Publications and Policy Papers

Framework for Achieving Low-Carbon Cities

By: Students of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Chemical Engineering and the Tepper School of Business

Supervised by: H. Scott Matthews (Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering and Public Policy) and Chris Weber (Civil and Environmental Engineering)

A thorough review of the 2008 Pittsburgh Climate Initiative has caused the project class to make the following recommendations to the City of Pittsburgh and its partners: (1) publish an actionable long-term program with measurable goals, costs, and responsibilities (2) quantify all action items by making assumptions necessary to explicitly document costs and effectiveness (3) prioritize action items based upon initial cost, lifetime cost, effectiveness, and feasibility (4) match recommendations with costs, goals, and responsibilities (5) be explicit about methods and sources (6) collaborate with other cities to enhance quantification and prioritization (7) review per capita emissions from other cities to set reasonable goals and (8) design programs that extend beyond the City’s immediate jurisdiction, which may require strategic partnering with homeowners, the County, municipal authorities, and businesses. For more information, please contact Mike Blackhurst

The Potential of Energy Efficiency: An Overview

By Lester B. Lave
The Bridge: Volume: 39, Number: 2 - Summer 2009

Efficient technology that requires less energy has fueled the growth of our economy for more than a century. If the energy intensity of the U.S. economy hadn't fallen as dramatically as it did, it would now take four times as much petroleum, coal, and natural gas to produce the current GDP, at the 1919 energy-intensity level. Producing, transporting, and using that much energy, even if it were technically feasible, would devastate the natural environment and contribute to carbon dioxide emissions that would exceed the atmospheric concentration some scientists think would be catastrophic...