Students Involvements in Learning of Pollution Prevention and Energy Efficiency Assessment of Businesses in New Mexico

Jalal Rastegary

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Conference: ASEE 2021 Gulf-Southwest Annual Conference
Location: Waco, Texas
Publication Date: March 24, 2021
Start Date: March 24, 2021
End Date: March 26, 2021
Page Count: 2
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--36404
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/36404
Download Count: 288

Paper Authors

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Jalal Rastegary NMSU

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Mr. Jalal Rastegary is working as a Research Scientist for the Engineering New Mexico Resource Network at the College of Engineering, New Mexico State University. Jalal has been working on different aspects of renewable energy, new bioenergy, and sustainable management of integrated water and energy use for more than 25 years. Jalal is Program Manager for the New Mexico Pollution Prevention Program funded by EPA. He is providing technical assistance to small business and provide on-site technical assistance in the areas of Pollution Prevention and Energy Efficiency Mr. Rastegary has published more than 30 journal and conference papers. He is a reviewer for the following programs and journals: The Food Science and Nutrition topic area of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program; the USDA’s biofuel program; the African Journal of Environmental Science and Technology (AJEST); and the Basic Research Journal of Agricultural Science Review (BRJASR).

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Abstract

In the state of New Mexico, few business sectors have been experiencing such significant growth as craft brewing. No matter where you find yourself in the state, you will not be far from at least one local brewery. Other businesses throughout the state often collaborate with these breweries as well, taking in spent grain and such, thus improving their economic impact while reducing their environmental impact. This growth, however, comes with its own set of challenges. It can be seen in every sector; if a business expands beyond its means, it has a high chance to fail if certain shortcomings are not corrected early on. Fortunately, many businesses are catching on to this issue and often seek outside assistance to find these flaws before they arise. There are many organizations like Engineering New Mexico Resource Network (ENMRN) that aid in finding and correcting those shortcomings through mathematical and scientific analysis, providing encouragement and assistance to such businesses that reach out to them. One such instance was a brewery that reached out to ENMRN in 2019 that, in only a few years it had been in operation, was experiencing such growth that they were planning on expanding for the third time. Now a business does not often grow this quickly without finding effective ways to conserve resources, but outside opinions and analysis can always be of benefit. By analyzing the practices already employed by this brewery, combined with recommendations from NMSU’s faculty, staff, and students after conducting an on-site visit, the brewery’s savings and improvements were staggering. Through estimates by ENMRN’s team and metrics provided by the brewery, it is believed in the span of a year this single brewery was able to reduce their carbon footprint by 67 tons, conserve 713,341 gallons of water, conserve 54,080 kilowatt-hours of power, and reduce their solid waste generation by 1,085 tons, all while saving $13,085 in the process. All of these efforts were achieved by student involvement under the guidance of ENMRN’s experts so that they could gain experience in energy, water, and waste assessments and making them prepared to deal with these sustainability problems when entering the workforce.

Citation
Format

Rastegary, J. (2021, March), Students Involvements in Learning of Pollution Prevention and Energy Efficiency Assessment of Businesses in New Mexico Paper presented at ASEE 2021 Gulf-Southwest Annual Conference, Waco, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--36404

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - In the state of New Mexico, few business sectors have been experiencing such significant growth as craft brewing. No matter where you find yourself in the state, you will not be far from at least one local brewery. Other businesses throughout the state often collaborate with these breweries as well, taking in spent grain and such, thus improving their economic impact while reducing their environmental impact. This growth, however, comes with its own set of challenges. It can be seen in every sector; if a business expands beyond its means, it has a high chance to fail if certain shortcomings are not corrected early on. Fortunately, many businesses are catching on to this issue and often seek outside assistance to find these flaws before they arise. There are many organizations like Engineering New Mexico Resource Network (ENMRN) that aid in finding and correcting those shortcomings through mathematical and scientific analysis, providing encouragement and assistance to such businesses that reach out to them. One such instance was a brewery that reached out to ENMRN in 2019 that, in only a few years it had been in operation, was experiencing such growth that they were planning on expanding for the third time. Now a business does not often grow this quickly without finding effective ways to conserve resources, but outside opinions and analysis can always be of benefit. By analyzing the practices already employed by this brewery, combined with recommendations from NMSU’s faculty, staff, and students after conducting an on-site visit, the brewery’s savings and improvements were staggering. Through estimates by ENMRN’s team and metrics provided by the brewery, it is believed in the span of a year this single brewery was able to reduce their carbon footprint by 67 tons, conserve 713,341 gallons of water, conserve 54,080 kilowatt-hours of power, and reduce their solid waste generation by 1,085 tons, all while saving $13,085 in the process. All of these efforts were achieved by student involvement under the guidance of ENMRN’s experts so that they could gain experience in energy, water, and waste assessments and making them prepared to deal with these sustainability problems when entering the workforce.
AU  - Jalal Rastegary
CY  - Waco, Texas
DA  - 2021/03/24
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Students Involvements in Learning of Pollution Prevention and Energy Efficiency Assessment of Businesses in New Mexico 
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/36404
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--36404
ER  -