Research Focal Area: Environmental Institutions and Governance

Resilient Industry Supply Chains (RISC)

Climate change amplifies the risk of extreme weather and disaster events, transforming where and how people conduct business around the world. The characteristics that make modern supply chains speedy and cost-effective (e.g. global resource networks, specialized inputs produced in specific geographic locations, and reduced inventories as part of just-in-time production strategies) render global supply chains more susceptible to disaster disruptions. Therefore, to maintain continued economic growth, U.S. industries must adapt their global supply chains to become more sustainable and resilient to disaster disruptions. This project will look at the U.S. roofing industry and develop a framework for empirically assessing its resilience. The team will collect data from regional, national, and global roofing industry supply chains and develop a working geospatial model to predict how supply chain disruptions will affect the U.S. roofing industry. The primary objective of this GCRT is to share these findings with the public via an interactive, online map and to write peer-reviewed papers for conferences and journal publication.

Measuring Carbon Footprint of Alternative Business Models in the Fashion Industry

The fashion industry is resource intensive and with a growing global demand for clothing, it is poised to have continued negative environmental impacts. Increasingly, in recognizing the need to mitigate these impacts, modern textile production systems are beginning to incorporate circular economy principles (e.g. restorative and regenerative approaches) in their business strategy. While these alternative modes of production may be sustainable, there is very little empirical research to support these claims. This GCRT aims to develop a tool to quantify the carbon footprint of at least two different alternate business models and compare them to the traditional, ‘take-make-use-dispose’ business model of the fashion industry. The team will identify and analyze existing data and tools available to measure carbon footprint. They will develop an online tool powered by real-time information to measure the carbon impact of alternative fashion business models and disseminate these project outcomes within academia and industry.

Environmental History, Ecology, and Sustainability in Public Lands

This research team sought to promote sustainability in public lands by bringing environmental historians into dialogue with sustainability scientists, specialists in the human dimensions of natural resource conservation, and natural resource managers.

Using Case Studies of Polarizing, Emotional and Politicized Topics: Addressing the Social Emotional Context of Controversial Environmental Issues

The activities of this GCRT explored the use of case studies to address highly controversial issues such as climate change denial that typically attract intensely politicized, ideological, and polarized debates.

Women, Population, and the Environment

The WPE’s mission was to promote the status of women globally through education and dissemination of applied knowledge on the challenging issues of the times, such as climate change, food shortage and health. Knowledge and education will enable and empower women to make informed decisions for themselves, their family and society.

Environmental Governance Working Group

The EGWG was a multi-disciplinary community seeking to advance research on environmental governance at Colorado State University. For the purposes of this multidisciplinary project, we define environmental governance as the formal and informal institutions/policies/rules/practices that shape how humans interact with the environment at all levels of social organization. This broad working definition recognizes the variation in disciplinary approaches and specific research foci. The study of environmental governance includes—but is not limited to—research on environmental policies and management practices, community conservation programs, common property resource regimes, collaborative decision-making processes, and markets for environmental goods and services. Environmental governance research may investigate particular arrangements and/or address broader questions of authority, accountability, legitimacy, participation, and fairness and equity.