We will be sharing the message of Earth Day throughout the week with special items added to the website every day!

Monday - Sustainable Entertainment, check out our lists of films, Instagram accounts, and more to get the spirit of Earth Day going!

Tuesday - Sustainable Cooking, our collection of plant-based and vegetarian recipes from members of the GT community, including President Cabrera!

Wednesday - Zero Waste Instagram Takeover, head over to @Sustainatgatech on Instagram to hear from a Tech student on ways to add zero-waste options to your lifestyle

Thursday - Materials Diversion Class Showcase, see the work of Architecture students as they explored repurposing materials to create building structures and keep items out of the landfill

Friday - Kendeda Building Virtual Tour, join Director Shan Arora through a web-based tour of our Living Building. Register for free here!

By Michael Pearson

Biomass energy generated by burning fuel made from trees can play a significant role in meeting the energy needs of the future while helping keep climate change in check -- if the correct incentives are used, according to a new analysis led by a Georgia Institute of Technology School of Public Policy researcher.

The study, published this month in Science Advances, examines the impact of rising demand for biomass energy from trees alongside two proposals to offset the carbon emissions produced by burning such fuel: a carbon tax on bio-energy production and carbon rental policies in which landowners are paid periodic rents allowing their trees to continue to grow, keeping the carbon they absorb locked up in the wood, instead of the atmosphere.

While growing bio-energy demand increases the amount of forest coverage globally, regardless of the policy implemented, carbon rental or other subsidy policies result in significantly more land covered by trees — and consequently more carbon removed from the atmosphere — across virtually all climate scenarios, according to the analysis led by Alice Favero, an academic professional and environmental economist. Adam Daigneault of the University of Maine and Brent Sohngen of Ohio State University also participated in the study.

Under a carbon tax, the ability of the world’s forests to hold carbon dioxide would increase by the equivalent of about 3 gigatons of (GtC02) per year when compared to a model in which biomass energy is not part of the energy mix. By using carbon rentals, the team’s analysis shows, the amount of carbon kept out of the atmosphere could be quadrupled because landowners would plant more trees as an investment.

Such policies could go a long way toward offsetting the 33 GtCO2 created by the energy sector each year, Favero said.

 “Our study finds that carbon rental is the most efficient policy to encourage landowners to increase the amount of carbon stored in trees, while still allowing for biomass energy to be a significant component of our future energy mix,” Favero said.

The carbon rental approach also leads to more even increases in forest coverage globally. While the carbon tax approach could result in 10% to 25% less forest cover in parts of the tropics by 2100 when compared with carbon rentals, forest cover would increase by 50% or more in many parts of the world under the carbon rental approach, according to the study.

Favero and her co-authors also conclude that the carbon rental scheme would help shield natural forests from being harvested. This is especially true in tropical regions, where low opportunity costs associated with land make such rentals an attractive proposition.

Many climate-change scenarios anticipate increasing use of biomass to meet future energy demands, but it remains a controversial fuel source because of its greenhouse gas emissions. Favero said models that are critical of biomass energy often do not include the impact of demand-induced price changes on forestry management practices, a component she and her colleagues set out to study with their paper.

“If models include management responses, higher prices invariably encourage more management and forest area, and thus, biomass energy policies reduce net emissions over time,” according to the study.

The study does not include the impact of climate change on forest growth or how emerging technologies or other issues may shape the projected demand for woody biomass. The authors say such data would not necessarily change the overall findings, “but rather provide more insight into additional risks that could be considered when designing efficient bioenergy and forest carbon sequestration policies.”

The paper, “Forests: Carbon Sequestration, Biomass Energy, or Both?”, appears in the March 25 edition of Science Advances.

The School of Public Policy is a unit of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

In the past two decades, executives responsible for corporate sustainability (CSEs) have been showing up in a growing number of C-suites across the globe.

These executives are charged with implementing business practices that reduce a corporation’s negative impact on the environment and society while promoting initiatives that have a positive effect.

While efforts to rein in unsustainable practices may in some cases lead to cost savings or other efficiencies, it turns out that investors have mixed reactions to the appointments of CSEs.

In a study published in December in the Journal of Operations Management, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Massachusetts Amherst found that in some situations, CSE appointments had a positive impact on stock prices. In other cases, it was less positive.

“One of the biggest questions we had was whether the strategy of appointing CSEs is valued by investors,” said Ravi Subramanian, associate professor in Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business. “What we have found is that, in certain scenarios, there’s support for this strategy.”

To explore the question, the researchers identified 315 announcements of appointments of senior sustainability executives at U.S. corporations between 2000 and 2018 and subsequently narrowed that sample to 115 announcements that were not confounded by other events that could have affected stock prices. 

“On average, the hiring of CSEs has no discernable effect on stock prices,” said Vinod Singhal, Charles W. Brady Chair and professor in the Scheller College. “However, we were able to identify certain scenarios where the data showed that such appointments could have a positive impact on stock prices.”

The first was for firms that in the prior year had experienced an adverse sustainability-related incident. The second scenario was when the announcement included specific and focused job responsibilities for the hire.

“When a firm has an adverse sustainability-related incident, such as a chemical spill or an accident that results in death or significant property damage, it raises a clear question in investors’ minds about whether the company has a commitment to sustainable practices and, importantly, whether that company can be expected to have greater financial liability in the future,” said Manpreet Hora, associate professor in the Scheller College. “Hiring a CSE signals that the company is taking that responsibility more seriously.” 

For the second scenario, when a firm’s announcement of a CSE appointment has more specific details about that role’s responsibilities, the researchers said it could help alleviate concerns that the move is simply “greenwashing.”

“When firms are more specific about the role of the CSE appointee, it shows that they’ve identified a clearer path to becoming more sustainable and it also helps reduce uncertainty among investors about some of the technical and managerial complexities involved with integrating sustainability objectives within the firms’ operations,” Subramanian said.

Meanwhile, the researchers also found that in one situation – for firms in heavily fined industries – appointments of CSEs had a less positive impact on stock prices.

“We suspect that for such industries, it’s harder to convince investors that this type of appointment is going to make a real difference, even if it’s well intentioned,” Hora said.

CITATION: Priyank Arora, Manpreet Hora, Vinod Singhal, and Ravi Subramanian, “When Do Appointments of Corporate Sustainability Executives Affect Shareholder Value?” (Journal of Operations Management, Dec. 8, 2019). http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/joom.1074

Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia  30332-0181  USA

Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu).

Writer: Josh Brown

The Georgia Institute of Technology has selected Carson Meredith as the new executive director of the Renewable Bioproducts Institute (RBI). Meredith is a professor and James Harris Faculty Fellow in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE).

Meredith, who earned his undergraduate degree at Georgia Tech (B.S., chemical engineering), has been on the ChBE faculty since 2000. He also served as the school’s associate chair for graduate studies between 2012-2019. 

“Carson and his research team have pioneered the use of sustainable technologies for a variety of important applications,” said Raheem Beyah, Georgia Tech’s Vice President for Interdisciplinary Research. “We are pleased that he will be leading our Renewable Bioproducts Institute as it develops new products, processes and technologies for industries that include paper and packaging, biochemicals and fuels, and bio-composites and nanocellulose.”

Meredith’s lab researches the surfaces and interfaces of advanced materials, emphasizing renewable components, sustainable processing, and bioinspired designs in adhesives, composites, foams, and coatings, among other things. Borrowing their ideas from nature, Meredith and his team are addressing the needs of human societies through food security, renewables, and energy efficiency, utilizing natural materials.  

“We’ve focused on using cellulose nanomaterials to make alternatives to conventional plastic for all kinds of things, including high performance food packaging that prevents spoilage, and we’re looking at ways in which we can replace some plastics used in paints and coatings,” said Meredith, who has been an RBI investigator for 10 years. 

“Society is demanding alternatives to plastics that accumulate in the environment, and I’m excited that RBI is positioned to offer solutions,” he added. “There’s a tremendous amount of energy coming from industry to develop new bioproducts.”

After earning his undergraduate degree from Georgia Tech, Meredith earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and served as a postdoctoral researcher at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) before returning to Georgia Tech as a faculty member.

RBI, comprised of 50 faculty researchers from six colleges and research centers across Georgia Tech, began as the Institute of Paper Chemistry in 1929 in Wisconsin. Moving to Georgia Tech 60 years later as the Institute for Paper Science and Technology, it was renamed the Renewable Bioproducts Institute in 2014, buoyed by a $43.6 million gift from the Institute of Paper Chemistry Foundation (IPCF), which supports the institute’s expanded aim of research to unlock the potential of biomass material for a wide range of products.

Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia  30332-0181  USA

Media Relations Assistance: John Toon (404-894-6096) (jtoon@gatech.edu)

Writer: Jerry Grillo

Four Georgia Institute of Technology faculty members have been elected as new members of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Marilyn Brown, Thomas Kurfess, Susan Margulies, and Alexander Shapiro join 83 other new NAE members for 2020 when they are formally inducted during a ceremony at the academy’s annual meeting on Oct. 4 in Washington, D.C.

Election of new NAE members, the culmination of a yearlong process, recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature" and to "the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education."  

“It’s the honor of a lifetime to be recognized by the National Academy of Engineering for the impact we’ve have on understanding lung injuries in the critical care unit and traumatic brain injuries in children,” said Margulies, chair of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University and, with Brown, one of just three women on the Georgia Tech faculty accorded NAE membership – one of the highest professional distinctions an engineer can receive.

“Our work is deeply collaborative, and I am grateful to the engineers, scientists, physicians, and patients who are partners in our journey,” Margulies added.

Margulies, a researcher in the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Tech and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Injury Biomechanics at Emory, was elected, “for elaborating the traumatic injury thresholds of brain and lung in terms of structure-function mechanisms,” according to the NAE announcement.

Using an integrated biomechanics approach, Margulies’ research program spans the micro-to-macro scales in two distinct areas, traumatic brain injury and ventilator-induced lung injury. Her work has generated new knowledge about the structural and functional responses of the brain and lungs to their mechanical environment. Margulies came to Georgia Tech in 2017 from the University of Pennsylvania, where she’d been a professor of bioengineering, and had earned her Master of Science in Engineering and Ph.D. in Bioengineering.

Brown, a Regents and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy, was co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 (for co-authorship of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group III Assessment Report on Mitigation of Climate Change, Chapter 6). 

She joined Georgia Tech in 2006 after a career at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where she led several national climate change mitigation studies and became a leader in the analysis and interpretation of energy futures in the United States. Her research at Tech focuses on the design and impact of policies aimed at accelerating the development and deployment of sustainable energy technologies, emphasizing the electric utility industry. She was elected to NAE “for bridging engineering, social and behavioral sciences, and policy studies to achieve cleaner electric energy.” 
 
Brown, who earned her Ph.D. at the Ohio State University, co-founded and chaired the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, served two terms as a presidential appointee on the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority – the nation’s largest public power provider – and also served two terms on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Electricity Advisory Committee, where she led the Smart Grid Subcommittee. 

“The most rewarding feature of my career has been working toward solutions with colleagues across disciplines,” Brown said.

Shapiro is the Russell Chandler III Chair and professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, where his research is focused on stochastic programming, risk analysis, simulation-based optimization, and multivariate statistical analysis.

In 2013, he was awarded the INFORMS Khachiyan Prize for lifetime achievements in optimization. He received the 2018 Dantzig Prize from the Mathematical Optimization Society and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

Since earning his Ph.D. in applied mathematics-statistics from Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in 1981, Shapiro has made substantial contributions to the fields of optimization and large-scale, stochastic programming, and he was elected to NAE “for contributions to the theory, computation, and application of stochastic programming.” 

Kurfess is professor and HUSCO/Ramirez Distinguished Chair in Fluid Power and Motion Control in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, where he has helped guide the evolution of technology as a pioneer in the digital transformation of manufacturing. 

Improving manufacturing technology is a pursuit that has roots in his childhood. “I grew up in my father’s machine shop,” said Kurfess, who has a special fondness for mom-and-pop operations. He was elected by the NAE “for development and implementation of innovative digital manufacturing technologies and system architectures.”

“I’m proud that the work we do has a positive impact on small and medium-sized enterprises, which are about 99% of the manufacturing operations, as well as large operations,” said Kurfess, who earned all of his degrees at MIT. “Our work targets people who are implementing the digital thread in manufacturing, and what the digital thread will do is make sure those smaller enterprises, those mom and pops, can have access to the latest and greatest technologies.”

Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia  30332-0181  USA

Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu).

Writer: Jerry Grillo

Four Georgia Institute of Technology faculty members have been elected as new members of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Marilyn Brown, Thomas Kurfess, Susan Margulies, and Alexander Shapiro join 83 other new NAE members for 2020 when they are formally inducted during a ceremony at the academy’s annual meeting on Oct. 4 in Washington, D.C.

Election of new NAE members, the culmination of a yearlong process, recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature" and to "the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education."  

“It’s the honor of a lifetime to be recognized by the National Academy of Engineering for the impact we’ve have on understanding lung injuries in the critical care unit and traumatic brain injuries in children,” said Margulies, chair of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University and, with Brown, one of just three women on the Georgia Tech faculty accorded NAE membership – one of the highest professional distinctions an engineer can receive.

“Our work is deeply collaborative, and I am grateful to the engineers, scientists, physicians, and patients who are partners in our journey,” Margulies added.

Margulies, a researcher in the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Tech and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Injury Biomechanics at Emory, was elected, “for elaborating the traumatic injury thresholds of brain and lung in terms of structure-function mechanisms,” according to the NAE announcement.

Using an integrated biomechanics approach, Margulies’ research program spans the micro-to-macro scales in two distinct areas, traumatic brain injury and ventilator-induced lung injury. Her work has generated new knowledge about the structural and functional responses of the brain and lungs to their mechanical environment. Margulies came to Georgia Tech in 2017 from the University of Pennsylvania, where she’d been a professor of bioengineering, and had earned her Master of Science in Engineering and Ph.D. in Bioengineering.

Brown, a Regents and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy, was co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 (for co-authorship of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group III Assessment Report on Mitigation of Climate Change, Chapter 6). 

She joined Georgia Tech in 2006 after a career at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where she led several national climate change mitigation studies and became a leader in the analysis and interpretation of energy futures in the United States. Her research at Tech focuses on the design and impact of policies aimed at accelerating the development and deployment of sustainable energy technologies, emphasizing the electric utility industry. She was elected to NAE “for bridging engineering, social and behavioral sciences, and policy studies to achieve cleaner electric energy.” 
 
Brown, who earned her Ph.D. at the Ohio State University, co-founded and chaired the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, served two terms as a presidential appointee on the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority – the nation’s largest public power provider – and also served two terms on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Electricity Advisory Committee, where she led the Smart Grid Subcommittee. 

“The most rewarding feature of my career has been working toward solutions with colleagues across disciplines,” Brown said.

Shapiro is the Russell Chandler III Chair and professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, where his research is focused on stochastic programming, risk analysis, simulation-based optimization, and multivariate statistical analysis.

In 2013, he was awarded the INFORMS Khachiyan Prize for lifetime achievements in optimization. He received the 2018 Dantzig Prize from the Mathematical Optimization Society and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

Since earning his Ph.D. in applied mathematics-statistics from Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in 1981, Shapiro has made substantial contributions to the fields of optimization and large-scale, stochastic programming, and he was elected to NAE “for contributions to the theory, computation, and application of stochastic programming.” 

Kurfess is professor and HUSCO/Ramirez Distinguished Chair in Fluid Power and Motion Control in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, where he has helped guide the evolution of technology as a pioneer in the digital transformation of manufacturing. 

Improving manufacturing technology is a pursuit that has roots in his childhood. “I grew up in my father’s machine shop,” said Kurfess, who has a special fondness for mom-and-pop operations. He was elected by the NAE “for development and implementation of innovative digital manufacturing technologies and system architectures.”

“I’m proud that the work we do has a positive impact on small and medium-sized enterprises, which are about 99% of the manufacturing operations, as well as large operations,” said Kurfess, who earned all of his degrees at MIT. “Our work targets people who are implementing the digital thread in manufacturing, and what the digital thread will do is make sure those smaller enterprises, those mom and pops, can have access to the latest and greatest technologies.”

Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia  30332-0181  USA

Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu).

Writer: Jerry Grillo

Georgia Tech faculty members Stanislav Emelianov, Richard Fujimoto, and Vivek Sarkar have been named IEEE Fellows, the society’s highest grade of membership, effective January 1, 2020. A distinction conferred by the IEEE Board of Directors, it is considered by the technical community to be a prestigious honor and an important career achievement.

Emelianov was recognized for his contributions to ultrasound elasticity and photoacoustic imaging. He is the Joseph M. Pettit Chair Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar. An expert in biomedical imaging instrumentation and nanoagents for imaging and therapy, Emelianov has joint appointments with the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. He is also a professor of Radiology at the Emory University School of Medicine and is affiliated with Winship Cancer Institute and other clinical units. 

Emelianov is the director of the Ultrasound Imaging and Therapeutics Research Laboratory, where his group works on the discovery, development, and clinical translation of diagnostic imaging and therapeutic instrumentation, augmented with theranostic nanoagents–small particles that can diagnose and then treat a specific disease. He is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and he has served as vice president for Ultrasonics of the IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Society.

Fujimoto, a Regents’ Professor in the School of Computational Science and Engineering, was honored for his work in the field of parallel and distributed discrete event simulation. Discrete event simulations model operations within a system and have uses in a wide variety of applications. Fujimoto has authored and co-authored hundreds of technical papers on the subject as well as several books, which span application areas including transportation systems, telecommunication networks, and multiprocessor and defense systems.

He was also named a 2019 Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) Fellow. The announcement for both of these recognitions came only two years after he was named an Association for Computing Machinery Fellow in 2017.

Sarkar, the Stephen P. Fleming Chair of Telecommunications in the School of Computer Science and co-director of the Center for Research into Novel Computing Hierarchies, received his distinction for contributions to compiler technologies for high-performance computing. His work in this area spans multiple aspects of parallel computing software including programming languages, compilers, runtime systems, and debugging and verification systems for high performance computers.

Sarkar has numerous recognitions in the field. He became a member of the IBM Academy of Technology in 1995 and an ACM Fellow in 2008. He has been serving as a member of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee (ASCAC) since 2009 and has served on CRA’s Board of Directors since 2015. 

The IEEE – short for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – is the world’s leading professional association for advancing technology for humanity. Through its 420,000-plus members in more than 160 countries, the association is a leading authority on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications, biomedical engineering, electric power, and consumer electronics.

Dedicated to the advancement of technology, the IEEE publishes nearly one-third of the world’s literature in the electrical and electronics engineering and computer science fields, and has developed nearly 1,300 active industry standards.  The association also sponsors or co-sponsors more than 1,900 international technical conferences and events each year. 

BBISS Deputy Director is quoted in this article about air emissions at the Port of Savannah. Chang co-authored reports in 2002 and 2010 with detailed emissions inventories, summarized here: https://b.gatech.edu/3baYgh7.

RCE Greater Atlanta, a regional sustainability network officially acknowledged by the United Nations University, was among the recipients of the eighth RCE Awards, which celebrate projects and programs on Education for Sustainable Development within the United Nations University Global RCE Network. RCEs, or Regional Centers of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development, support implementation of the U.N. sustainable development goals (SDGs) at the regional level through education and training. The RCE Greater Atlanta multi-stakeholder network was launched in 2017 and continues to be led by Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Spelman College. It is one of 174 RCEs across the world and eight in the U.S.

The first RCE Greater Atlanta award went to the Environmental Justice Academy (EJA), co-sponsored by three RCE Greater Atlanta members: Atlanta Metropolitan State College (AMSC), the Center for Sustainable Communities, and EPA Region 4. The project was designated an Outstanding Flagship Project for SDG 16 – Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions. Funded in part by a grant from the Turner Foundation, the EJA is a leadership development program for community leaders, students, and faculty, whose primary goal is to help communities increase their capacity to address environmental challenges. With a cohort of over 20 participants from across the Southeast, the 2019 Academy was a three-day classroom session held March 28-30, 2019, at the AMSC campus, followed by a one-month online course and student capstone project. The curriculum included leadership development and community advocacy skills instruction, and incorporated lessons on the EcoDistricts model for district-scale community revitalization, UN SDGs, and recent success stories from advocacy groups seeking equitable and sustainable improvements for their communities.

The second RCE Greater Atlanta award went to the RCE Greater Atlanta Track hosted at the April 2019 Atlanta Global Studies Symposium at Georgia Tech. The project received Honourable Mention for SDG 4 – Quality Education. Hosted annually, the symposium is a signature event of the Atlanta Global Studies Center, a U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center led by Georgia Tech and Georgia State University. The Track consisted of three sessions that introduced the work of RCE Greater Atlanta and explored university-community collaborations to address sustainability challenges and advance the SDGs. It featured virtual and in-person talks by colleagues from RCE networks in Portland, Oregon; Georgetown, South Carolina; and Hamburg, Germany to allow the Atlanta network to learn from others’ experiences and sow seeds for future collaborations among RCEs.

Announced in December, the RCE Awards recognize outstanding projects that bridge local and global perspectives on sustainable development; engage with transformative learning and research; and contribute to community engagement, research and development, and stakeholder/partner capacity development. Projects across a spectrum of the United Nations’ SDGs and themes were recognized including climate action, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, and quality education. Awards were given in three categories: (1) Outstanding Flagship Project, (2) Acknowledged Flagship Project, and (3) Honourable Mention.

Read about all of the 2019 awards: rcenetwork.org/portal/2019-rce-awards

Learn more about RCE Greater Atlanta: serve-learn-sustain.gatech.edu/rce-greater-atlanta

Contacts:
Denise Ward
Georgia Institute of Technology
404.385.2966
denise.ward@comm.gatech.edu

Kenja McCray, Ph.D.
Atlanta Metropolitan State College
404.756.4715
kmccray@atlm.edu

Garry Harris
Center for Sustainable Communities
404.936.0620
gharris@csc-atl.org

Gana Ahn
Emory University
404.727.0343
gana.ahn@emory.edu

Jazmyn D. Burton 
Spelman College
404.270.5892
jburton8@spelman.edu

Written by Jennifer Holley Lux

Faculty, staff, and students affiliated with the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business at Scheller College of Business (“Center”) contributed to Georgia Tech’s inaugural Sustainability Showcase. The public event, which was organized by the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (“BBISS”), occurred over three full days, from October 28 through 30. It was held at the recently opened Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design, the most environmentally advanced education and research building ever constructed in the Southeast.

Sustainability has increasingly become a characteristic that defines much of the work being done by the Georgia Tech community. In 2018, it was the topic of no fewer than 160 courses and nearly 25% of the Institute’s research programs (not including those funded by the U.S. Department of Defense). Michael Chang, deputy director of BBISS, who spearheaded the event, said, “Keeping track of who is doing what has become more and more difficult. We at BBISS envisioned the Showcase as a vehicle for increasing awareness of sustainability-related work across all six colleges, GTRI, and the Interdisciplinary Research Institutes, as well as for fostering more collaborative relationships among them.”

Over 150 members of the Georgia Tech community shared their current work in sustainability research and education. The hallmark of the event was the “lightning talk,” which allowed a large number of presenters the opportunity to summarize and spark interest in their work in just a few minutes. Filling out the schedule were poster presentations, tours of the Kendeda Building, and keynote addresses by John Brock (former chairman and chief executive officer of Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc.), G. Wayne Clough (president emeritus of Georgia Tech and former secretary of the Smithsonian Institution), and John Lanier (executive director of the Ray C. Anderson Foundation).

Presentations affiliated with the Center included:

• Incentives for Workplace Safety (Ravi Subramanian, faculty)
• Optimal Service Portfolio for Non-Profit Organizations Serving Distressed Individuals (Karthik Ramachandran, faculty)
• Environmental Externalities and Cost of Capital (Sudheer Chava, faculty)
• Supply Chain Transparency as a Mechanism to Promote Social & Environmental Responsibility (Basak Kalkanci, faculty)
• Product Recalls and Corporate Social Responsibility (Manpreet Hora, faculty)
• Advancing the UN SDGs and Education for Sustainable Development at Georgia Tech and Across the Greater Atlanta Region (David Eady, industry engagement manager of the Center)
• Beyond Carbon Considerations in Georgia Drawdown (Michael Oxman, managing director of the Center)
• Energy Affordability in Atlanta (Beril Toktay, faculty director of the Center)
• Sustainable Undergraduate Research Fellow Poster Presentation (William Abdallah, undergraduate sustainability ambassador)

Center Faculty Director Beril Toktay remarked, “Sustainability is truly interwoven throughout the fabric of Georgia Tech. The Sustainability Showcase—with participation from so many colleagues from across campus—made this fact even more apparent. I was especially proud to see the high level of involvement from Scheller College faculty. By producing innovative research and infusing sustainability throughout the curriculum, they are influencing responsible business practices and inspiring the next generation of business leaders.”

Sponsors for the Sustainability Showcase included the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business, BBISS, the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research, the Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design, and the Sustainable Design & Manufacturing Lab.