Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment
The University of Tennessee's Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment (ISSE) seeks to promote the development of policies, technologies, and educational programs that cut across multiple disciplines, engage the university’s research faculty and staff, and grow in response to pressing environmental and security issues facing the state, the nation, and the globe.
News & Events:
Jack Geibig (director of ISSE's Center for Clean Products) gave a presentation at the American Institute of Architects national convention in San Francisco on April 30. The educational seminar was titled “Use of Life Cycle Inventory Data in Materials Selection: A Case study of the Natural Stone Industry.”
ISSE's Center for Clean Products has been asked to lead the development of a national green product standard for toys through the Ecologo program. The multi-stakeholder effort will include Walmart, Target, and FAO Schwartz to name a few key participants. Cat Wilt will lead the effort.
ISSE students and staff won top honors at the P3 Award Competition during the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) National Sustainable Design Expo held in Washington, D.C., on April 18-19, 2009. Their winning entry was "The New Norris House: A sustainable Home for the 21st Century."
ISSE's Tim Ezzell, a historian and planner, and Tricia Stuth, assistant professor in the School of Architecture, served as faculty mentors on the project. Catherine Wilt, policy director for ISSE’s Center for Clean Products, advised the project on green building materials and other sustainable design elements.
Read UT's press release.
The Chancellor's Honors Banquet recognizes students, faculty, staff, and friends of UT for their extraordinary achievements. At the 2009 ceremony, held April 6, Catherine Wilt (with ISSE's Center for Clean Products) was recognized for Extraordinary Community Service in 2009.
Catherine Wilt, with ISSE’s Center for Clean Products, was named by Waste & Recycling News to a list of "25 Influential Women in Environmental Management" who have worked to eliminate gender barriers in their field. The article was published on March 30, 2009.
Reports & Publications:
Jean Peretz, Sujit Das, and Bruce E. Tonn. 2009 August. Evaluating knowledge benefits of automotive lightweighting materials R&D projects. Evaluation and Program Planning 32(3): 300-309.
S. B. Franklin, J. A. Kupfer, S. R. Pezeshki, R. W. Gentry, and R. D. Smith. 2009. Complex effects of channelization and levee construction on western Tennessee floodplain forest function. Wetlands 29(2): 451-464.
Jennifer M. DeBruyn, Thomas J. Mead, Steven W. Wilhelm, and Gary S. Sayler. 2009. PAH Biodegradative Genotypes in Lake Erie Sediments: Evidence for Broad Geographical Distribution of Pyrene-Degrading Mycobacteria. Environmental Science & Technology 43(10): 3467–3473.
Jordan F. Suter, Christian A. Vossler and Gregory L. Poe. 2009. Ambient-Based Pollution Mechanisms: A Comparison of Homogenous and Heterogeneous Groups of Emitters. Ecological Economics 68(6): 1883-1892.
Liem T. Tran and Thomas E. Burley. 2009. “An Analysis of Spatiotemporal Variations of Water Quality in the Little River and the Harpeth River Watersheds and their Connection with Land-Cover Patterns.” ISSE Working Paper 2009-01.
Jennifer Debruyn and Gary Sayler. Microbial Community Structure and Biodegradation Activity of Particle-Associated Bacteria in a Coal Tar Contaminated Creek, Environmental Science and Technology, March 27, 2009 (Web), doi: 10.1021/es803373y.
A. Bell, A. Layton, L. D. McKay, D. Williams, R. W. Gentry, and G. S. Sayler. 2009. Factors Influencing the Persistence of Fecal Bacteroides in Stream Water, Journal of Environmental Quality, v38, doi:10.2134/jeq2008.0258.
Read the Spring/Summer 2009 issue of Indicator:
A message from the Director...
"ISSE Shapes Sustainable Research Agenda"
Randy Gentry,
Director
Sustainability, a term still fairly new to the lexicon, defies a tidy definition in part because it can be applied to virtually every aspect of human activity and thus encompasses the complex interaction among economic, social, and environmental factors. Perhaps the best working definition of the term is derived from the 1987 report titled "Our Common Future," also known as the Brundtland Report. The report identifies sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." [continued...]