Research stories

Making energy conservation easy

Environment and Resource Studies professor Ian Rowlands shows a student the small computer at the heart of his Energy Hub Management System project.

Environment and resource studies professor Ian Rowlands is working on transforming the way we use and conserve energy, making it easy and convenient for homeowners to achieve their conservation and money-saving goals.

His Energy Hub Management System project has received $2.45 million in funding, including in-kind contributions, from public and private sector partners, including the Ontario Centres of Excellence, Ontario Power Authority, Hydro One, Energent, and Milton Hydro.

Twenty-five Milton homes are currently participating in a pilot project, and plans are in place to expand to workplaces as well. The pilot homes have been outfitted with small computers integrated with either a smart electrical panel or an energy monitoring system, smart plugs, and a router that allows these elements to communicate, says Rowlands. Full story

More faculty research stories

The political economy of food

Jennifer Clapp says the way that the global food system is organized perpetuates the inequalities that have resulted in over a billion people not getting enough to eat while others have too much. Full story

Greening up farming

Agriculture is “a little bit of a bad boy” when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, says Maren Oelbermann, who is researching ways to make farms capture and store more greenhouse gases than they emit. Full story

Sustainable agriculture in China

China may have a bad reputation for food safety, but it has the world’s second-most land a devoted to organic food and there is a burgeoning movement toward what Steffanie Scott calls ecological agriculture. Full story

Restoring post-mined oilsands land

Jonathan Price is turning the barren landscape left behind after oil sands mining back into the delicate, diverse peatland that once covered more than half of the Athabasca region of northern Alberta. Full story

Water issues engineers can't solve

There was a time when water issues were considered purely technical matters. In recent years, however, it has become clear that most water issues are "at their root people problems,” says Rob de Loë. Full story

Water use from Africa to Tajikistan

Prior to coming to Waterloo, Larry Swatuk spent 13 years teaching and researching in Africa. He also trains international decision makers on dispute resolution and negotiation regarding water resources. Full story

Stopping minerals from feeding conflict

It’s not hard to get fair trade coffee from Kenya or organic tomatoes from Mexico. But it’s harder to track where metals come from. Steven B. Young is playing a part in changing that. Full story

More profiles are available from the University Research Profile Archives.