This year three Chinese students graduated from HNC with Master’s degrees in the Energy, Resources and Environment (ERE) concentration – and all three did a great job, especially given that we were still working together remotely.

Ms. Li Yuying (upper left in photo) prepared a thesis entitled Tackling Household Food Waste: A Comparative Analysis of U.S. and Chinese Consumer Behavior Regarding Refrigerator Utilization, based upon a survey that she conducted in both countries. She found that the actual volume of the refrigerator purchased was not necessarily related to the food waste quantity generated, although using refrigerator features such as bacteria detection and variable-temperature space functions could reduce the amount. Country-specific factors were important because of differences in shopping frequency and food amounts purchased during such trips.

Ms. Song Tianqi’s (bottom left in photo) thesis addressed the Chemical Industry Response to Private and Public Politics: Social Movements Impact in the U.S. Her thesis looked at the way that chemical industry firms responded to public pressure (e.g., regulatory initiatives) versus private pressure (e.g., boycotts, shareholder activism) on climate change concerns. Using chemical industry data over a two-decade period (2002-2022), there was an interesting result: the former led to internally-related responses, while the latter induced externally-focused activities.

Mr. Chen Haowen (bottom right in photo) analyzed the newly-developing biodiversity market in his thesis, Design and Operation of Biodiversity Offset Markets: Cross-Case Analysis from Three Continents and Implications for China. It employed strategy maps to analyze three existing markets on three continents: U.S. mitigation banking, New South Wales Biodiversity Offsets Mechanism in Australia, and the Essex Biodiversity Offsetting Pilot in the U.K. A cross-case analysis approach provided a basis for recommendations for China, suggesting, for example, that the country’s environmental laws needed to lower the priority of economic compensation and require the restoration of damage caused to ecosystems.