University of Michigan, School of Natural Resources and Environment
Master’s Project Symposium
Friday, December 11, 2009
Room 2024 Dana Building

This symposium is open to the public. SNRE students, prospective students, staff, faculty, client organizations, community organizations, and the general public are encouraged to attend individual sessions or the entire symposium. Please note that no RSVPs are required, but seating may be limited.

To learn more about SNRE’s master’s project program or the symposium please visit:
http://www.snre.umich.edu/current_students/masters_projects

Post-Presentation Client Meetings
After the presentations, student group members will have the opportunity to discuss their presentations with clients. A separate room for this discussion will be reserved (each group will have 1 hour for discussion). This time can be used to thank the clients for their support, discuss future objectives, and obtain feedback from client organizations.

Client Discussion Room: 2560 Dana Building

Schedule
Master's Project Symposium 2009
Friday, December 11th - Room 2024 Dana Building

1pm-2pm
Area-Based Development and Climate Change
Client: The World Bank
Faculty Advisors: Arun Agrawal
Student Group Members:
Amanda Bednarz, MS Conservation Biology
Ashwina Mahanti, MS Environmental Policy and Planning
Clair Leighton, MS Environmental Policy and Planning/Master of Urban Planning
Mike Sintetos, MS Environmental Policy and Planning
Nemanja Babic, MS Sustainable Systems/MBA
Sidney Brown, MS Environmental Justice/Master of Public Policy

Adaptation to climate change takes place at the local level. Consequently, local institutions play a key role in shaping how households respond to climate impacts. Our research attempts to determine which institutions can best facilitate different adaptation strategies among rural people, as well as the environmental impacts of those strategies. We have partnered with the World Bank, Stockholm Environment Institute, Latin American Center for Rural Development, and several other research organizations to collect data through interviews and focus group meetings in Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Peru. We will compile our findings into a report to be presented to the World Bank in December 2009.

2:10-3:10pm
Green Investment Strategy for the Private Equity Industry
Client: Environmental Defense Fund
Faculty Advisors: Andy Hoffman and Gautam Kaul
Student Group Members:
Elizabeth Uhlhorn, MBA/MS Environmental Policy and Planning
Anne Barton, MBA/MS Environmental Policy and Planning

Our project focused on two objectives:

• Develop a strategy to disseminate the environmental metrics that EDF has produced with KKR, and to incentivize other private equity firms to use them. The strategy will communicate to firms that the EDF tool can be easily incorporated into their current practices and metrics for measuring portfolio company performance and will drive improvement in long-term profitability.
• Create a due diligence tool that can provide an extension to the strategy for portfolio companies, allowing them to screen environmental risks and opportunities associated with potential investments.

We did this through primary and secondary research on the industry and on the link between financial and environmental performance, as well as applying finance techniques to data given us by EDF.

3:20-4:20pm
Global Lithium Supply for an Electric Car Future: The Impact of Advanced Battery Vehicles on the Global Lithium Market
Client: Ford Motor Company
Faculty Advisors: Gregory Keoleian and Stephen Kesler
Student Group Members:
Paul Gruber, MBA/MS Sustainable Systems
Pablo Medina, MBA/MS Sustainable Systems

The automotive industry likes lithium-ion batteries for plug-in, hybrid and electric vehicles. Lithium’s energy density is two to three times greater than that of nickel metal hydride, the next best technology, which powered over 450,000 hybrid vehicles up through 2008 (over 250,000 in the United States). The switchover to lithium-ion is occurring, and many start-up companies are attempting to make lithium-ion the first commercially viable battery solution for the electric car. The goal of this paper is to answer the question: will lithium be a constraint for the development of the electrified automobile?

The objectives of this paper are to comprehensively answer this question with:
1) an assessment of current and potential lithium supply, including deposit types, concentrations, and locations, costs of extraction and processing, and production volumes and planned capacity,
2) an assessment of lithium demand, based on advanced battery vehicle adoption rates.