Research Publications

Electricity is a key energy carrier for residential, commercial and industrial activities, particularly in developed countries. In the United States, electricity generation accounts for 39% of ...

The photovoltaic (PV) system on the roof of the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE) serves as another model for the installation of PV systems in urbanized areas, which could play a maj...

Water is essential for the production of food and energy, human and ecosystem health, and much more.  Our clean water needs range from the water we drink to the water we use to wash clothes.&nb...

In 1989, the U.S. EPA and the then Michigan Department of Natural Resources (now the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality) issued orders to compel communitiesand counties discharging wet weath...

Aveda Corporation's product delivery system (PDS) is evaluated in terms of energy consumption and global warming potential (GWP). Two components of the PDS are analyzed in this study:  the tertia...

We review the economics of electricity generated, or conserved, from a diverse range of fossil-fuel, nuclear, and renewable energy sources and energy efficiency options. At the same time, we survey th...

Vehicles typically deteriorate with accumulating mileage and emit more tailpipe air pollutants per mile. Although incentive programs for scrapping old, high-emitting vehicles have been implemented ...

EDITOR's NOTE: This report is temporarily unavailable and will be posted again once a correction on a metric pertaining to the nuclear fuel cycle is made.  - October 25, 2010.  See also the ...

Land use is an increasingly important component of sustainability evaluations, and numerous performance metrics have evolved to meet this need. The selection of appropriate land-use metrics for dec...

On October 16, 2003 the Secretary of Interior, Gale A. Norton, signed the Quantification Settlement Agreement in Boulder City, Nevada. This constitutes a milestone agreement for water allocation in...

Over the last decade, enormous strides have been made in creating engineered cementitious composites (ECC) with extreme tensile ductility, on the order of several hundred times that of normal concr...

Using a Life Cycle Assessment perspective, this research examines optimal refrigerator lifetimes that minimize cumulative energy consumption and cost over the time horizon between 1985 and 2020. Dynam...

This study develops a framework and analytical model based on life-cycle assessment (LCA) for NextEnergy to evaluate the environmental and energy life cycle performance of its Microgrid Pavilion (here...

INTRODUCTION: Microgrid systems powered with distributed generation (DG) technologies offer an alternative to the conventional system of centralized power and on-site thermal heating and cooling. A...

Biomass is a key renewable energy source expected to play an important role in US electricity production under stricter emission regulations and renewable portfolio standards. Willow energy crops a...

This Toolkit is designed to provide the Vermont dairy farmer with information on how his or her current practices compare economically, socially and environmentally to best management practices. Addit...

Agricultural practices can create significant negative environmental, social and economic impacts. These impacts are becoming increasingly important for companies that rely upon agricultural inputs fo...

A life-cycle cost (LCC) model was developed to evaluate the sustainability of bridge decks. This study compared two bridge deck systems: one with conventional concrete (CC) joints, the other with engi...

A life cycle assessment (LCA) model was developed to compare the sustainability of alternative concrete bridge deck designs: one a conventional steel reinforced concrete (SRC) deck with mechanical ste...

Remanufacturing restores used automotive engines to likenew condition, providing engines that are functionally equivalent to a new engine at much lower environmental and economic costs than the manufa...