Characterization and Quantification of Solid Waste Disposed in Georgia, PI: Arka Pandit; Funding Source: Georgia Environmental Protection Division; Award Dates: 4/1/2015 – 9/30/2015; Award Amount: $31,004. This study will help the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (GA EPD) move beyond the typical waste management strategies toward a materials management philosophy that considers life-cycle considerations of products and services and focuses on resource conservation and recovery. It also will assist GA EPD in identifying the key performance indicators and facilitate identifying the best use of limited state resources to drive environmental improvement within Georgia’s economy.

VIRTUES (Vertical Integration of Research, and Technical, Undergraduate, and graduate Education for Sustainability), PIs: Michael Chang, Mary Hallisey-Hunt; Funding Source: Ray C. Anderson Foundation. VIRTUES is a step toward developing a proactive process to incorporate the practice of sustainability throughout the workforce, not in the workplace as is occurring now at great cost to employers, but at earlier stages of educational experiences and workforce development when minds and practices are still forming.

Forecasting Air Quality in Georgia, PI: Michael Chang; CoPIs: Talat Odman, Yongtao Hu. This program has been under way continuously since the summer of 1996. Investigators from Georgia Tech working with staff from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division provide daily air quality forecasts. In 2003, the program expanded to include forecasting for fine particulate matter. The program expanded again in 2006 when ozone forecasting for the Macon metropolitan area began, and again most recently in 2008 with the addition of forecasting of fine particulate matter for the Columbus metropolitan area.

Detailed Criteria and Hazardous Air Pollutant Emission Inventories for the Ports of Savannah and the Savannah Metropolitan Area, PI: Michael E. Chang; Co-PIs: Talat Odman, Yongtao Hu; Funding Source: Georgia Ports Authority, Award Date: 4/1/2011 – 3/31/2012; Award Amount: $248,902. Development of a detailed spatial, temporal, and chemically speciated emission inventory for the Savannah Harbor, including all activities related to the Georgia Ports Authority’s Garden City and Ocean Terminals, and the other privately-owned terminals in the Port of Savannah. Larger air quality context of the Savannah metro area will be evaluated via contemporaneous inventories so that harbor emissions may be more readily and directly evaluated.