ANN ARBOR—The added weight, electricity demand and aerodynamic drag of the sensors and computers used in autonomous vehicles are significant contributors to their lifetime energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study.
However, when savings from the driving efficiencies associated with self-driving vehicles are factored into the equation, the net result is a reduction in lifetime energy use and associated greenhouse gas emissions of up to 9 percent compared to the conventional vehicles examined in the University of Michigan-led study.
Dr. Thomas P. Lyon recently taught a short course at Shanghai Jiao Tong University on Corporate Environmentalism and Public Policy. Lyon holds the Dow Chair of Sustainable Science, Technology and Commerce, with appointments in both the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and School for Environment and Sustainability. He talked with the Erb Institute about his experience teaching on these topics in Shanghai.
Q: How did this course at Shanghai Jiao Tong University come about?
A new metric for fan efficiency is set to revolutionize how commercial and industrial fans are regulated and considered for utility incentive programs. It will drive significant energy savings and technological improvements, and it will also help consumers, including system designers, contractors, and facility engineers, to properly select fans.
Like all markets, social-benefit markets provide a platform for buyers and sellers to exchange commodities, but they are distinguished by their unique goal of improving social and environmental conditions. For example, most people are familiar with carbon trading markets, which aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Social-benefit markets are not only a promising strategy to combat pressing social and environmental problems; they are also contributing significantly to the world economy, with trading volumes estimated to reach $1 trillion by 2020.
The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) works to improve livelihoods and spur economic growth and grassroots development in disadvantaged communities in Morocco. HAF brought in Erb alum Dannan Hodge to help with the organization’s potential carbon credit projects. Hodge’s three-week project was funded by the Land O’Lakes Farmer to Farmer initiative, organized through the International Executive Service Corp.
Dow recognized that it is often challenging for employees to see the impact that their day to day job has on the overall sustainability performance of the company. As such, Dow needed to find a way to bridge this gap and mobilize employees at the individual level as part of redefining the role of business in society at a corporate level.
On January 4, 2018, The Department of the Interior issued a statement announcing U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke had proposed "the next step for responsibly developing the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program (National OCS Program) for 2019-2024, which proposes to make over 90 percent of the total OCS acreage and more than 98 percent of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources in federal offshore areas available to consider for future exploration and development." -- Department of the Interior, 1/4/2018
At the end of this month, on January 30th, the Erb Institute will host Stangis as part of our C-Suite Speaker Series, for a discussion on technology, consumer products and the future of sustainability. Established companies are leveraging new technologies to achieve both social and shareholder value.
The prevailing wisdom says that it pays to be green. However, some research has demonstrated negative market consequences to companies’ voluntary emissions reductions. Why is this? One answer may lie in “regulator discretion.”
Erb Faculty Director, Joe Arvai published in Environment Systems & Decisions
Article
Recent studies suggest that people the world over are becoming increasingly concerned about the health of environmental systems. However, research has also shown that many people still fail to make decisions that will result in even small behavioral changes that, when aggregated across society, might lead to positive environmental consequences. One of the explanations often given for this disconnect is that many people are insufficiently aware of the connections between their decisions, behaviors, and environmental problems.
