The goals of this project were first to investigate farming methods that provided a good standard of living, reasonable financial returns, and a healthy environment and community. The second goal was to identify the organizational barriers to adoption of a sustainable agricultural system. I sought this knowledge in the role of an activist and as a farmer interested in making a quality life. Throughout this research, I spoke with many people who grow food and steward the land for a variety of reasons. I discovered that most people are interested in farming as a lifestyle with a wealth of personal benefits, even if they are not the most financially feasible operations. Farmers displayed a real interest in caring for the land that supports them, and for the quality of their communities. This thesis concludes with a variety of recommendations for both producers as well as the governments who represent them.

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Den växande e-livsmedelshandelns Supply Chains har studerats genom hållbarhetsglasögon där syftet var att ”[…] ge en fördjupad förståelse över hur svenska elivsmedelsaktörerarbetar med frågor rörande Sustainable Supply Chain Management”. Syftet fullgjordes genom en kvalitativ studie av tre organisationer, i vilka totalt 9 beslutsfattare intervjuades enligt ett semi-strukturerat intervjuförfarande. De data som samlades rörande e-livsmedelsaktörernas arbete med SSCM har i sin tur analyserats med hänvisning till en i förväg fastställd teoretisk referensram. Vår studie avslöjar att två av de svenska e-livsmedelsaktörerna är exemplariska och framstående med att införliva hållbarhet i sin Supply Chain. De engagerar sig aktivt i de initiativ för Sustainable Supply Chain Management som i litteraturen identifierades som nödvändiga för en verkligt hållbar Supply Chain. De har en allomfattande och övergripande strategi för att minimera den sociala risken, reducera resursutnyttjande och förorenande biprodukter i hela Supply Chain samt för att förbättra organisatoriskt inbäddade ohållbara vanor. Det tredje företaget saknar emellertid kapacitet och marknadsinflytande att engagera sig i SSCM. Studien åskådliggör även att en klimatneutral e-livsmedelsdistribution osannolikt förverkligas inom en snar framtid, såvida inte marknaden interveneras och företagen tvingas internalisera kostnaderna för utsläpp.

Over the last decade polymeric membranes have emerged as an economically viable treatment option to produce drinking water. Due to higher capital costs, the use of ceramic membranes has generally been limited to industrial applications that deal with challenging water quality. Ceramic membranes are superior to polymeric membranes in their physical and chemical resistance, which allows for higher fluxes and backwash pressures as well as rigorous chemical cleaning. As a result, these membranes can potentially operate for longer periods of time, which can decrease the lifetime cost of the membrane. Furthermore, decreased production costs coupled with an increased desire for economical sustainability may open the door for the use of ceramic membranes in drinking water treatment, particularly for highly polluted waters. The loss of membrane permeability as a result of fouling remains one of the biggest challenges for sustainable membrane operation. Therefore, a thorough understanding of fouling behavior and the identification of key foulants is essential for optimizing membrane performance. However, fouling has not been researched in detail for ceramic membranes in drinking water treatment, particularly ultrafiltration, since most research has focused on ceramic microfiltration membranes combined with coagulation. The thesis is divided into four main stages. The first stage involved developing a factorial design to establish a procedure to determine sustainable flux that can adequately compare the fouling between a ceramic and polymeric membrane without compromising the functional potential or operating parameters of either membrane. In this stage, the significance of three different variables (interval length, increment increase, and a hydraulic backwash) in determining sustainable flux were statistically analyzed following a factorial design and consequently included or removed from the sustainable flux determination approach. The increment increase was not significant while the backwash was the most significant variable. The method established was used in later experiments to allow for a comparison of fouling behavior and performance between a polymeric and ceramic membrane. The second stage investigated the fouling behavior of flat-sheet ceramic membranes with model solutions at constant pressure to identify foulants of concern and likely fouling mechanisms for ceramic membranes as well as perform surface characterization techniques not possible with tubular membranes. In this stage the contributions of different model foulants (bovine serum albumin i.e. a protein, alginate i.e. a carbohydrate, humic acid, and colloidal silica) to reversible and irreversible fouling on a flat-sheet ceramic membrane at constant pressure were quantitatively evaluated. Both single foulant solutions and all possible combinations of mixtures of model foulants were investigated. The bovine serum albumin and humic acid were main contributors to hydraulically irreversible fouling and their removal mechanism is postulated to be largely through adsorption. Colloidal silica was the most influential factor governing fouling behavior and diminished the irreversible fouling effect of these organics, thus increasing hydraulic reversibility. Additionally, synergistic fouling effects were also observed. The third stage investigated the same model solutions with tubular ceramic membranes at constant flux to determine the fouling behavior under different conditions and quantitatively assess the effectiveness of different fouling mitigation techniques. The rate of fouling was very high for bovine serum albumin but extremely low for humic acid; however, they both showed high irreversible fouling. The results obtained were consistent with the previous stage using flat-sheet ceramic membranes; particularly regarding the significant role colloidal silica plays in fouling. The ability to compare these two very different configurations and operating parameters is largely due to the use of a hydraulic backwash in both configurations. Therefore, this highlights the importance of investigating fouling reversibility, especially in simplified experiments. The last stage investigated tubular ceramic fouling behavior and organic matter rejection with surface water at constant flux. Tubular ceramic membrane fouling behavior was investigated for river water. A very high initial organic carbon removal was observed at the initial stages of filtration and after each backwash cycle indicating a high affinity of organics to the membrane surface as well as partially reversible adsorption. Humic acid rejection decreased throughout the filtration cycle. On the contrary, biopolymer rejection remained constant indicating size exclusion as a primary removal mechanism. After several modifications to the design and setup, the sustainable flux method established in Stage 1 could not be applied to the ceramic membrane or to the polymeric membrane using highly turbid water; a few hypotheses were made as to why this occurred. It is likely that one or more variables that were not included in the sustainable flux method were influencing the fouling rate over time. Overall, the robustness of ceramic membranes opens the door for some creative fouling mitigation techniques to be used such as backwash pulses and chemical maintenance cleaning.

The intent of this Practicum is to explore the redevelopment of the Windsor Park Golf Course in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This aim was instigated by the release of an Expression of Interest by the City of Winnipeg in the fall of 2011 to sell a number of its publicly owned golf courses of which Windsor Park was named. The land currently occupied by the golf course is rich with natural amenities, which includes a long and contiguous riparian corridor, mature patches of valuable upland forest, and areas of natural drainage. The overarching goal of this practicum is to retain these ecosystem services by implementing best practices that promote a repurposing of existing land use, create a new residential neighbourhood to limit new urban sprawl and enhance accessibility for residents and visitors.

Design is one of the most important stages in product development. Product design has experienced significant changes from concentrating on cost and performance to combining economic, environmental and societal considerations in design process. Sustainability is a new concept to balance economic, social and environmental aspects in product design. This research focuses on sustainable product design. The main challenging problem in the sustainable design is how the sustainable criteria can be used as quantitative metrics to evaluate products. This research integrates Axiomatic Design and Quality Function Deployment (QFD) concepts with Eco-design tools, such as Life cycle Assessment (LCA), to establish the quantitative metrics for sustainable product design. A novel wheelchair is designed as a case study in this research. Modularity is conducted to improve the wheelchair for the end of life cycle management

This practicum explores the concept of sustainable retail development and seeks out innovative approaches that can be employed by retailers, retail developers and urban planners to create more sustainable retail environments in Canadian cities. This is achieved in part through a case study of how a notable Canadian retailer, Mountain Equipment Co-op, addresses the negative social, environmental and economic implications of predominant retail development practices. Although the concept of ‘sustainable retailing’ encompasses an extremely broad number of considerations which may include product sourcing, transportation and manufacturing standards, materials recycling, building construction and customer and employee satisfaction; this practicum focuses on the issues of ‘sustainable retail development’ from an urban planning perspective. These considerations include the economic, environmental and social impacts of site location and development decisions of retailers. The intention of this practicum is to promote change both locally and globally through the encouragement of more sustainable retail development initiatives at the district, block, site and community scales.