News

Dr. Jeff Wilson (pictured left), an adjunct professor in the Faculty of Management and a Dalhousie graduate, has just won the inaugural Graedel Prize awarded by the Journal of Industrial Ecology (JIE) along with co-authors Dr. Peter Tyedmers (pictured right), professor and director of the School for Resource and Environmental Studies (SRES), and Dr. Jamie E. L. Spinney of Saint Mary’s University.

JIE created the prize in honour of Dr. Thomas E. Graedel, a professor at Yale University and “one of the founders of industrial ecology,” explains Wilson. The relatively new field applies systems-based thinking to the way industrial systems process energy and materials, and draws parallels between industry and ecology. JIE, the most prominent journal in the field, plans to award the prize each year to the best two papers in the journal, one sole- or lead-authored by a junior academic and one by a senior. Wilson, Tyedmers and Spinney won in the latter category.

 “I was very happy to hear the paper was nominated for the award,” says Wilson, who learned about the nomination last November. “You publish an article and it is hard to know how well it is going to be received. Needless to say, I feel very fortunate to have won the inaugural award.”

Wilson, Tyedmers and Spinney’s paper is entitled “An Exploration of the Relationship between Socioeconomic and Well-Being Variables and Household Greenhouse Gas Emissions.” The paper examines the links between socioeconomic and well-being indicators and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting from electricity use, home heating, and transportation. “What made our paper unique is that we had incredible local scale data,” says Wilson. The team used data from the Halifax Space Time Activity Research project, managed by Spinney, which had collected data mostly for transportation and time use research. Wilson and his co-authors realized that the data could give valuable information on emissions as well. He was curious about whether socioeconomic and wellbeing factors affect household GHG emissions. “I thought we would find that people who reported higher quality of life in terms of happiness, physical health, mental health, and education for example would have higher GHG emissions, but there was no relationship,” says Wilson. “That was exciting because it suggests that household GHG profiles can be modified without necessarily effecting wellbeing or quality of life.” This and other surprising results, and the paper’s high-quality data, led to the Graedel Prize. The paper’s results, says Wilson, have also helped to shape the direction of his future research.

Although he is receiving major attention for the Graedel Prize as lead author of the paper, Wilson stresses that it was truly a team effort, made possible by the expertise of Spinney and Tyedmers (who was Wilson’s PhD thesis supervisor). Tyedmers, says Wilson, deserves a lot of credit for the article: “When I first examined the data, I was not convinced we had dramatic enough findings to warrant a publication. Peter really pushed me to look deeper and explore the nuances in the data.”

Wilson also credits SRES as being instrumental in his research success and continuing productivity. “It was a wonderful place to be based for my research,” he says, recalling his PhD work there. He praises the quality of other research in the School as well. “SRES publishes an incredible amount of research considering how small the department is,” he says. “It is remarkable really. I feel glad that I was able to contribute.”

If you would like a copy of the article or more information, please contact Jeff at jeffrey.wilson@dal.ca