Sponsored Projects

Corning Incorporated is an American multinational technology company that specializes in specialty glass, ceramics, and related materials and technologies including advanced optics, primarily for industrial and scientific applications. Corning’s business segments include display technologies, optical communications, environmental technologies, specialty materials, and life sciences. Corning’s Environmental Technologies (CET) segment manufactures ceramic substrates and filter products for emissions control in mobile applications around the world. Its economical, high-performance cellular ceramic substrate is the standard for catalytic converters in vehicles worldwide.

Project: As global emissions control regulations tighten, Corning has continued to develop more effective and durable ceramic substrate and filter products for gasoline and diesel applications. CET is interested in understanding how the battery electric vehicle (BEV) market is likely to evolve in the heavy duty (HD) vehicle market. Specifically, the group is trying to determine what “total cost of ownership” (TCO) looks like for BEV purchase decisions for fleet managers. The SGE Immersion team will make recommendations based on an assessment of the inputs crucial to a fleet manager’s decision-making around vehicle electrification. This could include, but not be limited to, the initial purchase price, the cost of differing types of fuel, the comparative weight, and ongoing maintenance costs, etc. The team will need to engage fleet owners and identify data sources to model the predicted TCO inputs over time to develop a predicted time horizon where the cost of a BEV and the cost of a diesel truck intersect. These inputs may include energy futures, commodity price indices, industry-specific technology advancement data, etc.

Established in 1983, Acuamaya is one of the first shrimp aquaculture companies in Central America dedicated to the production, processing and commercialization of high quality, farm-raised shrimp, and related aquaculture products. A visionary team of executives, together with a highly passionate and committed employee team have transformed Acuamaya into an innovation-driven aquaculture company and an important driver in the development of the sustainable shrimp industry of Guatemala. Acuamaya recognizes the importance of promoting sustainable aquaculture practices, with a solid commitment to the well-being of their employees, local communities, and the environment. The company owns and operates three different farms in the Pacific Coast of Guatemala with an extension of 400 hectares. These shrimp farms are ASC Certified, the shrimp hatchery is BAP Certified and the processing plant is IFS Certified. Shrimp farms have the potential to regenerate key coastal ecosystem services, including providing supplemental habitat for shorebirds, and helping advance national and global biodiversity and sustainability goals through the implementation of sustainable practices.

Project: Since 2020, Acuamaya has been collaborating with the Coastal Solutions Fellows Program (CSF) through the work of Varinia Sagastume (’20 Fellow). After two years of research, they have jointly outlined a set of sustainable management practices (SMPs) that contribute to the conservation of migratory shorebirds and their habitats within these productive systems. The SGE Immersion team will develop recommendations on the types of mechanisms that could be used to incentivize the integration of SMPs with existing certification programs (e.g., ASC), sustainability strategies of buyers, or other market-based strategies. The collaboration between Aquamaya and CSF would greatly benefit from knowledge that will help define a path to incentivize or integrate the adoption of SMPs by other shrimp producers in Guatemala and Central America. The regional context of this work includes a high degree of interest from shrimp producers to meet the criteria of existing sustainability certifications that would allow them to access specialized shrimp markets at a much better price. However, the current definitions used to define sustainability rests largely on land-use level metrics, such as the percentage of protected or restored mangroves, and do not include any components of biodiversity are vague, even for credible programs such as ASC. Their broader objective would be to integrate birds as indicators of biodiversity of sustainability strategies, and thus link shrimp production with SMPs that benefit biodiversity as well as the conservation of migratory shorebirds. This project supports several goals and targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework (COP15) to protect and restore nature including: sustainably manage areas under agriculture, aquaculture, fisheries, and forestry, and substantially increase agroecology and other biodiversity-friendly practices.

 Acadian Crossing Consumer Products (ACCP) is the sourcing division of ArchPoint Group, a privately held $250M global sourcing and distribution company in the United States consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. ACCP, primarily focused in grocery retail, is one of the largest suppliers of private label (store brand) tableware products, including plates, cups, cutlery, and straws made of paper and plastic. With a robust portfolio of goods imported from 32 facilities across the globe, the company leverages a global manufacturing footprint for ultimate customer flexibility, cost management and risk mitigation. According to the International Energy Agency, freight transportation is responsible for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions (up to 11% when including warehouses and ports). While alternative fuel sources are coming online, freight transportation is still heavily reliant on oil and gas. Current trends suggest freight transportation will be accountable for the most carbon emissions emitted by any sector by 2050. In 2022, ACCP shipped 4,900 20 ft. cargo containers (TEUs) from their overseas manufacturing partners, accounting for an estimated 90%+ of total supply chain distance. Domestic transportation, however, can emit more than 100 times as much CO 2 as ships to carry the same amount of freight the same length, so the company plans to prioritize its focus on domestic freight as one of its chief areas to initiate the measurement of scope III emissions.

Project: ACCP needs to understand the maximum annual net CO 2 reduction it can achieve by implementing sustainable domestic trucking initiatives which would impact its 3,600 full truckload (FTL) equivalent shipments per year without increasing operating costs. The SGE Immersion team will evaluate how the company can best decarbonize its complex network of warehouses to customer shipping lanes. Key considerations will include, but not be limited to, cargo optimization, sustainable fuel alternative research and equipment analysis, customer scope III emissions goals, geographic impacts of warehouses and customer distribution centers, domestic freight partnership, space/weight optimizations, sustainable fuel alternative costs, and other factors.

The Cornell Robotic Construction Laboratory (RCL) conducts research that involves state‐of the‐art digital fabrication and computation. RCL invents advanced novel methods of robotic construction and aims to reveal their full potential in the field. Generating fundamental research and providing scientific development for full‐scale architectural research projects, RCL collaborates across various fields of studies. In partnership with architecture practice HANNAH, RCL develops sustainable robotic construction technologies to advance our future built environment.

Project: The invasive Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) epidemic has killed tens of millions of ash trees in North America, drastically transforming entire forest ecosystems and creating a massive climate risk. Infested and dying ash trees provide an enormous and untapped resource for sustainable wood construction. In collaboration with glued laminated timber manufacturer UNALAM, RCL has developed innovative methods to reuse EAB‐infested timber. By introducing high precision robotic fabrication technology, researchers have created a material‐saving manufacturing process to transform “ash waste wood” into a useful and high‐tech engineered wood product. The SGE Intensive team will evaluate the market viability of two innovative wood products: 1) Glulam beams, an engineered wood product made of wood laminations; and 2) Cross‐Laminated‐Timber (CLT), large‐scale and prefabricated solid engineered wood panels. The team will need to evaluate the sustainability benefits and economic implications of using EAB‐infested timber (as opposed to commercially available softwoods) for current CLT and Glulam manufacturing processes, as well as the additional sustainability benefits and economic implications of utilizing the SLIM‐LAM technique, a manufacturing process developed by Cornell RCL which reduces material waste and weight of components through robotic fabrication, introducing further carbon savings and construction sustainability benefits.

Oxfam is a British‐founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organizations focused on the alleviation of global poverty. Founded in 1942, Oxfam works with a network of local organizations to address urgent humanitarian needs and protect lives when disaster strikes. With nearly 80 years of experience, Oxfam works in more than 90 countries around the world. The organization’s four focus areas include: economic justice & equal rights, women’s rights & gender justice, humanitarian response, and climate action.

Project: With the rapid growth in the interest in ESG reporting, Oxfam is working to strengthen ESG measures, particularly as they relate to the social and human rights metrics. This past fall, Oxfam worked with Cornell researchers to conduct a literature review on ESG data providers and their ratings, as well as the main critiques or shortcomings with each. In particular, they focused on how a select number of extractive industry (EI) companies (and specific projects they undertake; more about Oxfam’s Extractive Industries is here). They examined how these companies/projects are assessed by the main ESG data providers, and identified gaps between how companies score on the metrics, how those scores change over time, and how companies are performing in terms of ESG in practice. Results suggest existing ESG metrics applicable to extractive industry companies inadequately account for the negative social and environmental impacts on local communities. The SGE Intensive team will build on this research and make recommendations for how best to improve these ratings to better reflect company performance. Oxfam is particularly interested in what actions regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and standards‐setting bodies like the Sustainable Accounting Standards Board (SASB) can take in order to improve ratings and corporate disclosure.

Emerson was founded in 1890 in St. Louis, Missouri, as a manufacturer of electric motors and fans. Over the past 125‐plus years, the company has grown from a regional manufacturer into a global technology solutions powerhouse. Emerson’s two business platforms include Automation Solutions and Commercial & Residential Solutions. Commercial & Residential Solutions is a leader in creating comfortable, controllable indoor environments, advancing fresh and safe food throughout the cold chain, and supplying energy‐efficient technology to build sustainable infrastructures. The company serves a broad range of industries through its wide portfolio and extensive expertise to provide solutions and drive innovation that makes the world healthier, safer, smarter, and more sustainable.

Project: Heat pumps offer an energy‐efficient alternative to furnaces and air conditioners for all climates. Like your refrigerator, heat pumps use electricity to transfer heat from a cool space to a warm space, making the cool space cooler and the warm space warmer. Heat Pump technology has been around since the mid‐20th century, but the drive for environmental sustainability has placed an urgency to commercialize – economically and to scale – heat pumps for applications that include: district heating, manufacturing, food and beverage, and more. Emerson aspires to be a solution leader with Heat Pumps, leveraging its world‐class portfolio of compression, automation, and years of engineering knowledge. The challenge is that the company’s current offering, although proven in respective applications, is far too disparate to be considered a global leader of heat pumps. The SGE Intensive team will develop recommendations for how the company could realize significant market share over the next 5‐10+ years across all heat pump segments in order to identify technology and solution gaps, and help the company prioritize potential R&D programs or acquisition targets to accelerate and synergize their offerings. This project will include global market assessment, segmentation of application type, design specifications by segment, and align to Emerson’s current and future portfolio strategy.

The Cornell University Borehole Observatory (CUBO) is part of the university’s efforts to be a living laboratory where faculty, researchers, students and staff can create, test and implement a variety of sustainability solutions. These serve as opportunities for education and engagement on a scale that demonstrates whether and how research innovations can be deployed for the benefit of the region, the nation or the world. Earth Source Heat is Cornell’s version of a geothermal system that would use the Earth’s internal heat to warm the Ithaca campus and is a critical component of the university’s plan for achieving carbon neutrality by 2035. The project is a research collaboration across several academic departments along with campus facilities staff, and it is a major component of the university’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality. This innovative approach could provide a roadmap for organizations seeking to source clean, sustainable, and low‐cost geothermal energy to meet their own sustainability goals.

Project: This spring, Cornell is taking a significant step toward trying to attain its carbon neutrality goals by drilling a proof‐of‐concept well as a prelude to undertaking its innovative Earth Source Heat (ESH) project. ESH is an enhanced geothermal system (EGS), which circulates cool water miles below ground where rocks are naturally 200°F (93°C) or higher, to return heat to the surface. At Cornell, the plan is to circulate water about 2 miles down, and to use the heated water to replace steam for the existing district heating system. Whereas geological temperatures are adequate to use the energy for heating (and other commercial purposes) over large parts of the continent, in a narrow range of suitable locations EGS systems can produce electricity. Locally, the impact of the project could save up to 82,000 metric tons of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere each year, which equate to 8% of the county’s emissions and 38% of Cornell’s. Globally, project success would indicate the potential technical viability of EGS to new geographies beyond known geologically‐favorable regions like Iceland and some parts of the Western United States. The SGE Intensive team will work to develop recommendations regarding the commercialization potential of EGS, including identification and analysis of potential favorable markets.

The Circular Construction Lab advances the paradigm shift from linear material consumption towards a circular economy within an industrialized construction industry. At the intersection of architecture, engineering, material and computer science, as well as economics, the lab investigates new concepts, methods and processes to: (1) design and construct buildings as the material depots for future construction; and (2) activate the potential of the built environment as an ‘urban mine’ for today’s construction. CCL understands architecture as part of a regenerative and restorative cycle and sees design as a vehicle that can advance this ambition with excellence in teaching and research. Through close collaborations with academic, industrial, and legislative/ political partners the lab ensures the relevance of its work and promotes the direct and fullscale implementation of research results towards a more sustainable, low/ no‐carbon, circular construction industry.

Project: The construction industry is the biggest consumer of energy and resources – accounting for 39% global of greenhouse gas emissions and more than 50% of resource extraction and solid waste production. The concept of the circular economy — a restorative and regenerative system that aims to eliminate waste by continually reusing materials and products — is increasingly gaining attention as a way to overcome these challenges. CI:RCLE (a research collaboration between Cornell and selected community partners funded by the Einhorn Center) is investigating circular potentials of the local built environment by capitalizing on material reuse and recycling; new construction methods; the reactivation of embodied carbon, water and knowledge; green job creation; and new business models of production and construction. In January 2022, CI:RCLE partners deconstructed a residential structure at 206 College Ave. in Collegetown, Ithaca, part of the Catherine Commons development project, as a sustainable alternative to demolition. The project affords CCL and partners the unique opportunity to both carefully catalogue and value all salvaged building elements and understand the costs of deconstruction in the local economy. The SGE Intensive team will evaluate the business economics of demolition and deconstruction to develop recommendations to the local business community and government on how best to nurture growth of a local circular construction economy similar to those established in other geographies.

Boeing is the world’s largest aerospace company and leading manufacturer of commercial jetliners, defense, space, and security systems, and service provider of aftermarket support. As America’s biggest manufacturing exporter, the company supports airlines and U.S. and allied government customers in more than 150 countries. Boeing products and tailored services include commercial and military aircraft, satellites, weapons, electronic and defense systems, launch systems, advanced information and communication systems, and performance‐based logistics and training. Boeing’s commitment to protecting, connecting and exploring our world and beyond, safely and sustainably is rooted in its values and its stakeholders’ expectations. This includes a focus on environmental stewardship, social progress and inclusion, and values‐based and transparent governance.

Project: Airlines have committed to net‐zero carbon emissions growth by 2050. Airlines usage of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) are critical to achieving that goal but currently only represent less than 0.1% of aviation fuel supply. In addition, demand for sustainable fuels from multiple transportation industries is inhibiting the substantial growth of SAF supply. For example, blenders produce larger quantities of bio‐diesel over sustainable aviation fuels due to their high costs and complex requirements. The SGE Intensive team will analyze the market and make recommendations with regard to what would be required to scale worldwide SAF production to support airlines’ net‐zero carbon emissions 2050 goals. This will require developing an understanding of which industries would stand to benefit most from an increase in sustainable fuel production (including, but not necessarily limited to green hydrogen) over the next 15 years, as well as what might influence whether or not those fuels end up being sold into the aviation industry.

Barbados Tourism Marketing, Inc. (BTMI) was established by the Government of Barbados in 2014 in order to promote, assist and facilitate the efficient development of tourism. BTMI designs and implements suitable marketing strategies for the effective promotion of the tourism industry. The organization also provisions for adequate and suitable air and sea passenger transport services to and from Barbados, as well as encourages the establishment of amenities and facilities necessary for the proper enjoyment of Barbados as a tourist destination. Finally, BTMI carries out market intelligence in order to inform the needs of the tourism industry. BTMI’s vision sees Barbados elevated to the top of its capacity as a globally competitive, warm weather destination, with tourism sustainably enhancing the quality of life of visitors and Barbadians together.

Project: Since 2020, the pandemic has had significant negative impact on the global tourism industry. This comes at the same time that the medium and long‐term impacts of climate change, particularly for small island nations, are coming into sharper focus. Looking ahead, there are significant issues facing the industry and challenging tourism destinations to develop sound, science‐based plans for their tourism industry that can navigate economic, health, safety, equity, prosperity, and climate change issues. Destinations such as Barbados now seek to position themselves to attract capital at a time when investors are increasingly attuned to ESG‐related issues. This increases the importance of climate action planning meant to lower carbon emissions and realize net zero country goals related to the Paris Climate Agreement. The SGE Intensive team will make recommendations to BTMI consistent with the organization’s goal of evolving from a Destination Marketing Organization to a Destination Management Organization. The team will develop baseline information on investment needs and priorities that Barbados will require to move its destination resilience plan forward. It will also identify critical information required to qualify for financial investment that improves Barbados’ tourism infrastructure.