Subtitle D of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) requires a post closure period of 30 years for non hazardous wastes in landfills. Post closure care (PCC) activities under Subtitle D include leachate collection and treatment, groundwater monitoring, inspection and maintenance of the final cover, and monitoring to ensure that landfill gas does not migrate off site or into on site buildings. The decision to reduce PCC duration requires exploration of a performance based methodology to Florida landfills. PCC should be based on whether the landfill is a threat to human health or the environment. Historically no risk based procedure has been available to establish an early end to PCC. Landfill stability depends on a number of factors that include variables that relate to operations both before and after the closure of a landfill cell. Therefore, PCC decisions should be based on location specific factors, operational factors, design factors, post closure performance, end use, and risk analysis. The question of appropriate PCC period for Florida’s landfills requires in depth case studies focusing on the analysis of the performance data from closed landfills in Florida. Based on data availability, Davie Landfill was identified as case study site for a case by case analysis of landfill stability. The performance based PCC decision system developed by Geosyntec Consultants was used for the assessment of site conditions to project PCC needs. The available data for leachate and gas quantity and quality, ground water quality, and cap conditions were evaluated. The quality and quantity data for leachate and gas were analyzed to project the levels of pollutants in leachate and groundwater in reference to maximum contaminant level (MCL). In addition, the projected amount of gas quantity was estimated. A set of contaminants (including metals and organics) were identified as contaminants detected in groundwater for health risk assessment. These contaminants were selected based on their detection frequency and levels in leachate and ground water; and their historical and projected trends. During the evaluations a range of discrepancies and problems that related to the collection and documentation were encountered and possible solutions made. Based on the results of PCC performance integrated with risk assessment, projection of future PCC monitoring needs and sustainable waste management options were identified. According to these results, landfill gas monitoring can be terminated, leachate and groundwater monitoring for parameters above MCL and surveying of the cap integrity should be continued. The parameters which cause longer monitoring periods can be eliminated for the future sustainable landfills. As a conclusion, 30 year PCC period can be reduced for some of the landfill components based on their potential impacts to human health and environment (HH&E).

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The problem addressed in this research was to develop an approach for the simultaneous green design of products and associated manufacturing processes including demanufacturing concerns. We propose a generic approach called Integrated Environmentally Conscious Design and Manufacturing (IECDM) which can be applied to address problems in the ECDM domain. IECDM incorporates environmental considerations into the engineering design process, thereby increasing a product's total life-cycle value (including its end-of-life value) as experienced by the customer, manufacturer, and society, while simultaneously reducing impacts on the environment caused by that product and its manufacturing processes. IECDM is a novel integration of Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA), Multiple Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM), and Cost-Benefit Assessment (CBA). The focus is on process, based on modification of the traditional QFD methodology to incorporate environmental issues and green product-design decisions through the life cycle design activities of synthesis, analysis, and evaluation. This dissertation presents a QFD-based IECDM approach, a mathematical CBA model, and an IDDS (Integrated Design Decision-Support) framework with a design-flow-chart application for incorporating environmental criteria into product and process eco-design. The IECDM problem is defined as: given the customer and environmental requirements, develop an integrated approach for green product design that results in maximization of the product's total life-cycle value (TLCV). Initially. through investigation in the field of ECDM, we specified a clear ECDM domain within Industrial Ecology. Then. we proposed various state-of-the-art techniques that were used to implement ECDM in the literature. After we defined the IECDM problem. we developed an integrated approach that led to a generic QFD-IECDM methodology for dealing with problems in the ECDM domain. Finally, for implementing the proposed methodology, we developed a tentative IODS framework to encourage long-term development followed by an example. / Ph. D.

[pt] Apesar do aumento da consciência e do interesse do consumidor por produtos verdes e de uma pré-disposição para compra de produtos e serviços mais ecologicamente corretos, pode-se notar muitas vezes a falta de correspondência nos consumidores entre seu discurso e suas ações, isto é, uma incoerência entre atitudes e comportamento, também chamada hiato. Pode-se dizer que muitas vezes há uma pré-disposição (atitude) ecológica, porém esta não se transforma em ação (comportamento) de compra favorável ao meio ambiente. Dessa forma, apesar de vários estudos terem sido realizados sobre o comportamento do consumidor, nenhuma explicação definitiva sobre o fenômeno do hiato e nenhum modelo comportamental preciso para sua compreensão foi encontrado. O presente estudo visa contribuir com a literatura para uma compreensão mais profunda deste fenômeno, sob um novo prisma, analisando os fatores influentes no hiato sob a perspectiva de contraste de gerações. O estudo busca compreender os principais fatores influentes que contribuem para aumentar ou reduzir este hiato entre atitude e comportamento ecologicamente consciente que ocorrem nas Gerações Baby Boomers (BB) e Y, bem como suas principais diferenças e semelhanças. Para o desenvolvimento da tese foram realizadas trinta entrevistas em profundidade com consumidores residentes no Rio de Janeiro, sendo quinze pertencentes à Geração Baby Boomers e quinze pertencentes à Geração Y. Para realização da análise de conteúdo das entrevistas se utilizou o software Atlas.ti para facilitar a interpretação dos dados e organização dos resultados. Buscou-se identificar os principais fatores influentes no hiato em ambas as gerações analisando cinco atividades de consumo: produtos ecologicamente corretos, energia, água, transporte e reciclagem/descarte. Os resultados apontam as principais semelhanças e diferenças encontradas entre os comportamentos das gerações Baby Boomers e Y e demonstram uma maior preocupação e comportamento mais consciente por parte dos indivíduos da Geração Y no que tange algumas atividades de consumo. Ao final é proposto um modelo de comportamento ecologicamente consciente para melhor compreensão deste hiato e no qual são evidenciados os principais fatores que contribuem para aumentar ou reduzir o hiato em ambas as gerações. / [en] Despite increased awareness and consumer interest in green products and a pre-disposition to purchase more environmentally friendly products and services, we can often notice the lack of correspondence between consumers speech and their actions. Therefore, there is an inconsistency between attitudes and behavior, also called gap. It can be said that there is often an environmentally friendly pre-disposition (attitude) which does not often turn into action (behavior). Thus, although several studies have been conducted on consumer behavior, not a definitive explanation of the gap phenomenon and not a precise behavioral model for its compreehension was found so far. The present study aims to contribute to the literature for a deeper understanding of this phenomenon in a new light by analyzing the influential factors on the gap from the perspective of different generations. The study seeks to understand the main influential factors that contribute to increase or reduce this gap between attitude and environmentally conscious behavior that occur in members of Baby Boomers (BB) generation and Y generation, as well as their similarities and differences. For the development of the thesis thirty in-depth interviews were conducted with consumers residing in Rio de Janeiro; fifteen belonged to the Baby Boomers generation and fifteen to the Y generation. The analysis of the results used the Atlas ti software in order to facilitate interpretation and data organization. The results show the main influential factors on the gap on both generations (BB and Y), by analyzing five consumption activities: environmentally friendly products, energy, water, transportation and recycling / disposal. The results show the main similarities and differences between the behavior of the BB and the Y generations indicate greater concern and more conscious behavior by individuals of generation Y in terms of some consumption activities. At the end, a model of ecologically conscious behavior is proposed to better understand the phenomenon called gap. The main factors that contribute to increase or reduce this gap in both generations are highlighted.

Abstract Authors: Mikael Forsberg and Sara-Maria Löfvenberg Tutor: Susanne Åberg Title: Socially Desirable Fast Moving Consumer Goods – A Literature Review on How To Decrease the Gap Between Intention & Purchase Behavior Through Marketing Keywords Branding, Consumer Behavior, Consumer Value Creation, Decision-making, Differentiation, Eco, Ecological, Environmentally Conscious Behavior, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), Green Consumer, Green Marketing, In-store marketing, Marketing, Organic, Purchase decision, Socially Desirable, Value Creation. Background and Problem Consumers today are more environmentally conscious than ever. However, it has been found that there is a gap between the consumer’s intention and actual purchase when it comes to products that there is a social pressure to buy for environmental reasons. The potential for the socially desirable segment is estimated to have potential, but growth seems to be slow. It has been stated that until now, there is not enough research done that take a holistic perspective including several fields of marketing. There is a need to review and combine existing literature in various fields of marketing to investigate how the gap can be decreased and sales increased. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to review and combine existing literature in the fields of consumer value creation, decision-making and in-store marketing. By doing so the authors of this thesis aim to present a theoretical model on how producers of socially desirable FMCG can decrease the gap between the consumers’ intention and actual purchase through marketing. Decreasing the gap refers to more fully exploit the potential size of the segment and generate more sales.   Method A completely theoretical method was chosen for this thesis. To the authors’ knowledge there has not been done enough specific research to match the purpose of this thesis. A literature review has therefore been conducted within three separate fields of marketing to get a broader understanding of how the gap between intention and actual purchase can be decreased. Based on the extensive literature review, the authors developed ten propositions that formed a model that can be used as the backbone for future theoretical and empirical research.   Final Discussion Some highlights of the theoretical discussions earlier in this thesis are presented in the final discussion. The authors suggest that purchase decisions of socially desirable FMCG initially are high-involvement decisions that often are formed outside the in-store-setting. This suggests that more long-term marketing efforts such as brand building in some cases can be more important than in-store marketing when it comes to FMCG that are socially desirable. Symbolic values should be highlighted in branding of socially desirable FMCG because the instrumental differences between FMCG and socially desirable FMCG is limited. It is therefore likely that it is more efficient to focus on consumers’ self-identity to convince them to purchase socially desirable FMCG. It is also important that producers of socially desirable FMCG provide consumers with clear product information in-store and that the products are easy to find. Based on the extensive literature review, the authors have developed eight propositions that form the model presented in this chapter.