Seed the Circular Economy

ARC seeks to build a “zero-waste” model to produce multiple revenue streams and foster dynamic growth of regenerative business alternatives associated with a circular economy. Our Program will recreate an existing marina in California as an electrically independent refuge for the community, rid the marina of all sources of petroleum hydrocarbons, eliminate organic waste from the sewage pump-out and other operations, and provide data to improve the coastal redevelopment process itself. Using net-zero energy and zero-waste standards to modernize antiquated infrastructure and create safe public spaces, we will bring carbon pricing/credits and a lean business structure to coastal and estuary regions. The Team’s zero-waste Program goals are to develop and specify a project in which all waste energy and materials associated with both the Program’s construction and operation phases is either avoided or redirected, using planning and design decisions, as feedstock to other processes and products having social, environmental and/or financial utility or value. The Project includes the following physical scope of work: Outfit the marina with everything needed for conversion of sailboats and other marine vessels from diesel and gasoline engines to electric propulsion Onsite photo-voltaic and wind powered micro-grid Water purification systems Hydrogen generation systems Battery and hydrogen storage and distribution Electric vehicle charging stations (boat and car) Biodigester to manage organic waste Minimize building/facility energy consumption using a range of conservation and renewable energy applications The difficulties associated with implementing a zero-waste Program include avoiding the use of components that have waste streams that are expensive to re-process/recycle/reuse and/or for which uses and/or markets to not exist. ARC therefore seeks assistance with a project in which all elements of the assembled and manufactured project components have been characterized in terms that will enable the Program Team to specify end of life uses and value and/or costs associated with end of processing.

Transform American Infrastructure

The cost of American publicly funded infrastructure appears to be higher per unit deliverable than comparable public investment in other countries with similar development standards. Outcomes of these projects have variable and/or questionable relationship to mitigation of social and environmental negative externalities. This research project will support support proposals to improve the conduct of American infrastructure development/execution practices. The types of questions that we would like to answer based on your research include (but are not limited to): On a project by project basis - Correlate between infrastructure reliability and income levels - Correlate between distance from jobs and income levels - Relate income and associated demographics to cost of trip per vehicle mile (VMT) to produce the infrastructure, cost of use / VMT (in the operation phase) - Relate carbon emissions reductions to VMT improvements to income levels of those served - Cost of CO2e produced by the project, correlated to income level - Cost and schedule overruns per project, in percentage against baseline, correlated to local and regional demographics.