2015 Conference

Full Presentation Panel

Three Institutional Barriers to Moving toward Sustainable Practices in Energy, Food, and Chemical Products

Patricia M DeMarco, Ph.D.

Moving toward pathways to our sustainable future requires changes in policies and practices that drive the economy based on fossil fuels and petrochemical derivatives. The solutions to the current course of policy require different choices, which are often stated and clear among scientists, but confusing and obscure to the public. Several significant institutional barriers impede our progress toward a sustainable future, and require policy changes to expedite a transition. This presentation examines the patterns and processes entrenched in our culture and law that impede a transition away from fossil fuels and toxic chemicals. It presents the results of roundtable investigations, surveys and focus groups addressing: utility tariff system and the interface and interconnection of distributed power; the financial and regulatory impediments to sustainable and renewable choices; the building codes and standards that inhibit sustainable systems; prevention rather than emission control in managing pollution and toxic materials; and, the greatest institutional barrier, public attitudes toward change. Some examples of success in overcoming institutional barriers are presented based on practices implemented in Pittsburgh. (This work was funded by The Pittsburgh Foundation W.Clyde and Ida Mae Thurman Fund.)

Solar Energy System Performance Estimation and Analysis for Making Better Investment Decisions

Ryan Winn

The advent of solar energy can potentially improve the costs of energy consumption on global, national, and tribal levels.  Interest in this abundant, renewable power source spans from governmental entities, to utility companies, corporations, and residential homeowners.  In each case the question of if and when the investor will recoup their initial investment is an important barrier to be considered.  The Internet is ripe with products that will calculate the costs and benefits of investing in solar energy, but what if the people making data driven decisions about solar energy were working with incomplete models?  We at the College of Menominee Nation’s (CMN’s) Solar Energy Research Institute found numerous inaccuracies when we compared the actual data from our solar panel array in Keshena, Wisconsin to the current, free, online models readily available.  We contest that creating an accurate solar energy prediction model is paramount to the proliferation of investments in this inexhaustible power source.

Political Culture Barriers to Sustainable Transportation Development

Aiden Irish, BA, MS

Cities are the source for 80 percent of pollution emissions and home to over half of the world’s population. Therefore, in the pursuit of reducing negative environmental impacts globally, progress towards sustainable development must be made locally. Despite numerous successful examples of effective urban sustainable development, a great number of cities have yet to adopt such methods even when they produce not only environmental, but social and economic benefits. This begs an important question, why not? If sustainable development policies have myriad benefits and have been accomplished in economically diverse cities ranging from Bogota, Columbia, to Frankfurt, Germany, what are the barriers to such development?

In order to explore this question, this research study focuses on the political culture characteristics of city leadership and the impact of those cultural values, norms and expectations on regional interactions and the resulting local development. Through semi-structured interviews with officials in two case study cities - Pomona and Pasadena, California - this research identifies cultural characteristics surrounding transportation development. Having identified significant cultural attributes, this study analyzes the impacts of these characteristics on the support of, or barriers to, the pursuit of a more sustainable, “complete streets” model of transportation development.

Though this research focuses on one area of development policy in only two cities, the implications are significant on a much broader level. Increasingly, barriers to critical sustainable development practices have less to do with money and technology than they do with politics. Understanding the political culture obstacles to sustainable development is the first step in overcoming them.