Dissertations / Theses: 'Sustainability Impacts Assessment'

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Findler, Florian, Norma Schönherr, Rodrigo Lozano, and Barbara Stacherl. "Assessing the Impacts of Higher Education Institutions on Sustainable Development - An Analysis of Tools and Indicators." MDPI AG, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11010059.

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Many higher education institutions (HEIs) have started to incorporate sustainable development (SD) into their system. A variety of sustainability assessment tools (SATs) have been developed to support HEIs to systematically measure, audit, benchmark, and communicate SD efforts. In recent years, stakeholders have increasingly asked HEIs to demonstrate their impacts on SD. These impacts are the direct and indirect effects an HEI has outside of its organizational boundaries on society, the natural environment, and the economy. This study analyzes to what extent SATs are capable of measuring the impacts that HEIs have on SD. A mixed-method approach, using descriptive statistics and an inductive content analysis, was used to examine 1134 indicators for sustainability assessment derived from 19 SATs explicitly designed for application by HEIs. The findings reveal that SATs largely neglect the impacts HEIs have outside their organizational boundaries. SATs primarily use proxy indicators based on internally available data to assess impacts and thus tend to focus on themes concerning the natural environment and the contribution to the local economy. Updating existing SATs and developing new ones may enable HEIs to fully realize their potential to contribute to SD.

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Ortiz, Rodríguez Oscar Orlando. "Sustainability assessment within the residential building sector: a practical life cycle method applied in a developed and a developing country." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10803/8582.

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More than ever, the residential building sector is concerned with improving the social, economic
and environmental indicators of sustainability. In order to overcome the increasing concern of today's
resource depletion, environmental considerations and to address sustainability indicators, a practical
life cycle method has been proposed to decision making integrating environmental and socioeconomical
aspects to analyse the impact of sustainability within the residential building sector using
two practical life cycle methods. One method is the Material and Energy Analysis (MEA) which is
suggested as an appropriate tool to provide a systematic picture of the direct and physical flows of the
use of natural resources and the other is the environmental management tool of Life Cycle
Assessment (LCA) as a complement to evaluate environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of the
system.
Furthermore, the method provides sustainability information that facility an adequate decision
making towards sustainable development at macro and micro levels. Sustainability assessment at
macro level is determined by exogenous variables that can influence the development of a country.
Meanwhile sustainable at the micro level is made within the limits of the whole building life cycle,
starting from the construction, use (operation and maintenance) and finishing with the end-of-life
phase. To illustrate it, a case study has been carried out based on the application to two buildings, one
located in Barcelona, Spain and one situated in Pamplona, Colombia. Then, the main objective of this
thesis is to propose a practical life cycle method including environmental and socio-economical
aspects to evaluate indicators that explicitly measure the residential building sector's impacts. This
thesis has also provided initiatives for residential dwellings to reduce environmental impacts and assist
stakeholders in improving customer patterns during the dwelling life cycle.
The findings of this thesis state that the appropriate combination of building materials,
improvement in behaviours and patterns of cultural consumption, and the application of government
codes would enhance decision-making in the residential building sector towards sustainability. The
difference in consumption in Colombia and Spanish dwellings is not only due to the variation in results
for bio-climatic differences but also because of the consumption habits in each country. The
importance of consumption habits of citizens and the need to decouple socio-economic development
from energy consumption are sought for achieving sustainability from a life cycle perspective. There is
a crucial necessity to provide satisfaction to basic needs and comfort requirements of population with
reasonable and sustainable energy consumption.
Therefore, there is no doubt that applying environmental managements tools as Life Cycle
Assessment (LCA) and Material and Energy Analysis (MEA) to the full building life cycle can be very
important for reducing environmental loads and thereby improving sustainability indicators. Then, any
improvement in building sustainability is oriented generally to building materials, energy use and waste
management in all phases of the building life cycle, having always in mind that building has to be
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accessible from an economical and social part of view. The type of standard dwelling varies
substantially depending on the geographic location where it is built. Climate, technological, cultural,
socio-economical differences clearly define the standard of a building in any context and in any region.
This leads to important differences in the LCA results and it means that any extrapolation of existing
European LCA data to the case of a developing country would imply important errors. However, the
function is always the same, to provide protection and housing for its habitants.
Hoy en día, el sector residencial busca mejorar los indicadores de sostenibilidad en los aspectos
sociales, económicos y ambientales. Con el fin de considerar la creciente preocupación del
agotamiento de los recursos naturales y buscar reducir las emisiones adversa al medio ambiente, un
método practico basado en el ciclo de vida se ha propuesto para la evaluación socio-económica y
evaluación del impacto ambiental en sector residencial utilizando dos métodos. El primero es el
Análisis de Materiales y de Energía (AME) que proporciona una visión sistemática de los flujos
directos e indirectos de la utilización de los recursos naturales y el segundo método es el Análisis del
Ciclo de Vida (ACV) como complemento para evaluar los impactos ambientales en todo el ciclo de
vida del sistema.
Adicionalmente, el método proporciona información de sostenibilidad permitiendo la adecuada
toma de decisiones hacia el desarrollo sostenible en los niveles macro y micro. Evaluación de la
Sostenibilidad en el nivel macro está determinado por variables exógenas que influyen en el
desarrollo de un país. Mientras tanto, sostenibilidad en el nivel micro hace referencia dentro de los
límites de todo el ciclo de vida de una vivienda, comenzando por la fase de construcción, uso
(operación y mantenimiento) y terminando con la fase final. Para ilustrarlo, un caso de estudio ha sido
llevado a cabo en la aplicación de dos edificios, uno situado en Barcelona, España y otro situado en
Pamplona, Colombia. Por consiguiente, el objetivo principal de esta tesis es proponer un método que
tenga en cuenta los aspectos medio-ambientales y socio-económicos que tiendan a mejorar la
sostenibilidad y que explícitamente midan los impactos del sector de residencial. Esta tesis también propone iniciativas de mejora en las viviendas residenciales que conlleven a reducir los impactos ambientales y asistir a los agentes involucrados del sector.
Las conclusiones de esta tesis soportan que la combinación adecuada de materiales de
construcción, el buen comportamiento en los patrones de consumo, y la aplicación de códigos y leyes mejoraran los aspectos sostenibles en el sector de la construcción. La diferencia en el consumo en las viviendas de Colombia y en las Españolas no sólo se debe a la variación de las diferencias bioclimáticas,sino también por los hábitos de consumo en cada país. Se puede observar la importancia de los hábitos de consumo de los ciudadanos y la necesidad de disociar el desarrollo socioeconómico del consumo de energía. Existe una necesidad fundamental de dar satisfacción a las necesidades básicas y requerimientos de confort de la población con un consumo energético razonable y sostenible.Por lo tanto, no hay duda de que la aplicación de herramientas medioambientales como el análisis del ciclo de vida (ACV) y análisis de materiales y energía (AME) es muy importante para minimizar el impacto ambiental y buscar mejorar los indicadores de sostenibilidad. Queda implícito entonces que cualquier mejora en la sostenibilidad está orientado generalmente a la selección apropiada de materiales de construcción, el uso eficiente de energía y la correcta gestión de residuos en todas las fases del ciclo de vida del edificio, teniendo siempre en cuenta que el edificio tiene que ser accesible desde una parte económica y social. El tipo de vivienda estándar varía sustancialmente dependiendo de la ubicación geográfica donde se construya. Aspectos como el clima, la tecnología, la cultura y las diferencias socio-económicas definen claramente el nivel de un edificio en cualquier contexto y en cualquier región. Esto da lugar a importantes diferencias en los resultados del ACV y significa que cualquier extrapolación de datos europeos existentes del ACV para el caso de un paísen desarrollo implicaría errores importantes. Sin embargo, la función es siempre la misma,proporcionar protección y vivienda para sus habitantes

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Sánchez, Royo Begoña. "AN APPROACH TOWARDS HOLISTIC ASSESSMENT OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Politècnica de València, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/12269.

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This thesis uses the case study of the Fallas festival in the city of Valencia (Spain), to assess the value of intangible cultural heritage. Within this framework the thesis explores a number of different issues: for example how social agents frame different qualities and benefits of cultural heritage in order to describe the value and claims for funding the arts. It finds that value assessment for claiming funds presents many challenges such as: identifying the values of the heritage in question; describing them; and ranking them according to their contribution to the public welfare. It examines the methodological techniques for assessing heritage values and goes on to discuss a number of tools that are, or could be, used for assessment. The thesis also explores how public bodies legitimise cultural funding. It examines the role of non-government arts organisations in supporting the arts. It proposes the analysis of donor decisions through a multi-attribute technique where donors state their importance to donor situations under specific conditions or attributes. Finally, it describes how the stakeholder approach can be applied for searching new ways of funding festivals. It also considers how intangible cultural heritage goods can be assessed within the process of cost-benefit evaluation. It also analyses how public bodies, as the principal supporters of culture, deal with the problem of valuing intangibles on social investments. The study uses the Fallas festival to test the research hypothesis. It uses a number of economic and statistical techniques to evaluate the Fallas Festival, these include Contingent Valuation, Choice Experiment and Descriptive and Multiatribute Statistics. The statistical techniques reveal that historical benefits are intrinsically valuable in the Fallas festival. The historical value that the members of the neighbourhood associations place on the Fallas festival justify that local social agents should support this festival.
Sánchez Royo, B. (2011). AN APPROACH TOWARDS HOLISTIC ASSESSMENT OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/12269
Palancia

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Zhu, Chao. "Food Waste Treatment Options at the University of Cincinnati: Life Cycle Assessment and Economic Evaluation." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1397233639.

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Prescott, Steven George. "Exploring the sustainability of open-water marine, integrated multi-trophic aquaculture, using life-cycle assessment." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/28269.

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Among efforts to develop sustainable approaches towards the intensive rearing of finfish within open marine waters, is the development of integrated aquaculture techniques. Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA), has been promoted as a way to reduce unwanted environmental impacts associated with the intensive production of marine finfish within net-pens. The principle aim of this concept, is the bioremediation of nutrient discharges from fish aquaculture. This is to be achieved by integrating fish cultivation with the growing of species from lower trophic levels, which use the nutrient discharges as a food source. Many studies have been performed that investigate the ability of various species of macroalgae to remove dissolved nutrient discharges, and the ability bivalves to remove solid-bound nutrients, presented as either fish faeces, or an enhanced production of phytoplankton that may be promoted by nutrients emitted by fish-farms. IMTA has also been suggested as a means to improve overall productivity per unit of feed applied to fish, through the conversion of nutrient emissions into additional biomass, such as the tissues of macroalgae or bivalves. Within the research community which focuses upon the environmental impacts of aquaculture, there is a growing awareness that sustainable solutions to aquaculture production cannot be realised through a focus restricted to the growing-phase, and to a limited set of environmental impacts which may this activity may produce. This is because changes to a specific production phase often promote changes at phases located elsewhere along a products value chain. Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA), is a method employed for modelling the environmental impacts that may potentially be generated across the value chain of a product. It is particularly useful for identifying instances of environmental impact shifting; a term used to describe situations where efforts to reduce the contribution of a specific production phase towards one or more environmental impacts, has the effect of either displacing this contribution to another phase, or increases the contribution of production towards different environmental impacts. Despite its apparent suitability, LCA has not previously been fully applied to the environmental impact modelling of open-water IMTA systems. The work presented in the following thesis advances this research front, by using LCA to explore the potential for environmental problem shifting occurring as a consequence of replacing intensive monoculture production, with IMTA. Comprehensive datasets have been acquired from the Chilean aquaculture industry, describing the production of aquafeed and Salmo salar, as well as for the production of the Phaeophytic macroalga, Macrocystis pyrifera, and the molluscan bivalve, Mytilus chilensis. Using LCA methodology, the production of salmon feed, and the production of S.salar, M.pyrifera and M.chilensis, have been assessed for their capacity to contribute towards a variety of global-scale, environmental impacts. IMTA consisting of either S.salar and M.pyrifera, S.salar and M.chilensis, or all three of these species, and combined at ratios required for a bioremediation efficiency of 100 %, 50%, or 20 % of either nitrogen or phosphorous emission from fish, is compared to the monoculture production of S.salar. The comparison is based upon a standardised functional unit, with each species produced through IMTA, being modelled as part of the reference flow required to fulfil the functional unit. Monoculture is compared to IMTA upon the basis of nutritional function, by using a functional unit of mass-adjusted protein content, and mass-adjusted economic value. The use of economic value is based upon the ‘best-case’ assumption, that it serves as a proxy for the total nutritional function that each product offers to human society. The LCAs presented in this study have produced a number of results. Salmon ingredients derived from agricultural crops and animals account for the majority (between 71 % to 98 %) of contributions towards the impacts of compound salmon feed. In general, agricultural crops ingredients contribute more to these impacts than do agricultural animal ingredients, and account for between 31 % and 87 % of the contributions from all ingredients and inputs. In contrast, the combined supply of fish meal and fish oil from capture fisheries is responsible for between 0.13 % and 11 % of all impacts. Vegetable oil accounts for the vast majority of contributions from ingredients derived from agricultural crops. Vegetable oil is modelled as a 50 : 50 blend of sunflower oil and rapeseed, oil, but sunflower oil accounts not only for most of the contributions from vegetable oil, it is responsible for over 50 % of the contributions that all agricultural crop based ingredients contributes towards some impact categories. Replacing sunflower oil with rapeseed oil reduces the contributions of salmon feed by between 6 % and 24 % across 10 out of the 11 impact categories. When compared upon the basis of equal weight, the contributions of fish oil are between 18 % and 99 % lower than those from rapeseed oil. The production of feed is responsible for the majority of contributions (between 32 % and 86 % ) to all impacts of salmon grow-out production. The production of salmon-smolts accounts for between 3 % and 18 %. The majority (64 %) of contributions towards the eutrophication potential of salmon production are from nutrient emissions, which are the result of fish metabolism, whilst nutrients released through the production of feed, the majority of these being from the agricultural production of crop and animals, account for 32 %. Feed production is also a major contributor to the impacts of land-based smolt production, but these contributions (between 12 % and 37 % across all impact categories) are of a lower magnitude than those from the supply of feed to the grow-out phase. Inputs of salt, and inputs of both electricity produced in a diesel power generator and obtained from the national electricity network, are also notable contributors (between 5 % and 67 %, 4 % and 29 %, and 2 % 47 %, respectively) towards the impacts of smolt-production. The main contributors towards the potential impacts of kelp grow-out production (excluding eutrophication potential) are the supply of infrastructure (between 14 % and 89 %), operation of a diesel-powered motorboat for maintenance purposes (between 1 % and 89 %), and the supply ‘of seeded cartridges’ (between 9 and 49 %). The major contributors from the production of ‘seeded cartriges’ in a land-based facility are the supply of electricity from the national electricity network, the supply of fresh water, and the treatment of waste water. The impact potentials of producing seed in this facility might be reduced if the scale of operation is increased. Removal of nitrogen and phosphorous upon the harvesting of kelp is calculated based upon kelp tissue contents of these nutrients. The harvesting of 200 tonnes ha / yr-1, results in a eutrophic potential with a negative value (-376.51 kg of phosphate equivalents). The removal of such a quantity of nutrients might be beneficial if the local marine environment is at risk of hypernutrification, but when no such problem is present, the potential for undesirable consequences of nutrient sequestration should be considered. The major contributor towards the impacts of mussels is the provision of infrastructure (between 25 % and 99.5 %, excluding eutrophication potential). Infrastructure is also responsible for the majority of contributions from mussel seed production. The provision of cotton mesh bags, which are used to aid attatchment of seed to drop-ropes in the grow-out phase, account for between 37% and 99 % of the contributions from the infrastructure from the grow-out phase. This result suggest that either the impacts of mussel production can be reduced by using an alternative material with lower environmental impact potentials, or the inventory data describing the producing of cottonmesh bags requires some improvement. The outcomes of the LCAs of the different IMTA scenarios, are interesting. The results show that choice of species, and the ratios of their combination as required for the different efficiencies of bioremediation, can have a significant effect upon the comparison between IMTA and monoculture.
The study demonstrates a potential for environmental problem shifting as being a consequence of IMTA, especially when the functional unit is mass-adjusted economic value. As bioremediation efficiency increases, contributions towards eutrophication decrease. However, this reduction is achieved at the cost of increasing the contributions of IMTA towards those impact categories, such as ‘ozone layer depletion,’ for which it has a greater contribution than does monoculture. In general, it cannot be concluded from these results that open-water IMTA represents a more sustainable alternative to the monoculture production of Atlantic salmon. The sustainability of IMTA is shown to be dependent upon a variety of trade-offs, between individual environmental impacts, and between these impacts and the nutritional function that the system is capable of providing.

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Azimoh, Chukwuma Leonard. "Sustainability and development impacts of off-grid electrification in developing countries : An assessment of South Africa's rural electrification program." Doctoral thesis, Mälardalens högskola, Framtidens energi, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-30762.

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Previous studies have shown that provision of sustainable electricity supply to rural households is essential to bring development to off-grid populations. For this reason, most developing countries put large efforts into rural electrification programs to stimulate development and reduce poverty. However, to be sustainable these programs need to recover costs, which poses a challenge to remote low income populations. This often forces governments and other institutions involved in rural electrification to subsidize the electricity production. It also affects the choice of technology and places a barrier on the level of energy provided in line with the ability to pay for services. As a result of this, most programs have failed to achieve the desired objectives, as the technologies used often do not support income generating activities that could increase the payment capabilities of the beneficiaries and contribute to development. This thesis is focused on the rural electrification program of South Africa, the country in sub-Saharan Africa that has the highest access to electricity. It investigates the success elements that influence the sustainability of rural electrification programs and their contributions to socio-economic development. This was achieved by evaluating the South African program that provides solar home systems to off-grid communities, and a hybrid solar-wind mini-grid project in South Africa. The study also draw lessons from other rural electrification programs in neighbouring countries, i.e. an evaluation of a hybrid solar-diesel mini-grid system in Namibia, and a review of two systems, a hybrid solar-biomass mini-grid project in Botswana and a hydro mini-grid program in Lesotho. The study revealed that hydro based hybrid mini-grid systems provide the most cost effective way of bringing energy services to rural settlements. Regardless of technology, successful programs depend on adequate support from the government, implementation of a progressive tariff system that allows the high consuming high income earners and businesses, to cross subsidize the low consuming , low income users. It shows that it is more likely for rural electrification programs to survive if the design considers the existing businesses, population growth and the corresponding load increase. The thesis further shows that provision of sufficient energy to induce income generating activities is essential to decrease the need for subsidies and to ensure the sustainability of programs. In addition, availability of spare parts and a capable management team is essential for the successful operations and maintenance of these systems.

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Lara, Cervantes René Fernando. "Assessment of Policy Changes of the Impacts of Urbanization, Economic Growth and Decentralization of Water Services with Regard to Water Quality in Mexico." Doctoral thesis, Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, 2011. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-264067.

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The thesis studies the case of water quality in Mexico as a crucial factor to prevent water scarcity. This is an important issue for Mexico since more than half of its territory is arid or semi-arid; moreover, the most productive regions are located in areas with significant water resources stress. In this regard, the current situation of water scarcity is studied from the changes in water management derived from the evolution of institutions in the country. The institutional changes were analyzed mostly in the transition from a centralized water supply and sanitation services with strong state intervention to the decentralization of such services that were transferred to municipalities. Decentralization was addressed by analyzing the performance of water supply and sanitation services in urban areas that are expected to continue growing in the near future. The literature shows that the decentralization process has been partial and has not improved as expected the performance of water supply and sanitation services, moreover, due to political reasons, limited human and financial resources it introduced more challenges to the accomplishment of sustainable water management. More importantly, the federal government is still the main agent for the development of the water sector in Mexico. The next part of the analysis consist of a quantitative and qualitative evaluation regarding water quality for the three most productive Hydrological-Administrative Regions (HARs) of Mexico in the period of 2003-2013. The HARs chosen are the HAR VI Río Bravo, HAR VIII Lerma Santiago Pacific and HAR XIII Waters of the Valley of Mexico which are very similar in terms GDP share and water stress degree. Through OLS regression models for each HAR the impacts of demographic, economic, water supply and sanitation services aspects were tested to known their effects on water quality. In order to improve the discussion of the results, additional to the comparison with the results of the literature review, three experts were asked to answer a questionnaire about the regressions outcome. The discussion showed different impacts of the independent variables in the dependent variable of each HAR, sometimes leading to unexpected results. The main conclusions of the thesis relate to the improvement of decentralization of water and sanitation services, to the need to improve data for future analyses and pay more attention to water quality issues. In this regard, decentralization requires to consider contextual differences in order to seize its advantages to improve the performances of water supply and sanitation services, moreover, at the operative level water management decisions must be taken without political interests involved. The statistical analyses stressed the need to develop more reliable data about water management issues to improve the understanding of factors that could potentially affect water quality. In this regard, the creation of useful statistical indicators to assess the evolution towards sustainability in water management. The considerations for future research must consider more seriously water quality issues. This topic has been often ignored, however, it is crucial for water scarcity abatement.

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Heckert, Megan. "The Economic, Environmental, and Social Justice Impacts of Greening Vacant Lots: An Integrated Spatial Assessment of Urban Revitalization and Sustainability Outcomes." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2012. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/176217.

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Urban Studies
Ph.D.
Many cities in the US and around the world are facing a dual challenge of promoting both urban revitalization and urban sustainability. Increasingly, cities are exploring greening initiatives - through which vegetation is planted and maintained - targeting vacant land as a potential means of addressing both of these challenges. This research is a sustainability-based assessment of the impacts of a Philadelphia, PA-based program that uses greening as an interim management strategy for vacant land. I use quantitative spatial analysis techniques to measure economic, environmental, and social justice impacts of the Philadelphia Land Care (PLC) program, which `treats' vacant land by removing debris, bringing in topsoil, planting grass and trees, putting up a split-rail fence and providing regular maintenance during the growing season. The analysis is shaped by the concept of sustainability which posits that to be sustainable, development must incorporate and balance economic development, environmental preservation and social justice. This research seeks to answer a series of questions about the economic, environmental, and social justice impacts of the PLC program, ultimately assessing not only the extent to which it exhibits impacts along these three dimensions of sustainability but also whether or not the impacts vary for different locations, and also questions the extent to which there may be tradeoffs between the different potential impacts of the program. This dissertation addresses several gaps in the urban greenspace literature including an assessment of the effect of location on the impacts of greenspaces and an assessment of the extent to which temporary greenspaces have the same impacts of more permanent greenspaces. It also addresses questions in urban revitalization and sustainability about the potential role of greening programs in meeting these challenges. Ultimately, the PLC program is shown to increase surrounding property values, improve environmental conditions, and increase equity in access to greenspace in Philadelphia. These benefits are not uniform, however, and differ for neighborhoods across the city. The research indicates the potential for greening programs such as PLC to help cities address pressing economic, environmental, and social concerns, but highlights the need to understand the tensions and tradeoffs between different forms of program impacts.
Temple University--Theses

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ZUCCHINELLI, MARIA. "ASSESSMENT OF WATER FOOTPRINT METHODOLOGIES TO EVALUATE THE IMPACTS OF FOOD PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION ON WATER RESOURCES." Doctoral thesis, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/10280/95713.

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La produzione globale di cibo provoca impatti sia sull’ ambiente che sulla salute umana. Tra le molteplici sfide che la comunità globale deve affrontare, le risorse di acqua dolce della Terra sono state identificate come pericolosamente soggette a una crescente pressione sia in termini quantitativi che qualitativi. Una profonda comprensione del nesso acqua-cibo è pertanto cruciale per lo sviluppo sostenibile. Nella presente tesi è stato applicato il concetto di Water Footprint (WF) calcolata attraverso differenti metodologie – ovvero attraverso approcci di tipo volumetrico e per la quantificazione dei potenziali impatti – al fine di stimare gli impatti sul consumo di acqua conseguenti produzione e consumo di cibo. Per valutare diverse tecniche di produzione, sono state confrontate le prestazioni ambientali di due vigneti coltivati con metodi di agricoltura convenzionale e biologica. Inoltre, sono stati studiati gli impatti sulle risorse idriche in relazione a diversi scenari di consumo alimentare in Italia e Danimarca, per indagare come le scelte alimentari dei consumatori rappresentino una strategia di riduzione degli impatti sull’ acqua. Nel calcolo degli impatti ambientali, i risultati hanno evidenziato il ruolo chiave dell'origine dei prodotti alimentari consumati, insieme alla tipologia dei prodotti e la riduzione di sprechi alimentari.
Global food production has increasingly affected both the environment and human health in substantial and remarkable ways. Among the many concerns global community has to face, Earth’s freshwater resources have been identified as dangerously subject to increasing pressure in the form of consumptive water use and pollution. A deep understanding of the water-food nexus is crucial to support the exploration of more suitable avenues for a sustainable development. In this work, the concept of water footprint (WF) presented by different methodologies – volumetric and impacts oriented approach – has been applied to link impacts on water consumption to the food production and consumption. With regard to the study of the production side, comparison of environmental performances of two vineyard where conventional and organic viticulture were applied, has been performed. Additionally, impacts on water resources related to different Italian and Danish dietary patterns have been investigated to understand the positive impacts that demand-side solutions can have. The studies highlighted that the origin of consumed foodstuffs played a key role in the calculation of local environmental impacts. Finally, the analysis showed that consumer’s choices could tackle environmental impact on water use by changing their consumption patterns, selecting less water-demanding products and reducing food waste.

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Celedón, Cruz Liliana Isabel. "A sustainability assessment in the production of heavy-duty trucks : A case study at Scania: investigating the reduction of environmental impacts through design customization and LCA." Thesis, KTH, Hållbar utveckling, miljövetenskap och teknik, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-287370.

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The transport sector is currently facing challenges to reduce environmental impacts during the vehicle’s operation due to its reliance on fossil fuels. The introduction of new technologies such as alternative fuels or battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are therefore rapidly growing because they can significantly reduce the vehicle’s tailpipe emissions. There is however the concern that these could transfer environmental burdens to other life cycle phases such as production. Therefore, a development towards sustainable transport will require more than just the development of alternative fuels or EVs, but also a more sustainable production. Considering that 80% of the product related environmental impacts are determined during the design phase of a product, the significance of product design is studied. Scania offers the opportunity to customize trucks with a high level of detail through customized design, also called S-order design. Design engineers want to know if their customized solutions have the potential to reduce environmental impacts within the production of a truck. Therefore, the life cycle assessment (LCA) framework is used to know the environmental impacts of a truck designed with S- and A-order design and to compare them in order to determine if there is an environmental performance difference between these two designs. The results show that the production of a truck with a S-order design has on average 3% lower environmental impacts on all impact categories than when it’s produced with an A-order design. This is due to the S-order design’s great level of flexibility to consider small details of the truck’s functionality. Nevertheless, this design flexibility can lead to multiple configurations for one truck, thus meaning that the results will vary from product to product since the customer decides the specifications of the truck. The main conclusion is that the early implementation of adaptations through S-order design in heavy truck development at Scania can potentially reduce resource consumption and environmental impacts, and aid to sustainable production.
Transportsektorn står för närvarande inför utmaningar för att minska miljöpåverkan under fordonets drift på grund av dess beroende av fossila bränslen. Introduktionen av ny teknik som alternativa bränslen eller elektriska fordon (BEV) växer därför snabbt eftersom de avsevärt kan minska fordonets utsläpp från avgasröret. Det finns emellertid oro för att dessa skulle kunna överföra miljöbelastningar till andra livscykelfaser som exempelvis produktionen. Därför kommer en utveckling mot hållbara transporter att kräva mer än bara utveckling av alternativa bränslen eller eldrift, men också en mer hållbar produktion. Med tanke på att 80% av de produktrelaterade miljöeffekterna bestäms under en produkts designfas studeras därför produktens design. Scania erbjuder möjligheten att skräddarsy lastbilar med hög detaljnivå genom skräddarsydd design, även kallat S-orderdesign. Designingenjörer vill veta om deras skräddarsydda lösningar har potential att minska miljöpåverkan inom tillverkningen av en lastbil. En livscykelanalys (LCA) används därför för att känna till miljöpåverkan från en lastbil konstruerad med S- och A-orderdesign och för att jämföra dem för att avgöra om det finns en skillnad i miljöprestanda mellan dessa två konstruktioner. Resultaten visar att tillverkningen av en lastbil med S-orderdesign har i genomsnitt 3% lägre miljöpåverkan på alla kategorier av miljöpåverkan än en med A-orderdesign. Detta beror på S- orderdesignens stora flexibilitet för att ta hänsyn till små detaljer gällande lastbilens funktionalitet. Dock kan denna konstruktionsflexibilitet leda till flera konfigurationer för en lastbil, vilket innebär att resultaten kommer att variera från produkt till produkt eftersom kunden bestämmer lastbilens specifikationer. Huvudslutsatsen är att det tidiga genomförandet av anpassningar genom S- orderdesign vid utvecklingen av tunga lastbilar hos Scania potentiellt kan minska resursförbrukningen och miljöpåverkan och stöd till hållbar produktion.

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Rack, Mireille. "Sustainability assessment of biochar : evaluating the potential environmental, economic and social impacts of the production and application of biochar in Europe as an option for climate change mitigation." Thesis, Imperial College London, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/58339.

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Sustainable development and climate change are at the forefront of today’s political agendas, as signified by the 2016 Paris Agreement and the 2015 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) technologies are being investigated for their contribution to reducing atmospheric greenhouse gas levels. The PhD assesses the potential of biochar systems as a sustainable CDR technology for climate change mitigation at a European scale. The potential sustainability impacts of biochar production and land application are evaluated by applying life cycle approaches to analyse the environmental, economic and social impacts within the overarching Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) framework. Scenario modelling is incorporated to estimate feedstock potentials and the scale of biochar production within Europe, as well as the corresponding levels of carbon sequestration. The research results indicate that gasification biochar systems have potential as CDR technologies, though the uncertainty regarding biochar’s stable carbon fraction remains a significant knowledge gap. The use of ‘wastes’ as the input material is more likely to reduce potential negative impacts in all three sustainability components. Though overall, the current economic climate limits the feasibility of sustainable biochar systems. The results are sensitive to the modelling approach, especially the incorporation of ‘consequential’ elements, which was shown to significantly benefit the outcomes of the environmental and economic assessments. The scenario modelling outputs suggest that large-scale implementation of biochar systems within Europe can contribute an important share of the EU emission reduction targets. However, to incentivise the uptake of biochar and/or to generate policy support, further certainty and evidence of biochar’s impacts following land application is needed. Overall, a single-issue focus is no longer applicable in today’s policy climate. It is important to assess all three pillars of sustainability when evaluating whether a product system/process is capable of contributing to sustainable development. The novel LCSA framework shows potential to assist with such assessments at the micro-level.

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Buchmann, Gláucia Santos. "Comparação dos impactos ambientais de formulações de tintas com a aplicação da avaliação do ciclo de vida." Universidade de São Paulo, 2018. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/3/3137/tde-10042018-142446/.

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Com a crescente demanda do mercado de tintas por produtos mais sustentáveis, toda a cadeia produtiva tem se movimentado para oferecer soluções neste âmbito. Para contemplar o pilar ambiental da sustentabilidade, a redução de Compostos Orgânicos Voláteis (VOC), de alquilfenol etoxilados (APEO) e a substituição de matérias-primas de origem fóssil por vegetal nas formulações de tintas são algumas das práticas em expansão neste setor. No presente estudo, os perfis de impactos ambientais de duas tintas imobiliárias base água foram comparados aplicando-se a metodologia de Avaliação do Ciclo de Vida (ACV) (ABNT NBR ISO 14040 e 14044). Primeiramente, foram desenvolvidas duas fórmulas genéricas não comerciais de tinta standard (ABNT NBR 15079): \"Tinta A\" com matérias-primas de uso convencional e \"Tinta B\" com algumas matérias-primas alternativas, que hipoteticamente contribuiriam com um melhor desempenho ambiental do produto final. Em seguida, ambas fórmulas foram reproduzidas em laboratório, as amostras das tintas foram submetidas a testes de desempenho técnico e com os dados obtidos determinou-se os fluxos de referência para cumprir a unidade funcional definida por cobrir 36 m2 de parede de alvenaria interior por um período mínimo de 4 anos (ABN NBR 15575-1). A ACV tem quatro fases: objetivo e definição do escopo, análise de inventário, avaliação do impacto ambiental e interpretação. Com os objetivos e escopo do estudo definidos, foi realizada uma abrangente coleta de dados, majoritariamente secundários, para possibilitar a Análise de Inventário (ICV). Posteriormente, o ciclo de vida das tintas foi modelado e analisado no software SimaPro 8.2 e na fase de Avaliação de Impactos do Ciclo de Vida (AICV) foi selecionado o método ReCiPe Midpoint (H) v.1.12. Para as sete categorias de impacto analisadas, a \"Tinta B\" apresentou perfil de impactos ambientais reduzido em relação a \"Tinta A\": Mudanças Climáticas (-18,6%), Formação de Oxidantes Fotoquímicos (-19%), Toxicidade Humana (-17,7%), Ecotoxicidade (-30,5%), Depleção de Recursos Fósseis (18,8%), Depleção de Recursos Minerais (-21,4%) e Depleção de Recursos Hídricos (-18,7%). Os resultados do estudo, reforçam a importância da ACV como uma ferramenta eficaz para mensurar o desempenho ambiental de tintas. No entanto, a falta de disponibilidade de dados primários dos processos de toda a cadeia produtiva de tintas dificulta a execução de estudos e compromete a precisão dos resultados. Destaca-se ainda, que a perspectiva do ciclo de vida de produtos e processos foi incluída como requisito da nova versão da norma ISO 14001, que é do interesse de toda a cadeia de valor, portanto, vale considerar a aplicação da ACV na indústria de tintas.
The demand for sustainable products in the paint market has been steadily growing and is pushing the whole production chain to offer solutions following this scenario. The reduction of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC), alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEO) and the substitution of raw materials of fossil origin by vegetable in the formulations of paints are some of the practices increasing among this sector to meet the environmental sustainability pillar. In the present study, the environmental impact profiles of two water-based architectural paints were compared applying the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology (ABNT NBR ISO 14040 and 14044). Firstly, two generic non-commercial formulas of standard paint (ABNT NBR 15079) were developed: \"Paint-A\" with conventional raw materials and \"Paint- B\" containing some alternative raw materials, which would hypothetically contribute to a better environmental performance of the final product. Then both formulas were reproduced in the laboratory and the samples of the paints were submitted to technical performance tests. With the data obtained, the reference flows were determined to fulfill the functional unit defined by covering 36 m2 of interior masonry wall by a minimum period of 4 years (ABN NBR 15575-1). The LCA has four phases: goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, environmental impact assessment and interpretation. After goal and scope definition, a comprehensive data collection was carried to enable the Inventory Analysis (LCI). Afterwards, the life cycle of the paints was modeled and analyzed in the SimaPro 8.2 software and in the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) phase the ReCiPe Midpoint (H) v.1.12 method was selected. Within seven impact categories analyzed, \"Paint-B\" presented a reduced environmental impact profile compared to \"Paint-A\": Climate Change (-18.6%), Photochemical Oxidants Formation (-19%), Human Toxicity (-18.5%), Ecotoxicity (-30.5%), Fossil Resources Depletion (18.8%), Mineral Resources Depletion (-21.4%) and Water Resources Depletion (-18.7%). The results of the study strengthen the importance of LCA as an effective tool for measuring the environmental performance of paints. However, the lack of availability of primary process data throughout the paint production chain makes it difficult to carry out studies and compromises the accuracy of the results. It is also relevant to highlight that the product and process lifecycle perspective was included as a requirement of the new version of the ISO 14001 standard, which is a matter of concern to the entire value chain, so it is worth considering the application of LCA in the paints industry.

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Aggarwal, Rahul. "Strategic Assessment of Drinking Water Production Systems Environmental impacts from a Life cycle perspective : A case study of Norrvatten future drinking water production alternatives." Thesis, KTH, Hållbar utveckling, miljövetenskap och teknik, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-287466.

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Climate change is a global challenge that requires proactive action from municipalities, companies, and other organizations to prioritize sustainability in their daily operations. In the past few decades, life cycle assessment (LCA) approach has been successfully applied for environmental assessments in the drinking water sector. In this study, this approach has been used to present a comparative evaluation of the potential environmental impacts associated with nine different process alternatives for future drinking water production at Norrvatten. This study is a pioneering one that explores the potential of LCA as a decision support tool to prioritize and optimize environmental impacts during the operational phase in Swedish drinking water production. The nine alternatives are designed for the year 2050 to meet the average daily demand of 208 MLD for the 14 municipalities in the northern Stockholm region that Norrvatten supplies with drinking water. Out of the nine alternatives, the alternative based on direct filtration of raw water on nanofiltration membranes came out as the most environmentally friendly solution due to the use of renewable electricity from hydro and wind power. The results indicate that the potential environmental impacts are dominated by the use of chemicals in all alternatives, which in turn depends on the energy sources used for chemical production that are mostly dominated by fossil-based non-renewable sources. The impacts due to transportation and energy consumption are relatively less in Swedish drinking water production. Moreover, filtration through granulated activated carbon (GAC) is the most environmentally damaging treatment step, but regeneration of saturated GAC induces positive impacts in all alternatives. Among environmental impact categories, categories related to fine particulate matter formation; global warming, human carcinogenic toxicity, and human non-carcinogenic toxicity are the most significant in all alternatives. Several of the treatment technologies included in the nine alternatives, such as Nanofiltration, have only been tested on a pilot scale and have not been used for drinking water production at Norrvatten. So this study should be followed up and supplemented with better representative inventory data relevant to the Swedish context in order to contribute more effectively in making the future Swedish drinking water production more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Also, this study is based on the most recently available data that may not be valid in 2050 and the latest trends to substitute non-renewable energy sources with renewable sources may reduce the impacts due to chemical production and transportation in the future. Moreover, this LCA study does not include any aspects of water quality and treatment costs. Hence, while comparing different alternatives, the quality of the treated water and its production cost must also be taken into account.
Klimatförändringar är en global utmaning som kräver proaktivt agerande från kommuner, företag och andra organisationer för att prioritera hållbarhet i sin dagliga verksamhet. Under de senaste decennierna har livscykelanalys (LCA) använts för miljöbedömningar inom VA-sektorn. I denna studie har detta tillvägagångssätt använts för att presentera en jämförande utvärdering av den potentiella miljöpåverkan som är förknippad med den framtida dricksvattenproduktionen vid Norrvatten. Med hjälp av LCA så jämförs nio olika processalternativ för den framtida produktionen och kan på så sätt bidra till att prioritera och optimera processval utifrån miljösynpunkt. De nio alternativen är utformade för år 2050 för att tillgodose den genomsnittliga dagliga efterfrågan på 208 MLD för de 14 kommuner i norra Stockholmsregionen som Norrvatten försörjer med dricksvatten. Av nio alternativ kom alternativet baserat på direkt filtrering av råvatten på nanofiltreringsmembran som den mest miljövänliga lösningen på grund av användningen av förnybar el från vatten- och vindkraft. Resultaten indikerar att de potentiella miljöeffekterna domineras av användning av kemikalier i samtliga alternativ, vilket i i sin tur beror på de energikällor som används för kemikalieproduktion domineras av fossilbaserade energibärare. Effekterna på grund av transport och energiförbrukning är relativt låg i svensk dricksvattenproduktion. Filtrering genom granulerat aktivt kol (GAC) det mest miljöbelastande behandlingssteget, men regenerering av mättad GAC ger positiva effekter i alla alternativ. Bland kategorier för miljöpåverkan så är kategorier relaterade till bildning av fina partiklar; global uppvärmning, mänsklig cancerframkallande toxicitet och mänsklig icke-cancerogen toxicitet de viktigaste i alla alternativ. Flera av de behandlingstekniker som ingår i de nio alternativen, såsom Nanofiltration, har enbarts testats i pilotskala och inte använts för dricksvattenproduktion vid Norrvatten. Så denna studie bör följas upp och kompletteras med data som är relevanta för förhållanden vid Vättern Denna studie baseras också på tillgängliga data som kanske inte är giltiga 2050 och de senaste trenderna för att ersätta icke förnybara energikällor med förnybara källor som kan minska effekterna på grund av kemisk produktion och transport i framtiden. Dessutom innehåller denna LCA-studie inga aspekter av vattenkvalitet och behandlingskostnader.. Vid jämförelse av olika alternativ måste även kvaliteten på det behandlade vattnet och dess produktionskostnad beaktas.

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Struhala, Karel. "Environmentální hodnocení rekonstrukcí obytných budov." Doctoral thesis, Vysoké učení technické v Brně. Fakulta stavební, 2019. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-408023.

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One of the methods utilized for quantification of environmental impacts of human activities is Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA). This dissertation applies the method on renovations of residential buildings in the Czech Republic. The reason is high potential for environmental savings in existing building stock and lack of such works in the Czech conditions. Therefore the dissertation deals with LCA of building renovations to increase the knowledge in this field. Moreover it also questions and evaluates accuracy of building LCA in general to increase understanding of differences and inaccuracies that are often admitted, but seldom analysed in literature. The dissertation includes five LCAs of two case studies: a block-of-flats in Brno and a terraced house in a nearby village. First case study includes LCAs of the original state and renovation of the block-of-flats. The second case study describes LCAs of the original state, partial reconstruction or demolition and new construction of the terraced house. The LCAs are performed in two software tools: Eco-Bat 4.0 and GaBi 4. Detailed models of the evaluated buildings are based on available designs. Environmental impacts are calculated in four impact categories predefined in Eco-Bat 4.0 to enable comparison of results: Ecological Scarcity, Cumulative Energy Demand (or Primary Energy in GaBi 4), Non-Renewable Energy and Global Warming Potential. The accuracy of the performed LCAs is tested in up to 324 different scenario combinations considering variable service life of building materials, construction waste quantities, waste management and transport distances. Generally, the results confirm environmental efficiency of building renovations. The renovation of block-of-flats results in 17.39% average reduction of total environmental impacts. Demolition and new construction of the terraced house result in 76.83% average savings. However, the variation of results is rather high due to tested scenario combinations: up to 56.06%.

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com, jennypope@bigpond, and Jennifer Pope. "Facing the Gorgon: Sustainability Assessment and Policy Learning in Western Australia." Murdoch University, 2007. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20070330.154243.

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Sustainability assessment is emerging as a form of impact assessment with the concept of sustainability at its heart. This thesis contributes to the process of theory-building for sustainability assessment through an exploration of the development of this policy tool within the Western Australian context. Through an analysis of the sustainability assessments of the Gorgon gas development on Barrow Island and the South West Yarragadee water supply development, and a process of personal reflection, I explore the potential of sustainability assessment to contribute to a more sustainable society by facilitating learning. While the focus of traditional forms of impact assessment has typically been exterior forms of knowledge and learning relating to the potential impacts of a proposal, or to process methodologies and governance arrangements, in this thesis I argue that sustainability assessment processes should also facilitate interior forms of learning that excavate and challenge underpinning assumptions about the organisation of society, including shared discourses and storylines, as well as personal views and beliefs. To achieve this aim, I maintain that sustainability assessment should be a proactive process that is integrated with the proposal development, framed by an open question and guided by a sustainability decision-making protocol that operationalises sustainability for the decision at hand. It should be guided by a structured process framework that assures attention is given to issues that might otherwise be neglected. Each step of the process framework should represent a space for inclusive deliberation, with the concept of sustainability itself acting as a catalyst for learning and reflexivity. Located within the institutions of modern industrial society, deliberative sustainability assessment processes can contribute to the emergence of an 'integral sustainability' that embraces and reconnects the interior and exterior, collective and individual dimensions of policy-making and of society in general. The influence of sustainability assessment can thus extend beyond the immediate decision at hand to contribute to a momentum for societal change towards a more sustainable future.

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Nortje, Griffin. "Assessing the effectiveness of Environmental Impact Assessment as a safeguard to biodiversity in the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/27294.

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Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is subject to challenges that undermine this process as an effective safeguard to biodiversity. Internationally, effective EIA is hindered by the following issues: a low priority assigned to the consideration of biodiversity and a limited capacity to carry out assessments; a lack of formalised procedures and inconsistent methodologies to address biodiversity within the EIA framework; and a lack of formal requirements for post-project monitoring of biodiversity aspects. Traditionally effectiveness studies in this regard have focused on evaluating the procedural aspects of EIA, and have focused less on the substantive outcomes of the post-authorisation phase of a proposed project. While South Africa has a considerable body of literature pertaining to the procedural aspects of EIA, there remain two substantial gaps in the literature. Firstly, there is an evident absence of effectiveness studies in South Africa that focus primarily on biodiversity-specific procedure. Secondly, almost no research has been conducted in South Africa which investigates the outcomes of mitigation measures, mandatory monitoring, reporting and compliance with biodiversity aspects of EIA. This research therefore aims to fill these gaps by investigating the quality of information generated in five EIAs in the Western Cape. It also examines the implementation success of mitigation measures aimed at managing unavoidable impacts in the post-authorisation phase of these projects. This research has adopted a case study methodological approach. Five EIAs were selected from a sample of 9. In no order of significance, the variables considered most important in the sampling protocol were: the presence of a biodiversity-related specialist report; availability of environmental assessment documentation; overall cases to represent at least two different local jurisdictions; and the uniqueness of adopted biodiversity-related mitigation measures. The primary method used to evaluate the quality of biodiversity-related information is a Key Performance Indicator analysis, whereby the performance of cases is measured against legal and best-practice reporting principles. The substantive outcomes of EIA have been investigated by means of site inspections and interviews with key stakeholders. This research has found that the five cases performed well with complying with best-practice EIA procedure, indicating a 53% full compliance, 29% partial compliance and 18% of best-practice principles were not complied with at all. This research has shown that direct impacts on biodiversity (such as the physical removal of indigenous vegetation) are adequately identified, and indirect impacts (typically those impacting off-site and on ecological processes) are poorly identified in EIA. Therefore, the information required to avoid impacts on biodiversity is available, but this research has found that it is underutilized in this regard. Notably, avoidance of impacts was undermined inadequate site and layout alternatives and poor decision making in terms of the regular authorisation of irreversible impacts on biodiversity. Conversely, only 18% of mitigation measures were fully complied with, 36% were partially complied with, and 45% of mitigation measures were not complied with. These results indicate a poor performance of EIA in the implementation stage of a project lifecycle. This research has concluded this is most likely due to a poor conversion of recommended mitigation measures into conditions of authorisation and a limited capacity of the competent authority to perform compliance monitoring.

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Kravchenko, Maria, and Igor Nosov. "Motorsport and Sustainability : Case Study of MXStar Team’s Environmental Impact Optimization." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-161795.

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Given paper discusses motocross as a part of motorsport from the viewpoint of sustainabilityand considers continuously growing impact of human activity on the environment.The theoretical framework of this paper is based on the concepts which position motorsport ina context of sustainability at both global and team levels within the borders of systems theory.Training and racing activities of the MXStar team based in Uppsala (Sweden) are described inthe paper from the environmental perspective. Changing of the team’s technical performanceas well as their behavioural models has certain driving and restraining forces that are analyzedin particular in the discussion part of the paper. Recommendations for the MXStar team havebeen developed in accordance with the results of detailed analysis of the team’senvironmental impact.The authors concluded that environmental performance of motocross racing composes fromtechnical and behavioural inputs of each participating team. In order to optimize theenvironmental impact of the motocross each team member has to be innovative in bothperspectives.

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Diehl, Katharina Elena. "Impact Assessment Regime for Sustainable Agricultural Innovation Processes: the Triple Helix System of Innovation for Sustainability (THIS)." Doctoral thesis, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.18452/19312.

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Aufgrund einer größeren finanziellen Unsicherheit im Zusammenhang mit ökologischen Risiken sind nachhaltigkeitsorientierte Innovationen in einem Marktumfeld weniger wahrscheinlich. Übergeordnetes Ziel dieser Studie ist es, Innovationsprozesse in der Landwirtschaft zu analysieren und ihre Fähigkeit zur Integration marktgetriebener und ökosystemorientierter Aktivitäten zu bewerten. Dadurch soll ein Domainansatz in der Landwirtschaft überwunden werden. Entwickelt wurde dafür ein Rahmen für die Analyse und das Management von nachhaltigkeitsorientierten Innovationsprozessen: das Triple Helix System der Innovation für Nachhaltigkeit (THIS). Es soll die Interaktion zwischen landwirtschaftlicher Praxis, Forschung und Politik bei transformativen Veränderungsprozessen unterstützen. Der Rahmen wurde basierend auf einer Fallstudienanalyse in drei Interaktionsebenen eingeteilt, die für die Aushandlung von Nachhaltigkeitszielen über den Markt und das Ökosystem relevant sind: 1) die technologische, 2) die organisatorische und 3) die Governance-Ebene. Grundlage für die Übersetzung von Nachhaltigkeitszielen auf die lokale Ebene sind die übergreifenden Ziele der Vereinten Nationen für nachhaltige Entwicklung (SDGs). Auf jeder Ebene ergeben sich spezifische Forschungsfragen: in der Vorplanung (Front End), in der Einbindung von Managementfunktionen, und in der Berücksichtigung von Indikatoren für Nachhaltigkeit in politischen Gesetzentwicklungsprozessen. Die Analyse, die sich aus der Anwendung von THIS ergibt, trägt zur Debatte über tragfähige Formen des Innovationsmanagements für zielorientierte Innovationen bei. THIS dient somit als Rahmen, um Innovationsprozesse zu beschleunigen und die zusätzlichen Unsicherheiten bei den im Agrarsektor entwickelten Innovationen frühzeitig zu berücksichtigen. Schließlich zeigt diese Studie, wie sich die Anforderungen eines iterativen Managements in Organisationsstrukturen für institutionelle Unterstützung widerspiegeln können.
Due to greater financial uncertainty in connection with ecological risks, sustainability-oriented innovations are less likely to be successfully adopted in a market environment. The overall objective of this study is to analyse innovation processes in agriculture, and to assess their ability to integrate market-driven as well as ecosystem-oriented activities across different levels of relationship interaction. To overcome a domain approach in agriculture, a framework for the analysis and management of sustainability-oriented innovation processes in agriculture was developed: the Triple Helix System of Innovation for Sustainability (THIS). It is set to enhance the diffusion and utilisation of new knowledge generated by interaction between agricultural practice, research and policy. The framework looks at three levels of relationship interaction relevant to the negotiation of market versus ecosystem, including 1) technological, 2) organisational, and 3) governance aspects. The negotiation of sustainability goals is conducted by translating the overarching global United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to the substantive focus of innovation in each case. Each level of relationship interaction reveals specific research questions, addressing for example the consideration of sustainability impacts at the beginning of an innovation process (the front end), management functions required to organise and steer an innovation process, and the potential for integrating indicators for sustainability in policy regulation and governance. The study contributes to the debate on viable forms of innovation management for goal-oriented innovation processes. The application of THIS achieves to address additional uncertainty posed particularly by environmental aspects characteristic to the agricultural sector. Finally, this study shows how the requirements of iterative management can be reflected in organisational structures for institutional support.

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Rozema, Jakob. "Sustainability discourses on controversial infrastructure development : investigating their mobilization in environmental impact assessment." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2014. https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/48697/.

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This thesis investigates the mobilization of sustainability discourses in environmental impact assessment (EIA) by looking at two cases, in the United Kingdom (UK) and the Netherlands. EIA is a procedure used for predicting the sustainability impacts associated with project development. It is reasoned that, where adverse sustainability impacts are likely to occur, situated civil society stakeholders involved in deliberating these impacts will mobilize discourses on how the proposed development relates to achieving sustainability objectives. Yet a pertinent question is whether EIA accommodates sustainability discourse mobilization, not least when the mode of public engagement is taken into account. Premised on the differences in institutional design and political culture between the UK and the Netherlands, the thesis aims to investigate whether and how the external influence exerted by institutions and political culture on public engagement is manifested in the mobilization of sustainability discourses in EIA. By focusing on the largescale infrastructure development projects of High-Speed rail 2 (HS2) in the UK and the A4 motorway connection between Delft and Schiedam (A4DS) in the Netherlands, it is found that institutional design and political culture have influenced sustainability discourse mobilization only to a very limited extent. This finding has been consistent across the two cases, despite institutional and cultural variance. Furthermore, it is found that EIA did not accommodate the mobilization of sustainability discourses, reflecting the absence of meaningful spaces for civil society engagement particularly with the scientific justification of why the projects are necessary. The thesis concludes that institutional design and political culture do not significantly influence sustainability discourse mobilization in cases where the use of science and expertise mediates public engagement, further compounded by the strict procedural aspects of EIA. It recommends that further research on sustainability discourses in infrastructure development focuses on the complex relationship between EIA and project justification.

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Schindler, Jana. "Sustainability impact assessment for improved food security. The benefit of local stakeholder participation." Doctoral thesis, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.18452/18000.

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Die Ernährungssicherung der Bevölkerung im ländlichen Raum in Sub-Sahara Afrika ist eine der dringlichsten Herausforderungen unserer Zeit. Der Großteil der Bevölkerung ist von der eigenen landwirtschaftlichen Produktion für die Ernährung und die Existenzsicherung abhängig. Eine nachhaltige Entwicklung kleinbäuerlicher Landwirtschaft ist daher eine Grundvoraussetzung für Ernährungssicherung und Armutsbekämpfung. Eine Vielzahl von Entwicklungsmaßnahmen zielt auf die Verbesserung der Agrarproduktion von Kleinbauern und Kleinbäuerinnen ab, um die Ernährungssituation zu verbessern. Die Konsequenzen dieser Entwicklungsmaßnahmen sind oft vielfältig; neben gewollten, intendierten Wirkungen, können sich Entwicklungsmaßnahmen auch negativ auswirken. Daher ist es essentiell ein ex-ante impact assessment vor der Umsetzung durchzuführen, um eventuelle negative Auswirkungen frühzeitig zu identifizieren und die geplanten Maßnahmen dementsprechend anzupassen. Der theoretische Diskurs hinsichtlich der Charakteristika von ex-ante sustainability impact assessment ist sehr umfassend erarbeitet. Hier werden vor allem die gleichwertige Integration der drei Nachhaltigkeitsdimensionen (Soziales, Wirtschaft und Ökologie), die aktive Partizipation verschiedener Stakeholder auf unterschiedlichen Ebenen und der Austausch- und Lernprozess in den Mittelpunkt gerückt. In der Praxis wird die lokale Bevölkerung hingegen selten in ex-ante Wirkungsanalysen von geplanten Entwicklungsmaßnahmen involviert. Auch wenn in sustainability impact assessment ein interaktiver Einbezug der lokalen Bevölkerung unterstrichen wird, existieren kaum einfach anwendbare methodische Vorgehensweisen, um dies durchzuführen. Zudem gibt es bisher nur wenige Fallstudien, die das Einbeziehen von lokalen Stakeholdern beschreiben, systematisch analysieren und den Mehrwert für die Planung von landwirtschaftlichen Entwicklungsmaßnahmen herausstellen. Die vorliegende Arbeit hat zum Ziel diese Forschungslücke zu schließen. Im Rahmen der Dissertation wurde ein methodischer Ansatz für ein ex-ante sustainability impact assessment für die Anwendung mit der lokalen Bevölkerung entwickelt. Diese Methode wurde angewendet, um die positiven und negativen Auswirkungen von geplanten landwirtschaftlichen Entwicklungsmaßnahmen aus Sicht der Kleinbauern und Kleinbäuerinnen zu analysieren. Die Forschung wurde in vier Dörfern im semi-ariden Dodoma und im semi-humiden Morogoro in Tansania durchgeführt.
Food security remains a major challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa. Sustainable agricultural development is fundamental for food security and poverty alleviation, notably in developing countries. Many development initiatives focus on enhancing smallholder production because the majority of poor people in developing countries live in rural areas where agriculture is the main source of livelihood. However, the consequences of these development initiatives are often diverse, having intended effects as well as unforeseen adverse impacts. Therefore, there is a need to assess development strategies/projects prior to their implementation to reduce the risk of possible negative impacts and to allow for adjustments, if necessary. This can be achieved by applying ex-ante sustainability impact assessment. The theoretical discourse on ex-ante sustainability impact assessment is comprehensive, emphasising the equal integration of all three sustainability dimensions (social, economic and environmental), the active involvement of stakeholders at every step of the assessment process and a focus on exchange and learning among the involved stakeholders. In practice, local communities are rarely involved in ex-ante impact assessment. Moreover, despite a strong emphasis on their involvement in theory, there remains a lack of easily applicable frameworks for sustainability impact assessment. Hence, there are only few concrete case studies having analysed the value added by applying sustainability impact assessment with local stakeholders and its benefit for planning agricultural measures to enhance food security and sustainable development. This PhD thesis closes the gap by developing and applying an ex-ante impact assessment approach that is based upon the Framework for Participatory Impact Assessment (FoPIA) method and is applicable at small-scale farmer level in the development context. The framework was applied to assess the sustainability of upgrading strategies along the farmers’ food value chains to improve food security in rural Tanzania at four contrasting case study villages in the semi-arid Dodoma Region and the semi-humid Morogoro Region.

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Uttam, Kedar. "Seeking sustainability in the construction sector: opportunities within impact assessment and sustainable public procurement." Doctoral thesis, KTH, Hållbar utveckling, miljövetenskap och teknik, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-144885.

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Growing concerns regarding sustainability have led the construction sector to adopt various policy instruments for reducing the impacts caused by construction activities. One such policy instrument includes impact assessment, which enables the construction sector to evaluate the environmental consequences of proposed developments at project (environmental impact assessment) and strategic (strategic environmental assessment) level. In recent years, the construction sector has also adopted green public procurement, which is a process whereby contracting authorities aim to procure services and products that meet environmental requirements. In certain contexts, green public procurement has extended to sustainable public procurement, which involves the incorporation of both environmental and social considerations in the procurement of services and products. Promoting sustainability in the constructor sector is a significant challenge. This challenge is primarily due to the requirement of high levels of cooperation among project stakeholders, on the one hand, and a lack of coordination between project planning and implementation on the other hand. Therefore, procurement plays a significant role as it establishes the tone for the interaction between contracting authorities and contractors. The overall aim of this thesis is to bolster the knowledge of promoting sustainability in the construction sector, with the specific aim of analysing the ways in which policy instruments such as environmental impact assessment and green public procurement can be reinforced to improve the coordination between planning and the implementation of sustainability considerations. This thesis conceptualises an inter-link between impact assessment and green public procurement, and identifies the opportunities to develop the inter-link. It is appropriate to plan for green public procurement at the pre-decision phase of an environmental impact assessment. The inter-link can be strengthened by involving contractors in planning for green and sustainable public procurement. One way to involve contractors is with the aid of competitive dialogue procedure, which is a procurement procedure that allows contracting authorities to hold discussions with contractors regarding the authority’s requirements. This study strengthens the conceptualisation that competitive dialogue procedure can facilitate green and sustainable public procurement. The various elements in a competitive dialogue procedure can enable the contracting authorities to ensure the consistency between the weight for environmental considerations in contract award criteria and the relevant preferences. This thesis also discusses key concerns for progress towards sustainable public procurement, which includes among others the incorporation of sustainability values in procurement decisions. In addition, this study identified certain discourses on future trends for green and sustainable public procurement. The discourses provide an opportunity for reflection, and thereby indicate that analytical support is required to develop criteria in a way that enables the evaluation of sustainable public procurement against the background of sustainability and justice regarding natural capital. Innovation must be promoted with a focus on sustainability values. Moreover, green or sustainable public procurement must be discussed between contracting authorities and contractors in light of its contribution to sustainability.

QC 20140509

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Björklund, Johanna. "Emergy analysis to assess ecological sustainability : strengths and weaknesses /." Uppsala : Swedish Univ. of Agricultural Sciences, 2000. http://epsilon.slu.se/avh/2000/91-576-5794-7.pdf.

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Kunieda, Yoichiro. "Development of an impact assessment tool for demolition." Thesis, University of Bath, 2017. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.715294.

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Currently in the field of demolition, which generates most of the waste in the construction industry, the treatment of waste largely relies on landfill or degraded recycling, which leads to significant consumption of natural resource and energy and a shortage of landfill site. In order to improve the inefficiency of demolition waste recovery, “to suggest improvements in the environmental impact of the demolition industry in UK” was set as the aim of the present research. After the identification of few opportunities for communication between demolishers and constructers in the current social system, a collaboration support system between these two stakeholders called ‘Demolition Project Mapping’ (DPM) system was suggested. In the system, the impact evaluation tool developed in the 4D-CAD software is applied to the demolition project simulation. This tool allows the users to dynamically simulate the impact of project planning which can be designed in the tool. In the pilot study, the simulation result shows the large potential to reduce the impact (e.g. 28% for the cost) by the tool application.

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Gbededo, Mijoh Ayodele. "Simulation-based impact analysis for sustainable manufacturing design and management." Thesis, University of Derby, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10545/623483.

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This research focuses on effective decision-making for sustainable manufacturing design and management. The research contributes to the decision-making tools that can enable sustainability analysts to capture the aspects of the economic, environmental and social dimensions into a common framework. The framework will enable the practitioners to conduct a sustainability impact analysis of a real or proposed manufacturing system and use the outcome to support sustainability decision. In the past, the industries had focused more on the economic aspects in gaining and sustaining their competitive positions; this has changed in the recent years following the Brundtland report which centred on incorporating the sustainability of the future generations into our decision for meeting today's needs (Brundtland, 1987). The government regulations and legislation, coupled with the changes in consumers' preference for ethical and environmentally friendly products are other factors that are challenging and changing the way companies, and organisations perceive and drive their competitive goals (Gu et al., 2015). Another challenge is the lack of adequate tools to address the dynamism of the manufacturing environment and the need to balance the business' competitive goal with sustainability requirements. The launch of the Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis (LCSA) framework further emphasised the needs for the integration and analysis of the interdependencies of the three dimensions for effective decision-making and the control of unintended consequences (UNEP, 2011). Various studies have also demonstrated the importance of interdependence impact analysis and integration of the three sustainability dimensions of the product, process and system levels of sustainability (Jayal et al., 2010; Valdivia et al., 2013; Eastwood and Haapala, 2015). Although there are tools capable of assessing the performance of either one or two of the three sustainability dimensions, the tools have not adequately integrated the three dimensions or address the holistic sustainability issues. Hence, this research proposes an approach to provide a solution for successful interdependence impact analysis and trade-off amongst the three sustainability dimensions and enable support for effective decision-making in a manufacturing environment. This novel approach explores and integrates the concepts and principles of the existing sustainability methodologies and frameworks and the simulation modelling construction process into a common descriptive framework for process level assessment. The thesis deploys Delphi study to verify and validate the descriptive framework and demonstrates its applicability in a case study of a real manufacturing system. The results of the research demonstrate the completeness, conciseness, correctness, clarity and applicability of the descriptive framework. Thus, the outcome of this research is a simulation-based impact analysis framework which provides a new way for sustainability practitioners to build an integrated and holistic computer simulation model of a real system, capable of assessing both production and sustainability performance of a dynamic manufacturing system.

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Södergren, Jacob. "The Impact of a Teracom Group Product From a Life Cycle Perspective." Thesis, KTH, Industriell ekologi, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-118479.

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All kinds of products have economic, social and environmental impact throughout their entire life cycle. Today’s growing need for electronic devices contributes to the increasing problem within these fields. The aim of this study is to investigate and determine the impact of a chosen Teracom Group product from a sustainability perspective and to develop recommendations regarding how to proceed, in order to reduce the impact of products. This study is mainly focusing on the environmental aspect of the concept of sustainability. A life cycle assessment (LCA) of a set-top box (STB) is conducted based on chosen indicators by using the software SimaPro. The goal of the assessment is to identify the phases within the life cycle with largest environmental impact and contribute to Teracom Group’s further sustainable work. 18 impact categories are included to express emissions and use of natural resources. The result clearly shows that the production phase has the largest environmental impact within categories such as terrestrial acidification, human toxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, marine ecotoxicity, urban land occupation and metal resource depletion. The use phase affects the environment foremost within climate change, ozone depletion, terrestrial ecotoxicity, ionising radiation, agricultural land use, natural land transformation and water depletion. Transports and the waste scenario only have a small effect on certain categories. The experiences of this study are discussed, demonstrating the difficulty in making an LCA in the position of being at the company purchasing products, not at the company manufacturing them. The company has previously not focused enough on sustainability regarding products. An LCA performed by the supplier would be more reliable due to a better possibility of collecting accurate data. Communication and cooperation between the company and its suppliers are key solutions. Higher requirements during procurement should be put on the products, including demands on performed LCAs with clearly described references and methods, critically review by a third party.

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Pienaar, Melanie. "The merit of environmental impact assessment for civil engineers in South Africa." Thesis, North-West University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/9817.

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Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has been successfully adopted in South Africa in line with international trends. A number of international scholars found that EIA offers distinct advantages to a proposed project (Bartik, 1988; Porter & van der Linde, 1995; Annandale & Taplin, 2003). The widespread successful adoption of EIA could be an indication that the benefits of conducting EIAs outweigh the potential economic loss due to delays and costs related to the EIA. However, there are negative perceptions about EIA and its influence on development. But the question is whether South African engineers are experiencing these benefits at project level? South African civil engineers are faced with the legislative requirements of EIAs on a daily basis. Through a survey of professionally registered civil engineers this research examined the merits that EIA has for civil engineers. It was found that EIA helps engineers to ensure that they have all the legal aspects of the development in place before the development starts. Furthermore EIA creates the opportunity for the engineers to design out the most significant adverse environmental impacts. It was found that since the implementation of EIA engineers are observing a shift towards more environmentally sound design alternatives. Therefore, if the EIA process is influencing engineers to review their designs from an environmental point of view, it could significantly minimise environmental impacts. According to engineers it was found that, EIA is assisting them in taking all the potential impacts of a new development into account during the design process. The engineering design normally determines the true environmental impact of a development. According to the respondents, the majority were aware of projects where the design was changed as a result of potential impacts highlighted by the EIA. It was found that for the majority of the respondents the environmental review of the design was a key component of the design process. According to the engineers that took part in the survey, they were aware of projects where the EIA improved the sustainability of the design by effecting a change to the design or to the construction materials. Since the implementation of EIA they have become more aware of, not only the life cycle, but also the sustainability of the development. EIA is therefore creating awareness about sustainability in the engineering fraternity. The engineers experienced EIA as a useful tool for improving the sustainability of the design. However, it was found that EIA also caused a significant delay in the majority of the projects where the respondents were involved. The delays were sometimes so severe that it jeopardised the economic feasibility of the projects in question. According to the respondents, the delays are mainly due to slow decision making by the competent authority. Due to this slow decision making process, the engineers blame the competent authority if they start with the construction of the project before authorisation. However, in spite of these delays, the engineers are still of the opinion that EIA is doing more good to the environment than harm to the economy. It was found that what the majority of the engineers knew about the EIA process was what they had learned from their own experience. They agreed that there was very little focus on environmental sustainability during their undergraduate studies and that EIA training during their undergraduate study would have been useful. But in spite of this, the majority of respondents did not complete any environmental short courses or post graduate studies. It was found that EIA does in fact have a positive influence on the work of civil engineers and that they experience these benefits at project level. The engineers have a positive attitude towards EIA and it is increasingly influencing their work positively.
Thesis (M. Environmental Management)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

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Ebrahimi, Kianoosh. "Zero-Waste Planning at Higher Education Institutions: A Case Study of Western Kentucky University." TopSCHOLAR®, 2015. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1514.

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Over the past two decades, the number of universities that pursue zero-waste strategies has steadily increased. However, more study is required on several interrelated factors, policy barriers, and infrastructural fundamentals, which each influence the efficiency of waste management structures (WM) at universities. In this work, the role of the aforementioned factors in implementing an efficient sustainable WM program at higher education institutions was investigated, using Western Kentucky University (WKU) as a case study. The objectives of this study were to identify and assess what type of WM strategies should be priorities for a university that may lack stringent WM infrastructure. Firstly, through this research, waste minimization-oriented policy instruments implemented at American top-level and WKU benchmark universities were compared. In parallel, the recycling behavior of the WKU community was assessed. According to this research, planning well-defined temporal periods with clear goals and allocated tasks for stakeholders is essential. The time periods should include providing readiness programs and performing a waste characterization study from generation points. As the program matures, writing sustainable WM policies with clarified responsibilities for stakeholders is required. The ability of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), as a data integration tool and Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS), to enhance the operational roadmap of WM at universities was also investigated. Specifically, GIS was applied to spatially visualize and assess waste generation streams and resource allocation solutions at WKU. The weights of accumulated garbage in dumpsters, which are exclusively assigned to each building, were analyzed with the Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) method. Buildings that were high-volume waste generators included buildings with food facilities, suggesting close review of policies related to food practices is essential for developing WM schemes. Furthermore, location-allocation and service area analyses were used to investigate the number of outdoor waste bins and make data-driven recommendations to enhance WM efficiency on the WKU campus. Overall, by utilizing GIS techniques, zerowaste planners can identify how campus waste stream trends change, predict how the recycling rate can be raised by infrastructural changes, and make decisions about where sustainability-concentrated efforts, such as departmental policies, should be concentrated.

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Oliveira, Isabel Silva Dutra de. "A contribuição do zoneamento ecológico econômico na avaliação de impacto ambiental : bases e propostas conceituais." Universidade de São Paulo, 2004. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/18/18139/tde-09052005-094619/.

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O estudo de impacto ambiental (EIA), diante da concepção de avaliação de impacto ambiental (AIA), determina, em seus objetivos, a necessidade de se demonstrar a viabilidade ambiental não só de projetos, mas também de políticas, planos e programas (PPP). Considerado atualmente como instrumento ambiental essencial a qualquer processo decisório, conceitualmente distingue-se por necessidades e respostas diferentes para PPP, daquelas previstas para projetos. No Brasil, a prática associada somente a projetos e desvinculada das decisões que ponderem as alternativas locacionais, tem demonstrado distorções de uso do instrumento EIA no que se refere a respostas e também à sua credibilidade. Esta prática se refletirá no estabelecimento de responsabilidades distintas quanto à geração e disponibilidade das informações, no entendimento do conceito de EIA, como também no universo de exigências a serem requeridas. No que se refere à articulação com outros instrumentos da PNMA, cabe ao zoneamento ecológico econômico (ZEE) um grande papel, qual seja, o de articulador ambiental das diferentes escalas da AIA e gerador do diagnóstico ambiental com cenários e possibilidades de prognóstico. Conceitualmente o ZEE indica, ambientalmente e de maneira prévia, todas as alternativas de localização, ao contemplar os fatores ambientais diante da capacidade de suporte do meio em relação a uma determinada atividade, além de ser mais adequado para delimitar a área de influência e/ou os conflitos. Portanto, o estabelecimento de universos mais claros para cada escala de abordagem do instrumento AIA e a possibilidade de articulação com o ZEE desobrigarão o EIA de respostas e compromissos de implicações relacionadas a políticas públicas ao subsidiar os empreendimentos públicos e privados. O presente trabalho avalia o instrumento AIA e a possibilidade de aproveitar a implementação do ZEE para melhorar o alcance e eficiência do EIA, e se configurar como mais um instrumento de contribuição à sustentabilidade ambiental
The environment impact statement (EIS), facing the concept environment impact assessment (EIA), settles, in its objectives, the need to demonstrate not only the environment viability of projects, but also of policies, plans and programs (PPP). Currently considered as essential environment instrument to any decision making process, conceptually EIA marks presence for necessities and different answers for PPP. In Brazil, the practice associated only to projects and out of the decisions that ponder the localization alternatives, has demonstrated distortions in the use of the EIS instrument in relation of its answers and also to its credibility. This practice will be reflected on the establishment of distinct responsibilities considering the generation and availability of information, in the agreement of the EIS concept, and also in the universe of requirements to be met. In relation to the joint action with other instruments of the PNMA, it gives to the economic ecological zoning (ZEE) an important role, which is, being the environmental articulator of different scales of the EIA and generator of environmental diagnosis with scenes and possibilities of prognostic. Conceptually the ZEE indicates, environmentally and previously way, all environmental factors facing localization alternatives, when contemplating the carrying capacity in relation to a determined activity, besides being more adjusted to delimit the area of influence and/or the conflicts. Therefore, the establishment of clearer universes for each scale of approaching the instrument EIA and the possibility of joint action with the ZEE will liberate the EIS from giving answers and commitments of related implications to public policies and subsidizing the enterprises. The present work evaluates the EIA instrument and the possibility and advantage of the implementation of the ZEE to enlarge the range and to improve the EIS efficiency, and to configure it as an additional contribution instrument to environmental sustainability

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Boléo, Sara Maria Tranquada. "Environmental impact assessment of energy crops cultivation in the Mediterranean Europe." Master's thesis, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10362/7434.

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Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa Para a obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Energia e Bioenergia
Energy crops offer ecological advantages over fossil fuels by contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gases and acidifying emissions. However, there could be ecological shortcomings related to the intensity of agricultural production. There is a risk of polluting water and air, losing soil quality, enhancing erosion and reducing biodiversity. In the scope of the project Future Crops for Food, Feed, Fiber and Fuel (4F Crops), supported by the European Union, an environmental impact assessment study was developed and applied to the cultivation of potential energy crops in the Mediterranean Europe. The categories selected were: use of water and mineral resources, soil quality and erosion, emission of minerals and pesticides to soil and water, waste generation and utilization, landscape and biodiversity. Results suggest that annual cropping systems have a more negative impact on the environment than lignocellulosic and woody species, namely regarding erodibility and biodiversity. Annual systems and woody crops are also more damaging to soil quality than herbaceous perennials. However, differences among crop types are not as evident in the remaining indicators. Impact reduction strategies are limited to crop management options, but, site specific factors should be accurately assessed to evaluate the adequacy between crop and location.
This work was supported by the European Union (Project 4F Crops – Future Crops for Food, Feed, Fiber and Fuel, Grant Agreement No: 212811, Coordination and Support Actions, FP7-KBBE-2007-1)

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Strom, Sten. "Social business– Value (f)or money? : A discussion about methods to evaluate enterprises on the border between the private sector, the public sector and civil society." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Nationalekonomiska institutionen, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-177108.

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In this thesis, different ways to evaluate social business are compared and discussed.The relatively new concept “social business” is used to describe a private sector enterprise, the purpose of which is not primarily to maximise profit but to achieve a social mission. However, in doing so, it needs to be sustainable in financial terms, and this means that sufficient profitability is a necessary condition. (Environmental sustainability is another important prerequisite, which is not discussed in depth here).Assessing the success of a social business, it is therefore necessary to evaluate both the social impact and the financial viability. This means, on one hand, using appropriate evaluation methods that have mainly been developed for the public sector and the civil society. Such methods are based on unequal power relations requiring accountability – a concept not normally used in the private sector, where funding is based on a voluntary exchange of money for goods or services. On the other hand, not all traditional methods for assessing performance in a private sector company are suitable for determining financial sustainability in a social business. Nevertheless, existing methods should be used where appropriate.Among the findings are:- the importance of the local context and particular features, which makes comparisons between different social businesses difficult, and which necessitates adaptions of assessment methods- that several financial indicators, used for for-profit business, may also be useful for social business (especially those related to revenue trends and liquidity). However such indicators are based on accounting (history) rather than a forward-looking analysis of the business environment, and may not be fully comparable.- that the main purpose of impact evaluation is the need to improve operations, but also to enhance legitimacy among stake-holders and – to some extent – regulators and prospective investors. Stake-holder involvement is therefore normally an advantage.- that methods that build on monetising outcomes and impacts (for example Social Return on Investment) are normally less appropriate than models that use non-monetary forms for publishing evaluation results, eg. anecdotal analyses- that with the exception of evaluations done by the academia to increase knowledge, available resources will normally not be sufficient to carry out fully fledged external evaluations using methods to establish a counterfactual situation.The development of social business also challenges traditional economic assumptions of the profit maximising individual through introducing such concepts as solidarity, social capital and citizenship. The fact that in several ways, social business crosses the borderline between on one hand the private sector and on the other hand public sector and civil society makes it necessary for representatives from many different academic fields to cooperate closely in future research: economics, business administration, political and social scientists etc.

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Demertzi, Martha. "Evaluation of the cork sector’s environmental performance through life cycle assessment." Doctoral thesis, Universidade de Aveiro, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10773/16824.

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Doutoramento em Ciências e Engenharia do Ambiente
A relevância do setor corticeiro do ponto de vista ambiental tem vindo a aumentar graças à transição, quer da indústria quer dos consumidores, para um mercado mais sustentável. A avaliação do impacte ambiental dos produtos de cortiça pode ser feita através da avaliação do ciclo de vida (ACV) para identificar as etapas e os processos mais influentes ao longo do seu ciclo de vida. Atualmente, existem poucos estudos de ACV disponíveis e a maioria deriva de dois países, Portugal e Espanha (os líderes do setor da cortiça). No entanto, os estudos existentes muitas vezes excluem a etapa de fim-de-vida ou quando ela é incluída consideram apenas um destino final, nomeadamente o aterro sanitário. Além disso, a maioria dos estudos existentes não considera a emissão e remoção de carbono biogénico no cálculo da pegada de carbono porque estas emissões são consideradas neutras (todo o carbono sequestrado na floresta vai ser emitido durante as etapas de fabrico, uso e fim-de-vida). Adicionalmente os estudos atuais consideram que todas as emissões ocorrem num tempo específico que pode não ser muito realista uma vez que as emissões podem ocorrem ao longo do tempo considerado no ciclo de vida do sistema. A presente tese tem o objetivo de enriquecer e ampliar o conhecimento do setor corticeiro. Vários estudos de caso de produtos de cortiça representativos (rolhas de cortiça natural, pavimento flutuante de cortiça, placas e regranulado de cortiça expandida) estão incluídos nesta tese a fim de identificar as etapas e os processos mais influentes em cada caso do ponto de vista ambiental. A contribuição dos produtos de cortiça para várias categorias de impacte ambiental é feita através do uso de ACV. Adicionalmente, a etapa de fim-de-vida das rolhas de cortiça natural é avaliada separadamente considerando várias alternativas e cenários para identificar a melhor opção em termos ambientais. Além disso, é desenvolvido e apresentado um modelo de simulação para o cálculo da pegada de carbono do setor corticeiro na sua totalidade. O objetivo deste modelo é facilitar a avaliação de todo o setor da cortiça, não só por etapa e processo, mas também por produto e na sua totalidade. Assim, este vem apoiar a tomada de decisões do setor, a fim de melhorar a sua pegada de carbono total. Adicionalmente uma abordagem de ACV mais recente é aplicada, a avaliação dinâmica do ciclo de vida. Ao contrário da abordagem tradicional (estática), que considera que todas as emissões e alterações climáticas ocorrem num tempo específico (geralmente 20, 100 ou 500 anos), a abordagem dinâmica considera as emissões e alterações climáticas que ocorrem em cada ano do horizonte temporal escolhido para o estudo. A consideração da abordagem dinâmica é aplicada pela primeira vez neste setor e fornece mais uma alternativa na avaliação da pegada de carbono do setor corticeiro. A presente tese destaca a importância da inclusão do carbono biogénico sequestrado e emitido no cálculo da pegada de carbono. Quando é incluído o setor é um sumidouro de carbono (pegada de carbono igual a -956,042 t CO2 eq. por ano) e quando é excluído é uma fonte de carbono (pegada de carbono igual a 172,844 t CO2 eq. por ano).
The relevance of the cork sector from an environmental point of view is currently increasing thanks to the transition, both of industry and the consumers to a more sustainable market. The evaluation of the environmental impact of the cork products can be done through life cycle assessment (LCA). This is a tool used for the evaluation of the entire life cycle of a product (from the extraction of the raw materials to the final disposal of the product) in order to identify the most influential stages and processes along the life cycle. Currently, there is a limited number of LCA studies ON cork found in literature and the majority derives from two countries, Portugal and Spain (the leaders of the cork sector). Those studies, usually exclude the end-of-life stage and when it is included they only consider one destination, namely landfilling. The majority of the existing studies doesn’t consider the emission and removal of biogenic carbon in the calculation of the carbon footprint since they are considered neutral (all biogenic carbon sequestered at the forest will be completely emitted during the stages of manufacturing, use and end-of-life). Additionally, the current studies consider that all the emissions occur in a specific time (reference year) and this might not be very realistic since the emissions may occur along the time considered in the life cycle of the system under study and this may influence the final conclusions reached. The present Ph.D. thesis aims to enrich and extend the knowledge of the cork sector. Different case studies of the most representative cork products (natural cork stoppers, cork floating floor, expanded cork slab and regranulates) are included in this thesis in order to identify the most influential stages and processes in each case from an environmental point of view. The contribution of the cork products for various environmental impact categories is done through the use of LCA. Additionally, the end-of-life stage for used natural cork stoppers is evaluated separately considering various alternatives and scenarios in order to identify the most efficient option from an environmental point of view. Moreover, a simulation model for the calculation of the carbon footprint of the entire cork sector is developed and presented. The goal of this model is to facilitate the evaluation of the entire cork sector not only per stage and process but also per product and as a total. Thus, it can be very useful for the decisionmaking of the sector in order to decrease its total carbon footprint. Additionally, a more recent approach is applied as well, the dynamic life cycle assessment. On the contrary of the traditional (static) approach that considers that all the emissions and climate change impacts occur on a specific time (usually 20, 100 or 500 years), the dynamic approach considers the emissions and impacts occurring in each year for the temporal horizon chosen for the study. The dynamic life cycle approach is applied for the first time on the cork sector and provides another alternative for the carbon footprint evaluation of the cork sector. The present thesis highlights the importance of including the sequestered and emitted biogenic carbon in the carbon footprint calculation of the cork sector. When biogenic carbon is included in the calculations, the cork sector is a carbon sink (carbon footprint equal to -956,042 t CO2 eq. per year) and when it is excluded the cork sector is a carbon source (carbon footprint equal to 172,844 t CO2 eq. per year).

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Reader, Daniel B. "Sustainability with Globalization: An Unsustainable Proposition." TopSCHOLAR®, 2006. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/92.

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Globalization is recognized as a world-encompassing phenomenon, even as its benefits are debated. Sustainability, the capacity to maintain high standards of living through generations, is at stake. This paper examines the problems of sustainability with globalization from several perspectives. High statistical correlation between indices of globalization and environmental degradation (r2 = 0.977, p < .001) is found using multi-dimensional scaling software. The socially destabilizing, culture flattening effects of globalization are examined, and the terms ‘nationalism’ and ‘terrorism’ are defined. On the basis of its medial position among the indices of both globalization and environmental degradation, Chile is explored in a case study of the interaction. Conclusions regarding Chile’s vulnerabilities are reached, and the country’s environmental, social, and economic ‘weak spots’ are identified. The ethical positions of globalization and sustainability are considered, and the conclusion that there is very little that can be done to alter the nature of the interaction is drawn. It is suggested that globalization minimizes the prospects of success in efforts toward sustainability by maximizing vulnerabilities among sustainability’s components.

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Bertolini, Mattia. "Upcycling Shipping Containers as Building Components : an environmental impact assessment." Master's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2018. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/15146/.

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The introduction of shipping containers in the trading system has increased world economic growth exponentially. The drawback of this linear economy consists in the accumulation of empty containers in import-based countries. Sustainable and green architecture should consider not only recycling but also upcycling and reuse of material. Therefore designers troughout the world are working with intermodal containers for environmental purposes. Moving from ethical considerations, it is possibile to determine whether container architecture is actually sustainable? The aim of this study is to quantify the impact of the use of shipping containers as building components from an environmetal point of view. A comparative life cycle analysis has been undertaken. Two benchmark technologies have been selected for this comparative analysis: a steel frame and an X-Lam structure. Three different scenarios have been developed in order to understand how climate can affect results of the study: hot-tropical, temperate and cold. A Life cycle Assessment has been used to evaluate 4 impact categories: Global Warming Potential, Ozone Depletion Potential, Acidification Potential and Eutrophication Potential.

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Breunig, Hanna Marie. "Parameter variation and scenario analysis in impact assessments of emerging energy technologies." Thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3720392.

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There is a global need for energy technologies that reduce the adverse impacts of societal progress and that address today's challenges without creating tomorrow's problems. Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) can support technology developers in achieving these prerequisites of sustainability by providing a systems perspective. However, modeling the early-stage scale up and impacts of technology systems may lead to unreliable or incomplete results due to a lack of representative technical, spatial, and temporal data. The goal of this dissertation is to support the acceleration of clean energy technology development by providing information about the regional variation of impacts and benefits resulting from plausible deployment scenarios. Three emerging energy technologies are selected as case studies: (1) brine management for carbon dioxide sequestration; (2) carbon dioxide capture, utilization, and sequestration; (3) stationary fuel cells for combined heat and power in commercial buildings. In all three case studies, priority areas are identified where more reliable data and models are necessary for reducing uncertainty, and vital information is revealed on how impacts vary spatially and temporally. Importantly, moving away from default technology and waste management hierarchies as a source of data fosters goal-driven systems thinking which in turn leads to the discovery of technology improvement potentials.

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Highfield, Crysta Lynn. "Sustainable Pavement Construction: Developing a methodology for integrating environmental impact into the decision making process." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/32604.

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Sustainability and specifically environmental stewardship are emerging as prominent issues in engineering decision-making. Despite this, the United States has neither a national policy on sustainability, nor a national sustainable transportation strategy. In many cases this has resulted in state DOTs basing their environmental practices on requirements set out previously by EPA regulations with little or no additional consideration of environmental effects. A survey conducted as part of this thesis revealed that environmental stewardship is not considered part of current DOT pavement management engineersâ job responsibilities, despite having duties such as pavement design and maintenance which can greatly affect the environmental impact of a project. Initial cost and engineering judgment were the most widely considered in decision-making, with LCCA also being considered at least some of the time by most respondents. Environmental impacts, on the other hand, are not often integrated into formal decision making and are more likely to be considered as a â tie breakerâ when alternatives have similar costs. The literature review also covered two distinct types of environmental decision support tools: Environmental Rating Tools and Environmental Impact Calculators. Rating Tools gather predominantly environmental impact information in order to award a score to a project. Environmental Calculators are software tools that use material or equipment inputs to estimate the amount of pollutants produced by a project. While a variety of environmental impact tools are currently available they suffer from drawbacks such as incomplete or unclearly defined LCA boundaries, consideration of only one environmental impact, subjectivity, lack of transparency, out-of-date databases, and an inability to perform probabilistic calculations. CO2e was the only environmental factor considered by nearly all Environmental Calculators reviewed as part of this thesis and was a major focus of the Rating Tools. The thesis proposes the framework for a tool that addresses some of the limitations of available tools and aids decision-makers in incorporating environmental factors into roadway decision-making. The proposed tool would address many of the limitations of previous environmental impact calculators and could be implemented without the need for extensive additional research. The tool would calculate emissions due to material extraction and production, emissions due to construction activities, resource consumptions, and emissions due to work zone delays. Emissions due to work zone delays are not considered by any other currently available tool. The tool would also perform probabilistic calculations and have a database which could be added to and updated by users. Additional products developed as part of this thesis are a review of currently available environmental impact tools and a Microsoft Excel workbook used to demonstrate the intended usage of the tool. It is concluded that the development of such a tool is necessary and feasible. The proposed tool would address limitations of available tools by considering more than one environmental impact, including the previously neglected impact of emissions due to work zone related delay, pairing a user-friendly interface with an editable database, and supporting probabilistic calculations. Recommended future research includes surveying state DOT engineers to determine the barriers delaying implementation of currently available environmental impacts tools. Further benefits could be realized by programming the proposed tool and building a database that reflects the materials, mixes, and construction activities available to a specific locality.
Master of Science

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Mattsson, Berit. "Environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) of agricultural food production /." Alnarp : Swedish Univ. of Agricultural Sciences (Sveriges lantbruksuniv.), 1999. http://epsilon.slu.se/avh/1999/91-576-5734-3.pdf.

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Daouda, Diallo Balkissa. "Social Impact Assessment of Water Management Projects—The Case of the Niger River Basin." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1534247403271493.

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Storfeldt, Moqvist Tim. "Environmental Impact of a Portable Photo Flash - Using Life Cycle Assessment Methodology." Thesis, KTH, Kemiteknik, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-275710.

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This study was about performing an LCA on a portable flash unit, C1, made by Profoto. The goal was to get an overview of the environmental impact of the C1 and to investigate hotspots in the production and/or use phase of the C1. The results from the LCA would then be compared by LCAs made on similar products such as the C1, and in this LCA study the comparison was made on two different lamps, LED and CFL lamps. The reason for this is because no other LCA could be found on portable flash units and therefore LED and CFL lamps were chosen instead being the second closest product with the same function as the C1, to create light. The functional unit chosen in this LCA was 1 lumen-hour, which was the same functional unit used by the LED/CFL lamps, and CML 2001 method was used for life cycle impact assessment. In this study only the production and use phase were analyzed and no further investigation were made on the end of life phase of the C1.The whole LCA system has been analyzed and designed by using the GaBi LCA software, and literature studies on both other LCAs and datasheets was used to gather key manufacturing steps of each component of the C1 and rescaled to fit inside the given system boundaries. From the results given, a conclusion can be made that the battery and the reflector, being two components found in the C1, had the highest contribution in environmental impacts, which is mainly due to the fact that these two components had the highest consumption of electricity. The production phase was the phase with the highest impact in all the chosen impact categories, and stood for 88-99% of the total impacts, while the use phase had an overall low contribution.A scenario analysis was also made where the use phase was changed to three different countries, changing the electricity grid mix used during the use phase. This was done to see whether these changes would influence the overall results of the LCA, and to see whether the use phase still had a low impact compared to the production phase. The results achieved showed a very small change in the overall results in all the chosen impact categories for this study, only increasing the results with 1-3%. With this a conclusion was made that changing the use phase would not affect the overall results of this LCA, the fact being that the production phase stood for the higher contribution in all of the impact categories.Looking at the comparison part, the C1 had a lower impact in 3 out of the 5 chosen impact categories, compared to the LED/CFL lamps. Here the C1 had a lower impact in the Global Warming Potential- (GWP 100), Eutrophication Potential-(EP) and Ozone layer Depletion Potential-(ODP) impact category, while having a higher impact in the Human Toxicity Potential- (HTP) and Acidification Potential- (AP) impact categories, concluding that the C1 has an overall lower impact compared to CFL/LED lamps. The reason for the higher impacts in these two categories was mainly because of the usage of the aluminum reflector, which was the reason for the high impact in the HTP impact category.For future studies Profoto could look over the possibility to exchange the reflector, which was made out of aluminum, for another material, since this could reduce both the cost and environmental impact of the C1. The possibility of exchanging the battery would also be a possible future investigation, since it is the battery which decides the life span of the C1. Being able to exchange the battery would improve the life span of the C1. Investigations regarding the end-of-life phase of the C1 would also be recommended, since many of the components are made out of plastic, which could be recycled. Profoto should also continue making LCAs on their other products and compare the results to the C1, since this would give a better comparison to the C1 with products more similar to itself.
Detta examensarbete handlade om att utföra en Livscykelanalys på Profoto’s produkt C1. Denna produkt är en portabel blixtenhet som kan kopplas tillsammans med mobiltelefoner och producera professionella bilder, genom att producera blixtljus för att skapa mer levande bilder med telefonen. Målet var att ge Profoto en bättre förståelse kring hur deras produkt påverka miljön utifrån produktionsfasen och användningsfasen, samt hur dom i framtiden kan arbeta för att få ner dessa miljöpåverkningar. Dessa resultat jämfördes också med andra livscykelanalyser som gjorts på liknande produkter, men eftersom ingen analys kunde hittas på portabla blixtenheter, blev jämförelsen med C1:an istället med LED och CFL lampor. Detta eftersom dessa produkter har samma funktion som C1:an, vilket är att producera ljus. Dessutom användes en godtycklig funktionsenhet i analyserna kring LED/CFL lamporna som kunde appliceras på C1:an. I denna livscykelanalys användes programmet GaBi där databaser och processer användes för att återskapa produktionskedjan av diverse komponenter, vilka alla produceras i Kina. Dessutom återskapades användningsfasen, vilket utspelade sig i Sverige. Den metod som använts i denna livscykelanalys var CML 2001 metoden. Denna metod valdes för de analyser som gjordes på LED och CFL lampor använde denna metod. Resultaten visade att de komponenter som tillförde mest till miljöpåverkan var batteriet och reflektorn då dessa krävde mer konsumtion av el än de andra. Det visade sig också att C1:an hade lägre påverkan på tre utav de fem kategorier som valts från CML 2001 metoden. Dessa tre kategorier var Global Warming Potential- (GWP 100), Eutrophication Potential-(EP) and Ozone layer Depletion Potential- (ODP) kategorierna, medan de kategorier där C1:an hade en högre påverkan var Human Toxicity Potential- (HTP) och Acidification Potential.

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Elezabawy, Ahmed Kamal Elsayed. "Numerical modeling of groundwater system in the Nile Delta and its application to climate change impact assessment." 京都大学 (Kyoto University), 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2433/180489.

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Kyoto University (京都大学)
0048
新制・課程博士
博士(工学)
甲第17876号
工博第3785号
新制||工||1579(附属図書館)
30696
京都大学大学院工学研究科都市社会工学専攻
(主査)教授角哲也, 教授堀智晴, 准教授田中賢治, 准教授 Sameh Ahmed Kantoush
学位規則第4条第1項該当

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Audouin, Michelle. "Modernism, environmental assessment and the sustainability argument : moving towards a new approach to project-based decision-making in South Africa." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/1324.

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Thesis (DPhil (Philosophy))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Through my research I have developed an alternative conceptual approach to project-level environmental assessment in South Africa, which begins to move beyond modernism in its philosophical, procedural and substantive aspects. This approach draws on the ideas of certain radical philosophers, and three innovative thinkers, namely: Bent Flyvbjerg, Amartya Sen and Paul Cilliers. The overall purpose of project-level environmental assessment (i.e. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)) is to predict the impacts on the environment of proposed development, and to recommend ways to mitigate its negative consequences and enhance its positive effects. However, there are a number of recurring problems in the practice of EIA which include: achieving interdisciplinarity in the assessment process; effectively undertaking stakeholder engagement; and accurately predicting the impacts of proposed developments. Addressing uncertainty and adequately considering the implications of cumulative and social impacts are also often poorly addressed in environmental assessment procedures. In this thesis, I describe these problems as symptomatic of the modernist roots of environmental assessment, an argument, or similar, which has been made by others in related domains (e.g. philosophy), as well as in the international field of environmental assessment itself. I identify the following three main problematic assumptions of the modern worldview that are currently constraining the effectiveness of this field: A system can be understood by observing the behaviour of its parts; All processes flow along linear, deterministic, predictable and orderly paths; and Technical, objective, natural science-based information and processes are separate from, and superior to, non-technical, subjective, and value-based information and processes. Drawing on my investigation of the core ideas of radical ecologists and of the work of Bent Flyvbjerg, Amartya Sen and Paul Cilliers, I challenge the modernist assumptions listed above and propose an alternative conceptual approach to environmental assessment, which involves the formulation of a ‘sustainability argument’. I explain the philosophical tenets (for example, humans and nature are seen as part of an interrelated social-ecological system) and general principles on which this approach rests (for example, the normative nature of all knowledge of social-ecological systems should be recognised), as well as its key characteristics (for example, the team that undertakes the study should comprise disciplinary specialists, key stakeholders and at least one ‘sustainability practitioner’ who coordinates the development of the argument). These tenets, principles and characteristics are designed to guide the development of context-specific processes, for the formulation of a sustainability argument that informs project-level development decisionmaking. The ‘sustainability argument’ approach moves beyond the human-nature (or developmentenvironment) divide inherent in current environmental assessment, in which the impact of the former on the latter is determined. The focus is shifted to understanding how the social-ecological system is likely to alter, under different conditions, as a result of the proposed development, which is seen as a potential change in the system. In addition, the way in which the social-ecological system is likely to affect the implementation of this change is described. These effects are evaluated in relation to contextually defined sustainability values, which are identified by key stakeholders through a participatory process, and guided by the principles proposed as part of the sustainability argument approach. The principles include a view of humans and nature as part of an interrelated social-ecological system in which diversity, both human and natural, is valued as a pre-requisite to sustainability. Human needs are defined beyond the provision of basic goods and services, to include the promotion and enhancement of the valuable functionings and capabilities of an individual, as described by Sen (1988b). Nature is valued, not only for its role in enabling the achievement of these functionings and capabilities, but also for the fact of its existence, as part of the overall social-ecological system.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In my navorsing het ek alternatiewe, konseptuele benadering tot omgewingsbeoordeling op projekvlak in Suid Afrika ontwerp, wat begin om verby die filosofiese, prosedurele en substantiewe aspekte van die modernisme te beweeg. Hierdie benadering berus op die idees van sekere radikale filosowe, en drie innoverende denkers, naamlik: Bent Flyvbjerg, Amartya Sen en Paul Cilliers. Die oorkoepelende doelstelling van omgewingsbeoordeling op projekvlak (i.e. Omgewingsimpakstudie (OIS)) is om die impakte op die omgewing van voorgestelde ontwikkeling te voorspel, en om voorstelle te maak om die negatiewe gevolge daarvan te beperk en die positiewe gevolge te bevorder. Tog is daar aantal herhalende probleme in die praktyk van OIS, wat die volgende insluit: Die bereiking van interdissiplinariteit in die proses van omgewingsbeoordeling; die versekering van effektiewe deelname van belangegroepe; en die akkurate voorspelling van die impakte van voorgestelde ontwikkeling. Die hantering van onsekerhede en die voldoende oorweging van die implikasies van kumulatiewe en sosiale impakte word ook nie voldoende aangespreek in die ontwerp van omgewingsbeoordeling nie. In hierdie tesis beskryf ek hierdie probleme as simptome van die modernistiese grondslag van omgewingsbeoordeling, wat soortgelyke punt maak as die argument wat nie alleen deur ander in verwante velde (e.g. filosofie) ontwikkel is nie, maar ook in die internasionale veld van omgewingsbeoordeling self. Ek identifiseer die volgende drie problematiese kernaannames van die moderne wêreldbeeld, wat tans die doeltreffendheid van omgewingsbeoordeling beperk: Sisteem kan verstaan word deur die gedrag van sy dele waar te neem; Alle prosesse volg liniêre, deterministiese, voorspelbare en geordende patrone; en Tegniese prosesse en objektiewe, natuurwetenskaplik-begronde inligting is apart van, en verhewe bo, nie-tegniese prosesse en subjektiewe en waardegebaseerde oorwegings. Op grond van my ondersoek van die kernidees van radikale ekoloë, asook die werke van Bent Flyvbjerg, Amartya Sen en Paul Cilliers, daag ek die bogenoemde modernistiese veronderstellings uit, en stel alternatiewe benadering tot omgewingsbeoordeling voor, wat die formulering van ‘volhoubaarheidsargument’ insluit. Ek verduidelik die filosofiese uitgangspunte (byvoorbeeld dat die mens en die natuur, in onderlinge wisselwerking met mekaar, gesien moet word as deel van geïntegreerde sosio-ekologiese sisteem) en algemene beginsels waarop hierdie benadering berus (byvoorbeeld dat die normatiewe aard van alle kennis van sosio-ekologiese sisteme erken behoort te word), asook die kenmerkende eienskappe daarvan (byvoorbeeld dat die span, wat die studie onderneem, saamgestel moet word uit kenners vanuit verskillende dissiplines, sleutelbelanghebbendes, en ten minste een ‘volhoubaarheidspraktisyn’ wat die ontwikkeling van die argument koördineer). Hierdie uitgangspunte, beginsels en eienskappe is ontwerp om die ontwikkeling van konteksspesifieke prosesse te stuur, en vir die formulering van volhoubaarheidsargument wat besluitneming oor ontwikkeling op projekvlak informeer. Die ‘volhoubaarheidsargument’ benadering beweeg verby die mens-natuur (of ontwikkelingomgewing) onderskeid inherent aan die huidige praktyk van omgewingsbeoordeling, waar die impak van die eersgenoemde op die laasgenoemde bepaal word. Die klem verskuif na begrip vir die manier waarop die sosio-ekologiese sisteem moontlik gaan verander, onder sekere toestande, as gevolg van die voorgestelde verandering, wat beskou word as moontlike verandering in die sisteem. Boonop word die manier waarop die sosio-ekologiese sisteem waarskynlik die implementering van die verandering gaan beïnvloed ook beskryf. Hierdie effekte word geëvalueer met betrekking tot konteks-gedefinieerde volhoubaarheidswaardes, wat deur deelnameproses geïdentifiseer word deur sleutel belanghebbendes, en gelei deur die beginsels wat voorgestel word as deel van die volhoubaarheidsargument benadering. Die beginsels sluit beskouing van mense en die natuur as deel van interverwante sosio-ekologiese sisteem waarin diversiteit, beide menslik en natuurlik, gewaardeer word as voorwaarde vir volhoubaarheid in. Menslike behoeftes is gedefinieer as meer as net die voorsiening van basiese goedere en dienste om die bevordering en verbetering van die waardevolle funksioneringe en vermoëns van individu, soos beskryf deur Sen (1988b), in te sluit. Die natuur word gewaardeer, nie slegs vir die rol wat dit speel om die verwesenliking van hierdie funksioneringe en vermoëns moontlik te maak nie, maar ook vir die feit van die natuur se bestaan, as deel van die algehele sosio-ekologiese sisteem.

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41

Nylander, David. "Evaluating User Engagement and Usability in an IT Sustainability Impact Assessment Tool : A Qualitative Study with IT Procurement Officers." Thesis, KTH, Skolan för elektroteknik och datavetenskap (EECS), 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-280476.

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As electronic waste and unsustainable Information- and communication product consumption is a growing global problem, more effective tools are required for people and businesses to measure and improve their social and environmental impacts. The Agenda 2030 plan for sustainable development addresses this issue and calls for proper and safer treatment of material extraction, recycling and disposal. TCO Development have created an IT impact assessment tool which addresses this specific problem by giving procurers and purchasers the ability to browse and compare sustainable IT products. To be an effective tool, usability and user engagement attributes have to be considered, as well as the context of the user. The target audience of IT procurement officers are defined and a qualitative study is conducted to evaluate which changes to the design are important to implement to increase the usability and user engagement of the IT sustainability impact assessment tool. The evaluation of the tool shows general positive feedback towards the general layout, design and functionality. Only a few severe errors are discovered which are identified to be in the filtering process. Errors regarding the sensitivity of the slider tool, the excess of options when choosing a TCO certificate version, and confusing terminology while choosing a product type are a few problems which are discovered. A few corrective design alterations were presented based on these discoveries. Moving forward, the iterative design process should continue to address the remaining usability errors. Furthermore, developers and designers should prioritize improving the aspects of data accuracy, transparency as well as system integration to improve corresponding user engagement attributes.
Elektroniskt avfall och ohållbar konsumtion av informations- och kommunikationsprodukter är ett växande problem i världen. Fler och effektivare verktyg behövs för att människor och företag ska kunna mäta och förbättra sin sociala och miljömässiga påverkan. Agenda 2030-planen för hållbar utveckling berör denna fråga genom att efterlysa säkra och hållbara metoder för materialutvinning, återvinning och avfallshantering av produkter. TCO Development har skapat ett verktyg som bedömer IT-produkters klimatavtryck vilket tillåter inköpare och upphandlare att gå igenom och jämföra hållbara IT-produkter med varandra. För att fungera effektivt behöver verktygets attribut för användbarhet och användarengagemang tillgodoses. Vidare behöver kontexten för verktygets användning analyseras. Målgruppen för verktyget definierades och en kvalitativ studie genomfördes därefter för att identifiera vilka designförändringar som är viktiga att implementera för att öka användbarheten och engagemanget hos användarna. Resultatet av studien visar att det finns en generell positiv attityd gentemot den allmänna layouten, designen och funktionaliteten hos verktyget. Endast ett fåtal allvarliga avvikelser upptäcktes och kunde isoleras till filtreringsprocessen. Känsligheten av skjutreglaget, ett överflöd av certifieringsalternativ att välja bland, samt missvisande terminologi vid val av produkttyp är några problem som upptäcktes. Utifrån dessa, kunde förslag på åtgärdande designförändringar presenteras. I framtiden bör TCO Development fortsätta arbeta iterativt med designprocessen och fokusera på de kvarvarande användbarhetsavvikelserna. Vidare bör utvecklare och designers prioritera verktygets förmåga att presentera korrekt och transparent data, såväl som integrationen med externa system. På så vis kan de tillhörande attributen för användarengagemang förbättras.

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Maseya, Evelyn. "An impact assessment of micro enterprises on the livelihoods of low income households in Khayelitsha." University of the Western Cape, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/4806.

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Magister Economicae - MEcon
Livelihoods are essential for poverty alleviation. A poor person’s life cannot be transformed at all if the person has no means of earning a substantial income to sustain daily living. In today’s world many people rely on human capital for livelihoods. This is usually in the form of skills or educational qualifications that permit an individual to find employment. However, not every person is able to get meaningful employment which can generate an income to allow the person to live above the poverty lines. Generating an income from employment is not a livelihoods strategy that is available to many South Africans as the country has high unemployment rates and an economy that is performing poorly. In addition the overspill of institutionalised inequality from the apartheid era has many South Africans living in poverty. The South African government is promoting Small Micro and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMMEs) as a key strategy for job creation, economic growth for poverty alleviation and a reduction in inequalities. Many poor people in urban areas adopt micro enterprises as a livelihoods strategy. The research assessed the impact of micro enterprises on the livelihoods of low income households in Khayelitsha. The objectives of the research were; (a) to determine the impact that micro enterprises have on the livelihoods of low income households; (b) to ascertain how low income households identify micro enterprises as a livelihoods strategy; (c) to identify how household assets were allocated to livelihoods strategies; (d) to determine how low income households operate micro enterprises; and (e) to identify challenges faced by low income households in earning a livelihood through micro enterprises. A qualitative research design was used for the study because the aims of the research were to get an insight as to how people’s lives had transformed by adopting micro enterprises as a livelihoods strategy. To this end, in-depth interviews and observation data collection methods were employed. A study sample of 22 participants was drawn using non-probability sampling. Grounded theory was used for data analysis. Coded data was entered into an Excel spreadsheet which was used to generate graphs and tables. The findings indicate that micro enterprises as a livelihoods strategy have a positive impact on the livelihoods of many households in Khayelitsha. The impact is more significant because many households who engage in micro enterprises do not have other options for livelihoods strategies. Furthermore, many households reported to be better off operating a micro enterprise rather than being employed. Some households reported dissatisfaction with micro enterprises because they could not determine beforehand how much income would be generated making it difficult to plan monthly household expenditure. None the less micro enterprises enabled households to provide shelter, food, education for children and family members, health care and provision of household furniture. The results also indicate that for many micro enterprise owners the lack of financial capital was the biggest challenge because it prevented capital investment. High competition was also a challenge that a few owners were not able to overcome. On the whole the study concluded that micro enterprises are a good livelihoods strategy for the poor and could keep many South Africans above the poverty line.

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Mostachjov, Dmitrij. "Sustainable public transportation: quantifying the benefits of sustainable Bus Rapid Transit systems." Thesis, KTH, Industriell Management, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-173933.

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Transportation in densely populated areas is becoming increasingly problematic. Congestion, air pollution, accident-related fatalities and time wasted in traffic are only a few of issues associated urban transportation. Personal transportation is expected to increase by 63% total, where car traffic is expected to increase by 67% and railway traffic – by 80% during the period from 2006 to 2050. With that kind of dynamic, reaching the currently set sustainability goals is impossible. This raises the need for introducing sustainable public transportation solutions. Defining sustainability in the context of public transportation and taking into account the case-specific differences that affect the definition is an important step in this process. Quantification and the use of calculation tools for sustainability impact assessment are important for discussing the subject in concretized terms. Public transportation involves a multitude of stakeholders that each have their own responsibility areas. Since public transportation systems are ultimately a collective effort, every stakeholder has to partake in this endeavor on their corresponding level of responsibility. Socioeconomic criteria are an integral part of sustainability impact analysis, since it puts technical transport-related calculations into a broader context that goes beyond the transport sector. This is a qualitative applied study of Scania’s efforts in developing calculation models to facilitate leading the dialogue by providing quantitative evidence during the early stages of their solution sales process. In this report, the methodology for sustainability impact assessment, traffic planning and socioeconomic calculations are studied and applied on the case of Scania, where a holistic calculation tool is developed for the company. Bus Rapid Transit systems have been proven to be effective, sustainable solutions of public transportation in several regions. The vehicle fleet is an important component within the BRT system, which is why calculation tools for analysis of sustainability impacts of BRT systems have high strategic significance for Scania. By providing quantitative evidence of the benefits of sustainable public transportation, the company is going to be able to gain additional market shares while simultaneously promoting sustainable urban public transportation.
Transport i tätbefolkade områden blir alltmer problematiskt. Trängsel, luftföroreningar, olycksrelaterade dödsfall och tid bortslösad i trafiken är bara några av de typiska problemen som medföljer modern stadstrafik. Personlig transporter förväntas öka med 63% totalt, där biltrafiken förväntas öka med 67% och järnvägstrafiken - med 80% under perioden från 2006 till 2050. Om den typen av dynamik fortsätter, är det omöjligt att nå de i dagsläget satta hållbarhetsmålen. Detta skapar ett behov av att införa hållbara kollektivtrafiklösningar. Att definiera hållbarhet inom kollektivtrafiksammanhanget med hänsyn till fallspecifika aspekter som påverkar definitionen är ett viktigt steg i denna process. Kvantifiering och användning av beräkningsverktyg för att göra hållbarhetsbedömningar är viktiga för att diskutera ämnet i konkretiserade termer. Transportsektorn involverar en mängd aktörer som var och en har sina egna ansvarsområden. Eftersom kollektivtrafiksystem i slutändan definieras av samtliga aktörernas kollektiva insats, är det upp till varje aktör att engagera sig i processen på deras motsvarande ansvarsnivå. Samhällsekonomiska kriterier är en viktig del av hållbarhetskonsekvensbeskrivning, eftersom det sätter tekniska transportrelaterade beräkningar i ett bredare sammanhang som sträcker sig utöver transportsektorn. Detta är en kvalitativ tillämpad studie av Scanias arbete inom utveckling av beräkningsmodeller som ska underlätta att föra dialogen genom att tillhandahålla kvantitativa bevis i ett tidigt skede i försäljningsprocessen av kollektivtrafiklösningar. I denna rapport, är metodiken för hållbarhetskonsekvensbeskrivning, trafikplanering och samhällskonomiska beräkningar studerad och tillämpad på fallet Scania, där ett helhetsberäkningsverktyg har utvecklats för företaget. Bus Rapid Transit-system har visat sig vara effektiva och hållbara lösningar för kollektivtrafiken i flera regioner. Fordonsparken är en viktig komponent i BRT-systemet, vilket är anledningen till att beräkningsverktyg för analys av hållbarhetseffekterna av BRT-system har hög strategisk betydelse för Scania. Genom att uttrycka fördelarna med hållbar kollektivtrafik i kvantifierade termer kommer företaget att kunna få ytterligare marknadsandelar och samtidigt främja hållbar storstadskollektivtrafik.

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Cornejo, Pablo K. "Environmental Sustainability of Wastewater Treatment Plants Integrated with Resource Recovery: The Impact of Context and Scale." Scholar Commons, 2015. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/5669.

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There is an urgent need for wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to adapt to a rise in water and energy demands, prolonged periods of drought, climate variability, and resource scarcity. As population increases, minimizing the carbon and energy footprints of wastewater treatment, while properly managing nutrients is crucial to improving the sustainability WWTPs. Integrated resource recovery can mitigate the environmental impact of wastewater treatment systems; however, the mitigation potential depends on various factors such as treatment technology, resource recovery strategy, and system size. Amidst these challenges, this research seeks to investigate the environmental sustainability of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) integrating resource recovery (e.g., water reuse, energy recovery and nutrient recycling) in different contexts (developing versus developed world) and at different scales (household, community, and city). The over-arching hypothesis guiding this research is that: Context and scale impact the environmental sustainability of WWTPs integrated with resource recovery. Three major research tasks were designed to contribute to a greater understanding of the environmental sustainability of resource recovery integrated with wastewater treatment systems. They include a framework development task (Chapter 2), scale assessment task (Chapter 3), and context assessment task (Chapter 4). The framework development task includes a critical review of literature and models used to design a framework to assess the environmental sustainability of wastewater treatment and integrated resource recovery strategies. Most studies used life cycle assessment (LCA) to assess these systems. LCA is a quantitative tool, which estimates the environmental impact of a system over its lifetime. Based on this review, a comprehensive system boundary was selected to assess the life cycle impacts of collection, treatment, and distribution over the construction and operation and maintenance life stages. Additionally, resource recovery offsets associated with water reuse, energy recovery, and nutrient recycling are considered. The framework’s life cycle inventory includes material production and delivery, equipment operation, energy production, sludge disposal, direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and nutrients discharged to the environment. Process-based LCA is used to evaluate major environmental impact categories, including global impacts (e.g., carbon footprint, embodied energy) and local impacts (e.g., eutrophication potential). This is followed by an interpretation of results using sensitivity or uncertainty analysis. The scale assessment task investigates how scale impacts the environmental sustainability of three wastewater treatment systems integrated with resource recovery in a U.S. context. Household, community, and city scale systems using mechanized technologies applicable to a developed world setting were investigated. The household system was found to have the highest environmental impacts due high electricity usage for treatment and distribution, methane emissions from the septic tank, and high nutrient discharges. Consequently, the life cycle impacts of passive nutrient reduction systems with low energy usage at the household level merit further investigation. The community scale system highlights trade-offs between global impacts (e.g., embodied energy and carbon footprint) and local impacts (e.g., eutrophication potential) where low nutrient pollution can be achieved at the cost of a high embodied energy and carbon footprint. The city scale system had the lowest global impacts due to economies of scale and the benefits of integrating all three forms of resource recovery: Energy recovery, water reuse, and nutrient recycling. Integrating these three strategies at the city scale led to a 49% energy offset, which mitigates the carbon footprint associated with water reuse. The context assessment task investigates how context impacts the environmental sustainability of selected community scale systems in both Bolivia and the United States. In this task, rural developing world and urban developed world wastewater management solutions with resource recovery strategies are compared. Less mechanized treatment technologies used in rural Bolivia were found to have a lower carbon footprint and embodied energy than highly mechanized technologies used in urban United States. However, the U.S. community system had a lower eutrophication potential than the Bolivia systems, highlighting trade-offs between global and local impacts. Furthermore, collection and direct methane emissions had more important energy and carbon implications in Bolivia, whereas treatment electricity was dominant for the U.S. community system. Water reuse offsets of embodied energy and carbon footprint were higher for the U.S community system, because high quality potable water is replaced instead of river water. In contrast, water reuse offsets of eutrophication potential were high for the Bolivia systems, highlighting the importance of matching treatment level to end-use application. One of the Bolivia systems benefits from the integration of water, energy, and nutrient recovery leading to beneficial offsets of both global and local impacts. This research can potentially lead to transformative thinking on the appropriate scale of WWTPs with integrated resource recovery, while highlighting that context lead to changes in the dominant contributors to environmental impact, appropriate technologies, and mitigation strategies.

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45

Wagner, Andre. "The impact of an organisational capacity assessment on non-profit organisations in South Africa." University of the Western Cape, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/7706.

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Magister Economicae - MEcon
The research study investigated the potential impact that organisational capacity assessments can have on the long-term sustainability of non-profit organisations (NPOs). The researcher employed longitudinal research design as the main instrument in the collection of data. Data was collected from four local non-profit organisations in the Cullinan and Bronkhorstspruit areas of South Africa. These organisations were evaluated by means of a questionnaire, which was developed by the researcher. NPOs can only play a pivotal role in community and social services if management, leadership, governance and other elements of organisational capacity are well developed and continuously strengthened. This is critical for attracting local and international donors who provide crucial running costs and relieve national, provincial and local government departments of the financial burden. Currently, the South African government supports NPOs in South Africa. The legislative and registration aspects of NPOs are regulated by the NPO Act (Act 71 of 1997) and the Income Tax Act (Act 58 of 1962). The State of South African Registered NPOs Report 2010/2011 indicated a growth of the number of registrations to have increased by 8.3%. However, in the same financial year a total number of 468 NPOs were deregistered; 98% of these lost their registration due to non-compliance of regulatory requirements. According to the State of South African Registered NPOs Report (2016) the total number of applications received for the financial year was 16 726 (53.7%), however 4 421 (46%) did not meet the requirements of sections 12-13 of the NPO Act, an issue that would definitely affect the existence of non-compliant institutions.

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46

König, Hannes Jochen. "Operationalising sustainability impact assessment of land use scenarios in developing countries : a stakeholder-based approach with case studies in China, India, Indonesia, Kenya, and Tunisia." Phd thesis, Universität Potsdam, 2012. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2013/6367/.

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Growing populations, continued economic development, and limited natural resources are critical factors affecting sustainable development. These factors are particularly pertinent in developing countries in which large parts of the population live at a subsistence level and options for sustainable development are limited. Therefore, addressing sustainable land use strategies in such contexts requires that decision makers have access to evidence-based impact assessment tools that can help in policy design and implementation. Ex-ante impact assessment is an emerging field poised at the science-policy interface and is used to assess the potential impacts of policy while also exploring trade-offs between economic, social and environmental sustainability targets. The objective of this study was to operationalise the impact assessment of land use scenarios in the context of developing countries that are characterised by limited data availability and quality. The Framework for Participatory Impact Assessment (FoPIA) was selected for this study because it allows for the integration of various sustainability dimensions, the handling of complexity, and the incorporation of local stakeholder perceptions. FoPIA, which was originally developed for the European context, was adapted to the conditions of developing countries, and its implementation was demonstrated in five selected case studies. In each case study, different land use options were assessed, including (i) alternative spatial planning policies aimed at the controlled expansion of rural-urban development in the Yogyakarta region (Indonesia), (ii) the expansion of soil and water conservation measures in the Oum Zessar watershed (Tunisia), (iii) the use of land conversion and the afforestation of agricultural areas to reduce soil erosion in Guyuan district (China), (iv) agricultural intensification and the potential for organic agriculture in Bijapur district (India), and (v) land division and privatisation in Narok district (Kenya). The FoPIA method was effectively adapted by dividing the assessment into three conceptual steps: (i) scenario development; (ii) specification of the sustainability context; and (iii) scenario impact assessment. A new methodological approach was developed for communicating alternative land use scenarios to local stakeholders and experts and for identifying recommendations for future land use strategies. Stakeholder and expert knowledge was used as the main sources of information for the impact assessment and was complemented by available quantitative data. Based on the findings from the five case studies, FoPIA was found to be suitable for implementing the impact assessment at case study level while ensuring a high level of transparency. FoPIA supports the identification of causal relationships underlying regional land use problems, facilitates communication among stakeholders and illustrates the effects of alternative decision options with respect to all three dimensions of sustainable development. Overall, FoPIA is an appropriate tool for performing preliminary assessments but cannot replace a comprehensive quantitative impact assessment, and FoPIA should, whenever possible, be accompanied by evidence from monitoring data or analytical tools. When using FoPIA for a policy oriented impact assessment, it is recommended that the process should follow an integrated, complementary approach that combines quantitative models, scenario techniques, and participatory methods.
Bevölkerungswachstum und wirtschaftliche Entwicklung in Kombination mit begrenzt verfügbaren, natürlichen Ressourcen sind kritische Faktoren für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung. Diese Situation ist besonders in Entwicklungsländern anzutreffen, in denen große Teile der Bevölkerung am Existenzminimum leben und es oft wenig Spielraum für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung gibt. Entscheidungsträger fragen daher verstärkt wissenschafts-basierte Instrumente zur Vorab- (ex-ante) Folgenabschätzung (Impact assessment) für die Konzeption und Umsetzung nachhaltiger Strategien nach. So genannte ex-ante Methoden zielen hierbei auf die Beurteilung der zukünftigen Folgen von Szenarien (z.B. alternative Politikmaßnahmen) und Konflikte zwischen ökonomischen, sozialen und ökologischen Nachhaltigkeitszielen ab. Ziel dieser Arbeit war es, die Folgenabschätzungen von Landnutzungsszenarien auf die nachhaltige Entwicklung in Entwicklungsländern zu ermöglichen. Eine besondere Schwierigkeit stellt dabei die oft mangelhafte Verfügbarkeit von Daten dar, die quantitative Analysen bzw. den Einsatz von computergestützten Modellen meist nur sehr begrenzt möglich macht. Um mit diesen Schwierigkeiten umzugehen, wurde die ursprünglich für die Europäische Union entwickelte ‚Framework for Participatory Impact Assessment‘ (FoPIA)-Methode an die Bedingungen in Entwicklungsländern angepasst und in fünf regionalen Fallstudien angewendet. Die analysierten Landnutzungsszenarien umfassten dabei (i) alternative Raumplanungsmaßnahmen zur kontrollierten Stadt-Land-Entwicklung in Yogyakarta, Indonesien; (ii) die Umsetzung von boden- und wasserkonservierenden Maßnahmen zur Verbesserung der landwirtschaftlichen Produktion im Oum Zessar Wassereinzugsgebiet, Tunesien; (iii) Landumwandlung und Aufforstungsmaßnahmen zur Eindämmung von Bodenerosion in Guyuan, China; (iv) landwirtschaftliche Intensivierung und Potenziale des ökologischen Landbaus in Bijapur, Indien; sowie (v) Landteilung und -privatisierung in Narok, Kenia. Die angepasste FoPIA Methode wurde in drei konzeptionelle Schritte unterteilt: (i) die Szenarienentwicklung, (ii) die Spezifikation des Nachhaltigkeitskontexts, und (iii) die Szenariofolgenabschätzung. Ein neuer methodischer Ansatz lag in der Entwicklung alternativer Landnutzungsszenarien mit regionalen Akteuren und auf der Ableitung von Handlungsempfehlungen für zukünftige Landnutzungsstrategien. Für die Szenario-folgenabschätzung wurde primär das Wissen regionaler Experten und Akteure genutzt und durch quantitative Daten, sofern verfügbar, ergänzt. Auf der Grundlage der in den fünf Regionen gewonnenen Erkenntnisse lässt sich schlussfolgern, dass die angepasste FoPIA Methode dazu geeignet ist, eine Szenariofolgenabschätzung zu strukturieren und ein hohes Maß an Transparenz zu gewährleisten. Sie ermöglicht kausale Zusammenhänge von Landnutzungsproblemen zu diagnostizieren, die Kommunikation zwischen unterschiedlichen Akteuren und Experten zu verbessern sowie mögliche Konflikte zwischen ökonomischen, sozialen und ökologischen Nachhaltigkeitszielen zu erkennen und darzustellen. Insgesamt sollte die FoPIA Methode jedoch nicht als isolierte Methode zur Folgenabschätzung verstanden werden, sondern, sofern die Datenverfügbarkeit dies zulässt, durch weiterführende Analysen ergänzt werden. Für die Anwendung der FoPIA Methode im Rahmen der Politikfolgenabschätzung wird ein integrierter, komplementärer Ansatz empfohlen, der quantitative Modelle, Szenariotechniken und partizipative Methoden kombiniert.

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Eveborn, David. "Bed filters for phosphorus removal in on-site wastewater treatment : Removal mechanisms and sustainability." Licentiate thesis, KTH, Land and Water Resources Engineering, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-12048.

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For many surface waters, phosphorus (P) leaching is a serious problem that should be minimized to prevent eutrophication. In Sweden there is a demand for physical and technical development of high-performance P removal techniques to reduce phosphorus leaching from on-site wastewater treatment systems to the Baltic Sea. However, although these systems are designed to reduce eutrophication there are also other environmental impacts to be considered when implementing them in on-site systems; energy use and global warming potential are two examples. This study has investigated several bed filter materials (reactive media and natural soils) for their total environmental impact (in commercial applications) as well as for the predominating chemical phosphorus removal mechanisms. The use of life cycle assessment revealed that several reactive bed filters are relatively energy-consuming due to the material manufacturing process. Characterization of phosphorus compounds in used reactive media provided evidence for calcium phosphate precipitation as the predominating P removal mechanism in alkaline filter materials. However, in soil treatment systems with noncalcareous soils, batch experiments and extractions suggested that aluminium compounds were important for P removal. According to mass balance calculations that compared accumulated P with the estimated P load in a soil treatment system, the long term P removal capacity was very low; only 6.4 % of the applied phosphorus had been removed during 16 years of operation.

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Das, Prabir Kumar. "A sustainability impact-assessment tool for selected building technologies in rural India : the case of the Andhra Pradesh primary education project." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10443/878.

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The United Nations Commission on Environment and Development, AGENDA 21, The Millennium Development Goals, etc. indicate that there is a worldwide concern for sustainable development. Construction is an essential human activity in development programmes. It is an important component of sustainable development. The decision makers should examine every constructon projectb efore it is implemented.T herefore,t here is a need for an assessmentt ool to examinet he sustainabilityi mpactso f construction.T he existinga ssessmentm ethodsw ere found to be mostly based on environmental sustainability and thus, there was a need for developing an assessment tool, taking into account the social and economic issues also. The data and experience of the primary school construction project in a rural district of Andhra Pradesh (India) was adopted as a basis of assessment tool development The aim of this dissertation was to provide an impact assessment tool for the decision makers to select sustainable building construction technologies in the context of social infrastructure developmenti n rural India. It also aimed to demonstrateh ow to calculatet he socio-economica nd environmentailm pactst hrought he use of differentw alling and roofingc onstructiont echnologies. The dissertation's objectives were to examine the efficacy of the primary school construction project in Andhra Pradesh as a base for developing an impact assessment tool, to develop a process of calculation and determining the actual values of the socio economic and environmental impacts of selected building technologies, to demonstrate the selection process of the combination of walling and roofing technologies having optimum life cycle socio-economic and environmental impacts, to demonstrate the effect of weights on the selection process and to enable decision makers to develop databases on new construction and life cycle impacts in other contexts and to select sustainable building construction technologies.

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49

Ahmadi, Achachlouei Mohammad. "Exploring the Effects of ICT on Environmental Sustainability: From Life Cycle Assessment to Complex Systems Modeling." Doctoral thesis, KTH, Miljöstrategisk analys (fms), 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-171443.

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The production and consumption of information and communication technology (ICT) products and services continue to grow worldwide. This trend is accompanied by a corresponding increase in electricity use by ICT, as well as direct environmental impacts of the technology. Yet a more complicated picture of ICT’s effects is emerging. Positive indirect effects on environmental sustainability can be seen in substitution and optimization (enabling effects), and negative indirect effects can be seen in additional demand due to efficiency improvements (rebound effects). A variety of methods can be employed to model and assess these direct and indirect effects of ICT on environmental sustainability. This doctoral thesis explores methods of modeling and assessing environmental effects of ICT, including electronic media. In a series of five studies, three methods were at times applied in case studies and at others analyzed theoretically. These methods include life cycle assessment (LCA) and complex systems modeling approaches, including System Dynamics (SD) and agent-based (AB) modeling. The first two studies employ the LCA approach in a case study of an ICT application, namely, the tablet edition of a Swedish design magazine. The use of tablets has skyrocketed in recent years, and this phenomenon has been little studied to date. Potential environmental impacts of the magazine’s tablet edition were assessed and compared with those of the print edition. The tablet edition’s emerging version (which is marked by a low number of readers and low reading time per copy) resulted in higher potential environmental impacts per reader than did the print edition. However, the mature tablet edition (with a higher number of readers and greater reading time per copy) yielded lower impacts per reader in half the ten impact categories assessed. While previous studies of electronic media have reported that the main life-cycle contributor to environmental impacts is the use phase (which includes operational electricity use as well as the manufacture of the electronic device), the present study did not support those findings in all scenarios studied in this thesis. Rather, this study found that the number of readers played an important role in determining which life-cycle phase had the greatest impacts. For the emerging version, with few readers, content production was the leading driver of environmental impacts. For the mature version, with a higher number of readers, electronic storage and distribution were the major contributors to environmental impacts. Only when there were many readers but low overall use of the tablet device was the use phase the main contributor to environmental impacts of the tablet edition of the magazine. The third study goes beyond direct effects at product- and service-level LCAs, revisiting an SD simulation study originally conducted in 2002 to model indirect environmental effects of ICT in 15 European countries for the period 2000-2020. In the current study, three scenarios of the 2002 study were validated in light of new empirical data from the period 2000–2012. A new scenario was developed to revisit the quantitative and qualitative results of the original study. The results showed, inter alia, that ICT has a stimulating influence on total passenger transport, for it makes it more cost- and time-efficient (rebound effects). The modeling mechanism used to represent this rebound effect is further investigated in the fourth study, which discusses the feedback loops used to model two types of rebound effects in passenger transport (direct economic rebound and time rebound). Finally, the role of systems thinking and modeling in conceptualizing and communicating the dynamics of rebound effects is examined. The aim of the fifth study was to explore the power of systems modeling and simulation to represent nonlinearities of the complex and dynamic systems examined elsewhere in this thesis. That study reviews previous studies that have compared the SD and AB approaches and models, summarizing their purpose, methodology, and results, based on certain criteria for choosing between SD and AB approaches. The transformation procedure used to develop an AB model for purposes of comparison with an SD model is also explored. In conclusion, first-order or direct environmental effects of ICT production, use, and disposal can be assessed employing an LCA method. This method can also be used to assess second-order or enabling effects by comparing ICT applications with conventional alternatives. However, the assessment of enabling effects can benefit from systems modeling methods, which are able to formally describe the drivers of change, as well as the dynamics of complex social, technical, and environmental systems associated with ICT applications. Such systems methods can also be used to model third-order or rebound effects of efficiency improvements by ICT.
Den ökande produktionen och konsumtionen av produkter och tjänster inom informations- och kommunikationsteknik (IKT) leder till en ökning av den globala elanvändningen samt direkta miljökonsekvenser kopplade till IKT. Men IKT har även indirekta miljömässiga effekter. Dessa kan vara positiva till exempel genom substitutions- och optimeringseffekter eller negativa genom att till exempel ge upphov till ytterligare efterfrågan på grund av effektivisering (så kallade reboundeffekter). Olika metoder kan användas för att modellera och bedöma både direkta och indirekta effekter av IKT. Syftet med denna avhandling är att undersöka metoder för modellering samt att studera miljöeffekter av IKT och elektronisk media med hjälp av livscykelanalys (LCA) och även modellering av komplexa och dynamiska system, samt simuleringsteknik, så som System Dynamics (SD) och agentbaserad (AB) modellering. Avhandlingen omfattar fem artiklar (artikel I-V). Artikel I & II beskriver resultaten från en fallstudie där miljöeffekter kopplade till en svensk tidskrift studeras med LCA. Tidskriftens version för surfplatta samt motsvarande tryckta version studeras och jämförs. Artikel III går ett steg vidare från produktnivåns LCA. Artikeln återkopplar till en SD simuleringsstudie som ursprungligen genomfördes under 2002. Simuleringsstudien gällde framtida miljöeffekter av IKT i 15 europeiska länder med tidspespektivet 2000-2020. I artikeln valideras tre scenarier från simuleringsstudien med hjälp av nya empiriska data från 2000-2012 och ett nytt scenario modelleras. Kvantitativa och kvalitativa resultat från den ursprungliga studien diskuteras. Till exempel visar artikel III att IKT har en stimulerande effekt på den totala persontrafiken genom att göra den mer kostnads- och tidseffektiv (reboundeffekt). Modelleringsmekanismen som används för att representera denna reboundeffekt diskuteras vidare i artikel IV. Artikeln belyser och diskuterar den återkopplingsslinga (feedback-loop) som används för att modellera två typer av reboundeffekter kopplade till persontrafik (direkt ekonomisk rebound och tidsrelaterad rebound) samt jämför med en tidigare studie. Artikel IV behandlar också den roll systemtänkande och modellering kan spela i konceptualisering och kommunikation av reboundeffekters dynamik. För att ytterligare undersöka systemmodelleringens och simuleringens möjligheter att representera icke-linjära komplexa och dynamiska system (exempel på sådana diskuteras i artikel III och IV), sammanställer artikel V tidigare studier som jämför SD och AB-metoder och -modeller. Studiernas mål och metod summeras och resultaten med avseende på vilka kriterier som presenteras för att välja mellan SD och AB sammanställs. Även processen för att omvandla en befintlig SD-modell till en AB-modell beskrivs. Avhandlingens slutsats är att LCA och systemmodelleringsmetoder kan vara användbara för att studera IKTs direkta effekter så väl som indirekta effekter på miljön.

QC 20150813

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Switala-Elmhurst, Katherine. "Life Cycle Assessment of Residential Windows: Analyzing the Environmental Impact of Window Restoration versus Window Replacement." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2014. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/275743.

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Abstract:

Civil Engineering
Ph.D.
New windows are rated based on their energy performance during the use phase. This rating neglects the overall environmental impact caused by raw material extraction, manufacturing, maintenance and disposal. Due to the number of residential window replacements occurring today in the United States, there is a growing need to quantify the sustainability of window preservation as an alternative to window replacement. This study assessed the environmental impact of historic wood window restoration versus window replacement for the entire "cradle to grave" life cycle of the window assembly. This study focused on a typical, mid-twentieth century housing development in the Northeast United States using four window configurations as follows: 1. Restored original wood window with a new exterior aluminum storm window; 2. PVC replacement window; 3. Aluminum-clad wood replacement window; 4. Wood replacement window. The dissertation assessed the life cycle of window configurations using GaBi Software. The life cycle inventories were analyzed using the TRACI 2.1 impact method which translated the environmental consequences of the life cycle assessment processes into quantifiable environmental impacts. The dissertation also considered window thermal performance and life cycle costs. When considering life cycle environmental impacts, thermal performance, energy savings and material costs, the results indicated that wood window restoration was the best option when compared to replacement windows considered in this study; however, the results indicated that building service life and window service life assumptions could impact results. Thermal performance testing of windows revealed that window restoration techniques undertaken in this study improved the window's overall thermal performance. The testing also indicated that the effects of air infiltration had minimal influence on the performance of the restored window assembly when compared to a high performance replacement window. The results of the energy model exhibited only a small annual energy savings between the restored window assembly and a high performance replacement window. The payback cost analysis revealed that, while there was an immediate financial benefit of window replacement with the PVC option, window replacement frequency and overall life cycle environmental impacts would favor the restored window option.
Temple University--Theses

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Sustainability Impacts Assessment'

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