Projects

The goal of the University of Michigan Alcoa Conservation and Sustainability Fellowship Program (ACSFP) is to develop an innovative interdisciplinary research initiative that addresses the link bet...

The Department of Energy and DTE  Energy opened the Hydrogen Technology Park, a first-of-a-kind facility that produces hydrogen and fuel cell electricity, all located in a residential neighborhoo...

The energy efficiency of the average clothes washer in the United States improved by 88.4% from 1981 to 2003 (AHAM 2005). Replacement of old vertical-axis washers with new horizontal-axis washers r...

This project addresses the general lack of understanding about the benefits of large-scale photovoltaic systems by the general public.  Therefore, the design, installation and operation of a 3...

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to perform a quantitative assessment of the life cycle of wastewater.  The assessment begins with the various sources and applicable pretreatment for wastewate...

Aveda Corporation (Aveda), a division of Estée Lauder, is widely considered to be on the forefront of environmental and social issues.  The company is a manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer o...

Ranking highest among all nations in greenhouse gas emissions, the United States faces a profound challenge to reduce emissions that are a direct cause of global atmospheric warming.  Despite war...

This project evaluates current activities in regard to implementing sustainable design strategies into the product development process at Steelcase Inc. A life cycle inventory of three Steelcase produ...

The Birth of MiSo* The Michigan Solar House (MiSo*) began in the summer of 2003 when it was one of nineteen colleges and universities selected by the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energ...

Global production of concrete drives huge flows of material between natural and human systems.The shear magnitude of this material flow, which exceeds 12 billion tons each year, causes significant ...

Average energy consumption of new refrigerators sold in the U.S. decreased by approximately 60 percent between 1980 and 2002. Despite the dramatic energy efficiency improvements driven by energy st...

Alternative Energy Technology (AET) will dominate Michigan’s industrial and technology landscape for the coming decades, as evidenced by the tremendous amount of investment that the Federal government...

The objective of this project is to undertake a technology assessment of the Microgrid System to both describe and quantify its benefits in terms of life-cycle performance, energy efficiency and en...

This study documents the energy intensity and environmental impacts from operation of water and wastewater treatment systems through case-studies in US. Life-cycle energy and impact assessments were c...

Currently, Ben & Jerry’s lacks a comprehensive set of indicators by which to evaluate the environmental, social, and economic impacts of each of its ingredients.  The intersection of these th...

Concrete use in infrastructures such as roadways, bridges and pipes causes huge material flows between natural and human systems. Global concrete construction exceeds 6 billion tons/yr and contribu...

On October 20, 1997, the City Council of Ann Arbor voted to adopt the necessary statutes committing the City to the Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) campaign - an international program with the aim...

The study focused on updating the USAMP (United States Automotive Materials Partnership) Life Cycle Inventory Study methodology and model in order to model the new ULSAB-AVC automobiles. EXECUT...

Current Work This project focuses on the application of the Life-Cycle-Assessment (LCA) methodology to enhance metrics and tools for assessing buildings' environmental impacts. These objectives...

The objective of this project is to achieve increasing levels of energy performance above the prerequisite standard to reduce environmental impacts associated with excessive energy use, in order to sc...

The University of Michigan (UM) Digital Library Initiative has been at the forefront of promoting the use of electronically published books and journals.  Our 2000/2001 AT&T fellowship foc...