Projects

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

Development and maintenance of factsheets that illustrate current unsustainable patterns of providing various services to society in the United States (e.g., food, personal transportation, housing)...

Establishment of a framework and pilot project for inventorying and reporting the environmental performance of the University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus. ABSTRACT This project assesses ...

One of the many challenges facing the introduction of fuel cell vehicles is the establishment of an appropriate fueling infrastructure. This research project explores dynamics involved in establish...

Current energy systems that rely primarily on fossil fuels are not sustainable because of the finite nature of fossil fuels and the environmental impact of their use.  Biomass is emerging as a...

This project focuses on the application of the Life-Cycle-Assessment (LCA) methodology to enhance metrics and tools for assessing buildings' environmental impacts. This objective will be accomplish...

At 7.1 million volumes, the University of Michigan (UM) Library is one of the country's largest.  Its Digital Library Initiative has been at the forefront of promoting the use of electronically p...

Automobiles are among society’s most resource intensive products.  They have significant environmental impacts throughout their entire life cycle, including material production, manufacturing,...

Project tasks included creating an Industrial Ecology database in Microsoft Access and an Industrial Ecology web page.  The database contains information on IE projects and programs throughout...

This project was sponsored by Dupont's Educational Aid Program, 2000 - 2001 Science and Engineering Grant.   It served as a pilot for subsequent funding of a two-year project on willow bioma...

Stonyfield Farm's (www.stonyfield.com) concern for the environment prompted it to consider the impacts of its refrigerated yogurt product delivery beyond the traditional focus on container disposal...

The Center for Sustainable Systems CSS (formerly the National Pollution Prevention Center for Higher Education, established by the U.S. EPA in 1991) works towards educating college students, faculty, ...