THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY: USING EMERGY ANALYSIS TO EVALUATE SMALL-SCALE, HUMAN-DOMINATED SYSTEMS By HEATHER NICOLE ROTHROCK A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2014 1 ©2014 Heather Nicole Rothrock 2 To my personal and professional evolution and those who were instrumental to this 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My graduate educational experience was by far the most difficult process of my life to date. Through perservence and determination I was able to complete the task I started, and there were numerous people that have helped emotionally, physically, and intellecutally. I would like to acknowledge everyone who has supported me over the past (nearly) six years: I would first like to thank my graduate advisor, Dr. Mark Brown, for both his financial support and intellectual stimulation. I have most certainly matured a lot in this process, in large part because of his mentorship and am grateful for this. I would also like to thank my committee members, Drs. Cohen, Delfino, and Hodges for their availability and encouragement. Thank you to the Systems Ecology research group for helpful ideas and input. Also, I am really appreciative for those who filled out my research surveys and helped me collect data in the two intentional communities. I would like to deeply and graciously thank my family and friends for having patience, love, and understanding as I have gone through this process; I have been a bit out of touch, but that does not mean out of heart and mind. I would like to praise my mother for doing a fine job in raising me and facilitating positivity in my life. I also need to mention family members who passed away during my time in graduate school: My father, to whom I owe my intelligence, stubbornness and tenacity, all qualities that helped my success in finishing this degree, and my Grammy Flo who was my biggest cheerleader. They were both great sources of encouragement and I know they are celebrating with me now. Finally, many thanks to Deana, my best friend and other “advisor”. I am eternally grateful for your constant reminders of what this experience was really about. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ....................................................................................................... 4 LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... 9 LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................... 11 ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 14 Research Objectives ........................................................................................................ 14 Plan of Study................................................................................................................... 16 Objective 1 ............................................................................................................... 16 Objective 2 ............................................................................................................... 16 Objective 3 ............................................................................................................... 16 Emergy Methodological Framework ....................................................................... 17 Emergy ............................................................................................................. 17 Unit emergy values ........................................................................................... 18 Energy systems diagrams ................................................................................. 18 Emergy evaluation indices ............................................................................... 19 Energy signatures ............................................................................................. 20 2 EMERGY METABOLISM OF TWO “INTENTIONAL” COMMUNITIES AND ONE “SUBURBAN” COMMUNITY ..................................................................................... 22 Background Information ................................................................................................. 22 Literature Review ........................................................................................................... 22 Community Sustainability ....................................................................................... 22 Emergy in the Context of Community-Scale Analysis ........................................... 23 Material Flow Accounting of Communities ............................................................ 24 Contributions of Human Communities ................................................................... 25 Overview of Intentional Communities .................................................................... 25 Ecovillages ....................................................................................................... 26 Co-housing model of sustainability .................................................................. 26 Centralization vs. Decentralization ......................................................................... 27 Brief Overview of Western North Carolina ............................................................ 28 The Communities ............................................................................................................ 29 Earthaven Ecovillage–Black Mountain, NC ........................................................... 29 Agriculture and livestock production ............................................................... 30 Forest ................................................................................................................ 30 In situ water sources ......................................................................................... 31 5 Infrastructructure .............................................................................................. 31 Energy production/consumption ...................................................................... 32 Households ....................................................................................................... 32 Waste and recycling ......................................................................................... 32 Gray water treatment and human excrement .................................................... 33 Westwood Co-housing Community–Asheville, NC. .............................................. 33 Households ....................................................................................................... 33 Infrastructure and utilities ................................................................................ 34 Waste and recycling ......................................................................................... 35 Suburban Residential Neighborhood ....................................................................... 35 Research Questions ................................................................................................. 35 Methods .......................................................................................................................... 35 Overview ................................................................................................................. 35 Earthaven and Westwood: Administering the Community Survey......................... 36 The Suburban Residential Neighborhood ............................................................... 37 Emergy Evaluation Protocols .................................................................................. 38 UEVs ....................................................................................................................... 38 Calculation of Community Labor and Information UEVs ...................................... 39 Energy Flow Determination and Considerations .................................................... 41 Fuels ................................................................................................................. 41 Food .................................................................................................................. 41 Building and infrastructure materials ............................................................... 42 Household expenditures ................................................................................... 43 Agricultural and livestock production .............................................................. 44 Energy production/consumption ...................................................................... 44 Water ................................................................................................................ 44 Waste and recycling ......................................................................................... 45 Education and annual income .......................................................................... 45 Additional data sources for emergy tables ....................................................... 45 Obtaining data for the average suburban community ...................................... 46 Results............................................................................................................................