This case study describes the challenges that con-front the German publishing industry as it attempts to implement environmentally responsible purchas-ing of paper. German consumers are considered leaders in environmental awareness, and many actively sup-port environmental organizations. This case focuses on how industry and individual companies have responded to demands from...
Raw and biologically stabilized Kraft mill effluents were introduced
into laboratory artificial streams at a ratio of 15 ml per liter
of water over a two year period. Effluent from the stabilization pond
of a second mill was introduced at concentrations of from 5 to 40 ml
per liter of...
Improving the understanding the relations of sustainability behaviors in manufacturing systems and actively engaging with manufacturers (especially SMEs) in sustainability efforts is key to the long-term success of U.S. industry and the natural environment. This study addresses this urgent need by establishing a systemic approach for the design of costing...
The agricultural production of peppermint has been shown to contribute significant quantities of nitrate-nitrogen to groundwater recharge. In an effort to provide new tools for increasing nitrogen efficiency within peppermint production, three research questions were proposed: i) How should plant tissue samples be collected to achieve the greatest precision when...
Pollution prevention is promoted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other governmental agencies as a method of reducing the generation of wastes and pollutants. Pollution prevention is also called source reduction because it reduces wastes early in the production process. Source reduction has been used by some industries to...
Everyone involved with the mining and petroleum industries, either directly or indirectly, is aware of the mounting concern by the general public with the possibly deleterious effects of mineral exploration and development on the environment. Oftentimes the outcry about "desecration of the land" is not based on actual knowledge of...
The demand from consumers for more sustainable products, and the need to comply with government regulations motivates manufacturers to evaluate their operations for opportunities to reduce environmental impact and improve economic competitiveness. Manufacturers have actively improved the sustainability performance of their products through the use of sustainability assessment methods and...
Multiobjective Decision Making (MODM) has been
suggested for the solution of complicated decision
problems. Decision analysis in numerous areas, including
industrial energy and environmental planning, necessarily
requires consideration of multiple conflicting
objectives. MODM has been successfully applied to
a number of these problems of this type. Moreover, it
has the...
Softwood plywood is one of the structural wood products studied in the CORRIM
II effort to document the environmental performance of wood product in residential
structures. Life-cycle inventory (LCI) models were developed to provide performance
data for plywood production by tracking all of its inputs and outputs in a gate-to-gate...
The production of cement and concrete results in the production of large amounts of CO₂ emissions which can have significant negative environmental impacts. Using supplementary cementing materials (SCMs) as a cement replacement is an effective solution to reduce these negative environmental impacts, as most SCMs are waste by-products from other...
Many economists believe that the slowdown of the productivity growth rates in the U.S. economy in early 1970's was a consequence of the increased level of environmental regulations. The main reason presented in support of this argument is that increased environmental regulations impose an additional burden to the firms, thus...
Globally, it is estimated that over 2,518,200 tons of hides and skins were exported in the year 2011 alone, with an estimated world production yield of 23 billion square feet of finished leather (FA0, 2011; Mwinyihija, 2011). While some manufacturers have adopted eco-friendly production methods, most tanneries still practice the...
This thesis analyzes the emerging technology of hydraulic fracturing and shale gas extraction process through a pluralistic philosophical approach. Rather than defending traditional values in nature, such as intrinsic value, I defend a metaphilosophical pragmatism centered on policy implications. I argue that different philosophical positions will, most of the time,...
Location is a critical component of business decisions. A firm's location decision may be influenced not only by market forces, such as the location of input suppliers, output processors and competitors, but also by government policies if such policies impact their expected profits and are applied non-uniformly across space. Likewise,...
Sustainability has been the focus of intense discussions over the past two decades, with topics around the entire product life cycle. In the manufacturing phase, research has been focused solely on environmental impact assessment or environmental impact and cost analysis in its assessment of sustainability. However, few efforts have investigated...
Produced water is a highly saline waste product of oil and gas production, which is generated in larger volumes than the hydrocarbons themselves in the United States. Spillage of produced water is of concern because its high salinity can contaminate soil, surface water and groundwater resources, and kill vegetation, including...
This publication is a guide for protecting, conserving, selecting, maintaining, removing, and replacing trees on development sites in the Pacific Northwest. The guidebook is designed to assist people who work with trees during the development and construction phases of both new and existing projects to keep healthy trees a part...
Current life cycle assessment tools are often deficient in assisting design for sustainable manufacturing efforts. Integrating an improved assessment method into a decision support framework will provide a means for designers and engineers to better understand the impacts of their decisions. A unit process modeling-based sustainability assessment method is presented...
This study considered regional forest policies for sequestering carbon in existing
forests in western Oregon. A model of log markets in western Oregon was employed to
examine the impacts of forest policy changes on future carbon stock, harvests, and
management activities. A carbon tax program, as a mitigation option for...
The scientific endeavors that took place at Hanford Engineer Works, beginning in World War II and continuing thereafter, are often overlooked in the literature on the Manhattan Project, the Atomic Energy Commission, and in regional histories. To historians of science, Hanford is described as an industrial facility that illustrates the...
Business is a social institution and society has always designated a role for
business which has been undergoing changes with changing societal values and
paradigms. Thus while business has always had some responsibilities, the modern
connotation of the words corporate social responsibility commonly refers to business
assuming responsibilities in economic,...
A key application of microchannel process technology (MPT) is its implementation in heat exchanger devices, since a larger surface contact area can be realized than in conventional approaches, thus achieving high heat transfer efficiency. To justify high volume production of configurations validated as prototypes, and to select from among the...
This document is one of a series of research reports prepared by Oregon State University during the 197Os which focuses on the field burning problem of Oregon's Willamette Valley. The purpose of such research efforts is to assist both the private and public sectors of Oregon in identifying technically feasible,...
Attributional and consequential life cycle assessments are useful in evaluating the environmental impacts of a process, product, or decision. Both types of life cycle assessments differ however in their scope and their ability to answer specific questions. In order to fully understand and compare the environmental impacts of a sugarcane...
The purpose of this study was to explore the possible relationship among fashion media, the social responsibility agenda of the Audubon Society, and the use of birds in millinery in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Both the content analysis method and the historic method were used to gain...
In this report, a response is given to the charge of this study. Volume I: Summary Report includes a synopsis of the technical considerations followed by the main findings and recommendations. The full technical background for these summary statements is given in detail in Volume II: Technical Background Report, and...
An estimated 99% of native wet prairie has been lost in the Willamette Valley, Oregon, but a large number of seasonal wetlands remain on private lands dedicated to grass seed production within the historical wet prairie landscape. Because agriculture is known to alter physical and chemical wetland conditions, I investigated...
In the Willamette Valley of Oregon, a combination of the need for rotational crops and an increased desire for biofuel production created interest in planting Brassica napus (canola). However, questions were raised arisen over the potential damage canola production could have on the preexisting Brassica vegetable seed industry. To address...
Aggregate, which consists of crushed rock, sand, and gravel resources, is one of the most extracted resources in Oregon. Floodplain sites throughout the Willamette Valley -- particularly along the Willamette River -- are of particular importance because they produce high quality sand and gravel, located close to the aggregate market....
This dissertation draws on ethnographic data and political ecological theory to analyze the experience of residents living in the IBM-Endicott Superfund site in Endicott, New York. Combining in-depth narratives and quantitative measures from a household survey, it highlights residents' perceptions of 1) environmental health risk, 2) risk mitigation, 3) deindustrialization...