Research Publications

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...

Large fleets of motorcycle taxis (boda-bodas) in Kampala, Uganda, and other cities in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) emit significant local and global air pollutants. To reduce emissions, com...

Although widespread deployment of negative emission technologies (NET) is crucial for achieving aggressive mitigation pathways (including nearly all 1.5 degrees Celsius pathways), few studies examine ...

Decarbonizing the electric power system underpins climate change mitigation. While diverse pathways to decarbonized power exist, all pathways include increasing penetrations of low-carbon renewable en...

The burden of temperature-associated mortality and hospital visits is significant, but temperature's effects on non-emergency health outcomes is less clear. This burden is potentially greater in low-i...

Planning and operations of the electric power sector are undergoing radical changes. Climate change mitigation efforts have forced rapid changes to the technology mix. Technologies like wind and solar...

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...

China has pledged to cap its carbon emission by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, making knowledge about how the Chinese general public understands climate change crucial and timely. This ar...

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 supplie...

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...

Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology could increase electric vehicle (EV) revenues and grid flexibility. Prior analyses have quantified potential V2G revenues, but each has ignored at least one of four fa...

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 produc...

Environmental merits are a common motivation for many urban agriculture (UA) projects. One powerful way of quantifying environmental impacts is with life cycle assessment (LCA): a method that estimate...

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...

A sustainable community seeks to protect and enhance the environment, meet social needs, and promote economic success. On average, local governments lack meaningfully connecting their environmental an...

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 automa...

In response to near- and long-term market and policy shifts, power systems are integrating increasingly-distant renewable energy resources. No analyses quantify the spatial heterogeneit...

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 ...

An estimated 6.3 billion metric tons of post-consumer polymer waste has been produced, with the majority (79%) in landfills or the environment. Recycling methods that utilize these waste polymers coul...

There is a growing interest in planning for green infrastructure, as well as a growing recognition of the multifunctional nature of green infrastructure, since it provides many social and environmenta...

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, a...