Assessing Service Industries

Project Overview

A focus of research  had been the environmental implications of the service industries, which are of great import but little studied.  Three projects carried out with MES students contributed to this effort: an evaluation of Northeast Utilities’ Milford generating station (by MES students Andrew Mingst, Suganthi Simon and Elizabeth Bennett), a comparison of providing air conditioning by selling a product or selling the service (by MES student Elizabeth Bennett and Professor Graedel), and an ongoing study of Yale University as a service provider (by MES students Sue Becker and Yusuke Kakizawa, Assistant Dean Jane Coppock and Professor Graedel).  Now that the environmental implications of a number of individual service organizations have been assessed, a general framework for evaluating life cycle assessments of service organizations can be prepared.  This was done by Professor Graedel and MES graduate Elizabeth Bennett.