumption that these alternati...

Over the last decade, the United States has experienced continued growth in residential rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption. However, solar adoption disparities have been shown across househol...

Abundant supply, low prices, and low carbon content may result in an increased use of natural gas (NG) as an alternative transportation fuel. Assessments of the associated climate benefits are sens...