Sustainability, Infrastructure and Communities Focus on Opportunities

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Sustainability, Infrastructure and Communities-
Focus on Opportunities -
Arpad Horvath Associate Professor Department of
Civil and Environmental Engineering University
of California, Berkeley horvath_at_ce.berkeley.edu Fe
bruary 14, 2007
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Outline of Presentation

• Where is sustainability research today?
• Sustainability research at UC Berkeley
• Players, networks, timing, trends
• Joint opportunities
• Involvement of industry

3
The Grand Vision Sustainable
Development

• Definition Meeting the needs of the current
  generation without sacrificing the ability of the
  future generations to meet their needs.
  (Brundtland Commission, 1987)
• Maintain societal progress while improving
  environmental quality and quality of life
• Environmental goals
• reduce non-renewable resource use
• manage renewable resource use for sustainability
• reduce toxic substance emissions (heavy metals,
  solvents,)
• reduce greenhouse gas and ozone depleting
  substance emissions
• Educate the stakeholders
• Do good by doing well
• profit revenue - cost

4
The Triple Bottom Line of Sustainability
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Courtesy B. Boughton, DTSC
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Urban Communities of the Third Millennium

• Sustainable
• Livable
• Engaging
• Transit oriented
• Wired
• Renewable
• ENR, March 12, 2001, Cover Story

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Characterizing Sustainability Research

• 30 years of publications and projects
• 1st phase we have a global problem
• Mostly descriptive, qualitative
• Stated problem, categories of effects (e.g., air
  emissions), but few numbers
• 2nd phase lets analyze/blame someone low
  hanging fruit
• Industries automobile, chemical, petroleum,
  electric power, cement
• Advent of industrial ecology, life-cycle
  assessment (LCA)
• Mostly incomplete assessments (e.g., not all life
  cycle phases, inventory but no impact assessment)
• Initial savings by companies
• 3rd phase more specific assessments
• Data collection for specific studies
• Services and network analysis, not just
  manufacturing processes and products
• Supply-chain informed LCA
• Advances in impact assessment

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Observations about Sustainability Research

• 1. Need to incorporate triple bottom line
  environment, economy, equity
• - need a unified theory and implementation to
  link them
• 2. Sustainability solutions are integrated
  solutions - Need to learn from successful
  businesses
• 3. Need to assess a broad range of environmental
  effects sustainability is not just about
  energy!
• 4. Need international networks for research and
  projects
• 5. Need quantitative studies
• 6. Need to analyze services, not just products
  and processes

9
Integrated Facilities Engineering Companies in
the U.S.
Bechtel
10
Percentage of Waste Recycled in the U.S., Late
1990s
100

80
60
40
20
0
Lead
Asphalt
Steel
Aluminum Cans
Concrete Rebars
Paper
Plastic Bottles
Copper
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LCA Framework
Source U.S. EPA
A concept and methodology to evaluate the
environmental effects of a product or activity
holistically, by analyzing the whole life cycle
of a particular product, process, or activity
(U.S. EPA, 1993).
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LCA Methodology ISO 14040
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Stage 1 Materials Extraction
Stage 2 Materials Processing
Stage 3 Component Manufacturing
Stage 4 Assembly
Stages 5 6 Use and Disposal
Coal Mining
Coal burning in power plant
Electricity
Chromium
Ore Mining
Keyboard
Stainless Steel
Extrusion
Chemical Reduction
Iron
Iron Ore Mining
Plastics
Injection Molding
Monitor
Petrochemicals production
Oil Drilling
Aluminum
Rolling and Shot Peening
Electrolysis
Bauxite Ore Mining or recycled aluminum collection
Housing
Hard Drive
Copper
Copper Ore Mining
Wire drawing
Cooling Fan
Computer
Screws
Video Card
Cobalt
Wires
Casserite Mining
Separation
Motherboard
Silicon
Purification and polishing
Refinement
Quartz Mining
Glass
This flowchart disregards all the forms of
energy required for each stage of the supply
chain (transportation fuel, electricity, etc)
Figure 1 Life Cycle of a Computer
C. Reich-Weiser, UCB
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The 1.7 Kilogram Microchip
Williams, E. (2002) The 1.7 Kilogram Microchip
Energy and Material Use in the Production of
Semiconductor Devices. EST, 365504-5510.
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Buildings and the Environment

• Buildings integral part of infrastructure systems
  (or civil systems), and the boundaries between
  these terms are fuzzy
• The built environment has a large impact on the
  natural environment, economy, health, and
  productivity
• Buildings account for 17 of worlds fresh water
  withdrawals, 25 of worlds wood harvest, and 40
  of worlds materials and energy flows

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U.S. Buildings and the Environment

• The construction industry accounts for 8 of
  U.S. GDP
• Similar in industrialized countries, even bigger
  economic share in industrializing countries
• U.S. construction industry larger than the GDP of
  212 national economies (CAs 150 economies)
• 54 of U.S. energy consumption is directly or
  indirectly related to buildings and their
  construction
• In the U.S., buildings account for
• 65 of electricity consumption
• 30 of GHG emissions
• 30 of raw material use
• 30 of waste output (136 M tons annually)
• 12 of potable water consumption

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Categories of Natural Resources

• Energy
• Raw materials
• Land/Habitat
• Terrestrial Ecosystems
• Marine Ecosystems
• Biodiversity
• etc.

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Ecosystems and Biodiversity

• Terrestrial and marine ecosystems greatly
  endangered
• Loss of forest, oil spills, overfishing, etc.
• Current rate of extinction is several orders of
  magnitude greater than the natural background
• In the U.S.
• over 500 known species are now extinct
• 1,200 species listed as endangered

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Consortium on Green Design and Manufacturing

• Multidisciplinary campus group integrating
  engineering, policy, public health, and business
  in green engineering, management, and pollution
  prevention 
• Strategic areas
• Civil infrastructure systems
• Electronics industry
• Servicizing products
• 9 faculty from Civil and Environmental
  Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Haas School
  of Business, Energy and Resources Group, School
  of Public Health
• 10 current Ph.D. students
• 28 alumni

Since 1993
http//cgdm.berkeley.edu
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Green Engineering and Management Research Network
at UC Berkeley

• Consortium on Green Design and Manufacturing
  (CGDM)
• Network for Energy and Environmentally Efficient
  Economy (N4E)
• Center for Future Urban Transport, A Volvo Center
  of Excellence
• Urban Sustainability Initiative (USI)
• Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory
  (RAEL)
• Project Production Systems Laboratory (P2SL)
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL)
• Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI)

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Green Engineering Management Some Recent
Research Projects (1999-2006)

• Infrastructure
• Buildings
• Pavements
• Electricity generation
• Water treatment
• Used oil
• Shredder residue
• Freight transportation
• Electronics industry
• Computer plastics recycling
• Services
• Telework/telecommuting
• News delivery using wireless and wired
  telecommunications
• Teleconferencing versus business travel

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Green Engineering Management Selection of
Current Research Projects

• Infrastructure
• Passenger transportation modes
• Green logistics
• Building life cycle and indoor air quality
• Data centers
• Services
• Digital media through wired and wireless
  telecommunications

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Urban Sustainability Initiative

• Joint effort of UC Berkeley, the U.S. National
  Academies, and non-governmental organizations
  (Urban Age, Healthy Communities Network)
• Goal combine cutting edge research and
  development with innovative capacity building
  programs and a global information exchange
  network to foster the spread of effective urban
  sustainability practices and technologies in
  growing cities throughout the developing world.
• Facilitate linkages between project partners,
  local scientific communities, civil society, the
  private sector and the official leadership of
  rapidly growing cities
• Accelerate the application of existing
  technologies and practices, and the development
  and demonstration of new technologies and
  practices that improve the environment
• Creating an extensive urban sustainability
  information network to share technologies and
  best practices for the benefit of cities around
  the world.
• Create living laboratories in cities in Asia,
  Latin America, and Africa, and to test new
  approaches of environmentally sustainable urban
  development.

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UCB Preliminary Inventory 2005
Required and Optional Reporting to California
Climate Action Registry
6.4 metric tons/person
Source Fahmida Ahmed, CalCAP
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UCB Preliminary Inventory 2005
Additional Optional Reporting
12 metric tons/person
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Trends
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Carbon Performance
Each of these campuses looks at emissions sources
comparable to the required and selected optional
reporting package.
Source Fahmida Ahmed, CalCAP
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http//sustainable-engineering.berkeley.edu/
Engineering for Sustainability and Environmental
Management Certificate Program
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Players, Networks in the U.S.

• Universities
• Carnegie Mellon, Michigan, Arizona State, Texas,
  Washington
• Research labs (e.g., Lawrence Berkeley National
  Lab)
• The leaders are ICT companies
• LEED as a green scoring system

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Exciting Times in the U.S.

• AB 32, Global Warming Solutions Act, by 2020,
  return GHG emissions to 1990 levels (and boost
  annual GSP by 60B and create 17,000 jobs)
• UC Berkeleys 500M Energy Biosciences Institute
  (BP-funded)
• U.S. considering GHG reduction legislation and
  industrial action

The Economist, 4/29/04
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Greening Building Practices in China

• Tasks
• Assess the current construction practices of
  commercial buildings and high-rise residential
  buildings in China.
• Recommend environmentally less burdensome
  building materials and processes.
• Short term Focus on major materials (e.g.,
  concrete, steel, aluminum, flooring, with special
  focus on cement) and processes (e.g.,
  construction equipment, temporary materials).
• Later evaluate the engineering, economic and
  environmental feasibility of using waste
  materials and byproducts (such as fly ash,
  demolition material, waste tires) in
  construction.

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Indoor Air Quality in China

• Task
• Assess the effect of the indoor environments on
  building occupants.
• What are the indoor air quality (IAQ)
  implications of using common building (e.g.,
  carpet and paint) and maintenance materials
  (e.g., cleaners)?
• What are the IAQ implications from the
  introduction of pollution from outdoor air? China
  has severely polluted urban air and might
  consider IAQ control by means of filtering supply
  air in addition to controlling indoor emission
  sources.

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Opportunities to Use Innovations in Practice

• Need to get all the stakeholders networking and
  integrating (clients want intergated, packaged
  services, want to deal with one company)
• Need to get problem focused
• problems are global
• GHG and other environmental studies of U.S.,
  Chinese, Indian, etc. companies, industries,
  government entities
• ICT industry Data centers study, construction,
  operation
• Biofuels
• Lean and green

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Connecting Green and Lean Project Production
Systems Laboratory

• Develop new project management theory based on
  understanding of production systems (esp. Toyota
  Production System)
• Reform project management practice

http//p2sl.berkeley.edu
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Opportunities in Research and Development

• Location U.S., Europe, China
• Transformational, interdisciplinary research and
  development
• Modeling of infrastructure
• Sustainability metrics
• E.g., green building scoring system for the EU
• LCA model for Finland, Nordic countries, EU
• Data centers
• Computer-based decision-support tools
• Education
• Joint educational initiatives in, e.g., China

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Opportunities for Industrial Involvement

• GHG developments in California, U.S., China,
  India
• Scientific and management knowledge transfer,
  consulting
• service industries, and their supply chains have
  a tremendous opportunity to present a unified
  product (e.g., Bechtel, Xerox, Kodak)
• ICT industries
• Biofuels
• Data centers
• ICT products/services helping urban communities
  (e.g., telework, mobile work)
• Green does not have to be synonimous with cheap
• Green can bring competitive advantages

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Industrial Ecology

• The (deliberate and rational) concept requires
  that an industrial system be viewed not in
  isolation from its surrounding systems, but in
  concert with them.
• It is a systems view in which one seeks to
  optimize the total materials cycle from virgin
  material, to finished material, to component, to
  product, to obsolete product, to ultimate
  disposal.
• Factors to be optimized include resources,
  energy, and capital. Graedel and Allenby

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Future Work

• Continued adaptation of the latest environmental
  science and management methods and results
• hybrid LCA
• Need to assess indirect as well as direct
  environmental effects, and reveal the supply
  chain implications
• Takeback, recycling regulations
• Revisit past research questions, and redo some
  analyses
• Quantify the benefits on society
• Focus on impact assessment, not just on inventory
• Embrace analysis of social effects

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Future Plans

• Campus research center in Technology and
  Sustainability.
• Formalize Technology and Sustainability
  certificate program.
• Accelerate research on green and lean project
  delivery.
• Develop green modules for engineering courses.
• Involve more faculty in teaching and research.

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Buildings and the Environment

• Buildings integral part of infrastructure systems
  (or civil systems), and the boundaries between
  these terms are fuzzy
• The built environment has a large impact on the
  natural environment, economy, health, and
  productivity
• Buildings account for 17 of worlds fresh water
  withdrawals, 25 of worlds wood harvest, and 40
  of worlds materials and energy flows

42
U.S. Buildings and the Environment

• The construction industry accounts for 8 of
  U.S. GDP
• Similar in industrialized countries, even bigger
  economic share in industrializing countries
• U.S. construction industry larger than the GDP of
  212 national economies (CAs 150 economies)
• 54 of U.S. energy consumption is directly or
  indirectly related to buildings and their
  construction
• In the U.S., buildings account for
• 65 of electricity consumption
• 30 of GHG emissions
• 30 of raw material use
• 30 of waste output (136 M tons annually)
• 12 of potable water consumption

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Composition of the U.S. GDP (2002)
U.S. Department of Commerce, www.census.gov
The Economist, May 8, 2003
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Cities of the Third Millennium

• Sustainable
• Livable
• Engaging
• Transit oriented
• Wired
• Renewable
• ENR, March 12, 2001, Cover Story

45
Characteristics of Civil Systems

• Products and processes
• Manufacturing and service
• Long service lifetimes
• Slower obsolescence (?) compared to industrial
  products
• Large, complicated, in the public eye
• Considered underfunded, in bad shape (ASCE
  Report Card 1998, 2001, 2005)
• Decisions have significant economic,
  environmental and social consequences

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Current Issues - General

• Visual and physical impacts of infrastructure
• Reduction of materials use
• End-of-life options landfilling, reuse,
  recycling
• Environmental discharges (to air, water, land and
  underground wells) in all phases of construction
• Hazardous and non-hazardous waste generation and
  disposal
• Environmental efficiency of construction
  equipment
• Energy implications of construction
• etc.

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Current Issues - Specific

• Toxic chemical emissions
• Conventional pollutant emissions
• Greenhouse gas and ozone-depleting chemicals use
  and emissions
• Embedded energy in construction materials
• Energy consumption by construction machines
• Nonrenewable and renewable resource use
• Reuse and recycling of construction materials
• Solid and nonsolid waste implications
• etc.

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Existing Solutions

• Rating tools
• EIA
• LCA

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How Much Material Do We Use?

• A total of 2.8 billion metric tons of different
  materials used in the U.S. in 1995 (USGS)
• 3.5 billion metric tons in 2000
• 81 by volume were construction materials, mostly
  stone, and sand and gravel

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Use of Construction Mineral and Material
Commodities in the U.S. ton
Ewell ME (2001), Mining and quarrying trends.
Minerals Yearbook, Vol IMetals and Minerals.
U.S. Geological Survey
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Current Design Method

• Current building design decisions are made based
  on
• Safety
• Functionality
• Cost
• Environmental issues are often only addressed
  qualitatively or simplistically (e.g., using
  recycled-content flooring or lead-free paint)

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Objectives of Horvaths Research Group

• Material and energy resource consumption
• Environmental impacts of onsite construction
  processes
• Overall life-cycle impacts of construction
• Decision support tool for the building industry

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Our Comprehensive Framework
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Scope and detail of our analysis
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Our Research
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European U.S. Office Building Comparison

• Located in Southern Finland / Midwest U.S.
• Typical 4-story / 5-story building 4,400 m2
  area
• 17,300 m3 / 16,400 m3 volume
• Structural frame
• pre-fabricated concrete elements, sandwich-panels
  
• steel-reinforced concrete beam-column system,
  shear walls at core
• Exterior envelope brick veneer on concrete /
  aluminum curtain wall
• Interior finishes typical commercial office
  space
• Construction materials 1,190 kg/m2 / 1,290 kg/m2
• Maintenance materials 240 kg/m2 / 70 kg/m2
• Heat 36 kWh/m3/yr (average) / Natural gas 17.5
  m3/m2/yr
• Electricity 70 kWh/m2/yr (30 below average) /
  18456 kWh/m2/yr
• 54 different building elements consisting of 23
  different building materials
• Service life 50 years

57
EU Case Study Results
58
U.S. Case Study Results
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Comparison of Contribution of Life-cycle Phases
Finland
U.S.
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DATA QUALITY ASSESSMENT
Finland
U.S.
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U.S. Case Study Results

• Use phase dominates all categories except PM10
• Materials and maintenance phases each have a
  proportion of 22 or more in a single emission
  category
• Construction and end-of-life phases have
  relatively insignificant impacts overall

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U.S. Case Study Data Quality
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U.S. Case Study Results
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Case Study Steel v. Concrete Frame Buildings

• 47,360 ft2, five-story building
• located in Minnesota
• 50 year use phase
• aluminum-framed, glass panel curtain wall
• built-up roofing
• interior finishes include painted partition
  walls, acoustical drop ceilings, and carpet or
  ceramic tile flooring
• mechanical system provides both heating and
  cooling

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Steel v. Concrete Frame Construction Phase
(Frame Only) Energy Consumption
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Steel v. Concrete Frame Building Whole Building
Life-cycle Energy Consumption
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Case Study University of California, Santa
Barbara - Bren School of Environmental Science
Management
Source Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership
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UCSB Bren School

• Completed April 2002 for 24 million
• 7,900 m2 administrative and laboratory space
• Combination steel and concrete frame
• U.S. Green Building Council LEED Platinum Rating
• Green changes include recycled content
  materials, increased HVAC efficiency, building
  orientation to optimize use of natural lighting
  and ocean breezes

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Bren School Life-cycle Assessment

• 50-year service life assumed
• Used 90 construction document cost estimate with
  quantities and installed costs
• material costs determined using R.S. Means guides
• Estimated equipment types and duration of use
  with R.S. Means guides
• Transportation of materials and equipment
  estimated based on material weight and truck
  capacity
• Building use phase electricity and natural gas
  based on mechanical engineers energy analysis
• Maintenance based on typical material replacement
  ages

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Bren School Life-cycle Assessment
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Proportions of Bren School Building LCA
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Bren School Emissions Analysis

• Use phase dominates energy, CO2, SO2, and NOX
  emissions
• Materials production dominates CO emissions
• PM emissions are similar in the materials and use
  phases
• Overall, construction is a small part of
  life-cycle environmental impacts, but as use
  phase becomes more efficient, the materials and
  construction phases are expected to increase in
  significance
• The end-of-life phase is also small, but more
  research, more detailed assessment is needed
• Maintenance phase emissions are similar in
  significance to the construction phase

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Bren School Emissions from Major Phases
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Connecting Green and Lean Project Production
Systems Laboratory

• Develop new project management theory based on
  understanding of production systems (esp. Toyota
  Production System)
• Reform project management practice

http//p2sl.berkeley.edu
75
Conclusions

• LCA necessary for better decision-making
  throughout the life cycle of a building
• Control electricity and natural gas use with
  efficient design
• Control materials and maintenance impacts by
  material choices
• LCA should permeate green building scoring
  systems (e.g., LEED)
• We are creating a decision-support tool for total
  building LCA (BuiLCA)

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Percentage of Waste Recycled in the U.S., Late
1990s
100

80
60
40
20
0
Lead
Asphalt
Steel
Aluminum Cans
Concrete Rebars
Paper
Plastic Bottles
Copper
78
Annual Waste Stream of Different Materials
Recycled, Late 1990s
79
Asphalt Pavement Milling Machine
80
Milling Machine
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Direct and Indirect Energy Use (electricity plus
fuels) by the Major Sectors of the U.S. Economy
Rosenblum, J., Horvath, A., and Hendrickson, C.
(2000), Environmental Implications of Service
Industries. Environmental Science Technology,
ACS, 34(22), November 15, pp. 4669-4676.
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Direct and Indirect Generation of RCRA Hazardous
Wastes by the Major Sectors of the U.S. Economy
Rosenblum, J., Horvath, A., and Hendrickson, C.
(2000), Environmental Implications of Service
Industries. Environmental Science Technology,
ACS, 34(22), November 15, pp. 4669-4676.
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Characterizing ICT Environment Research

• One of the first three industries to lead design
  for environment and pollution prevention research
  and practice (with automobiles and chemicals)
• 12 years of publications
• 1st phase we want to be a clean industry
• Efforts of a rapidly growing industry to
  establish environmental credibility
• Prominence of ICT industries grew parallel to
  prominence of environmental management
• Early adopter of industrial ecology, design for
  disassembly, green materials selection,
  life-cycle assessment (LCA)
• But largely incomplete assessments (e.g., not all
  life cycle phases, inventory but no impact
  assessment)
• Mostly energy and toxic emissions related
• Initially focused on components, then trying to
  assess entire systems
• 2nd phase more specific assessments, including
  the supply chain and recyclers
• Involving the supply chain, but also the waste
  management industry/recyclers
• Data collection for specific studies
• Supply-chain informed LCA
• 3rd phase we bring environmental benefits to
  society
• Services and network analysis, not just
  manufacturing processes and products
• Internet, telework
• Servicizing products
• Critical mass still missing in many areas