This research uses the SPA System (Sustainability Performance Assessment, Paun 2015) to assess sustainability performance for three natural resource-based case study companies in Asia, Europe, and the United States. The SPA System is built on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework, and consists of 91 performance measures in three categories: economic, environmental, and social. The economic dimension of sustainability concerns impacts on the economic conditions of stakeholders, and on local, national, and global levels. The environment dimension concerns impact on living and non-living natural systems, related to inputs (e.g. energy, materials, water), outputs (e.g. emissions, effluents, waste), biodiversity, transport, and environmental compliance and expenditures. The social dimension concerns the impacts on social systems within which the firm operates and includes labor practices, human rights, product responsibility, and society. The sample consisted of three case study companies from three countries: China Steel (Taiwan), Fairmount (U.S.), and Givaudan (Switzerland). Data was extracted from their annual sustainability reports. China Steel reported the highest percent of GRI indicators (97%) and had the highest mean sustainability performance (3.1). It reported more than double the indicators as compared to the other two case study companies, indicating substantially greater transparency. Fairmount, a U.S. producer of sand-based products for the energy and building construction industries, reported on the fewest percent of indicators (20%) and had the lowest sustainability performance mean (0.7). Givaudan, a Swiss company that produces flavors and fragrances, reported on 37% of the GRI indicators and had the middle mean sustainability performance. Using SPA means stakeholders can assess and compare sustainability performance among companies, thus enabling better, more informed decision making (e.g., which companies to buy from, work at, invest in, lend to).

Students of the Ocean Research College Academy (ORCA), an early college Running Start program through Everett Community College, earn their associate's degree at the same time as their high school diploma. Students conduct boat-based research of multiple parameters in the local Snohomish River estuary system. Our study focused on using the historical data set to study the relationship between heavy metal concentrations and sediment size. Heavy metals can originate due to weathering and erosion from rainfall during storm events. Particles are deposited by size; finer sediments accumulate farther from shore while larger sediments remain closer to their point of origin. The hypothesis for our study was that the larger sediment sizes would retain more heavy metals, because of their larger surface area, which allowed for more absorption of the heavy metals. A Ponar grab was used for collection of benthic sediments and samples were sieved according to sediment size. Complimentary samples were analyzed for heavy metal abundance by the Everett Environmental Laboratory. These data collected from previous ORCA students were analyzed for spatial trends in mercury and lead abundance with sediment size at the three different locations from 2013 to 2015. Lead and mercury are neurotoxins that when found in high abundance can cause harmful effects to marine organisms.