In this brochure, the European Aluminium Association (EAA) evaluates the need for vehicle lightweighting to reduce CO2 emissions. Since the 70's aluminum has been used for some car components (radiators, cylinder heads, and bumper beams), but now has grown to the average amount of 140 kg per car produced in Europe. Aluminum castings, extrusions, forgings and sheets can now be found nearly everywhere, including in car bodies, closures, chassis, suspensions and wheels. This resource explains why, now more than ever, reducing vehicle mass is necessary and how aluminum can be used to further improve the sustainability and the safety of future generations of cars.

This report by The Aluminum Association reviews the North American use of aluminum over the past 20 years in order to improve industry emissions, efficiency, recycling, and to address the challenges ahead in regards of sustainability. Challenges faced with sustainability include technological progress, energy and resource use, waste minimization and elimination, business operations, and product end-of-life ("design for recycling" and recycling incentives).

This Exploration Station highlights the role of biodiversity in sustainable bioenergy cropping systems. “Exploration Stations” are educational activities at public events that invite learners to interact with materials in a hands-on manner, and at their own pace. Learners can spend as much time with the activity as they choose. Exploration stations require one or more facilitators to guide learners through the activity. The facilitators’ role is to take cues from the learner to encourage inquiry-based scientific reasoning and experimentation. This can also serve as a simple engaging classroom activity for elementary and middle school students.

In this board game, players take on the role of bioenergy crop farmers trying to earn a living while being good environmental stewards. In the process, players explore the economic and environmental tradeoffs associated with growing different bioenergy crops. The game also serves as an engaging way to explore a range of environmental issues and ecological interactions related to climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, water quality and sustainable agriculture.

The Biofuels vs Fossil Fuels unit has students explore the similarities and differences between fossil fuels and biofuels. In the process, students investigate the carbon-transforming processes of combustion, photosynthesis, fermentation and respiration. They apply their knowledge of these processes to the global carbon cycle to examine how use of fossil fuels and biofuels have different effects on atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and consequently global climate change. Students use their understanding of the global carbon cycle to study the claim that biofuels, such as ethanol made from plant material, can help reduce the rate of increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide. In addition, students examine the environmental impact of biofuels agriculture.

Overall, this unit has three important goals. These focus on: Matter and energy changes associated with the carbon-transforming processes, the effects of the use of fossil fuels and biofuels on the global carbon cycle and global climate change, and a cost/benefit analysis of the production and use of biofuels.

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is a public-interest research and advocacy organization based in New Delhi, India. CSE promotes environmentally sound and equitable development strategies, with an emphasis on Indian environmental issues. The CSE web site includes pages on CSE initiatives: education and training programs, pollution monitoring, research and advocacy, and dissemination of information on a variety of issues, including air and water pollution, automobiles, diesel-powered vehicles and equipment, industry and mining, rainwater harvesting, conservation, and many others.

How does infrastructure meet our needs? What happens when we are cut off from that supporting infrastructure? As a class, students brainstorm, identify and explore the pathways where their food, water and energy originate, and where wastewater and solid waste go. After creating a diagram that maps a neighborhood's inputs and waste outputs, closed and open system concepts are introduced by imagining the neighborhood enclosed in a giant dome, cut off from its infrastructure systems. Students consider the implications and the importance of sustainable resource and waste management. They learn that resources are interdependent and that recycling wastes into resources is key to sustain a closed system.

Student teams find solutions to hypothetical challenge scenarios that require them to sustainably manage both resources and wastes. They begin by creating a card representing themselves and the resources (inputs) they need and wastes (outputs) they produce. Then they incorporate additional cards for food and energy components and associated necessary resources and waste products. They draw connections between outputs that provide inputs for other needs, and explore the problem of using linear solutions in resource-limited environments. Then students incorporate cards based on biorecycling technologies, such as algae photobioreactors and anaerobic digesters in order to make circular connections. Finally, the student teams present their complete biorecycling engineering solutions to their scenarios in poster format by connecting outputs to inputs, and showing the cycles of how wastes become resources.

This module describes the current and ongoing dependence on oil fueled transportation and the alternatives being considered to solve the need for sustainable energy. The following topics are discussed in the module: the rising global dependence on oil and the need for new technologies to fuel transportation,emerging technologies being highly considered to replace oil such as electric, hybrid electric, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, the advantages and disadvantages of each technology, and a comparison of the carbon footprint of each technology in writing and charts.Four review questions are supplied to test students on their knowledge of the material and to provide critical thinking as to their ideas for the future and solution for sustainable energy transportation.

This teacher's guide contains six student activities on the topic of energy conservation and the impact of energy use on society. These materials are developed for use in middle schools for energy-related studies in many different subject areas. The activities each contain objectives, lesson plans, teaching tips, supplementary resources, and references. The top document on this page contains the Introduction and Table of Contents. The Primary Documents link can be opened to access the individual student activities. This is one of several similar modules and activity books regarding science, technology, and societal issues.

This teacher's guide and education module contains student activities that outline the impact of energy issues on society and human activities. These materials are developed for use in middle schools. The materials are divided into three units, the first covers issues related to fossil fuels, the second covers human use of energy and how it has changed over time, and the third introduces concepts of energy efficiency, conservation, and renewable energy sources. The units each contain several activities, teaching tips, supplementary resources, and interdisciplinary connections. The top document on this page contains the Introduction and Table of Contents. The Primary Documents link can be opened to access the units for this module. This is one of several similar modules and activity books regarding science, technology, and societal issues.

Students begin by reading Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax" as an example of how overdevelopment can cause long-lasting environmental destruction. Students discuss how to balance the needs of the environment with the needs of human industry. Student teams are asked to serve as natural resource engineers, city planning engineers and civil engineers with the task to replant the nearly destroyed forest and develop a sustainable community design that can co-exist with the re-established natural area.

This semester-long project on conducting an environmental audit of a college campus can be done by an individual or by groups of students working in teams. Each group will research a different aspect of campus operations; they will collect data, analyze their findings, and make recommendations for improvements. This SERC Starting Point site includes learning goals, context for use, teaching tips and materials, assessment, and references.

This activity has students do a web-based environmental footprint quiz and integrate their results into a class mean. The students compare their results by creating a bar graph and do some simple calculations to see how much of the Earth just the population of the US requires.

The Externalities Game is a non-cooperative game that teaches students about the concept of environmental externalities and allows them to directly experience the moral dimensions of collective action problems. It has been particularly effective for teaching students about the moral aspects of the climate change. Grades are used to create the tension between earning individual grade points at the expense of group benefit. This is part of a research project funded by the National Science Foundation.

Students will learn about the diverse marine ecosystems found in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and off the coast of American Samoa, and protection of their natural and cultural resources. In the resource, students first learn about the marine sanctuaries and the work in small groups to develop posters. Can be used in both formal and informal education.

In these field investigations, students explore the effects of biofuel crop production on invertebrate diversity and the effects those organisms have on pollination rates and weed seed predation. Teachers can choose from a suite of six field-sampling methods for investigations of school-yard biofuel plots, agricultural fields or existing natural communities.

In this game, players—both students and the public—take on the role of farmers working to sustainably grow crops to produce energy resources, earn income and improve ecosystem services. In doing so, players engage in sophisticated systems-level thinking and learn about: ecological and economic aspects of sustainability,
short and long term dynamics of the sustainable systems, and local and global impacts of individual farmer management decisions. Interacting with and making sense of game dynamics demonstrates the complexity involved with the sustainable production of bioenergy crops and facilitates engagement with current research and sustainability in ways that are difficult with traditional instructional approaches.

Students begin this investigation by watching a National Geographic slideshow presentation about some of the impacts that declining fish populations are having on humans around the world. In Part B, students use ImageJ image processing software (if available) to create an animation of global marine biodiversity maps spanning four decades, and look for hotspots and overall changes in species diversity over time. The investigation concludes with students interpreting graphs of tuna and billfish species density by ocean, and applying what they have learned to understanding why species diversity is important for maintaining the overall balance of marine ecosystems.

Students begin this investigation by browsing through an interactive seafood menu that points out several of the irresponsible fishing practices employed by the seafood industry. They then watch a short movie produced by the Worldwatch Institute, which outlines some tips for becoming a more responsible seafood consumer. The investigation culminates with students conducting an independent group research project exploring the availability of sustainable seafood in their community.