1,720,994 research outputs found
Emergy assessment of cinta senese breeding and comparison with conventional pig production
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La valutazione della sostenibilità ambientale mediante indicatori
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XI Convegno dell'Associazione Rete Italiana LCA. Resource efficiency e sustainable development goals: il ruolo del Life Cycle Thinking. Siena 22-23 giugno 2017. Atti
No full textIl volume raccoglie gli atti del XI Convegno della Associazione Rete Italiana LCA “Resource Efficiency e Sustainable Development Goals: il ruolo del Life Cycle Thinking”, svoltosi a Siena nei giorni 22 e 23 giugno 2017. I contributi scientifici sono stati selezionati attraverso un processo di double peer review gestito dal Comitato Scientifico dell’Associazione Rete Italiana LCA. I contributi qui pubblicati sono stati suddivisi in presentazioni orali e poster. Le tematiche trattate al Convegno riguardano i seguenti aspetti: resource efficiency e Life Cycle Thinking; Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment, economic growth and sustainable development goals; sviluppi metodologici di LCA, LCC e SLCA e integrazione con altri strumenti per studi di sostenibilità; Water - Food - Energy – Waste; PEF e OEF - esperienze applicative e possibili utilizzi nelle politiche ambientali. L’ultima sezione è dedicata al Premio Giovani Ricercatori LCA nella quale sono pubblicati i contributi scientifici dei primi tre classificati fra i 12 giovani ricercatori che hanno partecipato al concorso. Gli autori degli studi raccolti in questo volume sono rappresentativi di diverse realtà provenienti sia dal mondo accademico, sia da enti di ricerca pubblici e privati
Nitrogen Footprint accounting and food sustainability: Insights from the Italian wine industry
Full text linkAnthropogenic perturbation of the nitrogen cycle poses significant environmental and social challenges, highlighting the need for effective nitrogen management in sustainable food systems. The Nitrogen Footprint (N-Footprint) offers an innovative metric to quantify reactive nitrogen (Nr) emissions and trace their environmental pathways. This study refines a previous N-Footprint accounting framework to include both direct and indirect Nr emissions throughout the life cycle, providing a comprehensive perspective on Nr dynamics. The methodology is applied to a case study of Italian wine production, covering vineyard cultivation, winemaking, and bottling processes. Results indicate total emissions of 7.67 g Nr per 0.75 L wine bottle, with the vineyard phase accounting for 64.4 % of the overall impact, largely due to intensive fertilizer use. Water is identified as the most affected environmental compartment (55.7 % of emissions), primarily as a result of nitrate leaching. Additionally, the study quantifies the Virtual Nitrogen Factor (VNF) to evaluate nitrogen use efficiency. Italian wine production demonstrates relatively high efficiency (2.28 g Nr per gram of nitrogen intake) compared to other fruit-based products. However, the lack of a standardized N-Footprint methodology hinders cross-sectoral comparability. This research calls for the development of nitrogen-specific Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) standards to promote sustainable agricultural practices
Mapping the flows of ecosystem service values in the global land market: The winners and losers of large-scale land acquisitions
No full textEcosystem services support human society at both local and global scale. The globalization of supply chains led to proliferating ecosystem markets around the world. Biocapacity – the provision of biomass-based resources like food, fibers and the CO2 removal from atmosphere – of land-based ecosystems is particularly involved due to the nature of the services it provides. Since large scale-land acquisitions (LSLAs) commonly involve ecosystems or land located in the Global South and investors in the Global North, they may lead to the displacement of the benefits deriving from such ecosystems and their biocapacity. Previous studies investigated the LSLAs’ consequences in terms of ecological degradation. However, more research is needed for measuring the associated inequalities in order to track the global drivers of such degradation. This study aims to fill this knowledge gap by measuring net gains and losses of ecosystem service value linked with LSLAs by superseding the common approach and considering the involved countries’ biocapacity. The key novelty consists in backtracking the off-market value chain, which is an aspect so far unexplored among LSLAs studies. By focusing on the biocapacity economic value, we reveal that the growing trend in LSLAs is coupled with loss of benefits for the countries ceding land. The analysis captures the effect of the 2008 crisis which triggered more transactions, as well as the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, which exacerbated the already existing loss. Our analysis reveals that for every hectare of cropland acquired through international land markets in 2021, 15,000 US per hectare. Finally, we reveal that developing countries’ presence is growing among the expanding pool of investors, mostly acquiring from other developing countries. © 202
Rethinking environmental benefit allocation in industrial symbiosis
Full text linkIndustrial Symbiosis (IS) enables enterprises that typically operate independently to collaborate through the exchange of energy, materials, services, and knowledge. This approach helps reduce reliance on virgin resources, minimize waste, and contribute to climate change mitigation, among other impacts. Recently, the potential of this approach has gained attention, as policymakers are integrating IS into ambitious targets, such as 2050 climate neutrality. Moreover, initially mainly driven by cost savings, now IS is valued for its environmental gains. This shift has sparked interest in quantifying the advantages to both the overall network and individual enterprises. However, a standardized method for assessing these benefits has yet to be established. Most of the current methodologies found in literature and guidelines take a reductionist approach, addressing the multifunctionality issue in IS by isolating one or a few enterprises at a time, thus fragmenting the complex system. This approach, which focuses on identifying ‘who benefits’ among the enterprises involved in IS, overlooks the complexity of the entire system. To address the tension between the need for a systemic perspective and the desire to quantify each enterprise's contribution and environmental gains, this study proposes a new redistribution approach. This approach ensures that each enterprise improves its score in line with the overall rate of improvement in the industrial symbiosis, compared to a scenario where no symbiotic practices are implemented. This approach is based on the idea that, regardless of the types of products and organizations involved, the environmental benefits of IS are emergent properties of the entire industrial symbiosis network, a composite system. That is why rather than focusing on inputs, this approach redistributes the overall benefits and impacts across the network, shifting the allocation process from the Life Cycle Inventory stage to the Life Cycle Impact Assessment stage. © 2025 The Author
Environmental policies for GHG emissions reduction and energy transition in the medieval historic centre of Siena (Italy): the role of solar energy
No full textThe cities are playing a leading role in action to reduce the global CO2 emissions. In this paper a greenhouse gas (GHG) balance of the medieval historic centre of Siena (Tuscany, Italy) has been performed for the first time. It was compiled by a top down approach and according to the latest IPCC guidelines released in 2006. The results show a balance far from carbon neutrality and offer ideas for testing appropriate environmental policies based on improving energy efficiency (such as energy saving and integrated waste management) as well on transition towards renewable energies. The proposed strategies, and in particular the installation of photovoltaic panels on roofs, showed a substantial reduction in gross GHG emissions (−57%) in the short run (about 10 years) and enable carbon neutral status to be reached in the long run (about 30 years). Carbon status further improves when the electricity obtained from the photovoltaic panels is used for private/service sector needs (e.g. lights and electrical appliances), for public/household electric heating and for electric transport. Solar and other renewable resources represent the most desirable solution for decarbonisation but need specific concern in urban systems with a high degree of structural and historical constraints coherently with the scopes of the Global Protocol for Community-Scale GHG Emission Inventories
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