My practitioner-oriented research consists of a number of on-going projects in several subject matter areas.
The use of the USEEIO model for Teaching GHG Accounting
I am gradually developing teaching materials in my Life Cycle Assessment course (general course details here) using the United State Environmentally Extended Input-Output (USEEIO) model, formerly hosted by EPA and now hosted by Cornerstone Research and Stanford University.
I recently posted a version of USEEIO (2023) as an openLCA file (download here). Read the post here.
Energy Knowledge Initiative (EKI)
The EKI is dedicated to making high-quality energy knowledge more accessible. For the first EKI project, a student intern (Charlotte Shewchuk) and I have developed new formatting elements for the category of Wikipedia pages summarizing solar power in individual countries. Our refinements created new page-specific refinements (an infobox for deployment on any solar power country page) and additions to existing content (via the Solar power by country page). See a write-up of our work here: Energy knowledge was broken, so we fixed* it. Click here for more. Please contact me if you’re interested!
Hot Spots Project
I’m leading a project to harness student research to develop a searchable public database connecting extreme heat, worker health and wellbeing, and corporate supply chains. Click to learn more about the Hot Spots Project.
Economic Inequality: teaching materials for business programs
I’m gradually developing materials for teaching about economic inequality to business students. Although not formally related to these materials, my 2023 posts on child poverty and on meritocracy in and access to higher education are in the same spirit.
Writing on the Pandemic
Essays to date:
- Don’t Say, “When it’s over…” (on Medium)
- “Frequent cheap tests will allow us to reopen” (on rapid antigen testing)
- Short version in the Eugene-Springfield Register-Guard (700 words, September 26, 2020)
- Long version at this site (1100 words, draft from September 13, 2020)
- “Two scenarios,” May 29, 2020
Transportation
- I am vocationally and avocationally obsessed with transportation electrification; if that interests you, maybe check out:
- No, the grid isn’t ready for plug-in cars. But by the time the cars plug in, it will be.
- Do we just need an easy ‘EV Chooser’ tool to improve adoption?
- the EV Chooser decision tree infographic
- Research in 2019-2020 created protocol-style guidance for the carbon footprint of ride-hailing. My co-authors for the work are Aaron Toneys and Anne Brown.
- Download the final report, The Carbon Footprint of Ride-Hailing: GHG Inventory Methodology (PDF).
- See the recording of a July 2020 webinar sponsored by UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, Ride-Hailing and the Future of Sustainable Transportation.
- Also see my writing on carbon reduction goals for transit and the potential meanings of Uber’s valuation.
Policy options for low-carbon gas
See this page on Policy Options for Low-Carbon Gas.