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Description
Industrial activities have damaged the natural environment at an unprecedented scale. A number of approaches to environmentally responsible design and sustainability have been developed that are aimed at minimizing negative impacts derived from products on the environment. Environmental assessment methods exist as well to measure these impacts. Major environmentally responsible

Industrial activities have damaged the natural environment at an unprecedented scale. A number of approaches to environmentally responsible design and sustainability have been developed that are aimed at minimizing negative impacts derived from products on the environment. Environmental assessment methods exist as well to measure these impacts. Major environmentally responsible approaches to design and sustainability were analyzed using content analysis techniques. The results show several recommendations to minimize product impacts through design, and dimensions to which they belong. Two products made by a manufacturing firm with exceptional commitment to environmental responsibility were studied to understand how design approaches and assessment methods were used in their development. The results showed that the company used several strategies for environmentally responsible design as well as assessment methods in product and process machine design, both of which resulted in reduced environmental impacts of their products. Factors that contributed positively to reduce impacts are the use of measurement systems alongside environmentally responsible design, as well as inspiring innovations by observing how natural systems work. From a managerial perspective, positive influencing factors included a commitment to environmental responsibility from the executive level of the company and a clear vision about sustainability that has been instilled from the top through every level of employees. Additionally, a high degree of collaboration between the company and its suppliers and customers was instrumental in making the success possible.
ContributorsHuerta Gajardo, Oscar André (Author) / Giard, Jacques (Thesis advisor) / White, Philip (Committee member) / Dooley, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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Description
Overview: Transition from the pediatric to adult care setting for 'emerging adults' (ages 18- 26) continues to develop as a growing concern in health care. The Adolescent Transition Program teaches chronically ill 'emerging adults' disease self-management skills while promoting a healthy lifestyle. Transferring this knowledge is vital for successful health

Overview: Transition from the pediatric to adult care setting for 'emerging adults' (ages 18- 26) continues to develop as a growing concern in health care. The Adolescent Transition Program teaches chronically ill 'emerging adults' disease self-management skills while promoting a healthy lifestyle. Transferring this knowledge is vital for successful health care outcomes. Unfortunately, patients who have been transferred to the adult care setting, report that they felt lost in the system due to lack of communication between care teams, inadequate support systems, and insufficient disease management knowledge. To address these gaps, the design of the physical environment must adapt to these challenges while also meeting the needs of various chronic illnesses. Methodology: Design thinking or human-centered design was utilized as the vehicle to discover unmet 'emerging adult' and adolescent health clinician needs. Ethnographic research methods involved observations at adolescent health clinics and in learning environments outside of the healthcare setting as well as interviews with 5 outpatient adolescent clinicians. A survey was also conducted with 16 'emerging adults' to understand how they learn. Lastly, a literature review explored the history of the adolescent, adolescent development, adolescence and chronic illness, and The Adolescent Transition Program. Results: Findings revealed that physical environment must be conducive to meet a variety of clinical and education activities such as chronic disease management, support adolescent development, and should be more human-centered. The space should transform to the patient education or clinical activity rather than the activity transforming to the space. Five design recommendations were suggested to ensure that the outpatient clinic supported both clinician and 'emerging adults' needs.
ContributorsAlmon, Natalie (Author) / Bernardi, Jose (Thesis advisor) / Takamura, John (Committee member) / Damgaard, Anni (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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Description
The need for alternative energy efficient building heating and cooling technologies has given rise to the development and widespread use of Ground Coupled Heat Pump (GCHP) systems. This dissertation looks at the feasibility of using GCHP systems as a viable economic alternative to traditional air source cooling systems (ASHP) for

The need for alternative energy efficient building heating and cooling technologies has given rise to the development and widespread use of Ground Coupled Heat Pump (GCHP) systems. This dissertation looks at the feasibility of using GCHP systems as a viable economic alternative to traditional air source cooling systems (ASHP) for conditioning buildings in the hot, semi-arid climate of Phoenix, Arizona. Despite high initial costs, GCHPs are gaining a foothold in northern climates where heating dominates, in large part due to government incentives. However, due to issues associated with low ground heat exchanger (GHE) efficiency and thermally-induced soil deformations, GCHPs are typically not considered a viable option in hot climates with deep groundwater and low permeability soil. To evaluate the energy performance and technical feasibility of GCHPs in Phoenix, the DOE 5,500 sq.ft small office, commercial building prototype was simulated in EnergyPlus to determine the cooling and heating loads. Next, a commercial software program, Ground Loop Design (GLD), was used to design and simulate the annual energy performance of both vertical (V-GCHPs) and horizontal GCHPs (H-GCHPs). Life cycle costs (LCC) were evaluated using realistic market costs both under dry, as well as fully saturated soil conditions (meant as an upper performance limit achievable by ground modification techniques). This analysis included performing several sensitivity analyses and also investigating the effect of financial rebates. The range of annual energy savings from the GCHP system for space cooling and heating was around 38-40% compared to ASHPs for dry soil. Saturated soil condition significantly affects the length of the GHE. For V-GCHPs, there was about 26% decrease in the length of GHE, thereby reducing the initial cost by 18-19% and decreasing the payback period by 24-25%. Likewise, for H-GCHPs, the length of GHE was reduced by 25% resulting in 22% and 39-42 % reduction in the initial cost and payback period respectively. With federal incentives, H-GCHPs under saturated soil conditions have the least LCC and a good payback periods of 2.3-4.7 years. V-GCHPs systems were been found to have payback periods of over 25 years, making them unfeasible for Phoenix, AZ, for the type of building investigated.
ContributorsTambe, Vaibhavi Parmanand (Author) / Reddy, T Agami (Thesis advisor) / Kavanzanjian, Edward (Thesis advisor) / Bryan, Harvey (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The problem concerning the access to energy has become an increasingly acute matter of concern in low-income areas. Currently an estimated 1.2 billion people don't have access to energy (IEA, 2014). Following the declaration of 2012 as "The International Year of Sustainable Energy for All" by the United Nations General

The problem concerning the access to energy has become an increasingly acute matter of concern in low-income areas. Currently an estimated 1.2 billion people don't have access to energy (IEA, 2014). Following the declaration of 2012 as "The International Year of Sustainable Energy for All" by the United Nations General Assembly (UNDP, 2014), this alarming situation of energy poverty has resulted in the creation of new partnerships between governments, NGOs (Non-Governmental Organization), and large multi-national corporations.

This study is focused on the evaluation of sustainability of a development project in Gutu, Zimbabwe that is initiated by Schneider Electric Corporation's BipBop Program. This program aims to provide access to energy via photo-voltaic cells and battery kits for daily use. It is expected that this project will have a high impact on sustainable development, and creation of value, which in turn is expected to allow participation in global supply chains.

The results gathered from the analysis show that the development project to be piloted in Gutu, Zimbabwe is likely to have a "high impact on sustainability". The project is therefore considered an effective sustainable development project that aims to promote, and develop local Zimbabwean markets through increased transactions and the creation of sustainable supply chains that are expected to recruit Zimbabwe into the global value chains.
ContributorsDemirciler, Barlas (Author) / Parmentier, Mary Jane (Thesis advisor) / Grossman, Gary (Committee member) / Maltz, Arnold (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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Description
The environmental and economic assessment of neighborhood-scale transit-oriented urban form changes should include initial construction impacts through long-term use to fully understand the benefits and costs of smart growth policies. The long-term impacts of moving people closer to transit require the coupling of behavioral forecasting with environmental assessment. Using new

The environmental and economic assessment of neighborhood-scale transit-oriented urban form changes should include initial construction impacts through long-term use to fully understand the benefits and costs of smart growth policies. The long-term impacts of moving people closer to transit require the coupling of behavioral forecasting with environmental assessment. Using new light rail and bus rapid transit in Los Angeles, California as a case study, a life-cycle environmental and economic assessment is developed to assess the potential range of impacts resulting from mixed-use infill development. An integrated transportation and land use life-cycle assessment framework is developed to estimate energy consumption, air emissions, and economic (public, developer, and user) costs. Residential and commercial buildings, automobile travel, and transit operation changes are included and a 60-year forecast is developed that compares transit-oriented growth against growth in areas without close access to high-capacity transit service. The results show that commercial developments create the greatest potential for impact reductions followed by residential commute shifts to transit, both of which may be effected by access to high-capacity transit, reduced parking requirements, and developer incentives. Greenhouse gas emission reductions up to 470 Gg CO2-equivalents per year can be achieved with potential costs savings for TOD users. The potential for respiratory impacts (PM10-equivalents) and smog formation can be reduced by 28-35%. The shift from business-as-usual growth to transit-oriented development can decrease user costs by $3,100 per household per year over the building lifetime, despite higher rental costs within the mixed-use development.
ContributorsNahlik, Matthew (Author) / Chester, Mikhail V (Thesis advisor) / Pendyala, Ram (Committee member) / Fraser, Matthew (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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Description
Currently, consumers throw away products every day, turning those materials into waste. Electronic waste poses special problems when it is not recycled because it may contain toxic components that can leach into landfill surroundings and reach groundwater sources or contaminate soil, and its plastic, metal, and electronic materials do not

Currently, consumers throw away products every day, turning those materials into waste. Electronic waste poses special problems when it is not recycled because it may contain toxic components that can leach into landfill surroundings and reach groundwater sources or contaminate soil, and its plastic, metal, and electronic materials do not biodegrade and are lost rather than recycled. This study analyzes a system that attempts to solve the electronic post-consumer-waste problem by shifting the economic burden of disposal from local municipalities to producers, reducing its environmental impacts while promoting economic development. The system was created in British Columbia, Canada after the province enacted a recycling regulation based on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), a policy strategy that is fast growing globally. The BC recycling regulation requires all e-toy corporations in BC to comply with a government-approved product-stewardship program to recover and dispose of e-toys after they have been discarded by consumers. In response to the regulation, e-toy corporations joined a Canadian non-profit entity that recycles regulated waste. I conducted a case study using in-depth interviews with the stakeholders to identify the outcomes of this program and its potential for replication in other industries. I derived lessons from which corporations can learn to implement stewardship programs based on EPR regulations. The e-toy program demonstrated that creating exclusive programs is neither efficient nor economically feasible. Corporations should expect low recycling rates in the first phases of the program implementation because EPR regulations are long-term strategies. In order to reach any conclusions about the demand of consumers for recycling programs, we need to measure the program's return rates during at least three years. I also derived lessons that apply to the expansion of EPR regulations to a broader scope of product categories. The optimal way to expand EPR policy is to do it by gradually adding new product categories to the regulation on a long-term schedule. By doing so, new categories can take advantage of existing stewardship programs and their infrastructure to recover and recycle the post-consumer products. EPR proved to be an effective option to make corporations start thinking about the end of life of their products.
ContributorsNemer Soto, Andrea (Author) / Dooley, Kevin (Thesis advisor) / Basile, George (Committee member) / White, Philip (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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Description
Diarrheal diseases caused by poor water, sanitation and hygiene continue to kill more children in Sub-Saharan Africa's burgeoning informal urban settlements than in any other part of the world. In recent years, Delegated Management Model (DMM), a partnership in which a utility delegates service management to slum residents have been

Diarrheal diseases caused by poor water, sanitation and hygiene continue to kill more children in Sub-Saharan Africa's burgeoning informal urban settlements than in any other part of the world. In recent years, Delegated Management Model (DMM), a partnership in which a utility delegates service management to slum residents have been promoted as new models to improve services.

This dissertation examines the benefits of DMM by comparing water services in three informal settlements in Kisumu city, Kenya: two slums where DMM has been implemented, and one, a control, where it has not. In addition, the research examined how school-based hygiene interventions could be designed to improve safe water and hygiene knowledge in urban informal settlements. This study compared outcomes of two approaches to hygiene education, one which combined messages with participatory water testing; the second used hygiene messages alone.

Results of the DMM study showed that DMM implementation had lowered water cost and improved provider accountability. However, unhygienic water collection and handling practices on the part of the service users could contaminate drinking water that was clean at the delivery point, thus preventing the intended health outcomes of DMM from being realized. Results of the hygiene education intervention showed that one week after the inventions, hygiene knowledge among students who received the intervention that combined hygiene messages with participatory water testing was significantly improved. Evaluation of the intervention 12 months after implementation showed that the hygiene knowledge gained was sustained.

The research findings suggest that: i) regular monitoring of water quality at the kiosks is essential to ensure that the DMM model achieves intended health outcomes, ii) sanitation conditions at kiosk sites need to be regulated to meet minimum hygiene standards, and iii) customers need to be educated on safe water collection and storage practices. Finally, school-based hygiene education could be made more effective by including hands-on water testing by students. Making sustainable impact on health and wellbeing of slum residents requires not only building effective partnerships for water delivery, but also paying close attention to the other points of intervention within the water system.
ContributorsNzengya, Daniel (Author) / Aggarwal, Rimjhim (Thesis advisor) / Hartwell, Leland (Committee member) / Boone, Christopher (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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Description
Overall, biofuels play a significant role in future energy sourcing and deserve thorough researching and examining for their best use in achieving sustainable goals. National and state policies are supporting biofuel production as a sustainable option without a holistic view of total impacts. The analysis from this research connects to

Overall, biofuels play a significant role in future energy sourcing and deserve thorough researching and examining for their best use in achieving sustainable goals. National and state policies are supporting biofuel production as a sustainable option without a holistic view of total impacts. The analysis from this research connects to policies based on life cycle sustainability to identify other environmental impacts beyond those specified in the policy as well as ethical issues that are a concern. A Life cycle assessment (LCA) of switchgrass agriculture indicates it will be challenging to meet U.S. Renewable Fuel Standards with only switchgrass cellulosic ethanol, yet may be used for California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard. Ethical dilemmas in food supply, land conservation, and water use can be connected to biofuel production and will require evaluation as policies are created. The discussions around these ethical dilemmas should be had throughout the process of biofuel production and policy making. Earth system engineering management principles can help start the discussions and allow anthropocentric and biocentric viewpoints to be heard.
ContributorsHarden, Cheyenne (Author) / Landis, Amy E. (Thesis advisor) / Allenby, Braden (Committee member) / Khanna, Vikas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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Description
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is used in the chemical process sector to compare the environmental merits of different product or process alternatives. One of the tasks that involves much time and cost in LCA studies is the specification of the exact materials and processes modeled which has limited its widespread

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is used in the chemical process sector to compare the environmental merits of different product or process alternatives. One of the tasks that involves much time and cost in LCA studies is the specification of the exact materials and processes modeled which has limited its widespread application. To overcome this, researchers have recently created probabilistic underspecification as an LCA streamlining method, which uses a structured data classification system to enable an LCA modeler to specify materials and processes in a less precise manner. This study presents a statistical procedure to understand when streamlined LCA methods can be used, and what their impact on overall model uncertainty is. Petrochemicals and polymer product systems were chosen to examine the impacts of underspecification and mis-specification applied to LCA modeling. Ecoinvent database, extracted using GaBi software, was used for data pertaining to generic crude oil refining and polymer manufacturing modules. By assessing the variation in LCA results arising out of streamlined materials classification, the developed statistics estimate the amount of overall error incurred by underspecifying and mis-specifying material impact data in streamlined LCA. To test the impact of underspecification and mis-specification at the level of a product footprint, case studies of HDPE containers and aerosol air fresheners were conducted. Results indicate that the variation in LCA results decreases as the specificity of materials increases. For the product systems examined, results show that most of the variability in impact assessment is due to the differences in the regions from which the environmental impact datasets were collected; the lower levels of categorization of materials have relatively smaller influence on the variance. Analyses further signify that only certain environmental impact categories viz. global warming potential, freshwater eutrophication, freshwater ecotoxicity, human toxicity and terrestrial ecotoxicity are affected by geographic variations. Outcomes for the case studies point out that the error in the estimation of global warming potential increases as the specificity of a component of the product decreases. Fossil depletion impact estimates remain relatively robust to underspecification. Further, the results of LCA are much more sensitive to underspecification of materials and processes than mis-specification.
ContributorsMurali, Ashwin Krishna (Author) / Dooley, Kevin (Thesis advisor) / Dai, Lenore (Thesis advisor) / Nielsen, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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Description
Natural rubber and rubber products can be produced from the guayule plant (Parthenium argentatum Gray), which is a low input perennial shrub native to Mexico and the American Southwest. Guayule rubber has the potential to replace Hevea (Hevea brasiliensis) rubber, the most common natural rubber, and synthetic rubber, which is

Natural rubber and rubber products can be produced from the guayule plant (Parthenium argentatum Gray), which is a low input perennial shrub native to Mexico and the American Southwest. Guayule rubber has the potential to replace Hevea (Hevea brasiliensis) rubber, the most common natural rubber, and synthetic rubber, which is derived from petroleum, in a wide variety of products, including automobile tires. Rubbers make up approximately 47% of the analyzed conventional passenger tire's weight, with 31% from synthetic rubber and 16% from natural Hevea rubber. Replacing the current rubber sources used for the tire industry with guayule rubber could help reduce dependency on imported rubber in addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, residues from guayule rubber are being researched as a bioenergy feedstock to further improve the environmental footprint of guayule rubber products. This study used life cycle assessment (LCA), a useful tool to determine environmental impacts from a product or process, to quantify and compare environmental impacts of the raw material extraction, transportation and manufacturing of a conventional and a guayule rubber based passenger tire. The impact results of this comparative LCA identified the major environmental impacts and contributing process and informed how the impacts from the tire production can be reduced through utilization of natural rubber co-products as electricity off-sets and reducing guayule rubber's environmental impacts through agricultural and transportation modifications. Results showed that tire raw material extraction contributed the majority of impacts in all categories, where the production of guayule rubber for guayule tires, and the production of synthetic rubber for conventional tires, were the main contributors. Guayule rubber impacts occurred mainly from electricity consumption for agricultural irrigation, while synthetic rubber is a petroleum-based material resulting in high impacts. Transportation impacts had little significance compared to other stages in the life cycle, except for smog impacts, which occurred mainly from truck transport for guayule tires, and transoceanic transport for conventional tires. Tire manufacturing impacts occurred mainly from electricity use in the facilities and were reduced with the use of guayule rubber in guayule tires.
ContributorsRasutis, Daina (Author) / Landis, Amy E. (Thesis advisor) / Colvin, Howard (Committee member) / Seager, Thomas P. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014