Research Publications

Environmental Life Cycle Assessment is an introductory college level textbook on the science of Life Cycle Assessment. It provides materials for a full year of study. Over thirty LCA experts were b...

IntroductionClimate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Since the 1970s, the Great Lakes region has been warming at a rate of 0.4°F per decade and average winter temperatures are ris...

Land use change resulting from bioenergy production has the potential to affect regional water quality. Water quality impacts associated with bioenergy production have been extensively modeled in t...

Residential buildings account for 22 percent of the primary energy consumption in the U.S. Over half of this home energy requirement comes from heating and cooling demands. The geothermal heat pump (G...

This paper proposes a new land-change model, the Geographic Emission Benchmark (GEB), as an approach to quantify land-cover changes associated with deforestation and forest degradation. The GEB is des...

To address food security in a food abundant world requires a new paradigm that walks away from a strict production perspective. While research on agriculture and food security has increased significan...

China’s CO2 emissions have sharply increased in recent years with soaring economic development and urbanization. Consumption-based accounting of CO2 emissions could provide new insights for allocating...

Despite widespread media coverage of livestock-related issues and growing scientific evidence linking meat production and climate change, systematic content analysis of this relationship in media c...

An audit of recreation programs with moderate or higher levels of physical activity (PA) in Los Angeles area cities (N=82) was conducted using internet, telephone, and survey methods. Metabolic Equ...

The forests of Russia comprise roughly one-fifth of Earth’s total forest cover and one-quarter of its remaining “frontier” forests. The quality (i.e. natural productivity) of these forests continue...

The Elgar Companion to Sustainable Cities provides a comprehensive framework for understanding and applying the methods and strategies for cities to attain a more sustainable future. Against a ...

Dietary choices – the overall food consumption patterns displayed by a population – can, and do, influence greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) of the food system. Here, we consider the GHGE associated wit...

The concrete construction industry is governed by a network of codes and standards that ensure safety and quality. This study evaluates two central concrete construction industry standards related ...

The Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation (GREET) model developed by Argonne National Laboratory quantifies the life cycle energy consumption and air emissions res...

Urban green space, such as parks, forests, green roofs, streams, and community gardens, provides critical ecosystem services. Green space also promotes physical activity, psychological well-being, ...

This work presents novel Agent-Based Models that permit flexible conceptualization of the electrification efforts in developing countries. It captures the interacting technological, environmental, and...

The high theoretical productivity of microalgae makes it a promising energy crop, but economically viable large-scale production facilities have yet to emerge. Coupling algae cultivation ponds with...

Automakers have the opportunity to utilize bio-based composite materials to lightweight cars while replacing conventional, nonrenewable resource materials. In this study, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) i...

As lightweight materials and advanced combustion engines are being used in both conventional and electrified vehicles with diverse fuels, it is necessary to evaluate the individual and combined imp...

Global production of food, feed, fiber, and bio-based fuel commodities is essential to economic development and human well-being. These ‘soft’ commodities, so named because they are grown and not mine...

Residents of Hawai`i Island pay some of the highest rates for electricity and petroleum products among residents of the United States. Moreover, the islands of the Hawaiian archipelago rely almost ent...

“Life-cycle assessment” is a term that has been “thrown around a lot,” Martin Heller said. But what exactly is it? In essence, LCA is a methodological framework for tracking the environmental impac...

With the lowest access to electricity in the world, the country of Liberia, West Africa, has efforts underway for electrification through a fossil based centralized scheme around its capital city a...

China has proposed its 2020 clean energy target together with the climate change target of reducing CO2 intensity of the economy by 40–45% below the 2005 level. This article investigates the feasib...