Modeling the Implications of Fugitive Gas Emissions on Building Heat Upgrade Decisions; Climate Change as a Driving Force for Social and Technical Innovation

As climate change becomes an increasingly greater global concern, reducing net emissions has grown to be the key objective when building new infrastructure. Currently, infrastructure project planning tools use simulations and analytical modeling to forecast gas emissions and lifecycle costs. Such tools can be costly or do not combine the two facets intuitively. The goal of this capstone group is to create a cohesive, accessible tool that will take user input of a building to determine its effect on the environment while taking finances into consideration. Using a similar, preexisting tool from University of Virginia, the new tool will be built with location specific policies and up-to-date prices of resources based on data from nationwide databases. This tool will ask for user input in an excel spreadsheet. Results will appear on the same slide that will give the user insight into the financial investment, estimated lifetime cost, as well as the estimated impact of lifetime carbon emissions. Then I will take a look at regulation in the United States electric utility industry and how its response to scientific findings regarding climate change and sustainability will continue to be a driving force for social innovation as well as technological.

School of Engineering and Applied Science

Bachelor of Science in Systems and Information Engineering

Technical Advisor: Andres Clarens

STS Advisor: Joshua Earle

Technical Team Members: Aidan Jacobs, Hana Sexton, Maddie Robinson, Nicole Beachy