Research Publications

The water use associated with electricity generation and consumption has been the focus of research for decades. This study provides an overview of the water–electricity nexus from the perspectives...

Life cycle assessment (LCA) analysts are increasingly being asked to conduct life cycle‐based systems level analysis at the earliest stages of technology development. While early assessments provid...

As the public conversation about climate change gets increasingly serious, many Americans may be wondering: How do my individual choices affect climate change? Household consumption – food, hou...

This technical note discusses the synergetic attributes of four emerging technologies that have significant potentials to enhance smart and sustainable urban mobility, and ultimately improve urban ...

The Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded that climate change will have significant impacts on global water resources. The risk of prod...

China faces increasingly severe water stress from its limited, unevenly distributed water resources and rapid economic growth. Interregional trade of goods and services within China further leads t...

Vehicle electrification is expanding worldwide and has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) from the transportation sector. Batteries are a key component of energy storage system...

Meal kits contain ingredients for cooking a meal that are pre-portioned, packaged, and delivered to a consumer’s residence. Life cycle environmental impacts associated with climate change, acidific...

Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) are expected to yield significant improvements in safety, energy efficiency, and time utilization. However, their net effect on energy and environmental outc...

Multiple studies have quantified the ecosystem services of green infrastructure for both public and environmental health. This study evaluates and compares accessibility of low-income and marginali...

An input–output (IO) model can be regarded as a network in which nodes represent sectors and directional, weighted links stand for IO transactions between sectors. The integration of IO models with...

Deep decarbonization of electricity production is a societal challenge that can be achieved with high penetrations of variable renewable energy. We investigate the potential of energy storage techn...

Essential for society to function, the production and consumption of food, energy, and water (FEW) are deeply intertwined, leading to calls for a nexus approach to understand and manage the complex...

Flat roofs represent a significant proportion of urban areas and perform a variety of functions, each of which is responsible for a corresponding variety of effects on the urban environment and its...

Purpose Sustainable diets are an environmental, economic, and public health imperative, but identifying clear intervention points is challenging. Decision-making will require descriptive analyses...

Although recent studies of autonomous taxis (ATs) have begun to explore potential environmental implications of fleet deployment, little is known about their impacts over the long term. We present ...

Emerging technologies play important roles in shaping future mobility systems and impacting sustainability performance of the transportation sector in major economies, such as the United States of ...

Informal footpaths known as desire lines crisscross the city of Detroit and are visible from space. Despite their prevalence, especially in postindustrial cities, no comprehensive study of desire line...

This research presents the barriers and incentives faced by small-scale farmers in engaging in aquaponics systems in the São Carlos, Brazil community. Aquaponics is an agricultural system that comb...

Express delivery plays a vital role in modern economy, but also brings great concern on post-consumer packaging waste. This study is therefore designed to characterize the material flows and enviro...

Although ride sharing as a way to improve transportation efficiency is not new, the scale of ride sharing has historically been limited due to safety concerns and logistics challenges. Recent devel...

Across the United States, 120 cities, 11 counties and 6 cities have made commitments to transition to 100 percent renewable energy. Leelanau County in Northwest Michigan has a small community compr...

On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, destroying most of its energy infrastructure and triggering an 11-month blackout. This research looks to micro-grids and their potential f...

Machine dishwashers are a unique consumer appliance since they are often substituted with manual dishwashing. Although some studies indicate machine dishwashers use less energy and water than manua...