scholarly journals An Assessment of the Environmental Sustainability and Circularity of Future Scenarios of the Copper Life Cycle in the U.S.

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (20) ◽  
pp. 5624 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miranda R. Gorman ◽  
David A. Dzombak
Keyword(s):  
Population Dynamics ◽  
Regression Analysis ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Future Scenarios ◽  
Environmental Footprint ◽  
Scenario Analyses ◽  
Analysis Methodology ◽  
The U.S

Assessments of availability and sustainability of metals necessary for economic development into the future are important for planning by producers, consumers, and governments. This work assessed the U.S. copper life cycle and examined six future scenarios by which to assess the circular economy and sustainability of copper to 2030. Regression analysis methodology was used to identify relationships among seven drivers and eight materials flows. These relationships were used to develop six forecasts of future scenarios for U.S. production, consumption, old scrap collection, new scrap recovery, landfilling, and scrap exports of copper. Flow forecasts were used to quantify circularity and environmental footprint metrics to assess sustainability. Results of the scenario analyses provide insights into the types of behaviors and trends that could be incentivized to allow for increased circularity of copper. One such finding was that slow population growth and high urbanization resulted in the most circular scenario. Major limitations to circularity are import reliance and scrap exports. Analysis of the scenarios leads to the conclusions that population dynamics are critical to the circularity of copper, as well as that both environmental footprint metrics and circularity indicators must be considered when assessing environmental sustainability.

scholarly journals Environmental Impacts of Conventional versus Organic Eggplant Cultivation Systems: Influence of Electricity Mix, Yield, Over-Fertilization, and Transportation

Environments ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Spyros Foteinis ◽  
Maria Hatzisymeon ◽  
Alistair G. L. Borthwick ◽  
Efthalia Chatzisymeon
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Maximum Yield ◽  
Agricultural Practice ◽  
Environmental Footprint ◽  
Organic System ◽  
Cultivation Systems ◽  
Organic Cultivation

We report a comparative environmental study of organic and conventional open-field eggplant cultivation systems under Mediterranean (northern Greece) climatic conditions. Actual life cycle inventory (LCI) data were collected from local farm systems. Using life cycle assessment (LCA), organic eggplant cultivation exhibited better environmental performance per unit area (24.15% lower total environmental footprint compared to conventional cultivation), but conventional cultivation performed better per unit of mass (28.10% lower total environmental footprint compared to organic cultivation). The conventional system attained higher scores in eutrophication (up to 37.12%) and ecotoxicity (up to 83.00%) midpoint impact categories, due to the use of chemical fertilizer and pesticide. This highlights the need for spatially explicit LCA that accounts for local environmental impacts at the local scale. For both cultivation systems, the main environmental hotspot was groundwater abstraction for irrigation owing to its infrastructure (drip irrigation pipes and pump) and electricity consumption from the fossil fuel-dependent energy mix in Greece. Excessive addition of soil fertilizer greatly affected the environmental sustainability of both systems, especially conventional cultivation, indicating an urgent need for fertilizer guidelines that enhance environmentally sustainable agricultural practice worldwide. Results were sensitive to lower marketable fruit yield, with the organic system performing better in terms of environmental relevance with respect to maximum yield. When renewable energy sources (RES) were used to drive irrigation, both systems exhibited reductions in total environmental footprint, suggesting that RES could help decarbonise the agricultural sector. Finally, eggplant transportation greatly affected the environmental sustainability of both cultivation systems, confirming that local production and consumption are important perquisites for environmental sustainability of agricultural products.

scholarly journals Special Issue on Design and Manufacturing for Environmental Sustainability

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 855-856
Author(s):  
Yasushi Umeda
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Sustainable Manufacturing ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Circulation System ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Life Cycle Design ◽  
Design And Manufacturing

This is the fifth Special Issue on Design and Manufacturing for Environmental Sustainability. The first Special Issue on this topic was issued in 2009, and the previous one was in 2018. The acceptance of sustainability has been increasing, as evidenced by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), various carbon neutral movements, and, among others, the gradual recognition of potential impacts of the EU’s “Circular Economy,” which promotes circulation-based businesses to increase the employment and market competitiveness of the EU. This increase in acceptance has brought with it increased activity in the research area of design and manufacturing for environmental sustainability, with the result that this fifth Special Issue includes seventeen well-written papers, a significant increase over the six that appeared in the fourth. The first paper “Potential Impacts of the European Union’s Circular Economy Policy on Japanese Manufacturers” overviews the EU’s Circular Economy and points out key enabling technologies. To approach environmental sustainability, we should promote various technologies related to ecodesign, process technologies, business strategy, and digital technology. At the same time, we must focus on life cycle design and management, an indispensable technology which synthesizes a sustainable circulation system by integrating the technologies mentioned above. Accordingly, this Special Issue covers both aspects, with the seventeen manuscripts in it organized as follows. The first three papers, authored by Y. Umeda et al., K. Halada, and M. Kojima, give overviews and discuss requirements for technological development. The next two manuscripts by K. Fujimoto et al. and Y. Kikuchi et al. discuss modeling, simulation, and assessment of circulation systems. Papers six to eight, written by W.-H. Chung et al., S. Yamada et al., and K. Yoda et al. develop life cycle design methods. The remaining manuscripts advance fundamental technologies. Manuscripts nine to eleven, by R. Yonemoto et al., T. Samukawa et al., and Y. Yaguchi et al., deal with sustainable manufacturing. Finally, six manuscripts by C. Tokoro et al., K. Tsuji et al., A. Ogawa et al., A. Yoshimura et al., T. Hiruta et al., and S. Nasu et al. are about life cycle processes; recycling technologies and product use phase such as car sharing and maintenance. Most of the papers, revised and extended in response to the editor’s invitations, were originally presented at EcoDesign 2019: the 11th International Symposium on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing, held in Yokohama, Japan. The editor sincerely thanks the authors and reviewers for their devoted work in making this Special Issue possible. We hope that these articles will encourage further research into design and manufacturing for environmental sustainability.

scholarly journals Evaluation of the Environmental Sustainability of Hemp as a Building Material, through Life Cycle Assessment

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 1215-1228
Author(s):  
Salvatore Emanuele Di Capua ◽  
Luisa Paolotti ◽  
Elisa Moretti ◽  
Lucia Rocchi ◽  
Antonio Boggia
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Building Material ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Embodied Energy ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Ecological Design ◽  
Sustainable Procurement

Abstract Environmental issues, especially those related to the over-exploitation of natural resources, are leading towards considering alternative solutions and new approaches, such as the circular economy. Currently, some key elements of the circular economy approach are sustainable procurement of raw materials, improvement of production processes and ecological design, adoption of more sustainable distribution and consumption models, development of secondary raw material markets. This work aims to analyse the use of hemp as a building material, replacing traditional construction materials, but respecting at the same time the thermal, insulating and acoustic characteristics required in the construction of a building. The methodology used was Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which considered the hemp cultivation phase and the production phase of hemp-lime (“hempcrete”) walls. The hempcrete product was compared with two different solutions: a hemp and lime block, and a traditional perforated brick block with external insulation in polystyrene. In particular, the differences among the products in terms of embodied energy and net CO2 emissions were analysed. Results showed that the hempcrete wall had better environmental performances than the other two solutions.

Special Issue on Design and Manufacturing for Environmental Sustainability

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 805-805
Author(s):  
Yasushi Umeda
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Product Life ◽  
Product Life Cycles ◽  
Design And Manufacturing ◽  
Part Selection ◽  
Multiple Product

This is the fourth special issue on design and manufacturing for environmental sustainability. While Japanese manufacturers are not so active in this field, the trend of integrating sustainability into manufacturing activities and management of companies is becoming dominant. We can point out three epoch-making instances: namely, United Nations’ ‘Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),’ which consists of 17 goals to be achieved by 2030, covering not only environmental sustainability but also social and human sustainability; EU’s ‘Circular Economy,’ which promotes various routes for resource circulation (e.g., reuse, remanufacturing, maintenance, and recycling) for increasing employment and market competitiveness of EU and resource efficiency; and ‘Paris Agreement’ on climate change, which enforces reduction of the emission of greenhouse gases to zero by the end of this century. This special issue includes six well-written papers, all of which are deeply related to these three policies. The first four papers focus on product life cycle or even multiple product life cycles. This aspect is an inherent feature of design and manufacturing for environmental sustainability, which was not considered in traditional design and manufacturing. The keywords of these four papers are life cycle CO2 emission evaluation of electric vehicles, life cycle simulation of reuse among multiple product life cycles, disassembly part selection based on the idea of life expectancy, and personalization design aiming at avoiding mass production and mass disposal. The latter two papers are rather fresh in this journal. The fifth paper deals with customer preferences in Indonesia. Focusing on life styles in developing countries is a very important topic emphasized in SDGs. The last paper deals with food waste, which is emphasized in both SDGs and Circular Economy. Most of the papers, revised and extended in response to the editor’s invitations, were originally presented at EcoDesign 2017: the tenth International Symposium on Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing, held in Tainan, Taiwan. The editor sincerely thanks the authors and reviewers for their devoted work in making this special issue possible. We hope that these articles will encourage further research on design and manufacturing for environmental sustainability.

scholarly journals Environmental Sustainability Assessment of Dairy Farms Rearing the Italian Simmental Dual-Purpose Breed

Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Baldini ◽  
Francesco Da Borso ◽  
Andrea Rossi ◽  
Mario Taverna ◽  
Stefano Bovolenta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Real Data ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Assessment Method ◽  
Environmental Footprint ◽  
Dual Purpose ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
Scenario Analyses

This study aimed to assess the environmental footprint of dairy farms rearing a dual-purpose breed, and to evaluate, through alternative scenario analyses, the fattening of calves and the cultivation of hemp as strategies for reducing the environmental impact of these farms. Eleven farms were evaluated for global warming (GWP), acidification (AC) and eutrophication (EUP) potential. The Life Cycle Assessment method with three scenarios, REAL, based on real data, BEEF, where calves were fattened in farm, and HEMP, where hemp was cultivated in farms, were considered. If referred to 1 m2 of utilizable agricultural land, the GWP, AC and EUP were 1.6 kgCO2eq, 21.7 gSO2eq and 7.1 gPO43−eq, respectively. If referring to 1 kg of fat and protein corrected milk, the emissions were 1.1–1.4 kgCO2eq, 14.8–19.0 gSO2eq, and 5.0–6.4 gPO43−eq, depending on the allocation method adopted. The emissions were associated positively with culling rate and negatively with production intensity. In BEEF and HEMP scenarios, the emissions were reduced by 8–11% and by 1–5%, respectively. Fattening the calves, evaluating the cultivation of alternative plants and improving the productive and reproductive efficiency of animals could be effective strategies for reducing the environmental footprint of the farm.

scholarly journals Life cycle assessment and circularity indicators

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucia Rigamonti ◽  
Eliana Mancini
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Partial View ◽  
High Degree ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Purpose In a context where the transition to a circular economy is increasingly required, it is necessary to clarify the relationship between sustainability and circularity. In this commentary we summarise what are circularity indicators and what is LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), and we discuss their potential role in improving circular decision making. Methods Based on literature, a focus on how circularity indicators and LCA could be used in circular decision making is presented. Moreover, an analysis of recent studies has been carried out to identify the relationship between LCA and circularity indicators. Results and discussion We can state that no authors have concluded that circularity indicators can be used alone to choose the best option in circular economy projects. This is because the circularity indicators only provide a partial view on the environmental performance of a system. At the same time, it appears that the circularity indicators are easier to communicate, and a high degree of circularity could help to build good relationships with customers and increase reputation among stakeholders, as well as to have an easier access to funding. Conclusions and recommendations At the end, we propose a procedure to include both the LCA and the circularity measurement in the assessment of circular economy strategies. While still at an early stage of conceptualisation, it gives an idea on how to integrate environmental sustainability aspects into circular economy initiatives.

scholarly journals Ecological sustainability methodology for logistic chains of milk supply

2019 ◽  
Vol 140 ◽  
pp. 01003
Author(s):  
Sergei Korolev ◽  
Julia Ertman ◽  
Sergei Ertman
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Life Cycle Analysis ◽  
Product Life Cycle ◽  
Raw Milk ◽  
Ecological Sustainability ◽  
Milk Supply ◽  
Level Scale

This article considers the importance of assessing the environmental impact of logistics supply chains in the transition to a circular economy. We propose to use product life cycle analysis as a base assessment, decomposing raw milk supply chains and assessing the environmental im-pact of packages of various process options and supply chain configurations. As a result, we have obtained the checklist for assessing the environmental sustainability of supply chains and developed a three-level scale. An example of applying the developed methodology for evaluating three different enterprises of the Tyumen region is given. Based on the results ob-tained, we can draw conclusions about the possibilities of practical use and the directions of the following studies.

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