To lessen the residential sector environmental burdens from the energy consumption of household appliances, notable efforts have been directed to replace existing energy-consuming appliances by new ...energy-efficient equipment. However, less attention has focused to understand the optimum operating period of households so reduced greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved. Conventional household appliances should be preferably replaced with new designs featuring improved energy efficient models, along with reduced environmental burdens associated with the manufacturing of the new products. Such studies, to the best of our knowledge, have not been extensively investigated. To address this gap, the global warming potential during the life cycle of three representative household appliances, a microwave oven, a dishwasher and a washing machine is analyzed using a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment. To provide guidelines towards impact reduction, the current situation and four new scenarios focused on material efficiency, recycled material, renewable electricity and responsible consumption are analyzed. Depending on the scenario, impacts of 84–261, 317–1330, and 533–1375 kg·CO2 eq/lifetime are obtained for a microwave, a dishwasher and a washing machine, respectively. Balancing energy efficiency and life-time when replacing a class A appliance, operating periods of 3.4–30, 2.7–26.2 and 4.6–33.9 years for microwaves, dishwashers, and washing machines, render the lowest CO2 footprint. These results may assist manufacturers, policymakers and citizens to promote environmentally sustainable production and consumption patterns.
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•This study quantifies carbon private transport emissions in rural and urban settings.•A low developed rural area shows a less pollutant transportation pattern than the selected urban area.•This ...study provides specific emissions for seven private transportation type during the life cycle.•This research provides better understanding for policymakers to boost sustainable private transportation.
The current fossil fuel-based passenger transport model does not correspond to the specific characteristics of the different urban and rural realities, so the shift to sustainable transport needs to be performed by understanding the particularities of each case. Thus, the goal of this research has been to comprehensively clarify the differences between urban and rural settings when estimating and comparing life-cycle carbon emissions from private transportation systems. From the Colombian region of Tolima, we have selected for analysis the municipalities of Ibagué and Venadillo as urban and rural areas, respectively. Private transportation systems have been modelled through a Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) that allowed us to obtain the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of gasoline, diesel and electric cars, electric and fuel-based motorcycles and electric and conventional bikes. The results show that, on average, emissions from the analysed urban area (140 g CO2-eq·pkm−1) are 23% higher than those of the rural case study (110 g CO2-eq·pkm−1). This article concludes that, if the average travelled distance and number of per-day trips are taken into account, great differences are striking: for the capital city of Tolima, the average daily emissions per passenger (2,000 g CO2-eq·p−1·day−1) is 120% higher than that of the rural area.
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Circular Economy principles encourage the implementation of bio-based and renewable materials over non-renewable technical counterparts. Wood-based materials can effectively address finite resource ...depletion and the accumulation of non-biodegradable waste into terrestrial and marine environments. In this context, the furniture industry has long relied on the use of wood for manufacture goods. However, the use of renewable materials is not directly translated into sustainable consumer goods. Accordingly, this work analyzes the life cycle environmental impacts of an eco-designed and locally-manufactured wooden bunk bed and compares local and international market scenarios to understand its cradle-to-grave environmental footprint. Using primary data, the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology is followed to quantify and compare the environmental impacts of a currently commercially available wooden bunk bed over alternative scenarios. To facilitate future comparison, 1 kg of furniture is used as a functional unit. The cradle-to-grave system boundaries are established according to the reference “Furniture, except seats and mattresses” Product Category Rule. The upstream, core and downstream life-cycle stages are considered, and the environmental impacts are presented into eight different categories. To provide the bigger picture, obtained results are compared with literature. A cradle-to-grave CO2-eq footprint of 1.71 kg per kg of an already eco-designed bunk bed is obtained, 15.1% below average traditional furniture. The downstream stage contributes to the 58.3% of the total greenhouse gas emissions, while the upstream and core phases present a share of 26.2% and 15.5%, respectively. Such a large contribution of the downstream phase originates from the transportation to the final customer (82.6% of this phase). For upstream and core phases, plywood production (53.1% share during the upstream) and electricity consumption (75.1% share during the core) are the main hotspots. Furthermore, this work quantifies the global warming potential of current internationalized wood furniture markets. Local furniture sale can reduce the CO2 emissions of the wooden bunk bed by 40%. Instead, selling the bed abroad involves a CO2 emission increase of 59%, while raw material importation enhances the impacts by 39–45%. The adoption of local production and consumption patterns emerge the most effective measures to reduce the environmental impacts of the furniture industry as the purchase of an overseas manufactured wood bunk increases the emissions by 79%. This research aims not only to bring light in the scientific community in LCA calculations but also help producers and consumers in the transition towards more sustainable consumption and production patterns in the wooden furniture market.
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•The life cycle environmental impacts of a wooden bunk bed are studied to identify impact hotspots.•Primary data is used to conduct a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment following Product Category Rules.•A CO2-eq footprint of 1.71 kg per kg of an eco-designed bunk bed is obtained.•For upstream and core phases, plywood production and electricity consumption are the main hotspots.•4 alternative scenarios are analyzed so the role of local manufacturing and selling on the overall impacts is understood.
Distinguishing between natural and anthropogenic processes in sedimentary records from estuaries with legacy pollutants is an essential task, as it provides baselines to predict future environmental ...trajectories of coastal areas. Here, we have addressed the recent transformation history of the mining-impacted Nalón Estuary (Asturias, N Spain). Surface and core sediment records from marshes and tidal flats were examined through a broad multidisciplinary approach, involving micropaleontological (benthic foraminifera), sedimentological (grain-size), geochemical (trace metals, major element Al and total organic carbon), physical (magnetic susceptibility, frequency-dependent magnetic susceptibility and large microplastics) and radioisotopic (210Pb, 137Cs and 239+240Pu) proxies. Results suggest that the interplay between natural (high fluvial influence and extreme hydrological events) and anthropogenic (coal and mercury mining disposals) factors induced strong sedimentation-erosion processes, further shaping the recent evolution of the estuary. Short-time scale and intense sedimentation processes were revealed by overall high sediment accumulation rates, the dilution of some geological signatures and the rapid formation of a marsh in the lower estuary bay. The increasing mining fingerprints during the 20th century were shortly interrupted by the catastrophic riverine flooding of 1938. Conversely, current erosional processes by fluvial influence led to the remobilization of contaminated sedimentary materials and exposure of mining-legacy Hg levels in tidal flats from the middle sector. Fluvial activity, floodings and taphonomic biases exerted a major control on benthic foraminifera since the 19th century, although Hg ecotoxicological effects on modern assemblages at certain areas within the estuary cannot be discarded. These findings, along with the documented enhanced erosion of marshes with ‘trapped’ pollutants (Hg, coal microparticles and microplastics), highlight the importance of monitoring the environmental and geomorphic processes taking place in historically-contaminated estuaries.
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•Natural and human driving forces interacted influencing sedimentation-erosion processes.•High sedimentation was induced by natural turbidity and mining disposals.•Extreme flooding affected sedimentary deposits impacted by mining.•Fluvial erosion caused the remobilization of mercury-contaminated tidal sediments.•Erosion of marshes containing high levels of Hg, coal microparticles and abundant microplastics should be monitored.
Artikulu honek Nazio Batuen 2030 Agendako Garapen Iraunkorrerako Helburuen (GIH) artean zazpigarrena aztertzen du: biztanle ororentzat energia garbia eskuragarri izatea. Helburu hori hainbat ...lurraldetan inplementatzeko eta haren jarraipena egiteko bideak aztertu dira, baita zenbait autoreren arabera dituen alde onak edo potentzialtasunak eta argi-ilunak ere. Azken urteotako literaturak GIHen jarraipenari buruz zer dioen berrikusi, eta, horren ostean, 7. GIHaren ezarpena makro eskalatik mikro mailara nolakoa izaten ari den aztertu da, Europatik hasita, Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoaren (EAE) kasu konkretua ardatz gisa hartuz. Horretarako, askotariko gobernu mailetan (besteak beste, Europar Batasuna, Espainiako estatuko gobernua, Eusko Jaurlaritza, foru-aldundiak eta udalak) 7. GIHa lortze aldera zehaztu diren xede eta adierazleak alderatu dira, baita haien aniztasuna erakutsi ere, eta 2017. urtera bitartean adierazle horiek izandako bilakaera aztertu da. Azterketatik ondorioztatu da Europa mailan helburuak estandarizatu diren arren helburuok estatu-mailan eta handik beherakoetan ez dutela adierazle nahikorik ezarririko xedeen jarraipen osatua egiteko. Hala, adierazleak estandarizatzen eta datu-iturriak hobetzen jarraitzeko beharra ikusi da, hots, agerian utzi da horrek konparaketak egiteko dakartzan zailtasunak.
Purpose
This article aims to estimate the social footprint of a higher education institution (HEI) and its potential contribution to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under life cycle assessment ...(LCA) perspective. The social organisational life cycle assessment (SO-LCA) of the academic activity of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), in northern Spain, has been performed, in order to estimate its social impacts.
Method
The assessment has been run using openLCA software and supported on the PSILCA-based Soca add-on for the Ecoinvent v3.3 database, covering 53 social indicators for almost 15,000 industrial sectors and goods in 189 countries.
Results and discussion
The analysis undertaken reflects social impacts and associated risk levels for four stakeholders: Workers, Local Community, Society, and Value Chain Actors. Labour activity in the UPV/EHU is the sub-process with the greatest social impact, followed by processes related to transport, energy, materials, and waste management. Among the socio-economic context which supports the academic activity of the UPV/EHU (indirect impacts), the existence of traces of child labour and illiteracy outside the Basque Country stands out. Further analysis would be required in order to more accurately determine the geographical location of such impacts, and also to better tackle the concept of social debt.
Conclusion
SO-LCA may have great potential for HEIs, helping them to identify hotspots, reduce their social footprint, and raise awareness among the academic community, which undoubtedly contributes to the knowledge, progress, human values, and sustainability these HEIs stand for.
Graphical abstract
Globalisation and the outsourcing of industrial manufacturing from developed to less developed countries has an increasing effect on the national energy balances of most developed economies. The ...current standard metric Total Primary Energy Supply of a country does not take into account the energy embodied in goods and services imported from other countries, leading to the perverse outcome of a country appearing to be more sustainable the more it outsources its energy-intensive industries. Academia has addressed this problem by suggesting the use of the Total Primary Energy Footprint as an additional metric, but there has not been a clear proposal put forward by academia to governments or international institutions about how to officially adopt Consumption-Based Accounting in the field of energy. This article states that acknowledging the existence of embodied energy flows is indispensable when formulating new national and international energy policies for the transition towards energy systems that are socially and environmentally more sustainable. In this study, the Hidden Energy Flow indicator of 44 countries has been quantified using, for the first time, five different Global Multi-Regional Input-Output databases for the latest available year, 2011. The proposed indicator provides a percentage to be added to or subtracted from the Total Primary Energy Used value of a country, provided by the International Energy Agency, to get its real consumption-based energy requirement. This study demonstrates that, from 44 countries analysed, the ten most developed countries demand on average 18.5% more energy than measured by the International Energy Agency; the medium developed 24 countries demand 12.4% more, and the ten least developed countries demand 1.6% less. This means that most developed and medium developed countries displace their indirect energy consumption towards less developed countries in a hidden way. Furthermore, this research supports evidence that direct energy consumption in households is less relevant than the energy embodied in goods and services purchased by households, reaching 59.1% in the case of Switzerland, used as a reference among developed countries. The proposed Hidden Energy Flow indicator supports scientists, policymakers and citizens in the effort to focus the energy transition actions towards conducting the necessary energy consumption and production changes in the most effective way, improving energy justice and energy democracy.
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Sodium‐ion batteries (NIBs) are key enablers of sustainable energy storage. NIBs use Earth‐abundant materials and are technologically viable to replace lithium‐ion batteries in the medium term. ...Na3V2(PO4)3, as a popular cathode for NIBs, requires further improvements to boost its electrochemical performance, particularly regarding the rate capability and operational lifetime. These strategies involve the incorporation of carbonaceous materials, heteroatom doping, morphology modification, or biopolymer incorporation. Considering the circular economy actions to foster environmentally sustainable battery industries, there is an urgent need to disclose the environmental impacts of battery production. A cradle‐to‐gate life cycle assessment methodology is used to quantify, analyze, and compare the environmental impacts of ten representative state‐of‐the‐art Na3V2(PO4)3 cathodes. Impacts are disclosed for 18 indicators normalized to 1 kg of cathode considering laboratory‐scale approaches. Global warming potential values of 423.9–1380.0 kg CO2‐equiv. kgcathode
−1 and 539.8–1622.1 kg CO2‐equiv. kWhcathode
−1 are obtained considering Na3V2(PO4)3/Na half‐cell configuration. Simple carbon additives mixed with NVP provide a good CO2 footprint‐to‐storage capacity balance, although the sacrificed capacity retention hinders reuse strategies. A sensitivity analysis demonstrates a 16.9–38.0% reduction transitioning from fossil‐based to renewable‐based energy mix. Herein, it is aimed to support battery developers and assist future advances in the development of sustainable cathodes applied into beyond‐Li‐ion technologies.
Environmental footprints of sodium‐ion battery Na3V2(PO4)3 cathode fabrication are quantified with life cycle assessment to guide sustainable electrochemical energy storage alternatives.
•Cradle-to-grave Life-Cycle Assessment.•Environmental impacts of a smart TV and a smartphone when listening to music.•Sustainable possible scenarios to reduce the Global Warming Potential ...affections.•Optimum substitution lifespan of music player devices.
Listening to music has unavoidable environmental impacts due to the technology used to reproduce it. The primary goal of this research is to calculate the impacts of streaming music data on the latest technological appliances, namely a smart TV (STV) and a smartphone (SPH). Furthermore, we have virtually modelled potential new sustainable scenarios, assessing their entire cradle-to-grave life cycle, through Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, in order to understand within how many years of its lifespan an old appliance ought to be replaced with a new one for the purpose of reducing the Global Warming Potential (GWP) affections.
According to the results, the selected 6.5-inch-screen smartphone emits 49.28 kg CO2-eq during its lifespan (9.00 g CO2-eq per hour), while the smart TV emits 406.40 kg CO2-eq throughout its average lifetime (32.56 g CO2-eq per hour). More specifically, the impacts associated with their use as music players are 2.58 g CO2-eq per listened hour in the case of the smartphone and 8.18 in that of the smart TV, taking music as occupying 25 % of the use phase of the SPH and 29 % of the use phase of the STV, as global averages. In the sustainable scenarios modelled, when the old appliances are replaced with new more efficient ones (Scenarios 1 and 2), GWP could be reduced by up to 8.82 % and 3.15 % for the SPH and the STV respectively. However, if old appliances are instead run on renewable energy and an efficient use of them is made (Scenarios 3 and 4), GWP could be reduced by up to 9.77 % and 60.75 %, respectively. Meanwhile, the optimum substitution lifespan for the SPH increases from 27.78 to 175.76 years, and that of the STV increases from 4.64 to 29.33 when this renewable energy and efficient use scenario is simulated.
Thus, this research serves to confirm that the replacement of appliances is not justifiable as an attempt to reduce their environmental impact, unless renewable energy is used in our music reproduction appliances. Therefore, from an environmental point of view, the environmental effectiveness of substituting old appliances with new ones when listening to music is not supported by the data presented in this research. Rather, this research supports the view that the public funds should prioritise the goal of running appliances on renewable energy, rather than classic “renovation plans” or scrappage schemes of old music player appliances. The research shows how different policy-making strategies could bring numerous GWP reductions on account of the whole life cycle of these appliances, and underlines the significance of LCA calculations in determining public policy.
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This research quantifies the international electric payments embodied in goods and services, for the purpose of moving towards a clear and fair electric exchange within international footprint ...accounts. The electric consumption and related cost of 43 countries that represent 84% of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been calculated, shifting from traditionally used Production-Based Accounting (PBA) to Consumption-Based Accounting (CBA). This research has identified not only the electric cost for what is produced in each country, but also the electric cost embodied in imported and exported goods and services. The difference between Production- and Consumption-Based Accounts has been defined as “Hidden Electric Cost” (HEC). Secondly, we have calculated the hypothetical national electric cost if countries were to produce within their own borders all the goods and services they consume. The difference between the current electric footprint cost and hypothetical self-sufficiency cost has been referred to as “Justice in Electricity Costs” (JIEC), an indicator which shows how much a country would have to spend to achieve electric sovereignty. This indicator reveals that there are countries (usually developed ones) that would face greater costs than what they currently pay by outsourcing the production of goods to other less developed countries. The study shows that, from the 43 countries analysed, and the Rest of the World (RoW) considered a 44th one, the ten most developed ones are spending on average 14.36% more on electricity than declared, and the ten least developed ones, 1.35% less than declared. At the same time, the 10 most developed countries would have to spend even 0.86% more to achieve electrical sovereignty, while for the ten least developed countries this would mean savings of 1.04%. In addition, a more specific analysis has been made for the textile and agriculture sectors, showing the ten countries with the highest Human Development Index (HDI) among those analysed would have to spend 438.75% more on average to pay for imported electricity at national price and achieve electric sovereignty for the textile sector, and 24.4% more for the agriculture sector. In the interests of achieving fair global electric payments, it would be appropriate for countries to take these variations in payments into account in international relations so as to move towards greater international justice.
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