http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/35325 2013-05-20T12:31:41Z http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/97548 Designing Innovative Corporate Water Risk Management Strategies from an Ecosystem Services Perspective Gerding, Daniel; Kennedy, Berry; Lyon, Makely; Rego, Joshua; Taylor, Emily In January of 2012, we teamed up with representatives from the sustainability department at The Dow Chemical Company with the goal of creating a viable, creative solution that would advance The Company’s efforts to address the risk associated with freshwater scarcity. With uncertainty surrounding the impacts of climate change and other environmental threats, it is becoming increasingly important for corporations to fully understand and incorporate the value of the benefits nature provides into strategic decisions. The focal ecosystem service of our project was freshwater provisioning. Freshwater is critical to life and a key ingredient to many economic activities, such as power generation, agriculture and industrial processes. Water scarcity is of particular interest to Dow, given that 20 percent of The Company’s global production comes from the Freeport, Texas facility on the water-stressed Brazos River.1 Water is used as both an input to production and a coolant for electricity generation. The growing uncertainty around the future supply of water could threaten continuity of operations at Freeport and other increasingly water-stressed sites.2 After surveying the common responses to water scarcity, the team broke down these various solutions into three categories: technology-based, policy-based, or management-based. Management-based solutions, defined here as responses developed within the organization that involve changes to internal policies and processes, were determined to hold the most promise for creating a robust, organization-wide solution for potential freshwater scarcity. We conducted a broad search to identify creative management responses by a variety of institutions to natural resource challenges and selected ten types of responses, referred to as “analogues,” exemplified through one or more specific case studies. We then considered how each analogue could be adapted to the unique characteristics of water and the context of the corporate setting. Our five-step methodology including the following: 1) develop criteria for evaluating the analogue cases; 2) identify and evaluate the cases against those criteria; 3) deconstruct each case to determine the mechanisms driving effective resource management decisions; 4) adapt those mechanisms to the freshwater challenge; and 5) as necessary, adapt those mechanisms to the corporate context. We then evaluated the purpose, strengths and weaknesses of each analogue and identified common enabling conditions, benefits and limitations. After considering commonalities, we compared and mapped out unique benefits and limitations for application to freshwater scarcity in the corporate context. 5 The analysis was used to provide a strategic recommendation for addressing water scarcity at The Dow Chemical Company. Building from the analogue benefits and limitations outlined above, we were able to identify a way in which multiple analogues could be used in a complementary manner to achieve Dow’s goals within its particular organizational context. The initial proposal incorporated mechanisms from carbon taxing, infrastructure portfolio standard, and revolving fund analogues. These analogues provided mechanisms to generate and allocate capital by placing a tax on water use, with fee revenue dedicated to a revolving fund. This revolving fund financed water projects prioritized through the portfolio standard. Through further iterations and discussions with environmental and finance staff at Dow, we further refined our proposal to combine elements from two analogues– infrastructure portfolio standards and revolving funds – with a balanced scorecard approach to performance evaluation. In this case, capital is allocated internally to a fund that is used to finance projects prioritized by the portfolio standard. Projects are evaluated and reviewed for continued funding based on a scorecard that considers both financial return and other beneficial outcomes. This recommended strategy is sensitive to the financial realities and processes within Dow and is flexible to allow for the varied operational and policy contexts in which Dow faces freshwater scarcity challenges around the globe. Further, it addresses the desire of The Company to frame and address sustainability holistically, while still using freshwater scarcity as a focal challenge within the new effort. We believe that the analogues analyzed in this report can be combined in multiple ways to overcome a broad range of sustainability challenges. The analysis is designed to illuminate the potential applications of the mechanisms underlying each analogue. We hope that it inspires readers to think more broadly and creatively about effective options for responding to natural resource challenges. 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/97545 A Study of Abiotic and Biotic Factors Affecting Coffee Rust Infection Rates in a Shade-Grown Organic Coffee Farm Skillman, Jane Coffee rust disease causes significant losses to coffee bean production, and producers can incur heavy costs managing it with fungicides. Given the potential for coffee rust infection rates to increase with climate change, a better understanding of the factors influencing coffee rust infestation could help coffee producers manage coffee rust cost-effectively. In this study, the effect of the abundance of Lecanicillium lecanii-infected scale insects, shade, variety type, and plant density were compared, with spatial and temporal effects taken into consideration. L. lecanii-infected scales surveyed the year previous to the coffee rust survey decreased coffee rust intensity, while L. lecanii-infected scales surveyed the same year to the coffee rust survey showed a positive relationship under some conditions. Shade decreased coffee rust intensity in 2009 but not in 2010, and varieties had differing probabilities of being infected by coffee rust. Coffee plant density had no effect on rust incidence, but it did seem to affect the dispersal of rust through space. The results suggest that ecological management of L. lecanii-infected scales and variety type may help to decrease coffee rust intensity and incidence. 2013-05-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/97544 Pursuing Sustainability with Univeristy of Michigan, Patient Food and Nutrition Services: Aligning Sustainable Practices with Healthcare Delivery Agins, Jenna; Cronin, Annie; Dyson, Catherine; Newlin, Kate With 45 thousand inpatient stays and 1.9 million outpatient visits in 2012, the University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) manages a vast network of patients in constant flux. The Patient Food and Nutrition Services (PFANS) group provides in-room dining services for these patients and delivers meals and supplements to homebound seniors in the community through its Ann Arbor Meals on Wheels program. PFANS is committed to expanding its existing environmental responsibility initiatives and has the potential to serve as an important case study, providing a sustainability roadmap for UMHS and national patient food services. The project objectives included: 1. Reducing waste, water and energy footprints 2. Capturing cost savings 3. Designing a strategy that serves as holistic approach to sustainability for UMHS 4. Aligning sustainable practices with future models of U.S. healthcare delivery The approach to meeting these objectives included a current state assessment through primary research focused on interviews, waste and energy auditing and cost-benefit analysis as well as secondary literature reviews to identify best practices in the industry. Using the findings from these methods and developed criteria for evaluation—environmental, financial, reporting ability and scalability—the report outlines a series of recommendations that respond to the following key findings: 1. Immediate energy savings can be achieved through passive operational changes and additional long-term savings through active behavior changes. 2. Opportunities for reducing water usage would require major investment and PFANS would not directly see these savings. Therefore, PFANS should consider behavior-based reductions in water usage until a time where the case for capital expenditure on new equipment can be made. 3. Further improvements will require PFANS to form partnerships to overcome the challenges of sustainable and local food procurement in a healthcare setting. 4. Implementing an organic waste stream is possible and environmentally preferable. 5. PFANS can better utilize existing waste management infrastructure to increase diversion from landfill. 6. Areas for source reduction can be identified more readily by implementing better food waste tracking procedures. 7. Employee engagement is the lynchpin to successful implementation and to tracking progress against goals. The project is intended to demonstrate how PFANS can support both sustainability and patient care through its operations and services to position the unit as a sustainability leader within UMHS and in the patient food service management space. 2013-05-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/97543 Crucial Creeks: A Watershed Management Plan for Tannery Creek, Petoskey, MI Williams, Bo; Riggio, Julie; Lillard, Elizabeth; Portner, Diana; Zimmerman, Leah Tannery Creek is one of the main tributaries leading into Little Traverse Bay, which is located adjacent to Petoskey, Michigan. The creek lies within the jurisdiction of the Little Traverse Bay Watershed Protection Plan. The client, Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council (the Watershed Council), asked the project team to research and prepare a watershed management plan for Tannery Creek that would be amended to the Little Traverse Bay plan. The project included an assessment of Tannery Creek’s water quality, a watershed analysis using GIS tools, and a thorough public outreach campaign. For the stream assessment, the project team compiled historical data and conducted sampling at five sites over the course of 2012. For the watershed analysis, the team utilized to primary tools: a land cover model and the Long Term Hydrologic Impact Analysis model. In addition to a description of these activities and their results, the watershed management plan itself includes goals and objectives and a detailed implementation plan. 2013-05-01T00:00:00Z