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While many institutions express interest in integrating sustainability into their civil engineering curriculum, the engineering community lacks consensus on established methods for infusing sustainability into curriculum and verified approaches to assess engineers' sustainability knowledge. This paper presents the development of a sustainability rubric and application of the rubric to civil engineering senior design capstone projects to evaluate students' sustainability knowledge at two institutions. The rubric built upon previous assessment approaches to evaluate student reports for nine different factors including dimensions of sustainability, Bloom's taxonomy, sustainability links, drivers for including sustainability, location of sustainability within report, qualitative/quantitative incorporation, sustainability source/reference, and sustainability topics. The sustainability content within Spring 2014, Fall 2014, and Spring 2015 senior design capstone projects from university A (UA, n = 181 students, n[subscript p] = 28 projects) and university B (UB, n = 106 students, n[subscript p] = 15 projects) was evaluated using a mixed-methods approach. The mixed-methods assessment included observation of student project presentations and evaluation of student reports via rubric. Rubric evaluation of student reports revealed that students' performance in senior design projects is primarily driven by their instructor's expectations; if sustainability is not a major deliverable, then students are less likely to integrate sustainability concepts that they learned from prior classes in their reports. To make sustainability a priority, senior design project requirements should be updated to explicitly require holistic sustainability applications. Instructors could approach raising sustainability expectations by engaging a sustainability expert as an advisor to the senior design course and/or utilizing a sustainability expert as project mentor, as demonstrated in the success of one senior design project at each institution during this study.

Background: While petroleum-based plastics are extensively used in health care, recent developments in biopolymer manufacturing have created new opportunities for increased integration of biopolymers into medical products, devices and services. This study compared the environmental impacts of single-use disposable devices with increased biopolymer content versus typically manufactured devices in hysterectomy. Methods: A comparative life cycle assessment of single-use disposable medical products containing plastic(s) versus the same single-use medical devices with biopolymers substituted for plastic(s) at Magee-Women's Hospital (Magee) in Pittsburgh, PA and the products used in four types of hysterectomies that contained plastics potentially suitable for biopolymer substitution. Magee is a 360-bed teaching hospital, which performs approximately 1400 hysterectomies annually. Results: There are life cycle environmental impact tradeoffs when substituting biopolymers for petroplastics in procedures such as hysterectomies. The substitution of biopolymers for petroleum-based plastics increased smog-related impacts by approximately 900% for laparoscopic and robotic hysterectomies, and increased ozone depletion-related impacts by approximately 125% for laparoscopic and robotic hysterectomies. Conversely, biopolymers reduced life cycle human health impacts, acidification and cumulative energy demand for the four hysterectomy procedures. The integration of biopolymers into medical products is correlated with reductions in carcinogenic impacts, non-carcinogenic impacts and respiratory effects. However, the significant agricultural inputs associated with manufacturing biopolymers exacerbate environmental impacts of products and devices made using biopolymers. Conclusions: The integration of biopolymers into medical products is correlated with reductions in carcinogenic impacts, non-carcinogenic impacts and respiratory effects; however, the significant agricultural inputs associated with manufacturing biopolymers exacerbate environmental impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While many institutions express interest in integrating sustainability into their civil engineering curriculum, the engineering community lacks consensus on established methods for infusing sustainability into curriculum and verified approaches to assess engineers' sustainability knowledge. This paper presents the development of a sustainability rubric and application of the rubric to civil engineering senior design capstone projects to evaluate students' sustainability knowledge at two institutions. The rubric built upon previous assessment approaches to evaluate student reports for nine different factors including dimensions of sustainability, Bloom's taxonomy, sustainability links, drivers for including sustainability, location of sustainability within report, qualitative/quantitative incorporation, sustainability source/reference, and sustainability topics. The sustainability content within Spring 2014, Fall 2014, and Spring 2015 senior design capstone projects from university A (UA, n = 181 students, np = 28 projects) and university B (UB, n = 106 students, np = 15 projects) was evaluated using a mixed-methods approach. The mixed-methods assessment included observation of student project presentations and evaluation of student reports via rubric. Rubric evaluation of student reports revealed that students' performance in senior design projects is primarily driven by their instructor's expectations; if sustainability is not a major deliverable, then students are less likely to integrate sustainability concepts that they learned from prior classes in their reports. To make sustainability a priority, senior design project requirements should be updated to explicitly require holistic sustainability applications. Instructors could approach raising sustainability expectations by engaging a sustainability expert as an advisor to the senior design course and/or utilizing a sustainability expert as project mentor, as demonstrated in the success of one senior design project at each institution during this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As continued globalization of the world's economic, environmental, and societal interactions strains the planet to meet anthropogenic demands, universities are striving to integrate sustainability education into engineering curricula intended to prepare students for global challenges facing today's engineers. Concurrently, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) has potential changes related to outcomes related to sustainability. Current practice is to evaluate many student educational outcomes, including those in sustainability, at the end of collegiate careers, primarily through the senior design course. This study compares results from the application of a comprehensive holistic sustainability rubric assessment tool to three years of student projects in two stand-alone sustainable engineering courses and two senior design courses, intended to assess dissimilarities in student outcomes and locate causality, in the context of sustainability. The authors present two potential factors contributing to discrepancies in student outcomes: (1) rubrics do not contain clear elements of sustainability; and (2) senior design course syllabuses are full, and offer strategic approaches to overcoming these barriers institutionally and nationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A North American survey on current sustainable infrastructure practices among water and wastewater utilities was conducted in April 2014. The survey queried utilities on the types of infrastructure practices they use, ranging from renewable energy to infrastructure repair to demand management. The survey also collected information on utilities' sustainability-related reporting, project evaluation, and decision-making. The survey found that less than half of utilities that responded implement some form of sustainability practice. Of the 125 US respondents, 18% of utilities reported publishing a sustainability policy or vision statement. A large fraction of utilities reported not using sustainability tools or metrics; 26% of respondents reported using no metrics, and 46% of utilities used no sustainability tools. Energy and water audits (30 and 28%, respectively) were by far the most common tools used by utilities to evaluate the sustainability of their infrastructure. Less than 4% of respondents reported using Envision, the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure's rating system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current methodological approach for developing sustainable biofuel processes and supply chains is flawed. Life cycle principles are often retrospectively incorporated in the design phase resulting in incremental environmental improvement rather than selection of fuel pathways that minimize environmental impacts across the life cycle. Further, designing sustainable biofuel supply chains requires joint consideration of economic, environmental, and social factors that span multiple spatial and temporal scales. However, traditional life cycle assessment (LCA) ignores economic aspects and the role of ecological goods and services in supply chains, and hence is limited in its ability for guiding decisionmaking among alternatives--often resulting in sub-optimal solutions. Simultaneously incorporating economic and environment objectives in the design and optimization of emerging biofuel supply chains requires a radical new paradigm. This work discusses key research opportunities and challenges in the design of emerging biofuel supply chains and provides a high-level overview of the current "state of the art" in environmental sustainability assessment of biofuel production. Additionally, a bibliometric analysis of over 20,000 biofuel research articles from 2000-to-present is performed to identify active topical areas of research in the biofuel literature, quantify the relative strength of connections between various biofuels research domains, and determine any potential research gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life cycle impacts have been evaluated to compare and assess six tertiary treatment alternatives for secondary treated municipal wastewater for reuse in thermo-electric power plant cooling systems. Impacts during construction and operation of tertiary treatment processes using databases and characterization tools embedded in the process-based life cycle assessment (LCA) software, Simapro v7.3, and the Carnegie Mellon economic input-output LCA (EIO-LCA) 2002 model were estimated. Infrastructure cost estimates from life cycle cost analysis were used as inputs to the EIO-LCA model. Inputs to the process-based analysis included chemical doses added during and after tertiary treatment, approximate transport distance of chemicals from producer to treatment site, and energy generation to operate major equipment during treatment. Impacts considered included global warming potential (in kg CO2 eq.), acidification (in kg SO2 eq.), eutrophication (in kg N eq.) and ecotoxicity (in kg 2,4-D eq.)-estimated using TRACI model characterization factors. The environmental impacts analysis showed that manufacture of chemicals for tertiary treatment and conditioning, and electric power generation were the main processes that contribute to environmental impacts. Thus, alternatives with no or less tertiary treatment are recommended from an environmental impact perspective for reuse of secondary treated wastewater in cooling systems. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 34: 178-187, 2015 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a quantitative tool used to evaluate the environmental impacts of products or processes. With respect to buildings, LCA can be used to evaluate the environmental impacts of an entire building's life cycle. Currently LCA in the building area is used in a limited capacity, primarily to select building products. In order to determine the causality for the lack of whole-building LCAs, focus groups with members of the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) communities were held. This article investigates the current level of knowledge of LCA in the AEC community and then discusses the benefits and barriers to the practice of LCA. In summary, the goal of the research was to identify why LCA is not used to its fullest potential in a whole-building LCA. In an open forum and moderated setting, focus group participants were asked individually to self-identify their experience with LCA, a brief education session on LCA was held, and then benefits and barriers to LCA were discussed. The focus group sessions were transcribed and systematically coded by social researchers in order to analyze the results. Hybrid flow and radar charts were developed. From the focus group results, the most important benefit to LCA was 'provides information about environmental impacts.' The results did not identify a prominent barrier; however, building-related metrics were ascertained to be one of the more crucial barriers. The benefits and barriers classified by this analysis will be utilized to develop a subsequent online survey to further understand the LCA and AEC community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article Amy E. Landis and colleagues respond to comments about their report "Sustainability Metrics: Life Cycle Assessment and Green Design in Polymers" that appeared within a 2010 issue of the journal "Environmental Science & Technology." They discusses the aim of the report, which was an examination of two widely used approaches for evaluating the the sustainability of a product or process, including life cycle assessment (LCA) and green design, and their use in ranking polymers.

While hospitals, sustainable healthcare organizations, and recent peer-reviewed publications have assessed the sustainability of medical products and services, the healthcare industry lacks a framework to effectively inform environmental decision making and quantitatively assess the success of sustainability initiatives for medical products and services. Several recent publications have even expressed a need for better ways to quantify sustainable healthcare practices. To address these needs, this research compared the cradle-to-grave environmental and economic impacts of some of the most common recommendations from checklists: reusable versus disposable medical products, and changes to common medical services. Salient results and conclusions from recent studies focusing on the environmental and economic impacts of various reusable versus disposable medical products and different medical services were synthesized and prioritized. All relevant results related to environmental and economic impacts of reusable versus disposable medical products and the analyzed medical services were also correlated with existing sustainable checklists. The results showed that reusable products were less expensive their single-use disposable alternatives. The dental bur also required the least amount of water for its associated cleaning processes, had the lowest total embodied energy, and had the lowest associated greenhouse gas emissions. These outcomes were likely due to the fact the burs were, by far, the smallest examined product. Based on the results derived from the study, healthcare checklists should be updated to include: optimizing the reusability of medical products; reduce products utilized in custom packs; and evaluating energy recovery potential of utilized products. The results of this study indicate that sustainable healthcare checklists be further validated with more environmental and economic life-cycle analyses related to medical products and services. The primary aim of this paper is to assist hospital employees and administrators with making more informed decisions about the sustainability of their products and services. The scientific value of this paper is underscored by a novel aggregation of life cycle assessment studies pertaining to medical devices and services in order to draw conclusions regarding the overall sustainability of those medical devices and services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guayule ( Parthenium argentatum Gray) is an arid-adapted, low-input perennial shrub native to Mexico and southern Texas that has received considerable attention as an alternative source of natural rubber. It has potential to replace the most common types of rubbers, including synthetic rubber derived from petroleum and natural rubber, which is tapped from Hevea ( Hevea brasiliensis ) trees grown in tropical regions, primarily Southeast Asia. The guayule plant produces natural rubber in its bark parenchyma cells and the shrub is processed to extract the latex. Guayule rubber is comparable in quality to Hevea natural rubber and the residual, non-latex guayule plant material can be transformed into valuable co-products, such as bioenergy. This review introduces the reader to guayule rubber production (agriculture, processing and products) and explores the sustainability implications of guayule rubber commercialization related to the three pillars of sustainability, including environmental impacts of rubber production, economic barriers and advantages, and social implications. The review highlights areas of focus that could be leveraged to help guayule become a more sustainable source of natural rubber. Guayule rubber provides an opportunity to lower the environmental impacts of a major commodity, to develop an industry to support the local U.S, economy, and to reduce U.S. dependence on non-renewable petroleum sources and rubber imports. Proposed recommendations to further support guayule sustainability include improving the efficiency of agricultural and processing activities, utilization of guayule co-products to improve economics of guayule cultivation, and the establishment of a secure guayule rubber supply at a production level that could consistently meet rubber demands. A better understanding of guayule rubber life-cycle impacts could be a way to reduce the environmental footprint of guayule rubber products and expedite its commercialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study evaluated seven different waste management strategies for venue-based events and characterized the impacts of event waste management via waste audits and the Waste Reduction Model (WARM). The seven waste management scenarios included traditional waste handling methods (e.g. recycle and landfill) and management of the waste stream via composting, including purchasing where only compostable food service items were used during the events. Waste audits were conducted at four Arizona State University (ASU) baseball games, including a three game series. The findings demonstrate a tradeoff among CO 2 equivalent emissions, energy use, and landfill diversion rates. Of the seven waste management scenarios assessed, the recycling scenarios provide the greatest reductions in CO 2 eq. emissions and energy use because of the retention of high value materials but are compounded by the difficulty in managing a two or three bin collection system. The compost only scenario achieves complete landfill diversion but does not perform as well with respect to CO 2 eq. emissions or energy. The three game series was used to test the impact of staffed bins on contamination rates; the first game served as a baseline, the second game employed staffed bins, and the third game had non staffed bins to determine the effect of staffing on contamination rates. Contamination rates in both the recycling and compost bins were tracked throughout the series. Contamination rates were reduced from 34% in the first game to 11% on the second night (with the staffed bins) and 23% contamination rates at the third game. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study introduces life cycle assessment as a tool to analyze one aspect of sustainability in healthcare: the birth of a baby. The process life cycle assessment case study presented evaluates two common procedures in a hospital, a cesarean section and a vaginal birth. This case study was conducted at Magee-Womens Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, which delivers over 10,000 infants per year. The results show that heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), waste disposal, and the production of the disposable custom packs comprise a large percentage of the environmental impacts. Applying the life cycle assessment tool to medical procedures allows hospital decision makers to target and guide efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of healthcare procedures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study evaluates the efficacy of green design principles such as the "12 Principles of Green Chemistry," and the "12 Principles of Green Engineering" with respect to environmental impacts found using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. A case study of 12 polymers is presented, seven derived from petroleum, four derived from biological sources, and one derived from both. The environmental impacts of each polymer's production are assessed using LCA methodology standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Each polymer is also assessed for its adherence to green design principles using metrics generated specifically for this paper. Metrics include atom economy, mass from renewable sources, biodegradability, percent recycled, distance of furthest feedstock, price, life cycle health hazards and life cycle energy use. A decision matrix is used to generate single value metrics for each polymer evaluating either adherence to green design principles or life-cycle environmental impacts. Results from this study show a qualified positive correlation between adherence to green design principles and a reduction of the environmental impacts of production. The qualification results from a disparity between biopolymers and petroleum polymers. While biopolymers rank highly in terms of green design, they exhibit relatively large environmental impacts from production. Biopolymers rank 1, 2, 3, and 4 based on green design metrics; however they rank in the middle of the LCA rankings. Polyolefins rank 1, 2, and 3 in the LCA rankings, whereas complex polymers, such as PET, PVC, and PC place at the bottom of both ranking systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Persistent drought poses a significant risk to farmers in the southwest United States. Adopting drought tolerant crops that yield high value products will help mitigate this risk. One potential crop is guayule, which is known for its high natural rubber content. In this work, a process model was created to quantify all materials and energy required to cultivate, harvest, transport, and extract guayule rubber and co-products. This process model was used to enable the first concurrent techno-economic and environmental analysis of guayule. The techno-economic and environmental results include two scenarios: 1) a baseline scenario in which bagasse and resin are sold at predefined values and 2) an on-site heat and power scenario in which bagasse is combusted to generate heat and electricity. The result of the techno-economic analysis for the baseline scenario was a minimum rubber selling price of $3.08 per kg, with co-products of resin and bagasse being sold at $1.00 and $0.10 per kg, respectively. Baseline environmental results show that the largest impacts come from the use of fertilizers in agriculture and natural gas in the rubber extraction facility. The on-site heat and power analysis found an increased minimum rubber selling price of $4.07 per kg, but also a 61% decrease in global warming emissions. Discussion focuses on leveraging results to further the development of guayule by identifying high impact areas where future research may simultaneously reduce costs and environmental impacts. Image 1 • Evaluation of guayule rubber: agriculture, transportation, and extraction. • Baseline minimum guayule rubber selling price determined to be $3.08 per kg. • Harvest yield, rubber percentage, and coproduct values have impact on rubber price. • On-site heat and power from bagasse reduces greenhouse gases but increases costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]