Browsing by Author "Sasser, Erika"

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Open Access
Cookstove Interventions in Developing Countries: Designing Tools for Effective Program Evaluation
(2011-05-02) Vergnano, Elizabeth J; Colvin, Julie
Approximately half of the world’s population depends on biomass and coal as fuel for household energy. Burning these fuels in traditional cookstoves creates detrimental social, health, and environmental impacts that can be minimized through the dissemination and adoption of improved cookstoves. The purpose of this master’s project is tri-fold:(1) to re-design content of baseline survey instrument, or partner reporting form, for continued administration by the PCIA; (2) to determine factors that influence PCIA partner effectiveness based on data collected through the 2008, 2009, and 2010 surveys; (3) to identify global-scale PCIA expansion opportunities based on national social, environmental, and health indicators. PCIA’s existing partner-level survey instrument was re-designed in 2010 to enable the PCIA to consistently track partner progress over time and analyze key factors influencing the rate of clean cookstove adoption. A partner-level statistical analysis was performed using data generated from past PCIA surveys distributed in 2008 and 2009 as well as the re-designed 2010 survey. The results from the regression model indicated that the number of improved stoves sold is correlated with the program location, the organization type that delivers the stoves and the presence of national cookstove standards. At the organizational level, stove sales were found to be positively correlated with the inclusion of a low-cost stove option, community outreach activities, stove performance testing, and a strong organizational mission directly related to the benefits of improved cookstoves. A global-scale statistical analysis was conducted using a Poisson and logistic regression model. The goal was to determine in which countries the PCIA partners are currently located and where they should be located based on environmental, health, and socioeconomic indicators. The results of this analysis found that the PCIA partners are operating in countries with higher rates of respiratory infections, solid fuel use, government expenditures on health, and population, but with lower rates of particulate matter emissions (PM 10). Using a prediction model based on the same regression of the global statistical analysis, it was found that PCIA could productively target additional resources and program efforts in Myanmar, Somalia, Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ethiopia.
Open Access
Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in Emerging Economies: A Case Study of the Petroleum Refining Industry
(2007-08-28) Barr, Maura
A majority of the literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting focuses on efforts made by companies headquartered in North America and Europe. Nevertheless, many profitable companies from countries with emerging economies are beginning to report on their social and environmental performance. However, the quality of these CSR reports is relatively unknown. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to benchmark six different company’s sustainability reports in order to determine the quality of reporting that exists for companies based in emerging economies. Based on the project’s findings, it will be determined whether or not the initial hypotheses concerning the quality of these companies’ sustainability reports were correct. In order to truly determine the quality of CSR reports of companies from countries with emerging economies, it would be necessary to look at a variety of different sectors. Nevertheless, because of the narrow scope of this project, the analysis will only focus on the petroleum-refining sector. By using the standardized benchmarking system developed by SustainAbility Ltd. and UNEP, a compare and contrast analysis will be conducted of each of the six chosen petroleum-refining companies’ CSR reports. Ultimately, this project seeks to determine the range of CSR reporting quality scores that will be given to these emerging economy ‘reporting leaders.’ This project set out to determine whether or not the CSR reports of publicly traded petroleum-refining companies headquartered in emerging economies would rank higher than the reports of state-owned petroleum refining companies that are also located in emerging economies. This analysis generally supports this hypothesis. In addition, this project also sought to determine whether the data support two other minor hypotheses: (a) that publicly traded companies would include more information on stakeholder engagement processes in their reports than SOEs, and (b) that publicly traded companies would spend an equal amount of effort in describing their social and environmental performance whereas SOEs would focus more on social performance. Results from the case studies support the first minor hypothesis but not the second.
Open Access
Quantification of the Health Impacts Associated with Fine Particulate Matter due to Wildfires
(2008-04-24T16:18:09Z) Douglass, Rachel L.
Wildfires can be devastating to property and the ecological landscape; they also have a substantial impact on human health and welfare. Wildfires emit a variety of air pollutants such as fine particulate matter (PM2.5), coarse particulate matter (PM10), volatile organic compounds, as well as nitrogen and sulfur oxides. Fine particles (PM2.5) have been linked to many cardiovascular and respiratory problems such as premature death, heart attacks, asthma exacerbation, and acute bronchitis. This project focuses on quantifying the incidence and monetary value of adverse human health impacts resulting from wildfire emissions of PM2.5 in the Pacific Northwest during the summer of 2007. Using a combination of tools, including geospatial analysis and a benefits assessment tool developed by U.S. EPA (BenMAP), this project investigates the changes in incidence of certain health outcomes resulting from the change in air quality attributable to wildfire. The changes in incidence can then be given a dollar value using valuation functions to highlight the magnitude of the health effects caused by PM2.5 wildfire emissions. In light of current climate change predictions, PM2.5 wildfire emissions may be expected to increase in the future.