Companies are no longer judged on financial performance alone, but rather on their “Triple-Bottom Line”, which accounts for social and environmental measures as well. This leads companies to investigate the sustainability of their operations and their products. Between the increasing cost of virgin raw materials and customers demanding post-consumer product content, manufacturers have begun looking at recycled material options. This paper addresses a procurement issue facing a polystyrene packaging manufacturer considering its optimal purchasing strategies between two suppliers – one providing virgin material, the other offering recycled material. A single-period scenario is modeled where each supplier sells product with a known yield distribution at market pricing. The manufacturer must choose whether to sole-source or dual-source, as well as determine how much material to purchase from each supplier to meet deterministic demand. Our results indicate that there is a range of prices from the recycled material supplier where dual-sourcing will lead to higher manufacturer profits compared to sole-sourcing. We show, based on the procurement strategy, the optimal quantities to purchase to maximize manufacturer’s expected profit. We then investigate the area of supplier development and how the manufacturer can improve their expected profit by investing in their supplier’s quality improvement effort. The questions addressed are how much the manufacturer would be willing to invest and how they ensure the proper return on their investment. This paper determines the expected increase in profit for the manufacturer from yield improvement projects at a supplier, which therefore becomes the upper threshold for investment. We also find that a company can err in their project acceptance criteria if they have an approval process that views project acceptance myopically rather than holistically. Lastly, we develop a systematic and comprehensive approach to the supplier selection process. We utilize the fundamental concepts behind W. Edwards Deming’s Plan-Do-Study-Act improvement cycle and apply them to the supplier selection process. We also present analytic and numerical study results that can be used in conjunction with contractual mechanisms to not only overcome issues such as free riding, but to also incentivize suppliers to engage in supplier development projects they may not have otherwise undertaken.

Sustainability and reduction of environmental impacts have continued to increase in importance in the concrete marketplace. Portland-limestone cement (PLC) has been shown to reduce total energy consumed and CO2 produced during the cement manufacturing process. This material may also have the ability to benefit concrete properties, such as compressive strength and time of set. Other concrete performance measures of potential interest evaluated in this study include durability and modulus of elasticity. In this dissertation PLC was evaluated for its ability to further increase concrete sustainability, while at the same time providing advantageous properties. This study’s focus was to show that PLC can improve concrete mixtures that are similar to commonly used ordinary portland cement (OPC) mixtures. PLC was also evaluated for its ability to increase the amount of total cement replacement (further increasing sustainability). Additionally PLC properties and concrete mixture combinations were evaluated in an attempt to clarify which PLC properties are crucial in performance benefits. Approximately 2000 concrete specimens were tested along with approximately 1000 cement paste specimens. This dissertation also includes an evaluation of PLC being used in a large scale construction and renovation project on a college football stadium. The scope of the dissertation included 12 cements from four manufacturing facilities that represent a large portion of the cement industry in the southeast US. Supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), Class C fly ash, Class F fly ash, and slag cement, were also evaluated in single and dual SCM concrete mixtures at replacement rates up to 70%. Replacement rates of this magnitude are not being used in common practice but may become preferred in some conditions with PLC. Results indicated that PLC outperformed OPC in areas tested, in almost all cases at up to 50% replacement with single and dual SCMs. PLC also showed considerable advantages at 60% replacement but was often outperformed by OPC at 70% replacement. Aggregate type played a large role at 70% replacement. Elastic modulus, durability, and variability were all similar with PLC and OPC. Combinations of certain SCMs were more advantageous than others, and optimal SCM combinations changed depending on cement source.

Cold in-place recycling (CIR) is a pavement rehabilitation technique which has gained momentum in recent years. This momentum is due partly to its economic and sustainability characteristics, which has led to CIR market expansion. When pavement network deterioration is considered alongside increasing material costs, it is not beyond reason to expect demands on CIR to continue to increase. Historically, single component binder (SCB) systems, those with one stabilization binder (or two if the secondary binder dosage is 1% or less), have dominated the CIR market and could be considered the general state of practice. Common stabilization binders are either bituminous or cementitious. Two example SCB systems would be: 1) 3% portland cement, or 2) 3% asphalt emulsion with 1% hydrated lime. While traditional SCB systems have demonstrated positive economic and sustainability impacts, this dissertation focuses on multiple component binder (MCB) systems (bituminous and cementitious combined) which exhibit the potential to provide better overall economics and performance. Use of MCBs has the potential to alleviate SCB issues to some extent (e.g. cracking with cementitious SCBs, rutting with bituminous SCBs). Furthermore, to fairly represent both binders in an MCB system a universal design method which can accommodate multiple binder types is needed. The main objectives of this dissertation are to develop a universal CIR design framework and, using this framework, characterize multiple SCB and MCB systems. Approximately 1500 CIR specimens were tested herein along with approximately 300 asphalt concrete specimens which serve as a reference data set for CIR characterization. A case study of a high-traffic Mississippi CIR project which included cement SCB and emulsion SCB sections is also presented to support laboratory efforts. Individual components needed to comprise a universal design framework, such as curing protocols, were developed. SCB and MCB characterization indicated that cement SCBs yielded low cracking resistance, high rutting resistance, and lower costs. Emulsion SCBs yielded the opposite. MCBs demonstrated the ability to balance rutting, cracking, and economics. Overall, the universal framework presented appears promising as it could offer agencies flexibility and, in some cases, improved overall performance beyond that of current SCB design methods.

Marketers have made attempts to understand the disconnect between consumers’ expressed desire to engage in sustainable behavior and their lack of adoption of sustainable products with ambiguous results. Because companies that engage in sustainability initiatives often focus on either environmental or social sustainability, the broader impact of sustainability is not always understood. When a company makes a promise to be socially sustainable, consumers may also think that the company is environmentally sustainable and vice versa. Moreover, consumer evaluations of companies that make promises to be either socially or environmentally sustainable may be different if the company later delivers a success along the same versus the other dimension of sustainability. A success along a sustainability dimension that matches the initial sustainability promise is referred to here as a paired success. Alternatively, complementary successes incorporate both sustainability dimensions, where a company first promises to be sustainable along one dimension of sustainability but later delivers a successful outcome along the other sustainability dimension. Attitudes are expected to be enhanced when a company delivers a complementary because the company has accounted for consumers’ interconnection of the sustainability dimensions. A failure to be sustainable along either dimension is predicted to diminish consumer evaluations of the company. Four experiments were conducted to explore the interconnection between social and environmental sustainability and its effect on consumer evaluations of the company. Study 1 first examines the prediction that consumer perceptions of social and environmental sustainability are interconnected in consumers’ minds. Study 2 then examines how consumers’ attitudes towards companies that make either social or environmental sustainability promises compare to companies that do not make sustainability promises. Additionally, study 2 investigates how consumer attitudes towards companies are impacted by paired and complementary successes and sustainability failures. Study 3 explores the psychological mechanisms of perceived sincerity and competence. Finally, study 4 is a behavioral choice experiment used to generalize the findings to actual behavior, exploring how the interconnectedness of social and environmental sustainability influence consumer product choices. The findings from these studies offer insights into how consumers perceive companies that consider both the social and environmental dimensions of sustainability.

One of the many issues communities will face when trying to protect their local watershed is the lack of background their policy makers have in environmental protection and watershed health. The purpose of this study is to test a range of on-site stormwater management policies against a selection of new development projects from a specific small city of the United States in order to determine what combination of policies works best in a particular urban environment. Three policies were selected to test the range of stormwater approaches being used in the United States. These policies were then measured in a spreadsheet analysis against three years’ worth of new development from the city of Starkville, Mississippi. The outcomes of this research can provide communities and municipalities with a tool to help them determine which combination of application trigger and detention requirement for on-site stormwater management will best serve their watershed needs.

The purpose of this study is to explore an architectural response to the current change in human civilization through the design of a residential neighborhood. Many in our society refer to this change as “going green” while others have found different words to name this phenomenon. Interest in local products, a desire to increase density while shifting away from suburban sprawl and community oriented housing developments are among many topics related to this change. However, these are the specific topics, which will inform the design concept, as this project will include community integration and agriculture in an urban neighborhood context. There will be an opportunity to inform the current zoning revisions committee in Northampton, Massachusetts, the general public about densification of a neighborhood and the broader professional architecture community. The site is an existing neighborhood block in Northampton, Massachusetts. This neighborhood currently contains a range of housing types, from single to multiple family, on small segregated parcels. The site also has been recognized as an area to increase housing development in the town of Northampton due to its proximity to the town center and because it will preserve open space in other parts of town. This redesign will incorporate issues surrounding existing buildings, new construction of housing supported by zoning changes, common land, community facilities and urban agriculture. The research method consists of precedent studies of various housing types, which explore new methods for construction and exceptional spatial dynamics related to residential life. Building codes and zoning have been explored and supported in meetings with city officials. Research included readings on the topics of community, peak oil, human patterns, regenerative design, food production, natural building, permaculture and smart growth. Additionally I have integrated my own observations as a long time resident of the area. The conclusions arrived at lead to an alternative site design with unique communally owned features along with three different housing types that are appropriate to achieve a new method of neighborhood planning. The site design is created out of layers of strategies that pose an option in contrast to the city’s current model.

In the early 2000s, the world witnessed the emergence of a new variant of the juridical entity whose fundamental characteristic is the conjunction between public and private actors with the intention of delivering public infrastructures that otherwise would be impossible to realise. This new variant came to be known as the Public-Private Partnership (PPP). Since then, it has taken centre stage in development discourse assuming academic and practical importance due to the perceived role it plays in global development. Although research interest in PPP contracts has increased globally, only a few studies focus on the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) region. The present study contributes by filling in this gap and providing a comparative perspective on the regimes of the PPP contract in Mozambique and South Africa. While PPPs may provide much needed infrastructure to meet the needs of end users, this often comes at considerable cost. The fiscal cost and distributional implications of PPPs are accentuated when compared with state borrowing. In addition, when it comes to risk management, all those risks that are supposedly transferred to a private operator are never truly transferred and, in the end, the government is always the residual risk holder should the PPP consortium fail. Far from freeing resources to be invested in other poverty reduction programmes, PPPs can absorb funds that could have been devoted directly to such programmes. In the end, rather than compensating for weak state capacity it places significant extra demands on it. These contradictions call into question the merits of promoting PPPs to overcome developing countries' public service financing gap, as the evidence clearly suggests that PPPs often have tended to be more expensive than their public procurement alternative, and in a number of instances they have failed to deliver the envisaged gains. The research in both jurisdictions has also analysed context-specific factors capable of jeopardising the successful implementation of PPP contracts. These include non-streamlined regulatory frameworks, state capacity constraints, weak integrity systems, and corruption. The key recommendation drawn from the research is that in order for the PPPs to be able to harness their full potential and deliver on expected gains, substantial regulatory and institutional reforms are needed in both jurisdictions studied.

This thesis is an attempt to embody sustainability by discovering value that transcends cost or function. Many objects are considered waste when they still function, but no longer delight the user. Using digital modeling tools and computer numerical controlled machines, designers can digitally craft products unique to the individual. Utilizing these aspects to create pleasure, designers can motivate consumers to be more thoughtful in their consumption, extend the desirable life of a product, and change the current societal norm of disposability. / Master of Science

This master’s thesis delves into the inner dimension of Sustainability, aspiring to highlight the vitality of Human Values (HV) in creating durable societal change. Its purpose is to identify particular (individual and communal) values that can be vital in transformations, as well as to underline the role of Education in reinforcing them. Guiding questions for the research were the following: i) what sorts of character qualities are beneficial to be stimulated in individuals through pedagogical practices to facilitate Sustainability changes, and ii) how Education for Sustainability can contribute to achieving that mission? To answer the questions, both theoretical literature and a pedagogical application were examined. Firstly, through reviewing relevant texts focused on Human Values (HV), Environmental Ethics (EE) and Sustainability Ethics (SE). Secondly, a two–week ethnographical based research in ‘‘Arillas’’ outdoor pedagogical project on Corfu - Greece, to explore their pedagogical ethos and praxis. Aiming to frame a holistic view of the project’s pedagogical approaches, the ethnographic research was conducted with field–observations, dialogues, a video–stimulated recall with the teacher and official document investigation. Based on the ethnographic findings and the theory of Human Values developed by Shalom S. Schwartz, this study synthesizes and proposes the value framework of Eutopía, consisted by three core egoistic, altruistic and biospheric values: Autenérgeia, Synérgia and Symbíosis.

No description available.