Since urban sustainable development involves dynamic and complex systems, tools, and models to aid urban sustainable development must also reflect dynamism and complexity to foster resilience. System dynamics allows for an iterative and robust approach when studying complex problems. This approach applies both quantitative and qualitative data to help unveil the interconnected components and dependencies within a specific city or community. This study approaches urban sustainable development in terms of its environmental, social, and economic dimensions to holistically look at the different components of the system at various levels. Using Tempe, Arizona as a case study, this research and tool provides a conceptual framework in making strides towards dynamic and interconnected thinking that can be taken further to extend into different communities and levels.

Within recent years, the drive for increased sustainability within large corporations has drastically increased. One critical measure within sustainability is the diversion rate, or the amount of waste diverted from landfills to recycling, repurposing, or reselling. There are a variety of different ways in which a company can improve their diversion rate, such as repurposing paper. A conventional method would be to simply have a recycling bin for collecting all paper, but the concern for large companies then becomes a security issue as confidential papers may not be safe in a traditional recycling bin. Salt River Project (SRP) has tackled this issue by hiring a third-party vendor (TPV) and having all paper placed into designated, secure shredding bins whose content is shredded upon collection and ultimately recycled into new material. However, while this effort is improving their diversion, the question has arisen of how to make the program viable in the long term based on the costs required to sustain it. To tackle this issue, this thesis will focus on creating a methodology and sampling plan to determine the appropriate level of a third-party recycling service required and to guide efficient bin-sizing solutions. This will in turn allow for SRP to understand how much paper waste is being produced and how accurately they are being charged for TPV services.