Innovation Showcase (Asynchronous Session)
Unlocking Hidden Value Propositions in Built Environments to Maximize User Experiences View Digital Media
Innovation Showcase Jason Farrell
Human configurations of built environments have a tremendous influence on users' health, productivity, effectiveness, and other key metrics. They also have to power to communicate with space users and observers which can lead to either positive or negative outcomes. Dr. Jason Farrell reviews his original research and provide insight and strategy to help leverage built environments to shape the experiences of a wide-range of stakeholders. The key is understanding how these discreet elements intertwine to create a facilities' DNA, then identifying ways to orchestrate them toward goals and objectives. For industries, such as higher education, attending to these realities has the power to create differentiation and distinction. Dr. Farrell presents concepts and methodologies for assessing effectiveness, and tailoring them to particular industries and their desired outcomes. Research, case studies, and lived experiences inform this journey into creating more effective facilities.
The Environmental and Public Health Consequences of the Global Post-consumer Textile Trade: Designs to Measure Textile Degradation in a Landfill Simulator View Digital Media
Innovation Showcase Eva Ottum, Dielle Lundberg, Evan Warns
The United States exports over 1.6 billion pounds of post-consumer textiles every year, primarily to countries in the Global South. These textiles make their way to landfills and open-air dumps where they decompose, contaminating water systems and releasing harmful greenhouse gases. Through this inequitable system of waste disposal, countries with less political and economic power are coerced into accepting the environmental and health consequences of over-consumption in the Global North. Thus, the global trade of post-consumer textile waste represents a serious issue of environmental justice and a potential public health hazard. The purpose of our research is to locate, characterize, and quantify the environmental and human health risks that occur when post-consumer textiles are left to decompose in landfills and open-air dumps in the Global South. In this study, we first make use of United Nations International Trade Statistics data to map the global distribution of post-consumer textiles exported from the United States. Next, we present a proof of concept for a landfill simulating reactor designed to measure the toxicity of leachate resulting from the decomposition of textiles in developing countries and to quantify the related greenhouse gas emissions. This design makes use of low-cost and sustainable materials to promote frugal innovation and make landfill reactors more accessible. Finally, we describe how the data generated from these tools can be leveraged to inform individual consumer behaviors, local policies around textile waste disposal, and global advocacy efforts to mitigate the environmental harms caused by fast fashion and capitalism.
