Wood Waste and Race: The Industrialization of Biomass Energy Technologies and Environmental Justice

In the 1980s, engineers developed new ways to use one of humanity’s oldest fuel sources—wood—to create electrical power. This article uses envirotechnical analysis to examine the development of a wood-burning power plant in Flint, Michigan, and argues that when public officials began working with major energy corporations to build industrial biomass facilities in the 1980s and 1990s, new energy technologies designed to run on renewable fuels became part of an entrenched fossil fuel–based power structure that maintained deep historical inequalities. Like other examples of environmental injustice, the burdens of industrial-scale biomass power systems tended to fall on poor, nonwhite communities. By exploring the creation of the Genesee Power Station as part of an envirotechnical regime in Flint, this research seeks to develop conceptual bridges between the history of technology, environmental history, and environmental justice, and demonstrates the use of history to inform contemporary debates about sustainability

Sustainability Survey report

Although the idea of sustainability means different things to different people, one of the most common definitions comes from the UN’s 1987 Brundtland Report, which states that sustainability is that which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In practice, sustainability means balancing environmental protection with economic vitality and social justice. Since the 1990s, sustainability has become a powerful framework for organizational transformation, particularly at institutions of higher education. Today over 1,350 colleges and universities offer degrees in sustainability and use sustainability as a guiding principle for administrative decisions across campus. On our own campus, the Environmental Studies and Sustainability major grew 144% in the past year while enrollment in other programs declined. For many people born in the early twenty-first century, sustainability is an exciting movement that seeks solutions to the daunting economic, environmental, and social problems that their generation will face. As training grounds for the future, universities like Northern have a responsibility to prepare today’s students for these global challenges

New Methods for Assessing the Sustainability of Wood-burning Energy Facilities

Methods to assess wood-based bioenergy projects have tended to focus on technological and physical constraints. Less is known about how longer-term environmental, economic, and social systems—the three pillars of sustainable development—have influenced technological development in the context of woody biomass energy. This research offers new methods for assessing the sustainability of wood-based energy projects by combining spatial analysis, semi-structured interviews, and archival data analysis. By integrating quantitative and qualitative methods, this project offers ways to understand how social and environmental dynamics from the past shape technological development in the future. A propensity analysis of biomass energy plants in Michigan, USA was performed using US Census data grouped by social, economic, and environmental categories. This quantitative analysis helped to characterize community and landscape types in which woody biomass plants were developed in Michigan in the late-twentieth century. To help illustrate some of the often-hidden social and political dimensions of energy development, such as access to decision-making and attitudes toward bioenergy projects, transcripts of public hearings, media coverage, and other archival sources were examined, and 30 stakeholder interviews were conducted. By integrating these qualitative and quantitative approaches, this paper aims to provide a more comprehensive approach to assessing the sustainability of wood-based biofuel technologies

New Methods for Assessing Sustainability of Wood-Burning Energy Facilities: Combining Historical and Spatial Approaches

Methods to assess wood-based bioenergy projects have tended to focus on technological and physical constraints. Less is known about how longer-term environmental, economic, and social systems—the three pillars of sustainable development—have influenced technological development in the context of woody biomass energy. This research offers new methods for assessing the sustainability of wood-based energy projects by combining spatial analysis, semi-structured interviews, and archival data analysis. By integrating quantitative and qualitative methods, this project offers ways to understand how social and environmental dynamics from the past shape technological development in the future. A propensity analysis of biomass energy plants in Michigan, USA was performed using US Census data grouped by social, economic, and environmental categories. This quantitative analysis helped to characterize community and landscape types in which woody biomass plants were developed in Michigan in the late-twentieth century. To help illustrate some of the often-hidden social and political dimensions of energy development, such as access to decision-making and attitudes toward bioenergy projects, transcripts of public hearings, media coverage, and other archival sources were examined, and 30 stakeholder interviews were conducted. By integrating these qualitative and quantitative approaches, this paper aims to provide a more comprehensive approach to assessing the sustainability of wood-based biofuel technologies