<p> The purpose of writing <i>The Role of Resistance to Change in Church Sustainability</i> in Harlem, New York is to determine the role that resistance to change plays in ensuring that a church continues to survive in the face of the gentrification of the Harlem community. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)</p>

Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone Project / LEED, Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, assists our building industry to become more sustainable. This paper examines three case studies of existing buildings which have evolved to become LEED certified through the rating system of LEED: Operations and Maintenance. Understanding how older generation buildings may still rejuvenate and become sustainable will provide benefits for the people, planet, and profit. As with many things, there are some drawbacks when it comes to LEED certification such as their fees and universal approach for credits acquired.

Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone Project / Sustainable certifications are expanding in popularity within the built environment as the construction industry is progressing towards sustainability, while benefits are becoming more valuable to the businesses that reside in sustainably certified spaces. These benefits, such as thermal comfort and natural daylighting, not only translate to enhancing employee’s health, but employers within sustainably certified buildings have found greater retention rates in employees, improved business recruitment, as well as higher productivity in employees. The range of this analysis is directed towards two businesses that reside in sustainably certified buildings, DPR Construction-Phoenix in Arizona and the Mosaic Centre for Conscious Community and Commerce in Edmonton, Canada. Both buildings will be assessed for the impact their sustainable space have on their business. The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of holistic and specific components of sustainability certifications, exclusively LEED and Net Zero Energy, on businesses. The study was unique as it was conducted by interviewing an integral consultant/designer in the construction process that still currently works in the building. The interview revealed that DPR Construction found employees to be more comfortable in their workspace, thus suggesting that productivity would be improved however this cannot be measured. The Mosaic Centre found new business advantages such as utilizing the space for tours and community engagement opportunities that have given the businesses within the Mosaic Centre unique marketing opportunities to improve business. This analysis will help commercial building owners gain insight on the business impacts of implementing sustainable building components to achieve a LEED certification, Net-Zero Status or a Living Building Challenge certification.

Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone Project / In the United States, commercial rooftops are too often an afterthought, serving only to house HVAC systems and other utilitarian building components. Rooftops are the most underutilized valuable spaces in buildings. They comprise a great deal of real estate that could help boost a building’s energy efficiency, aesthetics, and even the wellness of occupants. Buildings are the leading contributors to energy consumption in the country, and implementing green roofs could significantly mitigate this energy use, so costly to society in so many ways. This proposal studies the benefits of implementing a green roof on the College of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture (CAPLA) in Tucson, Arizona. Extensive research was conducted on the implementation of a green roof in this hot arid region, as well as a survey among a pool of 50 occupants. The conclusions drawn: a green roof would be utilized by occupants, and would bring about benefits including cleaner air, an expanded roof lifespan, and reduced heat island effect. Conclusions also demonstrate that the cost of implementing a green roof might not be offset by energy savings alone, but when considering the benefits and costs to society, a green roof ultimately proves beneficial economically as well.

Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone Project / The southwest region of the United States is stressed for potable water and needs to positively utilize its current water resource. With the urban environment being mostly made up of concrete, it is now crucial to assess its development and application. The concrete used today is a mixture of cement, water and aggregates and is not permeable. The non-permeable property of common concrete prevents natural water absorption by the earth and greatly inhibits water to percolate back into the local water table. As concrete, has developed, porous concrete has been discovered. Porous concrete or pervious pavement is made in the same way that concrete is made with cement, aggregate, and water, but the aggregate used in porous concrete creates pores that allow water to pass through. By allowing water to pass through concrete, urban development will result in greater ground water recharge. As global warming intensifies weather patterns across the planet, Tucson, Arizona will experience heavier rainfall seasons. As the world’s climate changes, Tucson will experience heavier monsoon rain fall events. With heavier rain fall events urban flooding will become more of an issue. Grey infrastructure is needed to manage flooding caused by heavy rain fall. Porous concrete can be used as an effective way to manage storm water. This capstone has undertaken an extensive range of literature reviews to identify where porous concrete can be used for storm water harvesting. The literature reviews range from climate change to the benefits of storm water harvesting. Porous concrete allows storm water to infiltrate through it and back into the local aquifer and directs storm water into retention ponds for treatment and reuse. Porous concrete is a low impact development (LID) building material, which will turn urban development into Sustainable development. Porous concrete if used correctly for storm water harvesting can reduce potable water stress, reduce pollutants found in local waters, and reduce the strain on current storm drains. The required maintenance associated with porous concrete is minimal and not costly, therefore will be only briefly explained throughout this research. While porous concrete has a wide range of benefits ranging from water percolation to the reduction of the heat island effect, this paper will focus on its use as a means of storm water harvesting.

<p> The use of wood pellet boilers for residential space heating has significantly increased over the past decade. Wood pellets are a biomass-based renewable energy made by pelletizing debarked wood fiber. Compared to log wood and wood chips, wood pellets have higher energy density, relatively uniform fuel quality, easier to automate their use, and therefore, are being more widely used.</p><p> A typical wood pellet heating system has three components: the boiler (energy generation unit), the thermal energy storage (TES) tank (energy storage unit), and the building (energy consumption unit). The three components form into two loops: the boiler to TES tank loop and the TES tank to building loop. </p><p> Three modern wood pellet boilers were installed and monitored in this research. Two 25 kW boilers (PB and WPB) were installed in the end of 2014 and a 50 kW boiler (LGB) was installed in March of 2016. PB is used only for radiant floor heating and WPB is used for traditional baseboard/cast iron radiators space heating as well as providing domestic hot water (DHW) supply. LGB boiler is used for concrete slab heating. The three boiler installations provide different methods of heating and different levels of building heat demand.</p><p> This research first evaluated the performance of residential scale wood pellet boilers (25 &ndash; 50 kW) in terms of boiler operation characteristics, thermal efficiency, boiler emissions, TES tank stratification and discharge efficiency, etc. Comparisons were also made among different boilers and suggestions for improvements were made. A process dynamic simulation using VMGSim was built up based on the field monitoring data. Good agreement between the simulation and field data was found. The model was then used to size the TES tank with respect to different boiler capacities and heating demands. A system sizing algorithm was provided in the end. The results will be used to compose a guidance document for wood pellet boiler heating systems. </p>

<p> Common principles, or threads, are studied that are readily found in both spiritual traditions (including religion) and in the field of sustainability. Oneness, Living Simply, Purity, and Care and Heart are examined at length, while Awakening, Awe and Wonder, and Preservation of Life are covered briefly. Opposite principles&mdash;for example, Oneness versus Fracturedness, and Purity versus Pollution&mdash;are analyzed as well. Principles <i>and</i> their opposites are found to have both high and low modes. Each polarity has life-supporting and life-degrading forms. </p><p> Spiritual and religious traditions are grouped into five broad categories. While three of the categories consist of world religions (traditions of Indian origin, Abrahamic traditions, and East Asian traditions), also included are indigenous traditions, alchemy and Hermeticism, and modern spiritual teachings. Sustainability is organized into three categories: ecological science, activism, and sustainable business. </p><p> The common threads between sustainability and spirituality are most reliably found in the segments of world religions that tend toward mysticism, and within teachings that emphasize the cultivation of a greater capacity for just awareness, or presence itself, such as Eckhart Tolle&rsquo;s works. Indigenous traditions shine as examples of societies that have embodied, and in some cases, continue to embody life-supporting principles far more explicitly and fully than cultures that have lost intimacy with their local ecosystems. </p><p> The conclusions drawn based on findings is that wisdom traditions corroborate the idea that the outer world is a reflection of the inner world, and that improving the state of the planet therefore requires personal transformation as a prerequisite to outer improvements. A higher order of intelligence, or nous, referenced in multiple mystical traditions, is indispensable to sustainability work. This and other spiritual principles directly inform sustainability efforts, but to be fully employed they require first-hand, personal experience of spiritual realities. Those who would work toward a genuinely sustainable society are urged to pursue mystical or presence-based spiritual training and experience as a matter of urgency, including direct interaction with nature to facilitate rebuilding intimacy with ecosystems, combined with deepening understanding of ecologically sophisticated indigenous lifeways. </p>

<p> Applied Ecobricolage: Mountain Being(s)/ Mountain Becoming(s) is about a research process designed to bring living systems and visual arts-based inquiry to the forefront of building human connections with the more-than-human world. Utilizing an applied ecobricolage structure, the focus of this research was twofold. The project explored applied ecobricolage as a platform for interdisciplinary and multi-methodological research on how to build connections with high-altitude mountain places and their place-beings. The project was also interested in discovering to what extent, if any, the sentient wisdom of high-altitude mountain places and their place-beings could contribute towards human processes and practices for resilient planetary living. Literature grounded the possibility for more-than-human mountain connection in its recognition of Gaian sentience and mountain places as distinct time-location events. Gaia-as-teacher and mountains as forms of hallowed Earth places, gave rise to what was possible when place, place-beings, and co-researchers collaborated to see, hear, and feel the wisdom of mountains. Guidance from Earth-based methodologies and the Earth informing lenses found in ecobricolage, Gaian methodology, and terrapsychology were utilized to amplify Earth connection and communication. Materialistic approaches to contemplative photography and elicitation practices such as glance and poetic inquiry methods, catalyzed collaborative dialogue resulting in 10, 387 digital images. The steps to building mountain connection and conducting an arts-based ecobricolage were found in the imagery, musings, and meditations arising from alpine conversations. What became apparent as a result of the ecobricolage was that mountain wisdom does exist and there is much that is communicated. What became secondary to discovering the ways of connection were the sentient mountain contributions towards living processes and practices. I found the contributions lay in the direct encounter between the place, event and myself. This paper gives some insight into who I became when, I connected to mountains as it acknowledged my distinct state of mountain being. More instances of ecobricolage research design could assist Earth-based scholarship in transforming perspectives in sustainability and research methodology. Building connections with the more-than-human mountain world exemplified the ways conscious connection bestows planetary wisdom. Exploring other places as time-location events presents more avenues for future researchers. Keywords: ecobricolage, mountain, place, contemplative photography, connection</p>

<p> This exploratory work investigates the sustainability performance and reporting practices in 20 semiconductor companies from 2010-2014 using content analysis, survey, and interview methods. The sample consists of companies that are either integrated chip manufacturers (ICMs) or semiconductor foundries with annual net revenue of $0.2 billion to $55.9 billion. A sustainability matrix based on the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines assesses the reporting completeness. Sustainability performance is measured based on two factors, identification of trends in social and environmental data and adoption of 28 sustainability best practices specific to this manufacturing sector. The majority of the resource use and emissions data followed a decreasing trend during 2010-2014. The study found ethical responsibility and concern for society and the environment to be the main motivations for sustainability reporting in this sector. A positive association between reporting completeness and the sustainability performance was observed, but based on the available data the causation could not be established.</p>

<p> This thesis looks at how ecotourists can become aware of biocultural diversity (the intersection of biological and cultural diversity) and help contribute to sustainable development, which considers the needs of both present and future generations. The thesis will address the ecotourism industry and how people who travel with companies that cater to ecotourists can contribute to biocultural diversity and sustainable development. It will utilize a sustainable development framework and a critical theory approach for considering biological and cultural perspectives including human rights and social justice, the contribution of traditional knowledge, community involvement, and the effects of human impact and globalization. The primary audience of my research is people who travel the globe in search of the earth&rsquo;s natural wonders. I highlight issues related to minimizing environmental impact, respecting local cultures, building environmental awareness, and providing direct financial benefits for conservation. My central research question is: <i>How can travelers help to preserve the environment, be sensitive to local cultures, and contribute to a sustainable future?</i> I ask: <i>By understanding the distinct correlation between biological and cultural diversity, how can we utilize both traditional (and local) knowledge combined with scientific knowledge to help sustain and preserve our natural ecosystems?</i></p><p> I conclude with findings that point to the need for shared community authority, management, and decision making; mutual benefits; recognition of the rights, values, norms, power structures, and dynamics of local populations; respect for belief systems as well as traditional and local ecological knowledge; and the importance of contextual adaptation.</p>