Last week, three of our MSEM students presented their Master’s Projects. These capstones represent the culmination of their time at the program, bringing together all that they have learned from two years of study, months of literature review on an environmental topic of their choice, collaboration with an advisor and data analysis. The goal of these capstones is to assess a pressing environmental issue with real-world data, existing research, and regional investigation and provide clear, actionable recommendations. Our fall 2025 cohort explored how applied environmental research can help California confront some of its most urgent climate challenges. Olivia Regalia tackled decarbonizing the wine industry, Guy Gutterman discussed securing resilient water supplies, and Melina Shak evaluated the use of remote sensing for monitoring and restoring critical coastal ecosystems. Together, these projects highlight the power of combining literature review, policy analysis, technical tools and stakeholder engagement to effect meaningful change.
Olivia Regalia – Decarbonizing California Wine: Navigating Scope Three Emissions Challenges and Opportunities
Olivia Regalia’s project examined greenhouse gas emissions in the California wine industry, a sector that employs over one million Americans and generates approximately $170 billion in annual economic activity, yet is highly vulnerable to climate change. Increasingly frequent wildfires, extreme heat waves, atmospheric river events, and growing pest and disease pressures threaten vineyard productivity and long-term viability. This positioning means wineries have a direct stake in reducing their emissions.
Olivia framed her analysis around scope 3 emissions, which represent the indirect emissions embedded in supply chains, particularly packaging and distribution, which are often the largest and least regulated share of a winery’s carbon footprint. Initial research implicated glass bottle manufacturing as a major contributor for emissions in the winemaking industry, accounting for roughly 29% of total wine-related emissions. Producing glass is highly energy intensive and the weight of glass bottles makes transportation emissions-heavy, making it a critical leverage point for decarbonization.
To understand what factors shape California wineries’ scope 3 emissions reduction efforts, Olivia conducted a comparative policy analysis of California SB 253 and the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), a SWOT analysis of packaging decarbonization strategies in the global beer and wine industries and a case study based on interviews with the Director of Sustainability of Jackson Family Wines, a founding member of International Wineries for Climate Action.
Olivia found that while the EU requires stricter reporting and progress tracking toward emissions targets, California’s policy currently emphasizes disclosure without mandating reductions — making policy an important avenue for improvement. Her analysis of packaging solutions showed that increasing recycled glass (cullet) content can significantly reduce emissions by lowering energy demand during manufacturing and reducing raw material extraction. However, transportation distance matters: when cullet must travel upwards of 93 miles, emissions savings are negated. Olivia identified expanded in-state cullet infrastructure as a major opportunity for emissions reductions. Finally, the Jackson Family Wines case study demonstrated the importance of embedding climate goals directly into business operations.
Olivia concluded by providing the following concrete recommendations for wineries to identify emissions hotspots and set targets; start with “quick wins” like using thinner glass bottles; and collaborate with others through industry coalitions. Additionally, Olivia recommended that policy makers implement incentives that reward emissions reductions and funding mechanisms that support decarbonization projects.
Guy Gutterman – Direct Potable Reuse within California’s Water Recycling Portfolio
Guy Gutterman addressed California’s growing water supply challenges in the context of climate change. While statewide water demand has declined by about 10% since 1990 despite population growth, key water sources are becoming increasingly constrained. Groundwater levels are declining, snowpack is projected to shrink by roughly 20% in coming decades, and annual precipitation is becoming more variable, with heavier rainfall years followed by longer droughts.
Guy explored water reuse as a strategy for building long-term resilience, with a focus on potable reuse. He distinguished between indirect potable reuse (IPR), which involves the use of advanced treated wastewater after it passes through an environmental buffer such as an underground aquifer, and direct potable reuse (DPR), which delivers treated water directly into the drinking supply. While IPR has been regulated in California for over a decade, DPR was only formally regulated in 2023, reflecting policy and public acceptance shifts rather than new treatment technology.
Using literature synthesis, statewide reuse datasets, a GIS analysis of proposed project databases, and a survey of water utility professionals in collaboration with WateReuse, Guy sought to understand the role DPR may play in the future of California’s water toolkit, current trends in water recycling and industry stances on and plans for its use.
He found that overall reuse volumes have largely plateaued, with strong regional differences. Southern California regions dominate both current aquifer recharging and proposed future projects, the central valley leads in agricultural reuse, while the San Francisco Bay Area lags significantly on a per-capita basis. Survey responses showed that cost and infrastructure are the primary barriers to adopting DPR, while public perception, once a major obstacle, now ranks much lower. Utility professionals overwhelmingly supported moving forward with DPR where funding allows.
Based on these findings, Guy recommended expanding non-potable reuse projects as recently allowed under SB31; incentivizing region-specific reuse strategies such as industrial reuse for data centers in the Bay Area; adopting regional governance and shared infrastructure models; and allowing a five-to-ten-year period for DPR projects to develop before evaluating their full viability.
Melina Shak – Evaluation of Remote Sensing Technologies for Bull Kelp Detection in the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary
Melina Shak’s project focused on bull kelp, a foundational species along Northern California’s coast that supports biodiversity, fisheries, Indigenous cultural practices, coastal protection and carbon sequestration. Bull kelp is an annual species, reaching adulthood within a year and relying on the previous year’s spore production for its continued survival. Nearly all bull kelp in Northern California is found within the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and is dependent on upwelling, a wind-driven process bringing cold, nutrient-rich water from the bottom of the ocean to the surface. Recently, ninety percent of kelp forests off the coast of California were lost following a prolonged marine heat wave that prevented upwelling and rampant sea star wasting disease, which left sea urchins unchecked to decimate kelp populations.
Effective monitoring is essential for restoration, but traditional surveys are costly and time intensive. Using the knowledge she gained during her completion of the GIS certificate, Melina evaluated the effectiveness of remote sensing technologies, comparing drone imagery captured from unmanned aerial systems (UAS), commercial satellite imagery from PlanetScope, and long-term data from Landsat.
Her analysis showed that Landsat is valuable for long-term historical trends, but lacks the resolution needed for sparse bull kelp canopies. Drone imagery provides exceptional detail, but requires significant field effort. PlanetScope offers a middle ground, providing frequent, relatively high-resolution imagery across large areas, though at a higher financial cost and with some data noise.
Ultimately, Melina recommended the Greater Farallones Association adopt PlanetScope for monitoring restoration sites, while continuing research to improve regional-scale assessments and emphasized the value of publicly sharing available tools to clean noisy data to support broader use of satellite data.
These projects demonstrate how applied environmental research can inform smarter decisions across policy, industry and ecosystem management. Congratulations to our Fall 2025 graduates!
We invite you to join us next May for our 2026 cohort’s presentations! The twenty four graduates will present their Master’s Projects in three concurrent sessions at our annual MSEM conference; stay tuned for more details here, on our Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn!
