Sustainable options in business
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A new global sustainable business and industry incubator network is expanding into a Paris suburb. They want to make the newly acquired building and operations more environmentally friendly, has asked your advice on four measures:
a. They are considering renovation using some synthetic building materials. They understand that these materials require relatively more energy and nonrenewable resources for their manufacture. Is there any way your client can justify using these materials on environmental grounds?
b. The building's café will offer, for carryout, plastic utensils and food containers. Should these be recyclable or compostable plastics?
c. What kind of light bulbs would you recommend for the building, and why?
d. The incubator plans to have a small, Zipcar-like fleet of two-passenger company cars for their members to use as needed on short-distance (up to ~40 miles/64 kilometers) highway trips to locations not accessible by public transportation. Should they use purely electric plug-in vehicles, or very high-mileage gasoline or diesel cars? Hybrids, for now, are not an option.
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Solution Summary
Suggesting globally sustainable options for modern business - in the area of building materials, food containers, light bulb, and vehicles.
Education
- BSc (Hons),
- MSc,
- PhD,
Recent Feedback
- "Thankyou for the feedback. I have a few question though; With the first statistic about cost below... “According to Sigma-Aldrich catalog, cost of 1L octane is AUD $ 392.00, whereas the cost of 1L ethanol is AUD $196.00. Moreover, if ethanol is obtained from sugar industry as a by-product, it may cost even less. Source of oxygen is ambient atmosphere, so it costs nothing. So ethanol is much cheaper than petrol, in fact it is half-priced: AUD $ (392-196) = $ 196.” I didn't think it made sense because the cost of petrol per litre is normally a dollar something or even less than a dollar not a couple of hundred of dollars. For example, a statistic that I found in america was: "U.S. ethanol production costs are about $1.20 per gallon of ethanol, or $1.82 per gallon on a gasoline-equivalent basis." However, I was wondering whether you could find an Australian statistic. Also, you mentioned that H20 is not a greenhouse gas. However, in the combustion equations it is actually carbon dioxide and water vapour which are produced and they are both greenhouse gases. Finally, how do I calculate the energy efficiency of ethanol and petrol? "
- "Thank you!"
- "Didnt really answer my questions but gave me a start at least."
- "Once again this is tremendous help I can't thank you enough for not only working the problem but explaining in detail how and why!! KR"
- "Awesome thank you so much for the help!!!"
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