Qualities like amazing tensile strength and electrical conductivity offer a huge range of uses for carbon nanotubes. In a new policy brief, fellow Rachel A. Meidl and her co-authors Dana Goerzen and Daniel A. Heller explain that to ensure carbon nanotubes’ role in a circular, sustainable economy, a coordinated system for classifying, testing, and identifying CNTs and a life cycle approach to risk assessments are needed to better understand impacts to facilitate consistent communication among researchers, industries, and policymakers.
Dana Goerzen, Daniel A. Heller, Rachel A. MeidlFebruary 28, 2024
Are our views of sustainability becoming distorted by the often unsubstantiated “green” actions of companies and organizations? This brief explores why we urgently need a new framework for sustainability — one that relies on a holistic, cross-disciplinary, and multidimensional life cycle approach.
Rachel A. Meidl, Kenneth B. Medlock IIINovember 8, 2023
With the 45V tax credit, the U.S. is well poised to compete for the growing pipeline of clean hydrogen projects globally, writes fellow Rachel Meidl. But if the Treasury adds restrictions to the new tax credit, the U.S. could lose its advantage and a key opportunity for large-scale decarbonization.
Stem cells have two unique properties that make them an appealing therapeutic tool for regenerative medicine: they can grow indefinitely and can differentiate into a wide variety of cell types, including those that form blood, bones, lungs, skin, and the brain.
As the pandemic persisted across the state, did Texans living in cities have better access to Covid-19 vaccines than those in rural areas? How did race or age factor in? The authors assess the successes and shortfalls of Texas' vaccine distribution strategy, and how to do better next time.
Carbon nanotubes are critical components for future decarbonization strategies and a clean energy revolution. If the U.S. is to reestablish climate leadership, advanced nanotechnology solutions must be a national priority, argues the author.
Integrating a life-cycle dimension into future policies to assess the social, environmental and economic implications of various products across their life cycle and throughout their value chain is critical to achieving sustainability and a circular economy, writes Rachel A. Meidl, fellow in energy and environment.
Energy fellow Rachel A. Meidl writes that it is imperative to consider and assess innovative recycling technologies that could have enormous economic value in transforming waste plastics into the building blocks for new, higher-value products.
Effective drug policy requires acceptance that, for better or worse, licit and illicit drug use is part of our world. The authors recommend several steps the federal government can take to facilitate more pragmatic and effective drug policy at all levels of government.
Katharine Neill Harris, William MartinFebruary 5, 2021
With the cost of virgin plastic directly affected by oil and natural gas prices, the global plastics economy is highly vulnerable to shocks. The authors argue that in order to advance sustainability and solve existential crises like resource depletion and the environmental and social impacts of climate change, high-income countries should take the lead on the development of transparent, closed loops for plastics.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25613/JXVH-K250
Rachel A. Meidl, Vilma Havas, Brita StaalJanuary 21, 2021