Green Buzz

My Green Lab Initiative Drives Sustainable Practices in Campus Labs

admin — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 22:33:41 +0000

My Green Lab Initiative Drives Sustainable Practices in Campus Labs admin Thu, 04/17/2025 - 18:33

Laboratories are central to Georgia Tech’s mission of driving groundbreaking research, innovative discoveries, and life-saving technology. However, these labs are also significant consumers of resources. With nearly 900,000 square feet of campus lab space, labs use, on average, 10 times the electricity and four times the water of a typical classroom. They also produce most of the hazardous waste on campus. In 2023, Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) brought the issue to the attention of the Office of Sustainability, which led the charge in 2024 to launch a My Green Lab working group and sponsored three campus labs to work toward certification, including the School of Biological Sciences Instructional Labs, the Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience’s Molecular Evolution Core Facility, and the Takayama Lab.

My Green Lab is an international community of scientists dedicated to making laboratories more sustainable and resource-efficient. To achieve My Green Lab certification, each lab conducted an initial assessment to evaluate their current sustainability practices and identified areas of improvement, including waste, water, and electricity. Labs were encouraged to adopt measures such as defrosting and cleaning refrigerator coils, using timers for test equipment, and promoting best practices. Alicia Wood-Jones, Lab and Safety Officer for EH&S, was a key leader in the working group. Known for her work on the Chemical Reclamation Committee, Wood-Jones’ vision and drive are instrumental in finding innovative solutions to long-standing challenges in lab decommissioning.

She thanks her colleagues, including the EH&S Lab and Chemical Safety Team, “for their help and vision. We believe that even small steps forward can make a big difference here at Georgia Tech. I am so appreciative to all involved. I look forward to future collaborations with lab members on campus.”

Katherine Nguyen and her team in the Takayama Lab construct multicellular models and dissect cell signaling pathways to understand disease physiology. While pursuing this research, the lab team activated measures to responsibly manage their lab resources, such as recycling in the lab, keeping centrifuges at room temperature when not needed, and consolidating orders.

“I’m incredibly happy and proud to have been a part of this program and appreciate everyone’s hard work to try to make Georgia Tech a more sustainable campus,” she said. “Our lab was the first academic lab at Georgia Tech to get certified. Sometimes, graduate students want to be greener, but don’t know how to or feel like we have the power to. My Green Lab helped identify feasible options for labs to reduce their waste. Even if labs couldn’t make every single change, any improvement is a positive change.”

Sustainability efforts at the Molecular Evolution Core Laboratory are led by Anton Bryksin, Shweta Biliya, and Adam Fallah. The lab is pioneering Tip-Cycle, a program that sterilizes and recycles pipettes for reuse. This lab also monitors campus blackwater for diseases such as Covid-19, using thousands of pipettes in their work. Faced with resource constraints during the pandemic, these researchers developed innovative solutions to maximize resource efficiency. “We’ve always wanted to make our lab practices more sustainable, but weren’t sure where to start. My Green Lab gave us the tools and guidance to turn that intention into action. This certification represents the dedication of our entire team to create a more sustainable environment,” said Biliya, a Georgia Tech research scientist.

The My Green Lab initiative offers an approach for transforming campus labs into more efficient spaces while producing less hazardous waste. By prioritizing sustainability in our labs, Georgia Tech can have both a global reputation for research and responsible resource management.

Visit the Office of Sustainability for more information on My Green Lab.

Summary sentence

Three Georgia Tech labs are leading the charge in resource efficiency.

Summary

Three Georgia Tech labs are leading the charge in resource efficiency.

Dateline

Thu, 04/17/2025 - 12:00

cathy.brim@gatech.edu

Contact

Cathy Brim
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Institute Communications / Infrastructure and Sustainability

Drew Cutright
Director of Sustainability Engagement
Office of Sustainability

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tip cycling

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environmental health and safety

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Earth and Environment

2024’s Extreme Ocean Heat Breaks Records Again, Leaving 2 Mysteries to Solve

admin — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 16:33:41 +0000

2024’s Extreme Ocean Heat Breaks Records Again, Leaving 2 Mysteries to Solve admin Fri, 01/17/2025 - 11:33

The oceans are heating up as the planet warms.

This past year, 2024, was the warmest ever measured for the global ocean, following a record-breaking 2023. In fact, every decade since 1984, when satellite recordkeeping of ocean temperatures started, has been warmer than the previous one.

A warmer ocean means increased evaporation, which in turn results in heavier rains in some areas and droughts in others. It can power hurricanes and downpours. It can also harm the health of coastal marine areas and sea life – coral reefs suffered their most extensive bleaching event on record in 2024, with damage in many parts of the world.

Warming ocean water also affects temperatures on land by changing weather patterns. The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service announced on Jan. 10 that data showed 2024 had also broken the record for the warmest year globally, with global temperatures about 2.9 degrees Fahrenheit (1.6 Celsius) above pre-industrial times. That would mark the first full calendar year with average warming above 1.5 C, a level countries had agreed to try to avoid passing long-term.

Climate change, by and large, takes the blame. Greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere trap heat, and about 90% of the excess heat caused by emissions from burning fossil fuels and other human activities is absorbed by the ocean.

But while it’s clear that the ocean has been warming for quite some time, its temperatures over the past two years have been far above the previous decades. That leaves two mysteries for scientists.

It’s Not Just El Niño

The cyclic climate pattern of the El Niño Southern Oscillation can explain part of the warmth over the past two years.

During El Niño periods, warm waters that usually accumulate in the western equatorial Pacific Ocean move eastward toward the coastlines of Peru and Chile, leaving the Earth slightly warmer overall. The latest El Niño began in 2023 and caused global average temperatures to rise well into early 2024.

But the oceans have been even warmer than scientists expected. For example, global temperatures in 2023-2024 followed a similar growth and decline pattern across the seasons as the previous El Niño event, in 2015-2016, but they were about 0.36 degrees Fahrenheit (0.2 Celsius) higher at all times in 2023-2024.

Scientists are puzzled and left with two problems to solve. They must figure out whether something else contributed to the unexpected warming and whether the past two years have been a sign of a sudden acceleration in global warming.

The Role of Aerosols

An intriguing idea, tested using climate models, is that a swift reduction in aerosols over the past decade may be one of the culprits.

Aerosols are solid and liquid particles emitted by human and natural sources into the atmosphere. Some of them have been shown to partially counteract the impact of greenhouse gases by reflecting solar radiation back into space. However, they also are responsible for poor air quality and air pollution.

Many of these particles with cooling properties are generated in the process of burning fossil fuels. For example, sulfur aerosols are emitted by ship engines and power plants. In 2020, the shipping industry implemented a nearly 80% cut in sulfur emissions, and many companies shifted to low-sulfur fuels. But the larger impact has come from power plants reducing their emissions, including a big shift in this direction in China. So, while technologies have cut these harmful emissions, that means a brake slowing the pace of warming is weakened.

Is This a Warming Surge?

The second puzzle is whether the planet is seeing a warming surge or not.

Temperatures are clearly rising, but the past two years have not been warm enough to support the notion that we may be seeing an acceleration in the rate of global warming.

Analysis of four temperature datasets covering the 1850-2023 period has shown that the rate of warming has not shown a significant change since around the 1970s. The same authors, however, noted that only a rate increase of at least 55% – about half a degree Celsius and nearly a full degree Fahrenheit over one year – would make the warming acceleration detectable in a statistical sense.

From a statistical standpoint, then, scientists cannot exclude the possibility that the 2023-2024 record ocean warming resulted simply from the “usual” warming trend that humans have set the planet on for the past 50 years. A very strong El Niño contributed some natural variability.

From a practical standpoint, however, the extraordinary impacts the planet has witnessed – including extreme weather, heat waves, wildfires, coral bleaching and ecosystem destruction – point to a need to swiftly reduce carbon dioxide emissions to limit ocean warming, regardless of whether this is a continuation of an ongoing trend or an acceleration.

This article has been updated with Copernicus Climate Change Service’s global 2024 temperature data.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Summary sentence

In fact, every decade since 1984, when satellite recordkeeping of ocean temperatures started, has been warmer than the previous one.

Summary

In fact, every decade since 1984, when satellite recordkeeping of ocean temperatures started, has been warmer than the previous one.

Dateline

Thu, 01/09/2025 - 12:00

Contact

Author:

Annalisa Bracco, Professor of Ocean and Climate Dynamics, Georgia Institute of Technology

Media Contact:

Shelley Wunder-Smith
shelley.wunder-smith@research.gatech.edu

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Fri, 01/17/2025 - 11:32

Why Does a Rocket Have to go 25,000 mph to Escape Earth?

admin — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 14:40:37 +0000

Why Does a Rocket Have to go 25,000 mph to Escape Earth? admin Thu, 01/16/2025 - 09:40

Why does a rocket have to go 25,000 mph (about 40,000 kilometers per hour) to escape Earth? – Bo H., age 10, Durham, New Hampshire

There’s a reason why a rocket has to go so fast to escape Earth. It’s about gravity – something all of us experience every moment of every day.

Gravity is the force that pulls you toward the ground. And that’s a good thing. Gravity keeps you on Earth; otherwise, you would float away into space.

But gravity also makes it difficult to leave Earth if you’re a rocket heading for space. Escaping our planet’s gravitational pull is hard – not only is gravity strong, but it also extends far away from Earth.

Like a Balloon

As a rocket scientist, one of the things I do is teach students how rockets overcome gravity. Here’s how it works:

Essentially, the rocket has to make thrust – that is, create force – by burning propellant to make hot gases. Then it shoots those hot gases out of a nozzle. It’s sort of like blowing up a balloon, letting go of it and watching it fly away as the air rushes out.

More specifically, the rocket propellant consists of both fuel and oxidizer. The fuel is typically something flammable, usually hydrogen, methane or kerosene. The oxidizer is usually liquid oxygen, which reacts with the fuel and allows it to burn.

When going into space and escaping from Earth, rockets need lots of force, so they consume propellant very quickly. That’s a problem, because the rocket can’t carry enough propellant to keep thrusting forever; the amount of propellant needed would make the rocket too heavy to get off the ground.

So what happens when the propellant runs out? The thrust stops, and gravity slows the rocket down until it gradually begins to fall back to Earth.

Fortunately, scientists can launch the rocket with some sideways momentum so that it misses the Earth when it returns. They can even do this so it continuously falls around the Earth forever. In other words, it goes into orbit, and begins to circle the planet.

Many launches intentionally don’t completely leave Earth behind. Thousands of satellites are orbiting our planet right now, and they help phones and TVs work, display weather patterns for meteorologists, and even let you use a credit card to pay for things at the store or gas at the pump. You can sometimes see these satellites in the night sky, including the International Space Station.

An Atlas V rocket took NASA’s Perseverance rover to Mars.

Escaping Earth

But suppose the goal is to let the rocket escape from Earth’s gravity forever so it can fly off into the depths of space. That’s when scientists do a neat trick called staging. They launch with a big rocket, and then, once in space, discard it to use a smaller rocket. That way, the journey can continue without the weight of the bigger rocket, and less propellant is needed.

But even staging is not enough; eventually the rocket will run out of propellant. But if the rocket goes fast enough, it can run out of propellant and still continue to coast away from Earth forever, without gravity pulling it back. It’s like riding a bike: build up enough speed and eventually you can coast up a hill without pedaling.

And just like there’s a minimum speed required to coast the bike, there’s a minimum speed a rocket needs to coast away into space: 25,020 mph (about 40,000 kilometers per hour).

Scientists call that speed the escape velocity. A rocket needs to go that fast so that the momentum propelling it away from Earth is stronger than the force of gravity pulling it back. Any slower, and you’ll go into an orbit of Earth.

Escaping Jupiter

Bigger, or more massive, objects have stronger gravitational pull. A rocket launching from a planet bigger than Earth would need to achieve a higher escape speed.

For example, Jupiter is the most massive planet in our solar system. It’s so big, it could swallow 1,000 Earths. So it requires a very high escape speed: 133,100 mph (about 214,000 kilometers per hour), more than five times the escape speed of Earth.

But the extreme example is a black hole, an object so massive that its escape speed is extraordinarily high. So high, in fact, that even light – which has a speed of about 670 million mph (over a billion kilometers per hour) – is not fast enough to escape. That’s why it’s called a black hole.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Summary sentence

There’s a reason why a rocket has to go so fast to escape Earth. It’s about gravity – something all of us experience every moment of every day.

Summary

There’s a reason why a rocket has to go so fast to escape Earth. It’s about gravity – something all of us experience every moment of every day.

Dateline

Tue, 01/14/2025 - 12:00

Contact

Author:

Benjamin L. Emerson, Principal Research Engineer, Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

Media Contact:

Shelley Wunder-Smith
shelley.wunder-smith@research.gatech.edu

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679654

Source updated

Thu, 01/16/2025 - 09:39

AI’s Energy Demands Spark Nuclear Revival

admin — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 18:03:41 +0000

AI’s Energy Demands Spark Nuclear Revival admin Fri, 01/10/2025 - 13:03

The demand for electricity to power AI data centers is skyrocketing, placing immense pressure on traditional energy sources.

“If we continue pursuing clean energy for AI and data centers, we will need to triple the energy supply for data centers by 2030,” says Woodruff Professor Anna Erickson, a nuclear engineering expert from Georgia Tech. Nuclear power, with its high energy density and continuous operation, is well-suited to provide the steady base load of electricity required.

According to Erickson, the recent headlines of the restarting of Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island Unit 1 reactor (TMI-1) could play a crucial role in meeting these demands sustainably.

This decision, supported by a 20-year agreement with Microsoft, aims to provide carbon-free energy to meet the escalating power demands of AI data centers. The company’s goal to be carbon negative by 2030 aligns with the broader push for sustainable energy solutions.

According to the United States Energy Information Administration, as of Aug. 1, 2023, the United States has 93 operating commercial nuclear reactors across 54 nuclear power plants in 28 states. The most recent reactor to begin commercial operation is Unit 4 at the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Georgia, which started on April 29, 2024.

The commercial start of Unit 4 completes the 11-year expansion project at Plant Vogtle.

A Historic Site With a New Mission

Three Mile Island, infamous for the 1979 partial meltdown of its Unit 2 reactor, has remained a symbol of nuclear caution. However, the reopening of TMI-1, which operated safely for decades before its 2019 shutdown due to financial constraints, represents a potential renaissance for nuclear power. The plant’s revival is seen as a strategic move to address the increasing strain on conventional electricity grids, exacerbated by the energy-intensive needs of AI technologies.

Expert Insights on Safety and Innovation

Erickson stresses the importance of rigorous safety measures and technological upgrades in the reopening process.

“Reopening TMI-1 will require addressing several critical safety concerns, primarily focused on aging infrastructure and modern regulatory standards,” she explains. Comprehensive inspections and upgrades to emergency cooling, radiation monitoring, and digital control systems will be essential to ensure structural integrity and operational reliability.

Erickson notes, “We can expect to see developments in advanced radiation detection, novel sensors, and AI-driven security systems.” These technologies not only enhance safety but also improve the efficiency and reliability of nuclear power plants. She also highlights the potential for innovative advancements in reactor technology.

Economic and Environmental Implications

The reopening of TMI-1 is expected to bring notable economic advantages. According to Erickson, upgrading existing infrastructure is likely to be more cost-effective than new construction and can be completed more quickly.

“The implications of restarting are significant,” she explains. “It supports clean energy goals and provides a reliable power source for the growing needs of data centers.”

Environmental considerations are also paramount. The plant’s carbon-free energy production aligns with efforts to combat climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“Nuclear energy is a clean and reliable power source that can help us achieve our climate goals while meeting the growing energy demands of AI,” Erickson emphasizes.

Public Perception and Regulatory Oversight

Despite the potential benefits, public perception of nuclear energy remains cautious, primarily due to historical incidents like the Three Mile Island accident. Erickson acknowledges these concerns and indicates the importance of transparent regulatory oversight and effective communication.

She says the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) “does a lot to ensure safety and security, but as experts, we need to do a better job of explaining technological advances and the benefits of nuclear energy.”

The reopening of TMI-1 is subject to approval from the NRC and other regulatory bodies, ensuring that all safety and environmental standards are met.

Summary sentence

Professor Anna Erickson highlights the reopening of Three Mile Island Unit 1 as a crucial step in meeting the growing energy demands of AI data centers with carbon-free nuclear power, aligning with Microsoft's sustainability goals.

Summary

Woodruff Professor Anna Erickson from Georgia Tech emphasizes the increasing energy demands of AI data centers, which are putting pressure on traditional energy sources and prompting a shift towards nuclear power for its high energy density and continuous operation. The reopening of Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island Unit 1, supported by a 20-year agreement with Microsoft, aims to provide a steady, carbon-free energy supply to meet these demands. This move aligns with Microsoft's goal to be carbon negative by 2030 and represents a strategic effort to address the strain on conventional electricity grids. Despite public caution due to historical incidents, Erickson stresses the importance of safety measures and technological upgrades to ensure the plant's reliability and efficiency.

Dateline

Fri, 01/10/2025 - 12:00

sar30@gatech.edu

Contact

Siobhan Rodriguez

Institute Communications

Associated importer

Keywords

Three Mile Island

AI data centers

electricity demand

traditional energy sources

clean energy

Nuclear Power

Three Mile Island Unit 1

Professor Anna Erickson

Georgia Tech

Microsoft

carbon-free energy

sustainability goals

United States Energy Information Administration

commercial nuclear reactors

Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant

safety measures

technological upgrades

economic advantages

environmental implications

public perception

regulatory oversight

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

artificial intelligence (AI)

Green Buzz

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Science and Technology

Living Learning Campus Pathways Offer Experience in Sustainability

admin — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 21:41:55 +0000

Living Learning Campus Pathways Offer Experience in Sustainability admin Thu, 01/09/2025 - 16:41

In collaboration with subject matter experts in Infrastructure and Sustainability, the Office of Sustainability is offering a series of Living Learning Campus Pathways to provide unique, immersive learning opportunities that connect classroom knowledge with real-world experience in sustainability. Applications for the Living Campus Student Fellowship, the newest offering, will open this month for students interested in gaining paid experience.

Living Learning Campus Pathways

Pathway 1: Data Requests
Students, faculty, and staff can request campus data, including campus energy use and campus water consumption, for student projects and research. Data requests are available year-round. To date, Infrastructure and Sustainability has provided data for more than 200 requests. To request data, visit I&S Data Reporting & Analytics Request.

Pathway 2: Project Partnership
This pathway enables students, faculty, and staff to choose from a list of predetermined projects that advance campus sustainability and to work with staff members in Infrastructure and Sustainability. Current project offerings range from a campus LED lighting assessment to air quality monitoring. A list of available project topics for 2025 and the project application form can be found at Office of Sustainability | 2025 Living Campus Pathway 2 Projects. Projects can start as early as this semester.

Pathway 3: Living Campus Student Fellowship
Offers students a paid one to two-semester opportunity to work on a project advancing campus sustainability goals in partnership with the Office of Sustainability. The application for Fall 2025 will be open from Jan. 15 to March 14. Students interested in Pathway 3: Living Campus Student Fellowship should subscribe to communications from the Office of Sustainability for updates.

For additional information about each pathway and the application processes, visit Living Learning Campus Pathways | Office of Sustainability.

Summary sentence

The Office of Sustainability is offering a series of Living Learning Campus Pathways to provide unique, immersive learning opportunities that connect classroom knowledge with real-world experience in sustainability.

Summary

Dateline

Thu, 01/09/2025 - 12:00

abby.bower@sustain.gatech.edu

Contact

Abby Bower
Program and Portfolio Manager
Office of Sustainability
Infrastructure and Sustainability

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679345

Source updated

Thu, 01/09/2025 - 16:41

Research Reveals Thermal Instability of Solar Cells but Offers a Bright Path Forward

admin — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 16:52:52 +0000

Research Reveals Thermal Instability of Solar Cells but Offers a Bright Path Forward admin Thu, 02/09/2023 - 11:52

A new type of solar technology has seemed promising in recent years. Halide perovskite solar cells are both high performing and low cost for producing electrical energy – two necessary ingredients for any successful solar technology of the future. But new solar cell materials should also match the stability of silicon-based solar cells, which boast more than 25 years of reliability.

In newly published research, a team led by Juan-Pablo Correa-Baena, assistant professor in the School of Materials Sciences and Engineering at Georgia Tech, shows that halide perovskite solar cells are less stable than previously thought. Their work reveals the thermal instability that happens within the cells’ interface layers, but also offers a path forward towards reliability and efficiency for halide perovskite solar technology. Their research, published as the cover story for the journal Advanced Materials in December 2022, has immediate implications for both academics and industry professionals working with perovskites in photovoltaics, a field concerned with electric currents generated by sunlight.

Lead halide perovskite solar cells promise superior conversion of sunlight into electrical power. Currently, the most common strategy for coaxing high conversion efficiency out of these cells is to treat their surfaces with large positively charged ions known as cations.

These cations are too big to fit into the perovskite atomic-scale lattice, and, upon landing on the perovskite crystal, change the material’s structure at the interface where they are deposited. The resulting atomic-scale defects limit the efficacy of current extraction from the solar cell. Despite awareness of these structural changes, research on whether the cations are stable after deposition is limited, leaving a gap in understanding of a process that could impact the long-term viability of halide perovskite solar cells.

“Our concern was that during long periods of solar cell operation the reconstruction of the interfaces would continue,” said Correa-Baena. “So, we sought to understand and demonstrate how this process happens over time.”

To carry out the experiment, the team created a sample solar device using typical perovskite films. The device features eight independent solar cells, which enables the researchers to experiment and generate data based on each cell’s performance. They investigated how the cells would perform, both with and without the cation surface treatment, and studied the cation-modified interfaces of each cell before and after prolonged thermal stress using synchrotron-based X-ray characterization techniques.

First, the researchers exposed the pre-treated samples to 100 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes, and then measured their changes in chemical composition using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. They also used another type of X-ray technology to investigate precisely what type of crystal structures form on the film’s surface. Combining the information from the two tools, the researchers could visualize how the cations diffuse into the lattice and how the interface structure changes when exposed to heat.

Next, to understand how the cation-induced structural changes impact solar cell performance, the researchers employed excitation correlation spectroscopy in collaboration with Carlos Silva, professor of physics and chemistry at Georgia Tech. The technique exposes the solar cell samples to very fast pulses of light and detects the intensity of light emitted from the film after each pulse to understand how energy from light is lost. The measurements allow the researchers to understand what kinds of surface defects are detrimental to performance.

Finally, the team correlated the changes in structure and optoelectronic properties with the differences in the solar cells’ efficiencies. They also studied the changes induced by high temperatures in two of the most used cations and observed the differences in dynamics at their interfaces.

“Our work revealed that there is concerning instability introduced by treatment with certain cations,” said Carlo Perini, a research scientist in Correa-Baena’s lab and the first author of the paper. “But the good news is that, with proper engineering of the interface layer, we will see enhanced stability of this technology in the future.”

The researchers learned that the surfaces of metal halide perovskite films treated with organic cations keep evolving in structure and composition under thermal stress. They saw that the resulting atomic-scale changes at the interface can cause a meaningful loss in power conversion efficiency in solar cells. In addition, they found that the speed of these changes depends on the type of cations used, suggesting that stable interfaces might be within reach with adequate engineering of the molecules.

“We hope this work will compel researchers to test these interfaces at high temperatures and seek solutions to the problem of instability,” Correa-Baena said. “This work should point scientists in the right direction, to an area where they can focus in order to build more efficient and stable solar technologies.”

CITATION: Perini, C. A. R., Rojas-Gatjens, E., Ravello, M., Castro-Mendez, A., Hidalgo, J., An, Y., Kim, S., Lai, B., Li, R., Silva-Acuña, C., Correa-Baena, J.-P., Interface Reconstruction from Ruddlesden–Popper Structures Impacts Stability in Lead Halide Perovskite Solar Cells. Adv. Mater. 2022, 34, 2204726.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202204726

Summary sentence

Their work reveals what goes wrong within the cells’ interface layers.

Summary

Their work reveals what goes wrong within the cells’ interface layers.

Dateline

Thu, 02/09/2023 - 12:00

catherine.barzler@gatech.edu

Contact

Catherine Barzler, Senior Research Writer/Editor

Location

Atlanta, GA

Associated importer

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go-researchnews

Green Buzz

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Science and Technology

Core research areas

Electronics and Nanotechnology

Materials

Mercury ID

665652

Source updated

Thu, 02/09/2023 - 11:05

The Plants Seeking Refuge Across Our Dynamically Changing Planet

admin — Mon, 06 Feb 2023 22:51:42 +0000

The Plants Seeking Refuge Across Our Dynamically Changing Planet admin Mon, 02/06/2023 - 17:51

Plants, like animals and people, seek refuge from climate change. And when they move, they take entire ecosystems with them. To understand why and how plants have trekked across landscapes throughout time, researchers at the forefront of conservation are calling for a new framework. The key to protecting biodiversity in the future may be through understanding the past.

Jenny McGuire, assistant professor in the Schools of Biological Sciences and Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech, spearheaded a special feature on the topic of biodiversity in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences along with colleagues in Texas, Norway, and Argentina. In the special feature, “The Past as a Lens for Biodiversity Conservation on a Dynamically Changing Planet,” McGuire and her collaborators highlight the outstanding questions that must be addressed for successful future conservation efforts. The feature brings together conservation research that illuminates the complex and constantly evolving dynamics brought on by climate change and the ever-shifting ways humans use land. These factors, McGuire said, interact over time to create dynamic changes and illustrate the need to incorporate temporal perspectives into conservation strategies by looking deep into the past.

One example of this work highlighted in the journal is McGuire’s research about plants in North America, which investigates how and why they’ve moved across geography over time, where they’re heading, and why it’s important.

“Plants are shifting their geographic ranges, and this is happening whether we realize it or not,” McGuire said. “As seeds fall or are transported to distant places, the likelihood that the plant’s seed is going to be able to survive and grow is changing as climates are changing. Studying plants’ niche dynamics over thousands of years can help us understand how species adapt to climate change and can teach us how to protect and maintain biodiversity in the face of rapid climate change to come.”

Climate Fidelity: A New Metric for Understanding Vulnerability

The first step is to understand which type of plants exhibit what McGuire terms “climate fidelity,” and which do not. If a plant has climate fidelity, it means that the plant stays loyal to its preferred climatic niche, often migrating across geographies over thousands of years to keep up with its ideal habitat. Plants that don’t exhibit climate fidelity tend to adapt locally in the face of climate change. Being loyal to one’s climate, it turns out, doesn’t necessarily mean being loyal to a particular place.

To investigate the case of trees, McGuire and former Georgia Tech postdoctoral scholar Yue Wang (associate professor in the School of Ecology at Sun Yat-sen University in China) studied pollen data from the Neotoma Paleoecology Database, which contains pollen fossil data from sediment cores across North America. Each sediment core is sampled, layer by layer, producing a series of pollen data from different times throughout history. The data also contains breakdowns of the relative abundance of different types of plants represented by the pollen types – pine versus oak versus grass, for example – painting a picture of what types of plants were present in that location and when.

McGuire and Wang looked at data from 13,240 fossil pollen samples taken from 337 locations across the entirety of North America. For each of the 16 major plant taxa in North America, they divided the pollen data into six distinct chunks or “bins” of time of 4,000 years, starting from 18,000 years ago up to the present day. Wang used the data to identify all climate sites containing fossil pollen for any individual type of tree – such as oak, for example – for each period. Then, Wang looked at how each tree’s climate changed from one period to the next. Wang did this by comparing the locations of pollen types between adjacent time periods, which enabled the team to identify how and why each type of tree’s climate changed over time.

“This process allowed us to see the climate fidelity of these different plant taxa, showing that certain plants maintain very consistent climatic niches, even when climate is changing rapidly,” Wang said.

For example, their findings showed that when North American glaciers were retreating 18,000 years ago, spruce and alder trees moved northward to maintain the cool temperatures of their habitats.

Crucially, McGuire and Wang found that most plant species in North America have exhibited long-term climate fidelity over the past 18,000 years. They also found that plants that migrated farther did a better job of tracking climate during periods of change.

But some plants fared better than others. For example, the small seeds of willow trees can fly over long distances – enabling them to track their preferred climates very effectively. But the large seeds of ash trees, for example, can only be dispersed short distances from parent trees, hindering their ability to track climate. Habitat disruptions from humans could make it even more difficult for ash trees to be able to take hold in new regions. If there are no adjacent habitats for ash trees, their seeds are under pressure to move even farther – a particular challenge for ash, which slows their migration movements even more.

Protecting the Fabric of Life

On the bright side, by identifying which plants have historically been most sensitive to changing climates, McGuire and Wang’s research can help conservation organizations like The Nature Conservancy prioritize land where biodiversity is most vulnerable to climate change.

As a final step, McGuire and Wang identified “climate fidelity hotspots,” regions that have historically exhibited strong climate fidelity whose plants will most urgently need to move as their climates change. They compared these hotspots to climate-resilient regions identified by The Nature Conservancy that could serve as refuge areas for those plants. While plants in these resilient regions can initially adapt to impending climate change by shifting their distributions locally, the plants will likely face major challenges when a region’s climate change capacity is exceeded due to lack of connectivity and habitat disruptions from humans. Refining these priorities helps stakeholders identify efficient strategies for allowing the fabric of life to thrive.

“I think that understanding climate fidelity, while a new and different idea, will be very important going forward, especially when thinking about how to prioritize protecting different plants in the face of climate change,” McGuire said. “It is important to be able to see that some plants and animals are more vulnerable to climate change, and this information can help build stronger strategies for protecting the biodiversity on the planet.”

Citation: Yue Wang, Silvia Pineda-Munoz, and Jenny L. McGuire, "Plants maintain climate fidelity in the face of dynamic climate change." PNAS (2023).

DOI: doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201946119

Summary sentence

Researchers investigate how trees have moved across geography over time, where they’re heading, and why it’s important.

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Dateline

Mon, 02/06/2023 - 12:00

catherine.barzler@gatech.edu

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Catherine Barzler, Senior Research Writer/Editor

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Atlanta, GA

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665493

Source updated

Mon, 02/06/2023 - 16:10

Researchers Find that to Achieve Long-term Sustainability, Urban Systems Must Tackle Social Justice and Equity

admin — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 22:45:37 +0000

Researchers Find that to Achieve Long-term Sustainability, Urban Systems Must Tackle Social Justice and Equity admin Fri, 01/20/2023 - 17:45

Inclusivity and understanding past policies and their effects on underserved and marginalized communities must be part of urban planning, design, and public policy efforts for cities.

An international coalition of researchers — led by Georgia Tech — have determined that advancements and innovations in urban research and design must incorporate serious analysis and collaborations with scientists, public policy experts, local leaders, and citizens. To address environmental issues and infrastructure challenges cities face, the coalition identified three core focus areas with research priorities for long-term urban sustainability and viability. Those focus areas should be components of any urban planning, design, and sustainability initiative.

The researchers found that the core focus areas included social justice and equity, circularity, and a concept called “digital twins.” The team — which consists of 13 co-authors and scholars based in the U.S., Asia, and Europe — also provided guidance and future research directions for how to address these focus areas. They detailed their findings in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, published in January 2023.

“Climate change has certainly increased the amount and intensity of extreme weather events and because of that, it makes our decision making today critical to the manner in which our economy and our day to day lives can operate,” said Joe F. Bozeman III, the lead author and an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is also the director of Tech’s Social Equity & Environmental Engineering Lab and has a courtesy appointment in the School of Public Policy. “Our quality of life can be negatively affected if we don't make good decisions today.”

Three core areas of focus to achieve urban sustainability

The researchers’ first core focus area, justice and equity, addresses innovations and trends that disproportionately benefit middle and high-income communities. Trends like IoT, “smart cities,” and the urban “green movement” are part of a broader push by cities to become more sustainable and resilient. But communities of color and low-income neighborhoods — the same areas often home to environmental contaminations, infrastructure challenges, and other hazards — have often been overlooked.

The researchers’ findings showed a consistent trend with marginalized communities across several countries, including Canada, the Netherlands, India, and South Africa. They call for mandatory equity analyses which incorporate the experiences and perspectives of these marginalized communities, and, more importantly, ensure members of those communities are actively engaged in decision-making processes.

“Planning, professional, and community stakeholders,” the researchers write in the paper, “should recognize that working together gets cities closer to harmonizing the technological and social dimensions of sustainability.”

The second focus area, circularity, addresses resource consumption of staple commodities including food, water, and energy; the waste and emissions they generate; and the opportunities to increase conservation of those resources by boosting efficiencies.

“What we mean by circularity is basic reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling efforts across the entire urban system — which not only includes cities and under resourced areas within those cities — but also rural communities that supply and take resources from those city hubs,” Bozeman said. The idea is aligned with the circular economy concept which addresses the need to move away from the resource-wasteful and unsustainable cycle of taking, making, and throwing away.

Instead, the researchers argue, cities should look for ways to improve efficiency and maximize local resource use. That has potential benefits not only for urban areas, but rural communities, too. One example, Bozeman said, is the Lifecycle Building Center in Atlanta. It takes old building supplies and sells them locally for reuse.

“By doing that, they’re at the beginning stages of creating an economic system, a regional engine where we share resources between cities and rural areas,” he said. “We can start creating an economic framework, not only where both sides can make money and get what they need, but something that can actually turn into a sustainable economic engine without having to rely on another state or another country's import or export economic pressures.”

To strengthen circularity and make it more robust, the researchers call for more expansive metrics beyond measuring recycling rates and zero waste efforts, to include other parts of the supply chain that may yield new ideas and solutions.

The third focus area, digital twins, addresses the development of automated technologies in smart buildings and infrastructure, such as traffic lights to respond to weather and other environmental factors.

“Let's say there's a heavy rain event and that the rainwater is being stored into retainment,” said Bozeman. “An automated system can open another valve where we can store that water into a secondary support system, so there's less flooding, and that can happen automatically, if we utilize the concept of digital twins.”

Creating a new urban planning model

The research came about as part of the mission of the Sustainable Urban Systems Section of the International Society for Industrial Ecology, which aims to be a conduit for scientists, engineers, policymakers, and others who want to marry environmental concerns and economic activity. Bozeman is a board member of the Sustainable Urban Systems Section.

“In that role, part of we do is set a vision and foundation for how other researchers should operate within the city and urban system space,” he said.

For urban sustainability, engineers and policy makers must come to the table and make collective decisions around social justice and equity, circularity, and the digital twins concepts.

“I think we're at a really critical decision point when it comes to engineers and others being able to do work that is forward looking and human sensitive,” said Bozeman. “Good decision making involves addressing social justice and equity and understanding its root causes, which will enable cities to create solutions that integrate cultural dynamics.”

CITATION: Joe F. Bozeman III, Shauhrat S. Chopra, Philip James, Sajjad Muhammad, Hua Cai, Kangkang Tong, Maya Carrasquillo, Harold Rickenbacker, Destenie Nock, Weslynne Ashton, Oliver Heidrich, Sybil Derrible, Melissa Bilec. “Three research priorities for just and sustainable urban systems: Now is the time to refocus.” (Journal of Industrial Ecology, January 2023)

Summary sentence

Inclusivity and understanding past policies and their effects on underserved and marginalized communities must be part of urban planning, design, and public policy efforts for cities.

Dateline

Fri, 01/20/2023 - 12:00

peralte.paul@comm.gatech.edu

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Péralte C. Paul
peralte.paul@comm.gatech.edu
404.316.1210

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Atlanta, GA

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Source updated

Fri, 01/20/2023 - 15:27

Ecolabels, Innovation, and Green Market Transformation: Learning to LEED

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 19:45:16 +0000

Ecolabels, Innovation, and Green Market Transformation: Learning to LEED admin Thu, 01/19/2023 - 14:45

Whether they know it or not, most city dwellers have probably been inside a so-called “green” building. Plaques boasting various types of environmental or energy certifications — known as ecolabels — often hang prominently in their lobbies. They’re visible, but how can we know if ecolabels have a real impact or are mostly about showing off?

Daniel Matisoff, professor of public policy at Georgia Tech, illuminates the role and impact of green building ecolabels in his book, Ecolabels, Innovation, and Green Market Transformation: Learning to LEED, which traces the curve of ecolabel adoption in the building market, revealing how ecolabels have transformed the economy and construction industry to achieve green market transformation. Co-authored by Douglas Noonan, professor of public policy at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, it is the first book to comprehensively assess the green building movement. The book was published by Cambridge University Press in October 2022.

Green building ecolabels, simply stated, are marks or designations that indicate environmental performance and sustainability certifications. Matisoff and Noonan investigated prominent ecolabels, such as LEED, and examined how they work, exploring the theory and economics behind them. They also studied factors and initiatives that drive the adoption of green building ecolabels, breaking down the green building movement step-by-step.

“A central premise of the book is that early adopters, whether they are creating a demonstration project — such as Georgia Tech’s own Kendeda Building — or adopting an ecolabel early on produce positive information spillovers that help accelerate adoption of green technologies,” Matisoff said.

According to the authors, early adopters do this by moving both supply and demand curves for new energy and environmental technologies. When early adopters employ and experiment with new green building technologies, they help build supply chains, lowering costs for others interested in adopting the technologies. Undertaking green building projects also proves the market performance of new energy and environmental technologies, thereby reducing uncertainty and increasing demand by making them more visible and widely available.

“Early adopters often build pilot and demonstration projects largely for a marketing or reputational benefit, but then that provides positive information spillover to the market,” Matisoff said. “For example, once contractors become familiar with new energy and environmental technologies, they can recommend them to clients for new building projects.”

By looking at data, Matisoff found that there has been a rapid uptake of buildings using the LEED label. But the question that remained was, what does it ultimately accomplish? To answer that question, Matisoff and Noonan looked at several case studies. One such case study is The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design, a certified “Living Building,” at Georgia Tech.

The Kendeda Building: Tossing a Pebble in a Pond

The goal of The Kendeda Building was to create a facility that would transform the building and construction industry in the Southeast. Matisoff considered that a testable hypothesis. The Kendeda building inspired Matisoff and his collaborators to dig into 30 years of LEED data to look at the effect of pilot and demonstration projects. They found that if you have a demonstration project in a particular geographic location, it doubles the probability that another green building is going to be built that has similar technologies.

For example, an electrical contracting company working on Kendeda noted that being forced to work with high density poly-ethylene (HDPE) piping — a sustainable alternative to using PVC piping for electrical conduit — led them to realize that HDPE was cheaper and easier to work with, in addition to being a more ecofriendly alternative. The contractor intends to switch to HDPE piping in future projects.

“We at Georgia Tech, by building the Living Building, are providing all this information to the marketplace,” Matisoff said. “And the hope is that other universities or institutions may see this building and say, ‘Hey, we want one of those.’”

Moving Forward

Lessons in Matisoff’s book include how to harness information spillover in addition to more traditional price tools such as subsidies, taxes, and cap-and-trade emissions policies. The authors highlight the importance of leveraging private actors to provide information to the market and suggest that policymakers think carefully about how to incentivize early adopters into the green building market, beyond just prices.

While recent legislation has created a lot of price incentives, subsidies, and tax breaks designed to encourage people to make greener choices, Matisoff’s work emphasizes that, especially at early stages, prices probably aren't enough.

“It's unlikely that there's enough momentum in the policy space to get to where we need to be to address climate change,” Matisoff said. “We hope the book will help us think more carefully about how we leverage information and learning to accelerate the uptake of advanced energy and environmental technologies to facilitate green market transformation.”

Matisoff also hopes the comprehensive study will show the roughly 100,000 certified green building professionals around the world that their efforts have been worth it.

“We wanted to tell a story, especially to green building professionals, about what they’ve accomplished over the past few decades, and the impact their work will have for years to come.”

Summary sentence

Daniel Matisoff's book traces the curve of ecolabel adoption in the building market, revealing how it has transformed the economy and construction industry to achieve green market transformation.

Dateline

Thu, 01/19/2023 - 12:00

catherine.barzler@gatech.edu

Contact

Catherine Barzler, Senior Research Writer and Editor

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Atlanta, GA

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Keywords

Green Buzz

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Business and Economic Development

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Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure

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664910

Source updated

Thu, 01/19/2023 - 14:40

Georgia Tech Launches Climate Action Planning Process

admin — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 13:42:00 +0000

Georgia Tech Launches Climate Action Planning Process admin Tue, 01/10/2023 - 08:42

Georgia Tech strives to be a leader in climate action across the Institute’s operational, educational, research, and economic development missions. As such, a process is underway to leverage this knowledge and develop a comprehensive, cross-cutting Climate Action Plan.

The Climate Action Plan, a key deliverable of the Sustainability Next Plan, will support the Georgia Tech strategic plan efforts to lead by example in solving some of the most pressing issues of our time. Once developed, this plan will lay the pathway forward for the Institute to achieve its climate goals, including reaching carbon neutrality by 2050.

About the Process

The planning process launched last year and will extend through 2023. Led by Infrastructure and Sustainability, the process will include developing a greenhouse gas inventory, modeling potential mitigation strategies, and engaging with faculty, students, and staff from across campus. The engagement process will include an advisory task force and individual working groups that focus on specific climate solutions. Once complete, the plan will align with Georgia Tech’s broader commitments to address climate change and provide an actionable roadmap to achieving carbon neutrality and climate justice.

Get Involved

The Georgia Tech campus community is invited to take part in helping to develop the Climate Action Plan. Reach out to sustain@gatech.edu to express your interest. For additional information on the Climate Action Plan and other sustainability efforts across campus, please follow the Office of Campus Sustainability on Instagram and Facebook and visit sustain.gatech.edu.

Summary sentence

Georgia Tech strives to be a leader in climate action across the Institute’s operational, educational, research, and economic development missions.

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Dateline

Tue, 01/10/2023 - 12:00

Contact

Abby Bower
Program Support Coordinator
Office of Campus Sustainability
Infrastructure and Sustainability

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Source updated

Tue, 01/10/2023 - 08:14

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