1,721,011 research outputs found
L'analisi del flusso dei materiali usati in Italia come indicatore della qualità delle merci
No full text
Global warming potential of food waste through the Life Cycle Assessment: An analytical review
No full textFood loss and waste represent an increasing concern under social, economic and environmental perspective, either in developed or developing realities. It is estimated that more than 1.3 billion tons of food waste are generated along the whole food supply chain, from agricultural to final consumption stages, with associated environmental impacts estimated in approximately 3.3 Gigatons of CO2 equivalent per year (6% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gases emissions). Indeed, food waste issue has been accounted among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in terms of responsible production and consumption, with the aim of halving per capita global food waste and reduce food losses by 2030. The present paper, through a systematic, analytical and configurative review on food waste global warming potential, focuses on the role of Life Cycle Assessment and its related opportunities and challenges along upstream, core and downstream stages, considering at the same time the challenges embedded within alternative disposal technologies. Through the choice of 16 different research string and the selection of 33 papers out of more than 2000 articles between 2011 and 2021, the authors highlight the environmental impacts associated to food waste with regards to: (a) entire food baskets; (b) specific food commodities; (c) food service and households' experiences; (d) diverse disposal alternatives (e.g., anaerobic digestion, incineration, landfill), addressing future research and suitable opportunities to reach national and international sustainable goals
A combined assessment of the energy, economic and environmental performance of a photovoltaic system in the Italian context
No full textPolicymakers are increasingly moving towards greater investments in research in the renewable energy sector, in order to reduce costs, making private investment affordable, so as to accelerate the achievement of grid parity. This evidence boosts for investigating the way the convenience of investing in a solar photovoltaic (PV) system, in Italy, is unrelated to any form of public incentive. Under this perspective, this paper is focused upon designing a residential 3 kW PV system and providing a full set of indicators for the assessment of its multi-dimension performance in an holistic, integrated approach. Particularly, energy and environmental indicators, likewise the Energy Payback Time (EPBT), Energy Return on Investment (EROI) and Environmental Impact Mitigation potential (EIMP) allowed the authors to measure some of the relevant sustainability-related issues of a residential PV system. Those were found to be equal to 1.35 years, 7.05 and 23,215 kg CO2 eq, respectively. Whereas, the authors used the Levelized Cost of Energy (0.15064 euro/kWh), the Net Present Value (euro 2881), and the Payback Period (8.26 years), to evaluate the economic and financial feasibility of the PV system modelized. The variations of EPBT and EROIEL with respect to solar radiation and the efficiency of the PV system and LCOE to discount rate and initial investment cost have been investigated through a sensitivity analysis
Sulle analogie fra fatti economici e fatti biologici e un dimenticato saggio di Herman Daly
No full textClient-side energy and GHGs assessment of advertising and tracking in the news websites
No full textElectronic devices consume energy both in the production and the use phase. Furthermore, the “hidden” impacts linked to their use are not frequently assessed and they depend on the behavior of the users, besides the servers and complex web networks. It must be underlined that many websites employ ads and trackers as part of their monetization strategy and, in order for online ads and trackers to work, they add an additional code to be executed on the users’ machines, which in turn requires more processing power. Considering that the Internet had an estimated 4.9 billion users in 2021, the global energy and carbon impacts of online ads and trackers might be significant. To investigate this phenomenon, we designed a novel automated framework for bottom-up estimation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions attributable to software using exclusively free and open source software. Our process involved the building of a random sample of global news websites which we visited with and without an ad-blocker, each time collecting power usage in identical conditions. The gathered data were put into an ordinary least squares (OLS)-based linear regression model, which showed that ads and trackers on news websites require on average an additional 6.13 W of power on personal computers. This result was then tuned to global environmental and technological parameters to estimate that in 2019, on the client side, ads and trackers on the news websites consumed 0.61 TWh of electrical energy, emitted 0.29 MtCO2eq of GHG, and cost all Internet users approximately 140 million USD (purchasing power parity) of electrical energy. This article met the requirements for a gold-gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges
CIRCULAR ECONOMY AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION IN BULGARIAN TOURISM
No full textTourism is one of the main sectors in Bulgaria with a total share of 12% of the GDP of the country. In 2016 the tourism budget is about 6 mln euros, which is 0.5% of the whole budget. Tourism, like every human activity, affects the environment. Tourism influences and is influenced by it. So, the interrelationship between tourism and the environment is complex and constantly transformed. In light of these considerations, a research study has been
conducted in order to calculate the carbon footprint of typical 4-star hotels in the region of Varna. The choice of the calculation of the carbon footprint has been made because it represents an important environmental certificate useful for green marketing strategies
Has the COVID-19 pandemic changed food waste perception and behavior? Evidence from Italian consumers
Full text linkFood waste represents a multi-sectoral issue and influences the economy, society and environment. Considering that over 50% of food waste is generated from household consumption, the issue has been included among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, with the aim of halving its quantity by 2030. However, the COVID-19 pandemic imposed several variations in the agri-food industry in terms of food manufacturing, storage and distribution, changing at the same time food access, food consumption and food waste behavior. The present paper, through an online-based questionnaire among 831 respondents from Italy and the application of the cumulative logit model, investigates consumer behavior after the lockdown with reference to unpredictable lifestyles, improvements in smart food delivery and never-experienced time management. Results illustrate that always-at-home consumers (forced to stay at home 24 h a day) are more likely to perceive food waste and reduce its amount, whereas discontinuous smart working makes food purchase, preparation and consumption activities even more stressful and complex. Furthermore, smart food delivery tends to increase consumers’ awareness of meals, improving buying decisions and indirectly reducing food waste generation. The unjustifiable prevalence of household food waste represents a major barrier to the achievement of food security, health insurance and hunger reduction, but also the most promising entry point to stress in the achievement of private and public benefits. Thus, the active role of education among young generations must be enhanced
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