Decision makers need sound analyses of economic and environmental impacts of options for managing household food waste. Food waste impacts public health (it rots, smells, and attracts rodents) and costs (it drives collection frequency). A life cycle inventory is used to quantify total materials, energy, costs and environmental flows for three municipal solid waste systems (collection followed by compost, waste-to-energy or landfill) and two wastewater systems (kitchen food waste disposer followed by rural on-site or municipal wastewater treatment) for food waste management. Inventory parameters are expressed per 100 kg of food waste (wet weight) to place data on a normalised basis for comparison. System boundaries include acquisition, use and decommissioning. Parameters include inputs (land, materials, water) and output emissions to air, water and land. Parameters are ranked simply from high to low. Ranking highest overall was the rural wastewater system, which has a high amount of food waste and carrier water relative to the total throughput over its design life. Waste-to-energy was second; burning food waste yields little exportable energy and is costly. Next, municipal wastewater tied with landfill. Municipal wastewater is low for land, material, energy and cost, but is highest for food waste by-product (sludge). Landfill ranks low for air emissions and cost. Compost ranks lowest; it has the lowest material and water inputs and generates the least wastewater and waterborne waste.
Due to the urgent need for a response to energy security, aging commercial buildings are required to conform to increasingly stringent environmental standards, particularly with regard to energy and water consumption. Solutions to reach the energy-related goals seem to exist. However, it is often difficult to gain synergistic benefits from the installations.The energy savings actually achieved are often disappointing. Systematic measurement and verification are rarely available due to the high initial cost of such studies. Therefore, there is a significant chance that misunderstandings and unrealistic expectations will affect decision making related with building sustainability. The ability to synthesize emerging technologies into a robust computational platform for monitoring coupled human-building environments is lacking. This paper discusses developing a prototype of BIM-based Baseline Building Model (B3M) for aging commercial buildings. As-built BIM of a public building was employed as a platform for delivering user-actionable information to building occupants, maintaining healthy environments, and achieving further energy savings. Initial testing was conducted at the Technology Innovation Center with data collected for four months. The results of this study showed that B3M provides a robust computational platform for monitoring coupled human-building environments. B3M would be a useful system when aging commercial buildings need to measure and verify accurate benefits of the installations. Expanded use of BIM would allow for more detailed analysis of building energy performance. BIM-based building energy models can be designed to store energy performance data such as consumption, temperature, CO2 emissions, occupancy, and humidity. In addition, the connection to the BIM allows facility managers to simulate occupancy changes, facility upgrades, or energy management strategies based on potential energy demandsIf a building baseline model is created directly from an upto-date BIM, the energy model can be regenerated as the operating conditions are updated. Facility management processes can be improved significantly through the use of an as-built BIM that can integrate real-time building performance data. AS-BUILT BIMThe Technology Innovation Center (TIC) of the Milwaukee County Research Park (MCRP) was used as a test bed.Data from the sensors were recorded on Onset's HOBO® Ethernet Communications Data Loggers, model U30-ETH, in 5-minute intervals and were transmitted to the Onset's database server via data organization software HOBOware
Milwaukee School of Engineering's (MSOE) degree-granting engineering programs were required, by our administration, to reduce the total number of credits required for graduation. To reduce the total number of credits in Architectural Engineering (AE&BC) programs, we redesigned three existing AE&BC courses-a three-credit materials and methods survey course, a one-credit materials and methods lab, and a three-credit chemistry of building materials course into one four-credit freshman course. The primary goal of this new course is to introduce students to materials (unique origins, chemistry, properties, standards, industry applications and trade associations) used in the construction industry, including metals (iron and steel, aluminum, copper), inorganics (aggregate, concrete, masonry, gypsum) and molecular materials (wood, asphalt, plastics). A related goal is to introduce students to research and communication skills that will enable them to access technical information on materials, evaluate that information for quality, summarize findings concisely and communicate those findings both in writing and orally, skills essential for academic success, as well as for life long learning. The new course includes a traditional lecture component (lectures, exams, portfolio), a laboratory component (based on current ASTM standards) and a research project (on a topic of the student's interest). Determining course content involved systematically combining the content of the existing courses for each of the building materials, emphasizing materials science content; identifying relevant ASTM standards, trade association web sites and information sources; and addressing ABET requirements and FE exam requirements. From a day-by-day topic outline, faculty stakeholders, who teach advanced courses, and seniors, who have taken existing courses, were asked to prioritize topics. Based on feedback, we dropped some topics and emphasized others. Course development is ongoing and will also address faculty development and delivery at a level appropriate for freshmen. Background Milwaukee School of EngineeringMilwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) is a private, coeducational nonsectarian university located in a metropolitan center. It provides a balanced education -undergraduate and graduate --for men and women in the disciplines of engineering,
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