Research Engineer, Rural Technology Initiative
College of the Environment, University of Washington
123 Anderson Hall, Campus Box 352100, Seattle WA 98195-2100
School of Environmental and Forest Sciences
(206) 543-8684
As an affiliate of CORRIM (Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials) since 2007 and Executive Director since 2009, Elaine has been involved in the development of forest resource life cycle assessments (LCA) including analyses of inventory availability, sustainability of supply, and integration with other product uses and natural impacts including climate change impacts on the forest resource. Most recently she has worked on the development of LCA data for biofuel production with particular emphasis on western forests. In a related project she is developing carbon comparisons among treatment regimes for the 11 western states. The current proposal provides an opportunity to advance and integrate a number of lines of research inquiry, including improvements in the quality of data for forest resource LCA, linking recent wildfire and insect outbreaks into dynamic supply estimates, and developing comparative LCA of the various treatment options that are available to provide woody feedstocks for energy security while simultaneously addressing forest management and economic challenges.
