Journal Entries
All journal entries must be submitted through Canvas in pdf format before the start of the class on the date that the topic will be discussed, as stated on the course schedule.

• Journal Entry #1
  Read Ch. 1. Materials, Energy & Sustainability
  1. What is sustainability?
  2. What is the role of a materials scientist/engineer in the pursuit of sustainability?
  3. Create a figure like that in Figure 1.4, 1.5 & 1.6 of our textbook, indicating the elemental composition of an object of your choice.


• Journal Entry #2
  Read Ch. 2. Sustainable Development
  1. What are the three elements of the "TBL", Triple Bottom Line? What does each mean?
  2. Visit a corporate website for a company that has a TBL strategy. Provide the URL. Provide examples of business policies or procedures high-lighted there.
  3. What are the six central issues of a sustainability analysis? Briefly evaluate fracking in terms of these six issues.


• Journal Entry #3
  read Ch. 3. Assessing Sustainability
  Select a contemporary issue that claims to be a sustainable development and briefly identify the following layers of the assessment. Potential examples include (i) recent policies adopted in some municipalities to make plastic straws or plastic bags illegal, (ii) the city of Knoxville's decision no longer to collect glass in the single-stream recycling bins from residents in the city limits, (iii) second uses for old tires, (iv) recycling of cell phones, batteries or other electronic items, etc.
  1. Step 1. Problem Definition
  2. Step 2. Identify Stakeholders & Concerns
  3. Step 3. Identify Facts that should be determined. (Note: You don't have to find definitive data for all the facts you list.)
  4. Step 4. Potential impact on Human, Natural and Financial Capital.
  5. Step 5. Reflect on the assignment.


• Journal Entry #4
  read Ch. 4. Tools
  For an aspect relevant to your assigned case study project, perform the five steps to assess sustainability.
  1. Step 1. Problem Definition & Clarify Prime Objective
  2. Step 2. Identify Stakeholders & Concerns
  3. Step 3. Identify Facts that should be determined. Select one fact from each of the six central issues of a sustainability analysis. (Note: You don't have to find definitive data for all the facts you list.)
  4. Step 4. Potential impact on Human, Natural and Financial Capital. Identify potential measurable metrics, at least one for each type of capital.
  5. Step 5. Reflect on the assignment. Identify potentially significant stakeholders, facts or impacts omitted in this journal entry, that might need to be included in the case study presentation.


• Journal Entry #5
  read Ch. 5. Materials Supply Chain
  • For the material related to your case study, identify the nature of the five types of materials supply-chain risks described in Chapter 5.
    1. Price volatility risk
    2. Monopoly of Supply & Geo-political risk
    3. Conflict risk
    4. Legislation and Regulation risk
    5. Abundance risk
  • What kind of labor practices can make a supply chain unethical?
  • What is the Dow Jones Sustainability Index? What does it attempt to accomplish?
  • Provide an example of green-washing or another attempt to manipulate public perception or legal enforcement of sustainability.


• Journal Entry #6
  read Ch. 6. Corporate Sustainability
  • Identify a company listed in the FTSE4Good Index.
  • Find its most recent sustainability report. Describe the contents of the report.
  • Comment on how the materials supply chain is addressed in the report.


• Journal Entry #7
  read Ch. 7. Introduction to Case Studies
  • Provide an forward-looking abstract that defines your case study (Project #4)


• Journal Entry #8
  read Ch. 9. Case Study: Wind Farms
  • Consider Ashby's conclusion in Chapter 9. "The evidence suggests that wind farms can make a contribution to national power needs but that it is likely to remain small. The intrusion caused by farms on a scale that could provide, say , half the nation's power appears to present very great problems."
  • Reflect on these problems in terms of each of the three capitals:
    • natural capital (planet or environment)
    • financial capital (prosperity or economics) and
    • human capital (people or social considerations).
    Reflections can include potential ways to mitigate the problems.


• Journal Entry #9
  read Ch. 10. Case Study: Electric Cars
  • Consider Ashby's conclusion in Chapter 10. "Can the prime objective be achieved in the way assumed in the remit--by replacing petrol-driven cars by electric vehicles that are used in the same way? It does not seem so. Electric vehicles cannot provide the range, convenience of refueling or (at present) the economy that consumers expect. Even more telling: charging EVs from the national grid of most nations carries a carbon footprint larger than that of many small internal combustion and hybrid-powered cars today."
  • Reflect on this conclusion in terms of each of the three capitals:
    • natural capital (planet or environment)
    • financial capital (prosperity or economics) and
    • human capital (people or social considerations).


• Journal Entry #10
  read Ch. 11. Case Study: Lighting
  • In Chapter 11, Ashby primarily compares traditional incandescent bulbs with compact flourescent bulbs, in part because at the time of writing an LED bulb equivalent to a 60 watt incandescent bulb was $20-$40. Let's modernize this analysis to include LED bulbs.
  • Update the LED column in the table on page 180 of Ashby to modern values. Provide values (and citations) for
    • equivalent power to provide 800 lumens (W)
    • approximate price of bulb of this power ($)
    • claimed bulb life (h)
    • embodied energy bulb (MJ per bulb)
    • global warming potential per bulb (kg of CO₂-eq per bulb)
  • Since the lifetimes are different, compare the incandescent and LED on the basis of global warming potential per hour of operation.
  • Reflect on your analysis in terms of natural, financial and/or human capital.


• Journal Entry #11
  read Ch. 12. Case Study: Solar Photovoltaics
  • The question was asked in class, "At what point is it better to get rid of an old vehicle and replace it with a new more fuel efficient vehicle?" From a sustainability perspective, some of the important parameters in this problem are
    • the embodied energy in the old and new vehicles
    • the cost of the old and new vehicles
    • the fuel efficiency of the old and new vehicles
    • the cost of fuels used by the old and new vehicles (potentially not the same, e.g. gasoline and electricity)
    • the annual mileage driven by the owner of the vehicle
  • Work a concrete example and make a recommendation based on social, economic and environmental considerations.
  • This example can be a vehicle of your own choosing, or it can be Prof. Keffer's example, in which the old vehicle is a 1999 Ford Ranger, which cost $16,000 new and which gets 16 mpg, and a new vehicle, which is a 2020 Ford Ranger, which costs $24,500 for the base model and gets nominally 23 mpg. The vehicle is driven about 3,000 miles per year.
  • Use reasonable values for the embodied energy of a vehicles (values for some specific models are on the web) and the energy per mile fueled by gasoline or electricity.


• Journal Entry #12
  read Ch.14 The Vision: A Circular Materials Economy
  • Ashby describes a Circular Materials Economy. State what that is in your own words.
  • Material efficiency includes several kinds of changes:
    • Better Stuff
    • Better Design
    • Better Business Models
    • Better Behavior
    Give an example of each kind of change.


• Journal Entry #13
  Course Reflection
  • What's the most important thing that you learned in this course?
  • What was the most informative case study?
  • What case study was not included that you wish was included?
  • Kindly provide suggestions for Prof. Keffer to improve the course.