(PRWEB via PR Web Direct) September 28, 2005 -- Shannon M. Lloyd, Ph.D., has joined First Environment as a senior environmental specialist focusing on strategic environmental management, including applying life cycle assessment (LCA) to emerging nanotechnologies. She is based in First Environment’s Washington, D.C. office.

Currently, Ms. Lloyd is working on a project for the United States Department of Agriculture and Iowa State University. The project entails developing detailed life cycle models of biobased products to support the USDA’s Federal Biobased Products Preferred Procurement Program.

“Ms. Lloyd’s research and experience in nanotechnology applications for life cycle assessment rounds out First Environment’s capacity to work on the most exacting projects,” said First Environment President Tod Delaney, Ph.D. “We’re extremely pleased to have someone with her skills on board. Providing our clients with cutting-edge services and access to the brightest talent available is an ongoing priority for First Environment.”

Ms. Lloyd recently completed graduate work at Carnegie Mellon University and undertook postdoctoral research at the University of Pittsburgh in LCA and nanotechnology. She is incorporating uncertainty analysis and spatial and temporal differentiation into life cycle assessments. In the nanotechnology field, LCA may be used to help develop products with a smaller environmental footprint and is especially important to manufacturing companies that want to reduce waste in existing processes. LCA also is of interest to companies that are involved in the sustainability movement.

“I am very excited to be working with First Environment – a company that is recognized worldwide for its dedication to environmental issues. My first priority is to help grow First Environment’s life cycle assessment work,” said Ms. Lloyd. “My experience in public policy as well as nanotechnology gives me a unique perspective on the life cycle risks and benefits of nanotechnology-based products.”

Ms. Lloyd holds a Ph.D. in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University; an M.S. in civil and environmental engineering also from Carnegie Mellon. While attending Carnegie Mellon, she published several papers and is believed to be the first person to publish life cycle assessments of nanotechnology applications. Her paper, “Life Cycle Economic and Environmental Implications of Using Nanocomposites in Automobiles,” was published in Environmental Science and Technology in 2003. The same periodical recently published (2005) her paper titled Life Cycle Benefits of Using Nanotechnology to Stabilize Platinum-Group Metal Particles in Automotive Catalysts.

Before joining First Environment, she worked for Square D Company in both marketing and manufacturing and for Uarco Document Technology Solutions as a quality and process improvement engineer. Ms. Lloyd noted, “My industry experience and product stewardship expertise provide me with a unique viewpoint for evaluating products with a big picture view and identifying cost-effective environmental improvement strategies.”

About First Environment:
First Environment is a global strategic environmental management and engineering consulting firm headquartered in Boonton, New Jersey. The firm is widely recognized for its creative and economically viable approaches to resolving environmental challenges faced by private and public sector clients. First Environment has earned international recognition as an authority on emerging environmental issues.

Contacts:

Shannon Lloyd, 202-289-1126
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Jay Wintergreen, 973-334-0003
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