The Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering (AE School) has launched a new collaboration with the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) to tackle the far-reaching social, economic, and environmental impacts of pulp and paper mill closures. The collaboration focuses on the rural South, where these mills have long served as economic anchors.

The Endowment and the AE School’s Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory (ASDL) are developing an integrated decision-making dashboard to help policymakers, community leaders and industry stakeholders quantify the effects of mill closures and identify data-driven pathways to offset them through the sustainable use of forestry residues to produce bioenergy, renewable diesel, and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The project is part of ASDL’s Grand Challenge program for this academic year.

The full story can be read here.