scholarly journals On the Road to Circular Public Procurement: Case, Variations, and Potential Actions in Germany

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 13784
Author(s):  
Simone Wurster ◽  
Rita Schulze ◽  
Ramona G. Simon

According to the United Nations, the consumption of materials is expected to double between 2020 and 2050. At the same time, annual waste generation is forecast to increase by 70% by 2050. The circular economy (CE) addresses this problem. However, many barriers to the further development of the CE exist. This article analyses the situation of public procurement in supporting a sustainable CE for tyres in Germany based on 18 interviews with public procurement professionals directly responsible for the purchase of tyres and four additional expert interviews. Based on the dimensions ‘current circular public procurement (CPP) intensity’ and ‘current CPP opportunities’, a classification of tyre procurement situations and barriers to sustainable circular tyre procurement is presented. Strategies to overcome these supply-side and demand-side barriers are specified, resulting in nine recommendations for German policymakers. As a way forward, a detailed concept for a pilot project on tyre CPP is provided. The article also shows how the circular public procurement classification can be used to support sustainability measures in a broader context. Finally, the article’s outlook focuses on implications to promote sustainable circular tyre procurement in other countries. It explains different framework conditions and elaborates to what extent additional research is necessary to develop appropriate recommendations for those conditions.

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
M Jevtic ◽  
C Bouland

Abstract Public health professionals (PHP) have a dual task in climate change. They should persuade their colleagues in clinical medicine of the importance of all the issues covered by the GD. The fact that the health sector contributes to the overall emissions of 4.4% speaks to the lack of awareness within the health sector itself. The issue of providing adequate infrastructure for the health sector is essential. Strengthening the opportunities and development of the circular economy within healthcare is more than just a current issue. The second task of PHP is targeting the broader population. The public health mission is being implemented, inter alia, through numerous activities related to environmental monitoring and assessment of the impact on health. GD should be a roadmap for priorities and actions in public health, bearing in mind: an ambitious goal of climate neutrality, an insistence on clean, affordable and safe energy, a strategy for a clean and circular economy. GD provides a framework for the development of sustainable and smart transport, the development of green agriculture and policies from field to table. It also insists on biodiversity conservation and protection actions. The pursuit of zero pollution and an environment free of toxic chemicals, as well as incorporating sustainability into all policies, is also an indispensable part of GD. GD represents a leadership step in the global framework towards a healthier future and comprises all the non-EU members as well. The public health sector should consider the GD as an argument for achieving goals at national levels, and align national public health policies with the goals of this document. There is a need for stronger advocacy of health and public-health interests along with incorporating sustainability into all policies. Achieving goals requires the education process for healthcare professionals covering all of topics of climate change, energy and air pollution to a much greater extent than before.


Author(s):  
Petr Vácha ◽  
Ladislav Bělovský

The helium-cooled Gas Fast Reactor (GFR) is one of the six reactor concepts selected for further development in the frame of the Generation IV International Forum (GIF). Since no gas cooled fast reactor has ever been built, a small demonstration reactor is necessary on the road towards the full-scale GFR reactor. A concept of this demonstrator is called ALLEGRO. The French Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA) developed between 2001–2009 a pre-conceptual design of both the full-scale GFR called GFR2400 and the small demonstration unit called ALLEGRO (75 MWt). Since 2013 ALLEGRO has been under development by several partners from Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. No severe accident study of ALLEGRO using a dedicated computer code has been published so far. This paper is the first attempt to perform computer simulations of the ALLEGRO CEA 2009 concept, using MELCOR version 2.1. A model of the ALLEGRO CEA 2009 concept has been developed with the aim to perform safety analyses; to confirm that MELCOR can be used for such a study, to investigate what scenarios lead to a severe accident and to study in detail the progression of the severe accident during the in-vessel phase. Several pressurized and depressurized protected scenarios were investigated; four of them are presented in this paper. It was observed that even long-lasting station blackout (SBO) without further failures of the passive safety systems does not lead to a severe accident as long as there is enough water in the decay heat removal (DHR) system. Loss of coolant (LOCA) transients with DHR system in the forced-convection mode can lead to peak cladding temperatures causing limited core damage in the early phase of the accidents, but without further development into core meltdown. On the other hand, LOCA combined with SBO leads to excessive core melting in orders of minutes, which represents a weak point of ALLEGRO 2009 concept. Recommendations were formulated for the further development of the ALLEGRO concept.


2015 ◽  
pp. 99
Author(s):  
Zsófia Schön

This paper aims to present the first steps of a corpus based dialect dictionary of postpositions in several Khanty dialects and subdialects. Based primarily on specifically elicitated data from more than fifty informants, this ongoing project focuses not only on the semantic properties of this part of speech in Khanty, but also on the morphology and combinatorics as exhibited by (sub)dialectal microvariation. Special attention is paid to two of the Northern dialects – Kazym and Shuryshkary Khanty – and to one of the Eastern dialects – Surgut Khanty.The lexicon entries have been compiled according to TEI P5 guidelines in XML format, while the corpus data is stored in a MySQL database. A web application combining the lexicon with the corpus data, sound files, annotations and metadata is currently under construction.As a multilingual dialect dictionary of Khanty postpositions, this project hopes to fill a gap in current research on Khanty: namely the lack of easily accessible digital dictionaries. It is designed to be a pilot project for forthcoming digital Khanty dictionaries.


2017 ◽  
Vol 99 (904) ◽  
pp. 13-16

Every day, people all over the world leave their homes in search of a better life. On the road, many go missing. The mandate of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to protect the lives and dignity of victims of armed conflict and other situations of violence includes, in certain contexts, protection of vulnerable migrants. The ICRC missing migrants pilot project aims to locate or clarify the fate of Zimbabwean migrants who went missing in South Africa, on behalf of their families. The ICRC aims to work with South African and Zimbabwean authorities to support and enhance existing systems, tools and resources used for locating missing relatives, living or dead. Additionally, the ICRC carries out and supports the activities of National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in the region to restore contact between and where possible reunify family members, in particular children, who have been separated by conflict, migration, displacement or natural or man-made disasters.The Review has chosen to open this issue with the stories of family members of missing migrants in Zimbabwe. The section aims to show the everyday struggle, sometimes lasting for many years, of those that live with continuous uncertainty regarding the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones. As a result of the disappearances associated with migration, families searching for missing relatives often face a range of needs and challenges. These persons chose to share their life stories with the Review, allowing our readers to understand the intricate balance of uncertainty, hope and the “need to know” that family members of missing migrants live with every day. The testimonies were given to the ICRC in Zimbabwe in November 2017. In order to protect the families, their names have been omitted.


Author(s):  
Bernhard Schmiedel ◽  
Frank Gauterin ◽  
Hans-Joachim Unrau

Road wetness can lead to a significant loss in tyre traction. Although a driver can easily distinguish between dry and wet roads, the thickness of a water film on the road (wetness) and its impact on the vehicle dynamics are more difficult for a driver to classify. Furthermore, autonomous vehicles also need a graded classification of road conditions. There are known sensors, which are able to classify road conditions, but these are either not able to quantify the road wetness or are not suitable for mass production. Therefore, this work analyses a method to measure the road wetness by analysing tyre spray with plain acceleration sensors at positions like wheel arch liner or side skirt. It discusses influences of vehicle speed, road wetness, tyres, road structure and sensor positioning. The results show that a quantification of road wetness is possible, but it relies on the sum of all boundary conditions.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document