This thesis project has been conducted in accordance with The Founder’s Lab initiative which is sponsored by the W. P. Carey School of Business. This program groups three students together and tasks them with creating a business idea, conducting the necessary research to bring the concept to life, and exploring different aspects of business, with the end goal of gaining traction. The product we were given to work through this process with was Hot Head, an engineering capstone project concept. The Hot Head product is a sustainable and innovative solution to the water waste issue we find is very prominent in the United States. In order to bring the Hot Head idea to life, we were tasked with doing research on topics ranging from the Hot Head life cycle to finding plausible personas who may have an interest in the Hot Head product. This paper outlines the journey to gaining traction via a marketing campaign and exposure of our brand on several platforms, with a specific interest in website traffic. Our research scope comes from mainly primary sources like gathering opinions of potential buyers by sending out surveys and hosting focus groups. The paper concludes with some possible future steps that could be taken if this project were to be continued.

Brundtland’s definition of sustainability is the ability to “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs” (IISD, 2021). But what if there are no future generations? Social sustainability, the sector of sustainability that foregrounds the well-being and livelihoods of people (and thereby continuation of humanity), is included in definitions within the sustainability field, but less developed in sustainability practice. In an effort to bridge this gap of knowledge, 14 U.S. cities and over 100 sustainability policies were analyzed for their social sustainability performance. An eight-item analytical framework that deals with differing areas of social equity guided the analysis. Results found that most cities’ sustainability departments fell short of truly addressing social sustainability concerns. Out of the eight items, the most frequently addressed were housing security and racial and gender equality whereas few, if any, cities addressed the more specific social concerns of immigration, technology and media, or arts/cultural preservation. Future research is recommended to gain a better understanding of the ways existing cities can improve in this area.

Currently, recycling is a major issue found throughout the world; however, one of the main issues, small format recycling, is still yet to be solved. The main objective of this paper is to discuss the issues surrounding recycling in general and more specifically small format recycling in order to develop a solution that can solve the problem. Working with InnovationSpace and people in industry, interviews were conducted in order to determine the best course of action to address the need of the sponsor, The Sustainability Consortium. After extensive research and interviews, it was determined that implementing a new MRF attachment to circulate small format back to the main residual stream would be the best course of action. This attachment would be modular for a MRF and could be implemented in order to gather more material while also producing higher quality recycled goods. This has major implications for the recycling industry and could help in making recycling profitable once again.

The goal of this research was to analyze the impact of consumer behavior on the sustainability of the fast fashion industry, specifically in regards to the framework of the Triple Bottom Line. First, a review of relevant literature investigating the three aspects of the Triple Bottom Line (environmental, social, and economic) as it pertains to the fast fashion industry was conducted to provide context for this research. Research methods utilized scholarly articles and journals along with companies’ CSR reports to determine the course of development of the fast fashion industry over time. Additionally, the impact of consumer behavior was investigated and linked to trends observed in the production and business practices of the industry over time. Based on the analysis of the influence of past consumer behavior on the industry, it was clear consumers play a major role in the industry and its sustainability in terms of the Triple Bottom Line. This suggests that the unsustainability of the fast fashion industry is due in part to consumer behavior and the retailers themselves, which is important to understand for the industry going forward as it aims to improve overall sustainability.

As temperatures increase across the United States, some populations are more at risk for heat-related death and illness than others. One of these at-risk demographics is mobile home and trailer park inhabitants, who are disproportionately represented among indoor heat-related deaths (Solís, “Heat, Health”). In this paper, we outline a cost-benefit analysis that was used to calculate the net present economic value of projects related to reducing heat burden on mobile home owners and parks in Maricopa County. We use this model to assess solutions developed by student teams under the Knowledge Exchange for Resilience’s Summer Heat Resilience Challenge. We find that one of the seven solutions has a positive net present value (NPV) even in the lowest effectiveness (10%), while three more solutions have a positive NPV in the mid-level (50%) effectiveness scenario, showcasing their economic viability.