Pork industry in Catalonia plays a foremost and representative role in the Spanish pork sector. Beyond the economic benefits, conventional practices in the pork industry also imply a number of ...environmental impacts that need to be dealt with. In this context, the environmental performance of traditional linear pork chain in Catalonia was evaluated through a LCA approach. The outcomes of the analysis showed that both fodder production and transport activities were identified as the critical stages of the system. Accordingly, alternative schemes based on circular economy principles were proposed and potential environmental credits were estimated. Within this framework, comparative results highlighted the advantages of moving towards a closing loop production system, where resource efficiency and waste valorisation were prioritised over final disposal options.
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•Representative primary data from the Catalan pork sector was provided by collaborating stakeholders.•Environmental impacts of traditional linear pork chain in Catalonia were evaluated through a LCA approach.•Alternative schemes based on the Circular Economy philosophy were defined according to environmental hotspots.•Potential environmental benefits were evidenced with the implementation of the Circular Economy perspective.
In the European Union, the building sector accounts for more than 40% of the total energy consumption and environmental impacts, representing the area with the greatest potential for intervention. In ...addition to the existing policies that promote energy efficiency in buildings, the embodied energy and the environmental impacts contained in the building materials should be considered. In the case of the construction of insulation façade systems, the environmental implications are different depending on the type of façade system, the insulation materials used and the location of the building. This article aims to provide all of this information for Spain, including not only the production of the components of the façade system but also the installation phase and the transport to the building site. The results show that the most impactful alternative is the ventilated façade combined with the most impactful insulation materials of stone wool and expanded polystyrene. Meanwhile, the most advisable façade in all of the climate zones is the external thermal insulation system combined with any type of insulation. The environmental impacts of insulation materials are very different. Moreover, it is recommended that further studies complete these results with the economic and social implications of the use and maintenance phases for robust decision-making.
•LCA comparison of insulation materials applied in façade systems has been developed.•The Spanish climate factor is introduced in the cradle-to-site LCA.•The most sustainable option is the external thermal insulation system with glass wool.•Stone wool represents 30–50% of impacts for all of the façade systems analysed.•The choice on the type of insulation material has great environmental implications.
This study proposes a combined life cycle assessment (LCA) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) methodology to develop complex LCA inventories for multiple applications. The study focusses on ...the environmental implications of buildings retrofits, especially in the European context, where the building sector is one of the largest energy consumers. In this context, a new and holistic perspective is needed that expands from the building scale to the urban scale.
The combination of LCA and GIS methods includes the development of an urban characterization model based on bottom-up methodologies. The environmental implications associated with increasing the thermal insulation of existing buildings to the current standard are determined based on LCA methods. In this step, common construction systems for building retrofits are used, and insulation materials are compared. Then, absolute and relative extrapolations are performed considering different urban morphologies.
The results confirm the importance of the energy retrofitting of residential buildings in large functional urban areas such as the Barcelona metropolitan area, which is examined as a case study. The LCA results indicate that the selection of proper construction systems and thermal insulation materials is important to the environmental performance of building retrofits, and these selections can lead to CO2 emission differences of up 16% in the region. The relative extrapolation results indicate significant environmental differences between urban morphologies. The LCA results show the potential strategic impacts of the inclusion of LCA methods in retrofit policies at the urban scale.
•A bottom-up methodology is presented to measure and map the environmental implications of retrofit scenarios.•The study compares construction systems and insulation materials, observing significant differences among retrofit scenarios.•The method is applied to the Barcelona metropolitan area, Spain, considering the urban morphology as an aggregate method.•The results show the potential strategic impacts of the inclusion of LCA approaches in retrofit policies at the urban scale.
A systematic tool to assess the Carbon Footprint (CF) and Water Footprint (WF) of pork production companies was developed and applied to representative Catalan companies. To do so, a cradle-to-gate ...environmental assessment was carried out by means of the LCA methodology, taking into account all the stages involved in the pork chain, from feed production to the processing of final products, ready for distribution. In this approach, the environmental results are reported based on eight different functional units (FUs) according to the main pork products obtained. With the aim of ensuring the reliability of the results and facilitating the comparison with other available reports, the Product Category Rules (PCR) for Catalan pork sector were also defined as a basis for calculations. The characterization results show fodder production as the main contributor to the global environmental burdens, with contributions higher than 76% regardless the environmental indicator or the life cycle stage considered, which is in agreement with other published data. In contrast, the results in terms of CF and WF lay above the range of values reported elsewhere. However, major discrepancies are mainly due to the differences in the co-products allocation criteria. In this sense, economic/physical allocation and/or system expansion have been mostly considered in literature. In contrast, no allocation was considered appropriate in this study, according to the characteristics of the industries and products under assessment; thus, the major impacts fall on the main product, which derives on comparatively higher environmental burdens. Finally, due to the relevance of fodder production in the overall impact assessment results, strategies to reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions as well as water use associated to this stage were proposed in the pork supply chain.
•This paper uses primary data from representative companies of Catalan pork sector.•All the stages from feed production to products processing have been considered.•This study focuses on the environmental burdens of pork products in Catalonia.•Carbon Footprint and Water Footprint of whole pork chain have been calculated.•Product Category Rules development for Catalan pork sector is an essential stage.
•Conventional and Passivhaus proposals for a university building’s renovation are compared.•The energy renovation achieved high energy savings for both proposals, between 60% and 80%.•The Passivhaus ...proposal is 30% better than the conventional one considering the total lifespan of the building.•The use of cork as an insulation material for envelope renovation is assessed.•Cork does not fit the requirements for competing with common non-renewable insulation materials.
The need to improve the energy efficiency of buildings has introduced the concept of nearly zero-energy buildings into European energy policies. Moreover, a percentage of the building stock will have to be renovated annually to attain high energy performance. Conventional passive interventions in buildings are focused on increasing the insulation of the building envelope to increase its energy efficiency during the operating phase. Often, however, intervention practices imply the incorporation of embodied energy into the building materials and increase the associated environmental impacts.
This paper presents and evaluates a comparison of two different proposals for a real-world building renovation. The first proposal was a conventional project for energy renovation, while the second was a low-energy building proposal (following the Passivhaus standard). This study analysed the proposals using an integrated life cycle and thermal dynamic simulation assessment to identify the adequacy of each renovation alternative regarding the post-renovation energy performance of the building, including an evaluation of the introduction of a renewable insulation material into the low-energy building proposal, specifically a specific cork solution. The most significant conclusion was the convenience of the renovation, achieving energy savings of 60% and 80% for the conventional and Passivhaus renovations (ENERPHIT), respectively. The former supposed less embodied energy and environmental impacts but also generated less energy savings. The latter increased the embodied impacts in the building, mainly for the large amount of insulation material. The environmental implications of both proposals can be compensated for within a reasonable period of time, over 2 years in the majority of alternatives and impact categories. However, the ENERPHIT project was 30% better than the conventional proposal when the total lifespan of the building was considered. The introduction of cork did not fit the requirements for competing with the common non-renewable insulation materials because it did not imply better environmental performance in buildings, but cork insulation solutions currently present ample room for improvement.
The market for insulation material is playing a crucial role in Europe's energy transformation, due to its influence on energy consumption in buildings. The introduction of renewable materials for ...thermal insulation is recent, and little is known so far about its environmental implications. This study analyses the environmental performance of a cork insulation board, made of agglomerated cork from forestry cork wastes, by means of cradle-to-gate Life Cycle Assessment methodology. The results indicate that the use of natural insulation materials does not necessarily imply a reduction of environmental impacts due to manufacturing processes with a low technological development. In this case, the most influential stage is the manufacturing stage, in which the board agglomeration and the cork trituration have the highest impacts. The most influential inputs are both the transport used during the life cycle and the large quantities of electricity and diesel in the manufacturing stage. Some strategies have been identified to reduce the environmental impact, such as promote the acquisition of local raw cork to reduce transportation from the manufacturer, improve the efficiency and productivity of manufacturing processes and improve the product design to help increase its market share. Moreover, the inclusion of biogenic carbon contained in forest-based building materials affects the Global Warming Potential results considerably. However, it is very important to consider how this biogenic carbon is calculated and how the product is managed after its lifetime.
•Environmental impacts of cork insulation board have been assessed.•The majority of environmental burdens are concentrated at the manufacturing stage.•Transport and energy consumption are the most influential factors in the life cycle.•Great potential for environmental improvement throughout the manufacturing of cork board.
•Characterization of the Iberian cork sector in structural, economic and trade terms.•Portugal and Catalonia are mainly manufacturers of high-value cork products.•Rest of Spain wastes the potential ...of its raw cork exporting it to other markets.•Cork industry should implement R&D and innovation strategies for diversification.•Cork supply chain should strengthen sustainability and ecoefficiency at all stages.
Cork oak forest grows endemically in the coastal regions of the western Mediterranean basin, particularly in the Iberian Peninsula. The cork agro-forestry systems play a key role in ecological processes, and the outer bark, or cork, can be extracted sustainability without damaging the tree or affecting biodiversity. Because of the properties of the cork, an important forestry and industrial structure has been developed around its most valuable goods. This paper describes the current global trade patterns in the Iberian Peninsula, where Portugal and Spain are world leaders. Although these countries bring most of their cork trade flows together with the rest of the world, there are clear differences between these sectors. The aim of this study was to identify these differences and to characterize each analysed sector from an economic perspective. The primary difference between the sectors lies in the characteristics of their supply chain and their capacity to generate wealth from raw cork. Portugal primarily produces and processes raw cork into products with high added value. Spain bases its cork sector on raw material and half-manufactured cork, and it is not able to use the full potential that cork provides. Catalonia is an exception because it is the global leader in the champagne stopper market. To encourage the development of the entire cork sector, every link in the supply chain should be strengthened through the establishment of companies and the generation of employment, and therefore the development of rural areas. Moreover, this industry must establish its own development strategies for the future, thereby increasing its investment in R&D and innovation in relation to the opportunities identified as follows: the potential for diversification beyond the wine market, the improvement potential for forest management and the enhancement of sustainability and eco-efficiency in every link of the cork supply chain.
It is necessary to integrate environmental aspects during the early stages of the design of eco-innovation and eco-ideation processes. In addition, it has been observed that concept evaluation ...metrics do not exist that measure the dimensions of creativity, such as the novelty, utility or technical feasibility of a process along with its environmental indicators; hence, current metrics do not enable global evaluations. In this context, an eco-ideation process is structured that aims to find new applications for cork in the construction sector. To achieve this goal, a creative workshop is designed in which a multidisciplinary group generates ideas in order to conceptualise new cork applications. The objective is to establish a metric to evaluate the results of an eco-ideation process during the conceptual phase of the design process that considers creative and environmental dimensions. The metric has been adapted to three scenarios to highlight the importance of environmental dimensions when creative dimensions are matched. In addition, these scenarios describe the accuracy of the applied metrics, demonstrating that metrics using Likert values or discrete scales equalise the results, while dimensions with continuous values establish the real differences between the concepts.
In Catalonia, northwest of Spain, the forest and timber industry are an active part of the economy. About 63.5% of the territory is forested area (more than 2 million Ha), from which 60.5% is wooded ...land. The main activity of the timber industry is the manufacture of wood packaging using 85% of the sawnwood to manufacture pallets, which is the most common wood product manufactured in the region. In the case of Europe, around 20% of all sawnwood consumption is used for wooden pallets and packaging. This research analyzes the impact of the conifers wood supply chain for the sawnwood and pallet production, from forest operations to the gate of the production facility. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was applied to both products (sawnwood and pallet) using primary data provided by the industry in order to identify the most impactful points of the life cycle. Six midpoint impact categories using Recipe methodology were assessed: Climate change, Ozone depletion, Terrestrial acidification, Freshwater eutrophication, Human toxicity; Agricultural land occupation and Water depletion. Also, Cumulative Energy Demand was assessed. It was found that electricity consumption is the most impacting input in the sawnwood and pallet production, followed by pesticide used in the production. For pallet case, steel plays a key role. Possible improvements were identified with a big potential of impacts reduction. LCA results from this research can be applied for the assessment of other wood products and also to increase the knowledge and debate about the biogenic carbon sequestration of wooden products.
•The environmental performance of wood supply chain was analyzed using LCA.•Electricity, biocide and steel are the largest contributors to pallet environmental impact.•Biogenic carbon accounting allows visualizing the benefits of wood products.•Reviewing the EuroPallet standard would represent a major eco-design breakthrough.•Development of natural fungicides is a big challenge to reduce impacts.
Cork is an eco-material that has recently been attracting growing interest due to the expanding strategy of sustainable product design, which aims to replace non-renewable materials in the building ...market. Until now, the cork sector has not taken advantage of the properties of this material and has been fully oriented towards traditional applications such as stoppers for wines and other beverages. The diversification of the cork market, through developing new products with higher added value, is the reason why eco-ideation (using different creativity techniques) can be helpful in creating new products and solutions.
The process of introducing eco-ideation was carried out during two interdisciplinary creative sessions and a product design stage. The results of the process were successful in terms of participation and the quantity and quality of ideas, which were characterised by searching, experimentation, participation and knowledge sharing. The versatility of cork fits perfectly with the creative methods of eco-ideation, as cork's good physical properties allow the diverse generation of new ideas for both applications and markets. The concepts generated in this study are in line with the approach of recognising cork's status as a natural, pure and noble material, taking advantage of the good properties of cork, and giving buildings unique traits due to the singular aesthetic of cork.
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