Journal articles on the topic 'Sustainability Impacts Assessment'
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Junne, Tobias, Sonja Simon, Jens Buchgeister, Maximilian Saiger, Manuel Baumann, Martina Haase, Christina Wulf, and Tobias Naegler. "Environmental Sustainability Assessment of Multi-Sectoral Energy Transformation Pathways: Methodological Approach and Case Study for Germany." Sustainability 12, no. 19 (October 6, 2020): 8225. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12198225.
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In order to analyse long-term transformation pathways, energy system models generally focus on economical and technical characteristics. However, these models usually do not consider sustainability aspects such as environmental impacts. In contrast, life cycle assessment enables an extensive estimate of those impacts. Due to these complementary characteristics, the combination of energy system models and life cycle assessment thus allows comprehensive environmental sustainability assessments of technically and economically feasible energy system transformation pathways. We introduce FRITS, a FRamework for the assessment of environmental Impacts of Transformation Scenarios. FRITS links bottom-up energy system models with life cycle impact assessment indicators and quantifies the environmental impacts of transformation strategies of the entire energy system (power, heat, transport) over the transition period. We apply the framework to conduct an environmental assessment of multi-sectoral energy scenarios for Germany. Here, a ‘Target’ scenario reaching 80% reduction of energy-related direct CO2 emissions is compared with a ‘Reference’ scenario describing a less ambitious transformation pathway. The results show that compared to 2015 and the ‘Reference’ scenario, the ‘Target’ scenario performs better for most life cycle impact assessment indicators. However, the impacts of resource consumption and land use increase for the ‘Target’ scenario. These impacts are mainly caused by road passenger transport and biomass conversion.
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Petit, Sandrine, and Pia Frederiksen. "Modelling land use change impacts for sustainability assessment." Ecological Indicators 11, no. 1 (January 2011): 1–3. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2010.08.001.
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Yu, Haijiao, Zihan Yang, and Bo Li. "Sustainability Assessment of Water Resources in Beijing." Water 12, no. 7 (July 14, 2020): 1999. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w12071999.
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A sustainability assessment of water resources is essential for maintaining regional sustainable development. In this study, a comprehensive assessment of changes in the sustainability of the water resource system in Beijing from 2008 to 2018 was conducted on the basis of the driver-pressure-state-impact-response (DPSIR) model. To reflect the impacts of humans on the water consumption and pollution of water resources, the water footprint was considered. In addition, key factors that affect the sustainability of water resources were filtered by the modified entropy method. The results indicated that all drivers, pressures, states, impacts, and responses demonstrated increasing tendencies. As a result, a remarkable improvement in the sustainability of the water system, which was mitigated from an alert state to a good state, was achieved due to the comprehensive effect of the indexes. From these results, we inferred that the sustainability of regional water resources could only be achieved through a comprehensive consideration of regional social, economic, and environmental water systems and climate change. Therefore, formulating medium- and long-term urban, economic, and water development plans and adjusting medium- and short-term water utilization programs could contribute to the sustainable utilization of regional water resources.
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Kovačič Lukman, Rebeka, Vasja Omahne, and Damjan Krajnc. "Sustainability Assessment with Integrated Circular Economy Principles: A Toy Case Study." Sustainability 13, no. 7 (March 31, 2021): 3856. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13073856.
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When considering the sustainability of production processes, research studies usually emphasise environmental impacts and do not adequately address economic and social impacts. Toy production is no exception when it comes to assessing sustainability. Previous research on toys has focused solely on assessing environmental aspects and neglected social and economic aspects. This paper presents a sustainability assessment of a toy using environmental life cycle assessment, life cycle costing, and social life cycle assessment. We conducted an inventory analysis and sustainability impact assessment of the toy to identify the hotspots of the system. The main environmental impacts are eutrophication, followed by terrestrial eco-toxicity, acidification, and global warming. The life cycle costing approach examined the economic aspect of the proposed design options for toys, while the social assessment of the alternative designs revealed social impacts along the product life cycle. In addition, different options based on the principles of the circular economy were analysed and proposed in terms of substitution of materials and shortening of transport distances for the toy studied.
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Naegler, Tobias, Lisa Becker, Jens Buchgeister, Wolfgang Hauser, Heidi Hottenroth, Tobias Junne, Ulrike Lehr, et al. "Integrated Multidimensional Sustainability Assessment of Energy System Transformation Pathways." Sustainability 13, no. 9 (May 7, 2021): 5217. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13095217.
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Sustainable development embraces a broad spectrum of social, economic and ecological aspects. Thus, a sustainable transformation process of energy systems is inevitably multidimensional and needs to go beyond climate impact and cost considerations. An approach for an integrated and interdisciplinary sustainability assessment of energy system transformation pathways is presented here. It first integrates energy system modeling with a multidimensional impact assessment that focuses on life cycle-based environmental and macroeconomic impacts. Then, stakeholders’ preferences with respect to defined sustainability indicators are inquired, which are finally integrated into a comparative scenario evaluation through a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), all in one consistent assessment framework. As an illustrative example, this holistic approach is applied to the sustainability assessment of ten different transformation strategies for Germany. Applying multi-criteria decision analysis reveals that both ambitious (80%) and highly ambitious (95%) carbon reduction scenarios can achieve top sustainability ranks, depending on the underlying energy transformation pathways and respective scores in other sustainability dimensions. Furthermore, this research highlights an increasingly dominant contribution of energy systems’ upstream chains on total environmental impacts, reveals rather small differences in macroeconomic effects between different scenarios and identifies the transition among societal segments and climate impact minimization as the most important stakeholder preferences.
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Mehrad, Ahmad Tamim. "Assessment of climate change impacts on environmental sustainability in Afghanistan." E3S Web of Conferences 208 (2020): 01001. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202020801001.
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Climate change is a global phenomenon that became one of the most predominant environmental challenges facing our world today. Natural events and anthropogenic activities are responsible for increasing the negative impacts and risks associated with climate change. Developing countries in Asia and Africa are bearing much of the climate change burden due to rapid population growth, crop failures, and lack of required technological and financial resources to mitigate the risks. Afghanistan, like other developing countries, is highly vulnerable to the severe impacts of climate change. In Afghanistan, climate change is related to various adverse effects on water resources, agriculture, forests, biodiversity, increasing temperature, and changing the environmental landscape. This paper analyses the impact of climate change on environmental sustainability in Afghanistan.
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ASPINALL, ALISON, JUDIE CUKIER, and BRENT DOBERSTEIN. "QUALITY OF LIFE ASSESSMENTS AND SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY: SKI TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN INVERMERE, BRITISH COLUMBIA." Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management 13, no. 02 (June 2011): 179–201. http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/s1464333211003845.
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The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of using quality of life assessments (QLA) to evaluate social sustainability and impacts of a hypothetical tourism development modelled after the currently-proposed Jumbo Glacier Resort. Results of this study indicated that there was a significant difference between the pre- and post-development scenarios on respondents' perceived quality of life: respondents perceived that their quality of life would be lower after the development of the resort. Also, respondents' general attitudes towards tourism development, and the specific Jumbo Glacier Resort project, had a statistically significant impact on their expected quality of life, and their interpretation of how tourism impacts their quality of life. The study suggests that quality of life assessment can make valuable contributions to the fields of social impact assessment and social sustainability analysis, and the results of such assessments can make valuable contributions to the fields of sustainable community development.
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Ahmadian F.F., Alireza, Taha H. Rashidi, Ali Akbarnezhad, and S. Travis Waller. "BIM-enabled sustainability assessment of material supply decisions." Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management 24, no. 4 (July 17, 2017): 668–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ecam-12-2015-0193.
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Purpose Enhancing sustainability of the supply process of construction materials is challenging and requires accounting for a variety of environmental and social impacts on top of the traditional, mostly economic, impacts associated with a particular decision involved in the management of the supply chain. The economic, environmental, and social impacts associated with various components of a typical supply chain are highly sensitive to project and market specific conditions. The purpose of this paper is to provide decision makers with a methodology to account for the systematic trade-offs between economic, environmental, and social impacts of supply decisions. Design/methodology/approach This paper proposes a novel framework for sustainability assessment of construction material supply chain decisions by taking advantage of the information made available by customized building information models (BIM) and a number of different databases required for assessment of life cycle impacts. Findings The framework addresses the hierarchy of decisions in the material supply process, which consists of four levels including material type, source of supply, supply chain structure, and mode of transport. The application is illustrated using a case study. Practical implications The proposed framework provides users with a decision-making method to select the most sustainable material alternative available for a building component and, thus, may be of great value to different parties involved in design and construction of a building. The multi-dimensional approach in selection process based on various economic, environmental, and social indicators as well as the life cycle perspective implemented through the proposed methodology advocates the life cycle thinking and the triple bottom line approach in sustainability. The familiarity of the new generation of engineers, architects, and contractors with this approach and its applications is essential to achieve sustainability in construction. Originality/value A decision-making model for supply of materials is proposed by integrating the BIM-enabled life cycle assessment into supply chain and project constraints management. The integration is achieved through addition of a series of attributes to typical BIM. The framework is supplemented by a multi-attribute decision-making module based on the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution to account for the trade-offs between different economic and environmental impacts associated with the supply decisions.
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Shah, Binita, and Seema Unnikrishnan. "Sustainability assessment of gas based power generation using a life cycle assessment approach." Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal 29, no. 5 (August 13, 2018): 826–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/meq-02-2018-0034.
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Purpose India is a developing economy along with an increasing population estimated to be the largest populated country in about seven years. Simultaneously, its power consumption is projected to increase more than double by 2020. Currently, the dependence on coal is relatively high, making it the largest global greenhouse gas emitting sector which is a matter of great concern. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the environmental impacts of the natural gas electricity generation in India and propose a model using a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach. Design/methodology/approach LCA is used as a tool to evaluate the environmental impact of the natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power plant, as it adopts a holistic approach towards the whole process. The LCA methodology used in this study follows the ISO 14040 and 14044 standards (ISO 14040: 2009; ISO 14044: 2009). A questionnaire was designed for data collection and validated by expert review primary data for the annual environmental emission was collected by personally visiting the power plant. The study follows a cradle to gate assessment using the CML (2001) methodology. Findings The analysis reveals that the main impacts were during the process of combustion. The Global warming potential is approximately 0.50 kg CO2 equivalents per kWh of electricity generation from this gas-based power plant. These results can be used by stakeholders, experts and members who are authorised to probe positive initiative for the reduction of environmental impacts from the power generation sector. Practical implications Considering the pace of growth of economic development of India, it is the need of the hour to emphasise on the patterns of sustainable energy generation which is an important subject to be addressed considering India’s ratification to the Paris Climate Change Agreement. This paper analyzes the environmental impacts of gas-based electricity generation. Originality/value Presenting this case study is an opportunity to get a glimpse of the challenges associated with gas-based electricity generation in India. It gives a direction and helps us to better understand the right spot which require efforts for the improvement of sustainable energy generation processes, by taking appropriate measures for emission reduction. This paper also proposes a model for gas-based electricity generation in India. It has been developed following an LCA approach. As far as we aware, this is the first study which proposes an LCA model for gas-based electricity generation in India. The model is developed in line with the LCA methodology and focusses on the impact categories specific for gas-based electricity generation.
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Brusselaers, Nicolas, Selamawit Mamo Fufa, and Koen Mommens. "A Sustainability Assessment Framework for On-Site and Off-Site Construction Logistics." Sustainability 14, no. 14 (July 13, 2022): 8573. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su14148573.
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Urban areas pay increasing attention to new construction and infrastructure works, mainly due to the rapid global rise in urbanisation. In the long run, these works have a positive correlation with the economic and social attractiveness of cities. Construction strongly relies on logistics activities, which cannot be neglected in the environmental equation. An important aspect in tackling the negative effects of construction logistics (CL) lies in understanding the source and mitigation potential of the impacts incurred. However, currently, limited robust impact assessments are available for this sector. Given the lack of these rigorous assessments, it is difficult to evaluate the environmental criteria concerned, especially when comparing innovative CL solutions. In this paper, we present a holistic sustainability assessment framework designed for CL activities based on life cycle approaches, which covers four main iterative steps: (1) goal and scope definition, (2) data identification and availability, (3) scenario and setup evaluation and (4) environmental impact assessment. To measure both the off-site and on-site CL impact, two distinct and complementary methodologies are used: External Cost Calculations and Life Cycle Assessment. The framework was implemented on a pilot case in the Brussels-Capital Region (Belgium). It provides a holistic view of CL impacts for policy evaluations and implementations on the project, portfolio or city level. The results show that off-site zero-emission construction vehicles are the way forward if cities want to achieve environmental goals by 2035. However, market readiness for high-capacity vehicles must be considered. Otherwise, the positive effects on air pollution, climate change and noise are offset by a saturation of the road transport network and its associated congestion and infrastructure damage costs.
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Garcia-Martinez, Antonio. "BIM-Based Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment for Buildings." Sustainability 14, no. 19 (September 21, 2022): 11902. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su141911902.
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Alamu, Samuel O., Ayodeji Wemida, Tiyobistiya Tsegaye, and Gbekeloluwa Oguntimein. "Sustainability Assessment of Municipal Solid Waste in Baltimore USA." Sustainability 13, no. 4 (February 10, 2021): 1915. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13041915.
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Sustainability assessment of municipal solid waste management requires a holistic approach in evaluating the impacts of current technology and processes. In this study, the sustainability analysis of the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) incineration plant in Baltimore city was performed to determine its environmental, economic, and social impacts. The city’s major waste-to-energy generation plant has benefitted the city of Baltimore since inception till date in terms of waste processing, resulting in electricity and steam production for more than 40,000 homes and over 200 businesses. The life cycle impact of the incineration plant was analyzed using the Simapro life cycle assessment (LCA) software with the Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES) database for correlation. The results obtained upon analysis show larger values of Global Warming Potential and eutrophication potential as 6.46 × 108 Gg of CO2 equivalence and 2.27 × 106 Gg N equivalence, respectively. These values resulted from the higher amount of fossil CO2 and NOx emitted from the plant. The acidification potential of 1.66 × 1017 H+ mmole eq resulted from the SO2 emitted by the incineration plant. The incineration plant exceeded the limitations set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on NOx (150 ppm), which is detrimental to the well-being of people as shown by this study. Installing an improved processing technology such as a Selected Catalytic Reactor (SCR) can drastically reduce the NOx emission to 45 ppm. Life Cycle Assessment was confirmed suitable in evaluating the environmental impacts of the MSW-to-energy treatment approach.
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Sabanov, Sergei, Jyri Rivaldo Pastarus, and Julia Shommet. "Sustainability Assessment Methods In Oil Shale Mine Closure." Environment. Technology. Resources. Proceedings of the International Scientific and Practical Conference 1 (August 5, 2015): 271. http://dx.doi.org/10.17770/etr2011vol1.918.
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The post mining processes impacts on the environment, economy and people, whilst there may be positive contributions to the economy and social progress through mining there may also are negative impacts to the environment. The aim of this study is to elaborate sustainability assessment methodologies suitable for mine closure life cycle stage which allows defining hazardous influences on environment, society and economic dimensions, and helps quickly, conveniently and qualitatively solve, operate, find optimum variants for existing problems. The sustainability assessment methods will provides best decisions on the technological and post technological processes of a mining industry and can be used in the exploration, planning, exploitation and closure stages.
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Adhikari, Biraj, and Trakarn Prapaspongsa. "Environmental Sustainability of Food Consumption in Asia." Sustainability 11, no. 20 (October 17, 2019): 5749. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11205749.
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This study assesses the environmental sustainability of food consumption in Thailand, India, China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia by using a life cycle assessment. These five Asian countries were selected according to the differences in surface area, population density, GDP, and food consumption patterns. The data were obtained from Food and Agriculture Organization food balance sheets, Ecoinvent 3.4 and Agri-footprint 4.0 databases, and scientific publications. The environmental impact categories chosen were global warming, terrestrial acidification, eutrophication, eco-toxicity, human toxicity, and fossil resource scarcity. The impact assessment was carried out by using the ReCiPe2006 v1.1 method. Based on the analysis, the highest environmental impacts for all categories (except eutrophication) were from the food consumption in China, followed by the consumption in Japan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and India. The major contributors to these impacts were meat, cereals, animal products, and alcoholic beverages. Meat was the highest contributor in all countries except India, because of low meat consumption in India. A calorie intake analysis was also conducted, which showed reductions in environmental impacts by shifting towards calorie-adequate and non-environmentally intensive diets in Thailand, China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia. Therefore, a reduction in the consumption of meat, cereals, animal products, and alcoholic beverages could therefore enhance the environmental sustainability of food consumption.
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Gheewala, Shabbir H. "Life cycle thinking in sustainability assessment of bioenergy systems." E3S Web of Conferences 277 (2021): 01001. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202127701001.
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Increasing population and affluence have had a direct influence on increasing the energy demand of nations across the globe. Energy from non-renewable fossil resources has associated emissions of greenhouse gases contributing to climate change, a major challenge facing us today. The governments of many countries have tried to address the twin issues of limited local availability of fossil resources and greenhouse gas emissions by promoting the use of bioenergy. Bioenergy is not automatically sustainable unlike popular belief. Assessing its sustainability using a life cycle thinking approach reveals many caveats, not only regarding greenhouse gas emissions but also other environmental impacts that are often ignored. The environmental assessment of palm oil-based biodiesel shows the trade-offs when considering all the life cycle stages of the biofuel supply chain and also when multiple impact categories are considered. The so-called carbon neutrality becomes questionable and other impacts from agriculture arising due to the use of land and agrochemicals are also seen to be very significant. Ignoring these in policymaking could result in serious unintended consequences. Thus, the importance of life cycle thinking in sustainability assessment is illustrated. This will be critical in addressing national needs while also moving towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
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Shahbazbegian, Mohammadreza, and Ali Bagheri. "Rethinking assessment of drought impacts: a systemic approach towards sustainability." Sustainability Science 5, no. 2 (May 29, 2010): 223–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11625-010-0110-4.
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Henzler, Kristina, Stephanie D. Maier, Michael Jäger, and Rafael Horn. "SDG-Based Sustainability Assessment Methodology for Innovations in the Field of Urban Surfaces." Sustainability 12, no. 11 (June 1, 2020): 4466. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12114466.
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The sustainability of urban surfaces can be enhanced by introducing innovations. An ex-ante assessment of the potential sustainability impacts of innovations in urban areas can provide decision-makers with valuable recommendations for their selection before implementation. This knowledge helps to make the innovation more future-proof. Although a first methodological approach for such an assessment is available, there is no readily applicable set of indicators. Hence, this article proposes a holistic sustainability impact assessment method tailored to the management of urban surfaces and their innovations. For the development of the method, a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)-based, top-down approach is adopted. The proposed assessment method makes it possible to identify an innovation’s potential contribution to the achievement of the SDGs before its introduction. In this article, the assessment method is tested by evaluating the sustainability impacts of weed-suppressing joint filling sand on a walkway in a municipal cemetery in Southern Germany. The case study shows that a mixed impact of the innovation in the three dimensions of sustainability could be expected within the system boundary. It highlights the need for innovation optimization, mainly in the economic dimension. As a result, the introduced method can support the innovation process of urban surfaces for sustainable municipal development.
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Koo, Dae-Hyun, Samuel T. Ariaratnam, and Edward Kavazanjian. "Development of a sustainability assessment model for underground infrastructure projects." Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering 36, no. 5 (May 2009): 765–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/l09-024.
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The concept of sustainable development is receiving much attention throughout the global community. The concept embraces the traditional paradigm of infrastructure development and is expanding to a wider range of implications from social and environmental impacts caused by infrastructure development. Enhancement of sustainability is generally summarized using a triple bottom line approach of (i) minimizing environmental impact, (ii) maximizing economical benefit, and (iii) minimizing adverse social–cultural impact. Sustainability assessment should consider complications and interrelationships of all sustainability aspects throughout the entire life cycle. This paper presents a methodological development for a sustainability assessment modeling framework aimed at underground infrastructure construction projects. The modeling framework is based on assessing multiple proposed design alternatives and eliciting the most sustainable alternative through multiple assessment processes and a decision making process.
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Recchia, Lucia, Daniele Sarri, Marco Rimediotti, Paolo Boncinelli, Enrico Cini, and Marco Vieri. "Towards the environmental sustainability assessment for the viticulture." Journal of Agricultural Engineering 49, no. 1 (April 5, 2018): 19–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.4081/jae.2018.586.
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During the last decades in Italy the wine sector focused on the environmental sustainability of the production processes, including the agricultural, the agro-industrial and the packaging phases. Recent surveys highlighted that the wine consumers are interested in the environmental certifications, even if they are not familiar with them. Several environmental pressures can be evaluated in the viticulture phase, but an elevated number of the analysed impacts require the collection of a large set of input data and significant efforts during the elaboration phase. Therefore, the aim of the present work was the identification of the inventory data and impacts, which mainly describe the environmental pressures associated with the viticulture phase. Particularly, the results of the life cycle assessment (LCA) were integrated with those of a model and a simplified approach for evaluating the risks due to the pesticides use. The LCA identified three phases, which are responsible of 70-80% of the CO2eq (CO2 equivalent), the cumulated energy utilisation, the acidification potential (expressed in SO2 equivalent) and the eutrophication (expressed in PO4 equivalent), i.e. the harvesting, the crop protection and the ligature. The phase of the pesticides use was analysed also through the pesticides risk indicator (PERI) model and a simplified approach elaborated by the Regional Agency for the Environment Protection in Tuscany, Italy. Results concerning the environmental risk showed that the PERI model, the Arpat approach and the LCA were coherent for the pesticide mix highlighting that the associated environmental risk is more than doubled from 2004 to 2010. Finally, some operative indications were elaborated in order to reduce the impacts and improve the local and global environmental sustainability of the viticulture phase.
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Cöster, Mathias, Gunnar Dahlin, and Raine Isaksson. "Are They Reporting the Right Thing and Are They Doing It Right?—A Measurement Maturity Grid for Evaluation of Sustainability Reports." Sustainability 12, no. 24 (December 12, 2020): 10393. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su122410393.
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An accessible way to monitor company sustainability, is to study sustainability reports. In spite of wide adherence to the extensive Global Reporting Initiative standards, sustainability reports still vary considerably regarding how well these are integrated and used. The purpose of this paper is to present and test a maturity grid for sustainability reports assessment that enables critical stakeholder needs analysis of sustainability reports. Based on a stakeholder needs perspective we argue that the right thing in a sustainability report means reporting in the entire value chain for main sustainability impacts. Doing this right means having externally set targets for main sustainability impacts, using relevant absolute and relative indicators, and having an easy to read report presenting main performance compared to targets for a period of at least seven years. Some 50 sustainability reports from Swedish companies in various industries were collected and assessed using the maturity grid. Results indicate that the maturity grid is usable, but that the sustainability report assessment still is difficult, and that variability of the assessments are high. Furthermore, the observed indicative levels of measurement maturity in organizations are low suggesting that most companies still are struggling with understanding what sustainability means to them.
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Kamble, Sheetal Jaisingh, Anju Singh, and Manoj Govind Kharat. "Life cycle analysis and sustainability assessment of advanced wastewater treatment technologies." World Journal of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development 15, no. 2 (April 3, 2018): 169–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/wjstsd-05-2016-0034.
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Purpose Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have long-time environmental impacts. The purpose of this paper is to assess the environmental footprint of two advanced wastewater treatment (WWT) technologies in a life cycle and sustainability perspective and identify the improvement alternatives. Design/methodology/approach In this study life cycle-based environmental assessment of two advanced WWT technologies (moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) and sequencing batch reactor (SBR)) has been carried out to compare different technological options. Life cycle impacts were computed using GaBi software employing the CML 2 (2010) methodology. Primary data were collected and analysed through surveys and on-site visits to WWTPs. The present study attempts to achieve significantly transparent results using life cycle assessment (LCA) in limited availability of data. Findings The results of both direct measurements in the studied wastewater systems and the LCA support the fact that advanced treatment has the best environmental performance. The results show that the operation phase contributes to nearly 99 per cent for the impacts of the plant. The study identified emissions associated with electricity production required to operate the WWTPs, chemical usage, emissions to water from treated effluent and heavy metal emissions from waste sludge applied to land are the major contributors for overall environmental impacts. SBR is found to be the best option for WWT as compared to MBBR in the urban context. In order to improve the overall environmental performance, the wastewater recovery, that is, reusable water should be improved. Further, sludge utilisation for energy recovery should be considered. The results of the study show that the avoided impacts of energy recovery can be even greater than direct impacts of greenhouse gas emissions from the wastewater system. Therefore, measures which combine reusing wastewater with energy generation should be preferred. The study highlights the major shortcoming, i.e., the lack of national life cycle inventories and databases in India limiting the wide application of LCA in the context of environmental decision making. Research limitations/implications The results of this study express only the environmental impacts of the operation phase of WWT system and sludge management options. Therefore, it is recommended that further LCAs studies should be carried out to investigate construction and demolition phase and also there is need to reconsider the toxicological- and pathogen-related impact categories. The results obtained through this type of LCA studies can be used in the decision-making framework for selection of appropriate WWT technology by considering LCA results as one of the attributes. Practical implications The results of LCA modelling show that though the environmental impacts associated with advanced technologies are high, these technologies produce the good reusable quality of effluent. In areas where water is scarce, governments should promote reusing wastewater by providing additional treatment under safe conditions as much as possible with advanced WWT. The LCA model for WWT and management planning can be used for the environmental assessment of WWT technologies. Originality/value The current work provides a site-specific data on sustainable WWT and management. The study contributes to the development of the regional reference input data for LCA (inventory development) in the domain of wastewater management.
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Reddy, Krishna R., Sanjeeta N. Ghimire, Emmanuelle Wemeyi, Roya Zanjani, and Liang Zhao. "Life cycle sustainability assessment of geothermal heating and cooling system: UIC case study." E3S Web of Conferences 205 (2020): 07003. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202020507003.
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This study presents a sustainability assessment of geothermal heating and cooling system of three buildings at the University of Illinois at Chicago - Grant, Lincoln, and Douglas Halls based upon the triple bottom line sustainability framework and presents a comparison between geothermal and conventional heating and cooling systems. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to evaluate and quantify the environmental impacts for both geothermal and conventional systems. Similarly, economic impacts were evaluated by making a comparison between direct and indirect costs of both systems. Indirect costs were calculated using Stepwise 2006 incorporated in monetized LCA and compared that cost with social cost of carbon. Social impacts were quantified using Social Sustainability Evaluation Matrix (SSEM) which covers four major dimensions of society: social-individual, socio-institutional, socio-economic, and socio-environmental. An overall sustainability index for geothermal system and conventional system was calculated by evaluating environmental, economic, and social impacts using Integrated Value Model for Sustainability Assessment (MIVES) methodology. The results show that the geothermal heating and cooling system is more sustainable and environmentally friendly than the conventional system.
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Mantalovas, Konstantinos, and Gaetano Di Mino. "Integrating Circularity in the Sustainability Assessment of Asphalt Mixtures." Sustainability 12, no. 2 (January 13, 2020): 594. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12020594.
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Rising concerns about the impacts that the road engineering industry is imposing to the environment have redirected national road authorities to firmly re-consider the sustainability implications of their operations. Lately, though, sustainability has established a forceful correlation with the Circular Economy and its principles. The road engineering industry, therefore, is moving towards more circular approaches. However, this is occurring without the assessment of the potential impacts of such a transition. For this reason, in this study, a composite indicator, namely, Environmental Sustainability and Circularity indicator (ESCi), for investigating the potential effects that increased circularity could have at the environmental sustainability of asphalt mixtures is developed. It can be utilized as a decision-making support tool from stakeholders involved in both asphalt mixture production and road pavement management. In addition, in this study, four asphalt mixtures with different percentages of Reclaimed Asphalt (RA) were assessed in terms of their “cradle-to-gate” environmental impacts and circularity, by means of Life Cycle Assessment, and Material Circularity Index, respectively. Their fatigue and permanent deformation performances play a key role in the assessment and distinctive results obtained for the asphalt mixtures with increasing RA% and thus, significant environmental benefits and increased circularity are observed after specific RA% thresholds.
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Carvalho, José Pedro, Ismael Alecrim, Luís Bragança, and Ricardo Mateus. "Integrating BIM-Based LCA and Building Sustainability Assessment." Sustainability 12, no. 18 (September 10, 2020): 7468. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12187468.
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With the increasing concerns about building environmental impacts, building information modelling (BIM) has been used to perform different kinds of sustainability analysis. Among the most popular are the life cycle assessment (LCA) and building sustainability assessment (BSA). However, the integration of BIM-based LCA in BSA methods has not been adequately explored yet. This study addresses the relation between LCA and BSA within the BIM context for the Portuguese context. By performing an LCA for a Portuguese case study, a set of sustainability criteria from SBTool were simultaneous assessed during the process. The possibility of integrating BIM-based LCA into BSA methods can include more life cycle stages in the sustainability assessment and allow for normalising and producing more comparable results. BIM automates and connects different stages of the design process and provides information for multi-disciplinary data storage. However, there are still some constraints, such as different BSA/LCA databases and the necessity to manually introduce the embodied life cycle impacts of building materials. The scope of the BSA analysis can be expanded by integrating a complete LCA and be fostered by the support of BIM, effectively improving building sustainability according to local standards.
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Ajayi, Saheed O., Lukumon O. Oyedele, and Jamiu A. Dauda. "Dynamic relationship between embodied and operational impacts of buildings." World Journal of Science, Technology and Sustainable Development 16, no. 2 (April 1, 2019): 70–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/wjstsd-05-2018-0048.
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Purpose Buildings and their construction activities consume a significant proportion of mineral resources excavated from nature and contribute a large percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere. As a way of improving the sustainability of building construction and operation, various sustainable design appraisal standards have been developed across nations. Albeit criticism of the appraisal standards, evidence shows that increasing sustainability of the built environment has been engendered by such appraisal tools as Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), Code for Sustainable Homes (CfSH), Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficacy, among others. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of the appraisal standards in engendering whole lifecycle environmental sustainability of the built environment. Design/methodology/approach In order to evaluate the adequacy of sustainability scores assigned to various lifecycle stages of buildings in the appraisal standards, four case studies of a block of classroom were modelled. Using Revit as a modelling platform, stage by stage lifecycle environmental impacts of the building were simulated through Green Building Studio and ATHENA Impact estimator. The resulting environmental impacts were then compared against the assessment score associated with each stage of building lifecycle in BREAAM and CfSH. Findings Results show that albeit the consensus that the appraisal standards engender sustainability practices in the AEC industry, total scores assigned to impacts at each stage of building lifecycle is disproportionate to the simulated whole-life environmental impacts associated with the stages in some instances. Originality/value As the study reveals both strengths and weaknesses in the existing sustainability appraisal standards, measures through which they can be tailored to resource efficiency and lifecycle environmental sustainability of the built environment are suggested.
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Leon, Iñigo, Xabat Oregi, and Cristina Marieta. "Contribution of University to Environmental Energy Sustainability in the City." Sustainability 12, no. 3 (January 21, 2020): 774. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12030774.
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The environmental energy sustainability of universities has aroused great interest in recent years. In this study, environmental impact assessment tools are used to analyse the environmental impacts of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) since 2015 and to identify reform scenarios to make the university more sustainable. University campuses can be considered to be small cities that impact the environment of the cities where they are located. The environmental impacts of the UPV/EHU Gipuzkoa campus and the impacts on the city of Donostia-San Sebastián in which the university is located are analysed. The environmental impacts are calculated using simulation tools based on three-dimensional models of the university campus and the city. These results are compared with actual impact results from monitoring. The simulation results differ from the monitoring results but provide a rapid determination of the best future scenarios for a more sustainable university by taking the impacts on the city into account. This study enables the university to align its efforts with the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy.
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Sturlaugson, Brent, Rebekah Radtke, and Anita Lee-Post. "MEASURING UP: A CASE FOR REDRAWING THE SYSTEM BOUNDARIES OF SUSTAINABILITY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY." Journal of Green Building 14, no. 3 (June 2019): 159–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.3992/1943-4618.14.3.159.
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The primary goal of this paper is to examine the role that sustainability assessment and reporting plays in creating a sustainable campus for academic excellence. A prototype sustainability assessment and reporting system is developed for triple bottom line impact analysis of the built environment of the newly expanded and renovated Gatton College of Business and Economics at the University of Kentucky. The prototype system utilizes a toolkit to collect environmental, social, and economic data of the building's built environment for sustainable design performance analyses. The system also employs a comprehensive set of sustainability metrics to measure and report the building's triple bottom line impacts on academic success. In sum, our study succeeds in (1) expanding the definition and evaluation of campus buildings' sustainability to include environmental, social, and economic factors, (2) providing campus stakeholders with a toolkit for assessing the sustainability of campus buildings, and (3) creating a comprehensive sustainability metric for benchmarking and tracking campus buildings' triple bottom line impacts on academic success.
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Thongdejsri, Machima, and Vilas Nitivattananon. "Assessing impacts of implementing low-carbon tourism program for sustainable tourism in a world heritage city." Tourism Review 74, no. 2 (April 8, 2019): 216–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/tr-04-2017-0082.
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Purpose This study aims to illustrate the impact-assessment procedure of low-carbon tourism (LCT) program implemented in a world heritage city and to develop specific indicators toward sustainability. Design/methodology/approach The impact-assessment framework was indicator-based and designed for creating sustainable tourism (ST) in a case study. A set of indicators in various dimensions was developed and applied, referring to the UNWTO guideline. A mixed method of primary and secondary data collected from different sources included document review, site observation, key informant interview, questionnaire survey and focus-group discussions. Assessment of actual/observed impacts was proceeded based on the data collected from tourists and stakeholders, especially on tourist behaviors and resource consumptions. Findings The implementation of LCT program in a world heritage city provided impacts in different dimensions and characters. The observed activities were majorly tourism activities in accommodations and recreational places. The indicator initiation is the first development toward sustainability in a case of tourism study in a city destination. Indicators were developed with participation from key stakeholders and covered sustainability and carbon-emission dimensions. Impact-assessment results show a positive theme in less carbon emission, enhanced local income distribution and community capacity. However, the negative impacts include increased amounts of resource consumption and waste generation in visiting sites. The impact matrix works as the map for decision-makers to maximize benefits and manage the cons of the LCT program toward ST principles. Research limitations/implications Research methodology, procedure and results on impact assessment with holistic perspectives imply academic contribution and practical benefits for decision-makers regarding ST development. The number of samples and enterprises was limited because of the program implementation period. Originality/value The research illustrates the impact-assessment process for an implemented city-based LCT program toward ST, where stakeholder participation was also functioning. A list of indicators was specially designed and can be practically applied for other LCT programs in city destinations. Applying a sustainability impact-assessment framework to the program can provide a clear presentation on how to develop ST.
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Sajid, Zaman, and Nicholas Lynch. "Financial Modelling Strategies for Social Life Cycle Assessment: A Project Appraisal of Biodiesel Production and Sustainability in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada." Sustainability 10, no. 9 (September 14, 2018): 3289. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su10093289.
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Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) is a rapidly evolving social impact assessment tool that allows users to identify the social impacts of products along with their life cycles. In recent years, S-LCA methodologies have been increasingly applied to energy systems and resources with notable success yet with limited reliability and even less flexibility or geographic specificity. In response, this study develops a novel assessment tool, named the GreenZee model, to reflect the social impacts of products and their sustainability using local currency units. The model is developed through evaluating both qualitative and quantitative inputs that capture the perceived monetary value of social impacts. To demonstrate the operationalization of the model, we explore a hypothetical case study of the biodiesel industry in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), Canada. Results indicate that biodiesel production in NL would have positive socio-cultural impacts, high cultural values, and would create employment opportunities for locals. Overall, the GreenZee model provides users with a relatively simple approach to translate a variety of qualitative and quantitative social impact inputs (as importance levels) into meaningful and understandable financial outputs (as strength levels). We argue that building and testing models such as the GreenZee are crucial to supporting more flexible approaches to life cycle assessments that need to address increasingly complex social categories, cultural values, and geographic specificity.
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Mishra, Anshumali, Sarat Kumar Das, and Krishna R. Reddy. "Processing Coalmine Overburden Waste Rock as Replacement to Natural Sand: Environmental Sustainability Assessment." Sustainability 14, no. 22 (November 10, 2022): 14853. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su142214853.
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Waste rock dumped beside a surface coal mining site is termed coalmine overburden (OB) and is found suitable as a construction material. It requires preprocessing to be converted into the final construction material. The waste rock (cradle) processing to the final product (gate) involves transportation to the processing plant, crushing, screening, washing, and transportation from the processing plant to the client or project site. Preprocessing will cause environmental impacts. The present study performs a cradle-to-gate environmental impact assessment of waste rock to replace natural sand at a coal mine near Dhanbad, India. Life cycle environmental sustainability is assessed using the SimaPro® CML-IA baseline V3.07/EU+3 2000 impact method with the Ecoinvent 3.0 inventory. The data used was collected from an operational plant in the nearby area. The layout of a typical processing plant is also proposed in the study. The environmental impacts are reported in terms of abiotic depletion, global warming potential, ozone depletion potential, terrestrial ecotoxicity, human toxicity, eutrophication, acidification, and eutrophication. The manufacture of overburden sand (OBS) using a sustainable fuel and energy mix is more environmentally friendly. The environmental impacts can be drastically reduced if crushing is carried out using an onsite or mobile crushing plant.
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Felicioni, Licia, Martin Jiránek, and Antonín Lupíšek. "Sustainability assessment of waterproof membranes for radon mitigation in buildings." IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science 1085, no. 1 (September 1, 2022): 012056. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/1085/1/012056.
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Abstract Gas radon is the main source of ionising radiation for humans and the second cause of lung cancer, just after smoking. Radon is present in the ground, and its concentration differs soil by soil according to the permeability and the mineral composition. Since radon mainly penetrates a building through cracks and fractures at the foundation level, it is necessary to focus on that area. The problem of high radon indoors concentration is present largely in Europe and in those countries where the heating indoors is privileged since there is a high-temperature difference between outdoors and indoors in winter. The waterproof membranes placed continuously in the structures that are in contact with the soil are one of the cheapest and easy-to-install radon mitigation solutions. Membrane-based measures, like all remedial measures, represent operational and embodied environmental impacts; the lasts were more or less ignored so far. Still, as buildings are becoming energy-efficient and should ensure a high level of indoor comfort, the environmental impacts of these membranes are recognised as being noteworthy and shall be methodically examined. The paper aims to assess the contribution of embodied impacts of five macro-categories of membranes that could be installed to protect buildings against radon. The embodied impacts are calculated for the A1-A3 LCA stages and compared against each other in relation to one square meter and the radon resistance.
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Wu, Xiaofang, and Hsi-Chi Yang. "An Ecological Sustainability Assessment Approach for Strategic Decision Making in International Shipping." Sustainability 13, no. 20 (October 17, 2021): 11471. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su132011471.
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Relatively little attention is currently paid to understanding the ecological impacts of international shipping, although ecological sustainability has become a necessary condition for developing international trade. Sustainability assessment, which identifies the sustainability-oriented effects of developmental activities for supporting decision-making, has been widely used. This study attempts to propose an ecological sustainability assessment approach to serve international shipping development based on the general assessment steps initiated by the OECD and the multi-dimensional decision making (MDDM) model. Compared with the existing sustainability assessment methods, the proposed approach is unlikely to be restricted to data acquisition, indicators evaluation, or causal recognition. Through a case study, the results recommend not only to prioritize avoiding the negative impacts of international shipping on noise, air, plants, water, and animals but also to promote continuous improvement of the local ecosystem and international shipping, particularly in the conditions of sediment and micro-organism communities of Xiamen. This proposed approach as a supplement to the current sustainability assessment methodology helps to make informative and integrative strategic sustainability decisions associated with international shipping.
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Moulogianni, Christina, and Thomas Bournaris. "Assessing the Impacts of Rural Development Plan Measures on the Sustainability of Agricultural Holdings Using a PMP Model." Land 10, no. 5 (April 22, 2021): 446. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/land10050446.
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Rural Development Plan (RDP) measures support farmers in improving the sustainability of their agricultural holdings. The implementation of these policies has economic, social, and environmental impacts, which are monitored either ex-ante, ongoing, or ex-post, as required from the European Commission impact assessment guidelines. In this frame, this paper aims to assess the impacts of RDP measures on the sustainability of agricultural holdings. For this reason, a positive mathematical programming (PMP) model was developed and implemented in combination with a set of economic, social, and environmental indicators. The model was used to assess the ex-post impacts of the measure titled ‘Modernization of agricultural holdings’ of the Greek RDP 2007–2013. This research was conducted on a sample of 219 agricultural holdings in a region of northern Greece. The impacts were measured through the changes of the crop plan in the agricultural land. The results show that the measure has positive economic impacts, negative social impacts, and negative impacts on most of the environmental indicators. The results also underline the significant role of the impact assessment process in supporting policymakers in understanding the impacts of their policies.
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Jenkins, Bryan. "Recovery assessment: the process needed after impacts have exceeded sustainability limits." International Journal of Environmental Impacts: Management, Mitigation and Recovery 3, no. 3 (August 7, 2020): 272–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.2495/ei-v3-n3-272-283.
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Ni, Jinren, Liying Sun, Tianhong Li, Zheng Huang, and Alistair G. L. Borthwick. "Assessment of flooding impacts in terms of sustainability in mainland China." Journal of Environmental Management 91, no. 10 (October 2010): 1930–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2010.02.010.
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Presumido, Pedro Henrique, Fernando Sousa, Artur Gonçalves, Tatiane Cristina Dal Bosco, and Manuel Feliciano. "Environmental Sustainability in Beef Production and Life Cycle Assessment as a Tool for Analysis." U.Porto Journal of Engineering 6, no. 1 (April 29, 2020): 11–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.24840/2183-6493_006.001_0002.
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The sustainability of meat production systems has been highlighted by the impact on the environment and the conservation of natural resources. The aim of this manuscript is to provide a specific review of the environmental sustainability of beef production in a life cycle assessment (LCA) context. Questions about the main environmental impacts caused by beef production were discussed. The phases of the LCA were detailed as well as the main functional units, boundaries of the systems and categories of impacts used in recent studies. LCA is a fast, easy and intuitive method that correlates human activities and their environmental performance in different sectors, such as beef production.
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Wei, Jianing, Jixiao Cui, Yinan Xu, Jinna Li, Xinyu Lei, Wangsheng Gao, and Yuanquan Chen. "Social Life Cycle Assessment of Major Staple Grain Crops in China." Agriculture 12, no. 4 (April 9, 2022): 535. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12040535.
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The agricultural sustainable development for human well-being considers food security and ecological health as well as people’s socio-economic conditions. Nowadays, most of the holistic assessments of agricultural sustainability, mainly focus on food production and ecological consequences, relatively lacking analysis from the socio-economic perspective. In this context, this study constructs an agricultural social life cycle assessment model based on the guidelines of UNEP to assess the social and economic impacts on the three major staple grain crops in China, including maize, rice and wheat. The assessment model aims to analyze effects of stakeholders containing farmer, agricultural value chain actors, consumer, rural areas, society, and impact categories including high-quality growth of agriculture, a comfortable life in rural areas, the prosperity of rural people. The data is mainly from national statistical databases and representative industry databases. The impact assessment adopts social risk and social impact as quantitative characterization methods, and Analytical Hierarchical Process to obtain weights. The results show that: among the three major grain crops, farmers are the most important factors for stakeholders, and agricultural industrial development has the greatest potential negative impacts on society; maize has the most positive impacts on agricultural sustainable development in China.
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Navarro, Ignacio J., Víctor Yepes, and José V. Martí. "A Review of Multicriteria Assessment Techniques Applied to Sustainable Infrastructure Design." Advances in Civil Engineering 2019 (June 17, 2019): 1–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/6134803.
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Given the great impacts associated with the construction and maintenance of infrastructures in both the environmental, the economic and the social dimensions, a sustainable approach to their design appears essential to ease the fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations. Multicriteria decision-making methods are usually applied to address the complex and often conflicting criteria that characterise sustainability. The present study aims to review the current state of the art regarding the application of such techniques in the sustainability assessment of infrastructures, analysing as well the sustainability impacts and criteria included in the assessments. The Analytic Hierarchy Process is the most frequently used weighting technique. Simple Additive Weighting has turned out to be the most applied decision-making method to assess the weighted criteria. Although a life cycle assessment approach is recurrently used to evaluate sustainability, standardised concepts, such as cost discounting, or presentation of the assumed functional unit or system boundaries, as required by ISO 14040, are still only marginally used. Additionally, a need for further research in the inclusion of fuzziness in the handling of linguistic variables is identified.
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Wylynko, B., and A. Hartley. "SUSTAINABILITY: A NEW ERA IN APPROVALS PROCESSES." APPEA Journal 44, no. 1 (2004): 797. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/aj03043.
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With its in-principle approval of the Gorgon gas proposal, the Western Australian government has heralded a new era —the era of sustainability assessments.No longer confined to strict environmental criteria, sustainability assessments will also consider the economic and social aspects of proposed oil and gas developments. This has a number of ramifications for the legal framework within which existing approvals processes operate.This paper examines traditional environmental assessment as represented by the processes used by Western Australia and the Commonwealth (which will be applied to the Gorgon proposal). It finds that while economic and social factors are expressly included in the legal framework, these factors have not played a large role in either assessing the significance of proposal impacts or in determining the conditions to be placed on the proposals. In the case of Western Australia, in 1996 the Supreme Court overturned recommendations by the Environmental Protection Authority, and a subsequent decision by the Minister for the Environment, on the basis that they had considered extraneous economic factors.Soon after approving the Gorgon proposal, the Western Australian Government published a State Sustainability Strategy. The strategy calls for sustainability assessments to be built upon existing environmental assessment processes. Having outlined the traditional environmental assessment process, the paper draws out a series of principles that may serve as a starting point for discussion about how to create sustainability assessment processes from environmental assessment processes. Key principles include comprehensiveness and an articulation of the objectives to be met through the assessments.The notion of sustainability is gradually becoming incorporated into the environmental legal framework. Sustainability assessments may be the next step in the development of that framework.
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Mendonca, Savio Barros de, and Anne-Elisabeth Laques. "Sustainability Impact Assessment – An Overview with a Holistic and Transdisciplinary Perspective towards Agricultural Research." Environmental Management and Sustainable Development 6, no. 2 (July 7, 2017): 211. http://dx.doi.org/10.5296/emsd.v6i2.11333.
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It is important to insert agricultural research in this paper by considering it as a strategic area for providing knowledge and a technological base for agricultural production, considering that this sector generates outcomes with respective impacts to rural zones, supply-chain, economy, society and environment, representing a key piece for reaching United Nations objectives of sustainable development to each country and to the planet. Aiming to analyze how agricultural research organizations (as for instance: INRA and CIRAD, from France and EMBRAPA, from Brazil) have driving sustainability impact assessment methodologies and their interaction with transdisciplinary and holistic principles, using as a base innovation concepts. This paper will display an overview on concepts and approaches about sustainability impact assessment, but looking from a transversal perspective, passing by an historical description on impact assessment and on concepts related to sustainable development and sustainability. We will search for unedited models of sustainability impact systems by converging holism, transdisciplinarity and sustainability. There are several methodologies but few demonstrate an integrated view with a transversal perspective. It is also imperceptible any concrete governance-managerial system for sustainability impact assessment, considering every stage of the process, from a strategic to an operational level, including, analyzing environment, economy and society dimensions as one unique perspective. Such as a complex and multidimensional sector of economy, agricultural research requires profiled sustainability impact assessment with an innovative and dynamic approach.
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Mursidah, S., and A. M. Fauzi. "Sustainable sugarcane supply chain performance assessment: A review and research agenda." IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science 1063, no. 1 (July 1, 2022): 012039. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/1063/1/012039.
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Abstract Supply chain sustainability has become a popular concept used by several businesses to increase business competitiveness. However, there is no standard for measuring supply chain sustainability and business competitiveness. The objectives of this research were to analyze and criticize existing methods for supply chain sustainability assessment and develop a new framework for future research. This study reviewed 151 scientific articles related to supply chain sustainability assessments from 2004 to 2020. The results show that many techniques are used for sustainability assessments. However, no single technique can comprehensively measure supply chain sustainability. Therefore, a new robust technique that accommodates complex data in a sustainable supply chain is required. The technique to be developed is a machine learning technique because it can accommodate multi-criteria problems with various nonlinear relationships. This research is a case study of the sugarcane agroindustry supply chain. The supply chain of the sugarcane agroindustry faces various sustainability issues caused by negative environmental impacts. The analysis results show that using machine learning techniques to assess sustainability for the sugarcane agroindustry’s supply chain has great potential to be developed. Machine learning applications for this assessment can also be used to monitor the performance of organizations. Thereby organizations can enhance their sustainability performance through data-driven decision-making.
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Bergström, Pauline, Christopher Malefors, Ingrid Strid, Ole Jørgen Hanssen, and Mattias Eriksson. "Sustainability Assessment of Food Redistribution Initiatives in Sweden." Resources 9, no. 3 (March 9, 2020): 27. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/resources9030027.
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Food banks that redistribute surplus food from retailers and the food industry to people in need are not a new concept globally, but their connection to food waste prevention is new. As a result, new types of food redistribution units are emerging and diversifying to find new target groups and distribution methods. The aim of this study was to identify and study surplus food redistribution units in Sweden, and then to assess the impact on several sustainability indicators for selected redistribution units, in order to increase knowledge on the types of values these redistribution concepts generate. The methods used for analyzing the scenarios were Environmental Life Cycle Assessment, Life Cycle Costing and Social Life Cycle Assessment. The results showed that providing food bags to socially exposed people generated the largest reduction of greenhouse gas emissions per kg of redistributed food (−1.2 kg CO2 eq./FU). Reprocessing surplus food to a high-quality end-product was attributed a high social value, due to job creation effects in the high number of working hours required per kg of redistributed food. With regard to economic impacts, all but two scenarios studied had monthly financial losses, and therefore needed other sources of financial support.
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Gallou, Eirini, and Kalliopi Fouseki. "Applying social impact assessment (SIA) principles in assessing contribution of cultural heritage to social sustainability in rural landscapes." Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development 9, no. 3 (August 5, 2019): 352–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/jchmsd-05-2018-0037.
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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose the use of social impact assessment (SIA) principles to evaluate the contribution of cultural heritage to social sustainability, supporting both a people-centered and socially responsible approach to heritage management. Design/methodology/approach Specifically, the paper explores SIA as a methodological tool for post-project evaluation, used to define projects’ contributions to aspects of social sustainability through analyzing impacts of participation in a rural context case study, that of the Scapa Flow landscape heritage scheme in Orkney Islands, Scotland, UK. Findings Based on research findings from the thematic analysis of 40 semi-structured interviews on impacts (with heritage managers, planners and participants in the scheme), the paper proposes a combination of heritage value assessment process with social impact identification to achieve a context-relevant assessment of social sustainability. Existing research around social capital and sense of place supports the analysis of relevant impacts and heritage values. Findings support overlaps between socio-environmental impacts, when looking at the role of heritage for community well-being in rural contexts. Research limitations/implications The qualitative approach allows for a context-relevant, bottom up impact assessment and allows for multiple stakeholders perceptions to be included. Practical implications The proposed methodological approach has greater implications for the work of institutions and professionals involved in project evaluations that can inform participatory heritage project planning, ensuring high social relevance. Social implications Application of SIA principles in heritage sector can increase social benefits of heritage projects and enable wider community participation in processes of heritage management. Originality/value Through this case study, the effectiveness of SIA principles when applied in cultural heritage project evaluation is discussed, reflecting on a novel methodology for impact assessment in heritage.
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Husgafvel, Roope. "Exploring Social Sustainability Handprint—Part 2: Sustainable Development and Sustainability." Sustainability 13, no. 19 (October 6, 2021): 11051. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su131911051.
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Social sustainability is a major part of both sustainable development and sustainability including societal sustainability and overall promotion of more sustainable societies taking into account multiple social/society–environment relationships and interfaces. These contexts have a strong focus on both present and future generations, encompassing sustainable development of both people and the planet. Social sustainability handprints provide many opportunities to promote social sustainability management and assessment by organizations and people and to create changes and encourage actions that contribute to overall social and societal sustainability. This study applied qualitative approaches to explore social sustainability handprints from the perspectives of sustainable development, sustainability, social and societal sustainability and sustainability assessment and indicators. This study addressed a clear research gap and aimed at identifying key definitions, elements, approaches and development focus areas within these frameworks as well as at suggesting associated implications for social sustainability handprint development. The findings suggest that social sustainability handprints can be created through multiple actions, changes, innovations and impacts to promote social sustainability based on sustainable development, sustainability and social and societal sustainability. Various actors such as all types of organizations, individuals, groups and companies can implement these ways to create social sustainability handprints. In addition, there are multiple assessment approaches that can be applied to the assessment of social sustainability handprints such as sustainability management, assessment and indicators, encompassing multiple specific elements and approaches.
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Henke, Ilaria, Armando Cartenì, Clorinda Molitierno, and Assunta Errico. "Decision-Making in the Transport Sector: A Sustainable Evaluation Method for Road Infrastructure." Sustainability 12, no. 3 (January 21, 2020): 764. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12030764.
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The transport sector is often the center of political and scientific debate on sustainability due to negative externalities produced by the daily movement of goods and people which impact both on the environment and on quality of life. Great interest has therefore focused on impact estimation of transport infrastructures/services with respect to social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Among the consolidated assessment methods, the cost–benefit analysis (CBA) is one of the quantitative tools representing the final stage (decision) in decision-making processes, which compares design alternatives and verifies the sustainability of a transport project. Recently the Italian Government proposed the national “Guidelines for Assessment of Investment Projects” based on CBA. The aim of this research is twofold: a) from a research point of view, to propose a sustainable evaluating method for impact assessment of the new transportation infrastructure aimed in performing both rational and shared decisions with the territories; b) for a practical point of view, to propose a first application of the CBA Italian guideline useful for the professional practice in the field of public investment evaluation. A quantitative impacts assessment of social, economic and environmental sustainability was performed for a revamping project of a new “greenway” in the south of Italy. Furthermore, also the social equity impacts produced by the new road infrastructure was also quantified, estimating the GINI indexes variation as a measure of effectiveness.
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Chalmers, Stetkiewicz, Sudhakar, Osei-Kwasi, and Reynolds. "Impacts of Reducing UK Beef Consumption Using a Revised Sustainable Diets Framework." Sustainability 11, no. 23 (December 2, 2019): 6863. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11236863.
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The impact of beef consumption on sustainability is a complex and evolving area, as sustainability covers many areas from human nutrient adequacy to ecosystem stability. Three sustainability assessment frameworks have been created to help policy makers unpack the complexities of sustainable food systems and healthy sustainable dietary change. However, none of these frameworks have yet to be applied to a case study or individual policy issue. This paper uses a hybrid version of the sustainability assessment frameworks to investigate the impact of reducing beef consumption (with a concurrent increase in consumption of plant-based foods, with a focus on legumes) on sustainability at a UK level. The aim of this paper is to understand the applicability of these overarching frameworks at the scale of an individual policy. Such an assessment is important, as this application of previously high-level frameworks to individual policies makes it possible to summarise, at a glance, the various co-benefits and trade-offs associated with a given policy, which may be of particular value in terms of stakeholder decision-making. We find that many of the proposed metrics found within the sustainability assessment frameworks are difficult to implement at an individual issue level; however, overall they show that a reduction in beef consumption and an increase in consumption of general plant-based foods, with a focus around legumes production, would be expected to be strongly beneficial in five of the eight overarching measures which were assessed.
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Ribeiro, Matos, Jacinto, Salman, Cardeal, Carvalho, Godina, and Peças. "Framework for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of Additive Manufacturing." Sustainability 12, no. 3 (January 27, 2020): 929. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12030929.
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Additive manufacturing (AM) is a group of technologies that create objects by adding material layer upon layer, in precise geometric shapes. They are amongst the most disruptive technologies nowadays, potentially changing value chains from the design process to the end-of-life, providing significant advantages over traditional manufacturing processes in terms of flexibility in design and production and waste minimization. Nevertheless, sustainability assessment should also be included in the research agenda as these technologies affect the People, the Planet and the Profit: the three-bottom line (3BL) assessment framework. Moreover, AM sustainability depends on each product and context that strengthens the need for its assessment through the 3BL framework. This paper explores the literature on AM sustainability, and the results are mapped in a framework aiming to support comprehensive assessments of the AM impacts in the 3BL dimensions by companies and researchers. To sustain the coherence of boundaries, three life cycle methods are proposed, each one for a specific dimension of the 3BL analysis, and two illustrative case studies are shown to exemplify the model.
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Nguyen, Thu Trang, Helmut Brunner, and Mario Hirz. "Towards a Holistic Sustainability Evaluation for Transport Alternatives." European Journal of Sustainable Development 9, no. 4 (October 1, 2020): 1. http://dx.doi.org/10.14207/ejsd.2020.v9n4p1.
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The transport sector is responsible for a broad range of ecologic impacts, e.g., energy consumption, greenhouse gas emission or air pollution. It is therefore highly important to assess transport solutions in terms of their sustainability. Widely used approaches for sustainability analysis in the transport sector include life cycle assessment (LCA), economic approach, multi-criteria decision analysis (MDCA), and assessments based on indicators. In practice, these approaches consist of several methods, i.e., product-based LCA, fleet-based LCA, cost benefit analysis (CBA), cost effectiveness analysis (CEA), value measurement MDCA, ideal-solution based MDCA, outranking MDCA, and indicator-based assessment. Even though there is a larger number of assessment methods, a holistic framework for sustainability evaluation of different transport solutions is still missing. Selection of suitable assessment methods depends on a vast array of factors. This paper proposes to utilise “application levels” for the selection process. Firstly, the paper provides an analysis of the application levels of the common assessment methods and evaluation criteria within the transport sector based on a literature review. The application levels are illustrated by identifying two dimensions, namely system level and decision-making level, ranging from Low to High. Afterwards, a six-step framework for a holistic evaluation of transport alternatives is proposed.
Keywords: sustainability assessment, economic approach, indicator-based assessment, life cycle assessment, multi-criteria decision analysis, sustainable transport
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Estokova, Adriana, and Dagmar Samesova. "Sustainable Building Materials and Life Cycle Assessment." Sustainability 13, no. 4 (February 13, 2021): 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13042012.
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McCullough, Brian P., Madeleine Orr, and Nicholas M. Watanabe. "Measuring Externalities: The Imperative Next Step to Sustainability Assessment in Sport." Journal of Sport Management 34, no. 5 (September 1, 2020): 393–402. http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/jsm.2019-0254.
Full textAbstract:
A paradox exists between the ways sport organizations evaluate their economic impact, compared with their environmental impact. Although the initial sustainability and corporate social responsibility efforts of sport organizations should be celebrated, it is appropriate to call for the next advancement concerning the assessment and measurement of environmental sustainability efforts in sport organizations. Specifically, there is a need for improved and increased monitoring and measurement of sustainable practices that include negative environmental externalities. To usher this advancement, the authors first reviewed the extant research and current industry practice involving environmental impact reporting in sport. Second, the authors proposed a conceptual framework that expands the scope of environmental assessment to be more comprehensive. As such, this expanded, yet more accurate, assessment of environmental impact can identify specific aspects of the event and the inputs and outputs of the before and after event phases that can be curtailed or modified to reduce environmental impacts of sport events.