Alberta Carpenter is a member of the Resources and Sustainability Group in the Strategic Energy Analysis Center. She leads NREL’s efforts for strategic analysis for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing and Industrial Decarbonization Offices.

Birdie also manages the team that developed and runs the Materials Flow through Industry tool. This tool provides supply chain impact analysis of the manufacturing sector, offering insight into energy and carbon hotspots within industrial supply chains and the impacts associated with implementing energy reductions strategies.

Areas of Expertise

Life cycle assessment in industrial by-product management, waste management, biofuels and manufacturing technologies

Life cycle inventory database management

Circular economy

Research Interests

Life cycle assessment

Life cycle inventory management

Biofuels

Advanced manufacturing

Supply chain analysis

Sustainable manufacturing

Circular economy

Education

Ph.D., environmental engineering, University of New Hampshire

M.S., environmental engineering, Carnegie Mellon University

B.S., ocean engineering, U.S. Naval Academy

Prior Work Experience

U.S. Navy, 5 years

GE Medical, San Jose, California, 1 year

Department of Public Works, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, 3 years

Other Affiliations

Member of the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment

Member American Society for Testing Materials Sustainable Manufacturing Technical Subcommittee Member

Featured Publications

Techno-Economic, Life Cycle, and Socio-Economic Impact Analysis of Enzymatic Recycling of Poly(ethylene Terephthalate), Joule (2021)

Role of the Social Factors in Success of Solar Photovoltaic Reuse and Recycle Programmes, Nature Energy (2021)

Manufacturing Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Associated With Industrial Plastics Consumption, Joule (2020)

Do We Need a New Sustainability Assessment Method for the Circular Economy?: A Critical Literature Review, Frontiers in Sustainability (2020)

Design for Recycling Principles Applicable to Selected Clean Energy Technologies: Crystalline-Silicon Photovoltaic Modules, Electric Vehicle Batteries, and Wind Turbine Blades, Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy (2020)

Combining Reclaimed PET With Bio-Based Monomers Enables Plastics Upcycling, Joule (2019)

Quantifying Adoption Rates and Energy Savings Over Time for Advanced Energy-Efficient Manufacturing Technologies, Journal of Cleaner Production (2019)

Implications of Air Pollutant Emissions From Producing Agricultural and Forestry Feedstocks, 2016 Billion-Ton Report, Volume 2 (2017)

Evaluating Opportunities To Improve Material and Energy Impacts in Commodity Supply Chains, Environment Systems and Decisions (2017)

Systematic Review of Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Geothermal Electricity, NREL Technical Report (2017)

Air Pollutant Emissions Inventory of Large-Scale Production of Selected Biofuels Feedstocks in 2022, Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining (2016)