University of California-Berkeley Archives - Page 2 of 3

Universities Sign Green Chemistry Commitment

July 10, 2013 by Jessica Lyons Hardcastle

The University of California-Berkeley, University of Minnesota, Northeastern University and 10 other colleges and universities that have signed the Green Chemistry Commitment, intended to increase the number of green chemists and scientists in the US and the business opportunities available to them. Dow Chemical is an official partner, a Green ... Read more »

‘Green’ and Frugal Innovation, Part II

May 14, 2013May 14, 2013 by David Dornfeld

In my last article, the discussion centered on “frugal engineering” or, as it is sometimes referred to as “frugal innovation.” It was noted that frugal engineering usually refers to reducing the complexity and cost of some good and the production of it so that, for example, it might be more ... Read more »

Innovation and Sustainability

March 20, 2013March 20, 2013 by David Dornfeld

(Or creating “new” value) In one of my previous articles, the subject of externalized costs was dealt with in some detail — the idea that we are not really paying for the true expenses associated with the products we consume. The discussion went on to muse about how we might ... Read more »

Social Impacts in Sustainability, Part II

October 8, 2012 by David Dornfeld

This article could as well be subtitled: Green, Manufacturing and Education I woke up recently to read about a riot at a Foxconn factory in China where, according to the New York Times, the state-run media in China had reported that some 5,000 police officers were called to the factory ... Read more »

The EDF Climate Corps

September 6, 2012September 5, 2012 by David Dornfeld

This is the first in a few articles drawing from the annals of the Environmental Defense Funds Climate Corps activities. The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has been active in a number of areas for many years to work in partnership with business to provide solutions, scalable, to address issues that ... Read more »

‘Inexact’ Computer Chip 15 Times More Energy Efficient

May 25, 2012May 25, 2012 by Jessica Lyons Hardcastle

Researchers have designed an “inexact” computer chip (pictured) that they say is up to 15 times more energy efficient than today’s chip technology. The prototypes cut energy use by allowing processing components – like hardware for adding and multiplying numbers – to make a few mistakes. By managing the probability ... Read more »

Leveraging Manufacturing, Part I

April 13, 2012April 13, 2012 by David Dornfeld

I recently finished a long series of articles on the power of the digital age in the form of software to connect the designer to the process, with an eye to achieving all the normal requirements of a product but, in addition, incorporating measures to drive sustainable product design and ... Read more »

Tools of the Manufacturing Trade, Part VI

March 7, 2012March 2, 2012 by David Dornfeld

More Comments on Software In my last article, I posed the question, “Suppose you want to take some action – either at the design end or the manufacturing end. What tools can you rely on after you’ve done the background work and now want to move on to execution?” The ... Read more »

Consuming All but the ‘Oink’

October 19, 2011October 19, 2011 by David Dornfeld

Or, using most of what you have. When I was a graduate student in Madison in the early 70’s I had a part time job working with a small company that delivered rock salt for domestic water softeners, sales in markets and stores and, on some occasions, to some major ... Read more »

Less Is More, Part IV

August 24, 2011August 29, 2011 by David Dornfeld

How much less is less? The last several postings have been discussing the elements of reducing consumption in manufacturing. Not just cutting but making better use of the resources available. This stretched from reviewing the “buy-to-fly” ratio concept to yield issues in metal production and use. We discovered that there ... Read more »

Less Can Be More, Part II

July 26, 2011 by David Dornfeld

Where did all the material go? Some time ago (July last year to be specific) we discussed the concept of “buy to fly ratio” used to track the ratio of the amount of material that an aircraft manufacturer starts with to the amount that actually ends up on the airplane. ... Read more »

Considering the Energy of Labor, Part II

May 31, 2011 by David Dornfeld

Or, Carbs vs. Kilowatts We’ll keep charging forward with the discussion about the value of human labor in manufacturing and how to consider it in life cycle analyses of differing processes and techniques of production (see part I here). First, a clarification. This posting has nothing to do with forced ... Read more »

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