The renewable energy sources as a lever of sustainable development

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to examine investors' economic and social profiles in renewable energy sources with the help of widely used investment rating indicators, such as Net Present Value, Internal Grade of Performance and Profitability Index. Design/methodology/approach: The study used an empirical research, gathering economic data from investments in renewable energy sources in the Regional Units of Thessaloniki, Imathia and Pella. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire, administered with personal interviews with investors, by applying a simple random sampling method through a population-total number of investors retrieved from the Ministry of Environment, Energy, and Climate Change records. Findings: The results demonstrate that investments in renewable energy projects are sustainable and highly efficient on a case-by-case basis. The main criterion for accepting an investment element in a specific renewable energy technology application is the calculation of the Internal Rate of Return. The optimal investment pertains to photovoltaic system installations. Among the investments, hydroelectric and wind investments are also enticing. Investments in wind energy have the highest net present value, followed by investments in photovoltaic and hydroelectric systems. Concerning the profitability index, it is observed that investments in photovoltaic systems have a higher profitability index, followed by investments in wind and hydroelectric systems. As far as social characteristics are concerned, the majority of investors, regardless of their profession, invest in photovoltaics. Freelancers predominantly invest in wind energy projects, while employees mainly invest in hydroelectric projects. Research limitations/implications: The main limitation of the survey is related to the sample, which consisted of investors from three regional areas of Greece. A future study may be conducted to a larger sample, from all Greek regional units and examine possible differences in the results related to geographical area and profile of the investors. Originality/value: From the literature review, it is found that there is a lack of a comprehensive scientific method for evaluating the optimal investment choice in the renewable energy sector, leaving potential investors without a reliable framework for assessment of investment proposals. The current study can serve as a tool for investors in the renewable energy sector, assessing whether an investment yields financial gains compared to the capital allocated and therefore providing a tool to investors to know in advance the benefit of their potential investment

How Do Agricultural Education, Advisory, and Financial Factors Affect the Adoption of Precision Farming in Greece?

The purpose of this paper is to conduct an empirical investigation of the theoretical and literature-based constructs related to the adoption of precision agriculture (PA) practices by young farmers. For this research, primary and secondary data are used. The sample includes 220 young farmers. Among the results of this research, farmers are aware of the positive effects of technology systems in agriculture. Also, young farmers seem to be familiar with precision agriculture and have already adopted some of its methods, but the high cost of investment prevents farmers from adopting such technology. Innovative technologies and production methods can help young farmers to be competitive in the worldwide market

Women’s business activities in Greece: The case of agro-tourism

The aim of agro-tourism is to contribute to a reversal of the climate of abandonment pervading the countryside and to create favorable conditions for the development of new financial activities. For the most countries, the mainstream of business owners are male, while in Greece, the percentage of women entrepreneurs is only 15%, and in the rural area, even smaller. Government poli-cies and the European Union is supporting women entrepreneurship, since women in the labor sector are important factors of development and society’s progress. This paper presents the findings of a research regarding women’s’ firms functioning in the agrotourism sector. Field research was undertaken in almost all the women’s agrotourism companies or cooperatives all over Greece. In this matter the sample consisted of 203 women’s enterprises functioning in Greece, representing an almost 100% sample of the target research population. Statistical analysis employed frequencies, percentages, means as well as chi-square tests. Results revealed that the type of the agro-tourism firm affect the type of activity chosen from the women’s agrotourism firm, while the wo-men’s agrotourism firms’ manager’s age as well as area of operation of the firm does not. This paper is based on research carried out within the framework of the project co-funded by the European Social Fund and National Resources - EPEAEK II - ARCHIMIDIS

Profiling Goat Farm Enterprises Under The Prism Of Sustainability: The Role Of Financial Ratios, Socio-Demographic Characteristics And The Waste Management In Goat Enterprises

Sustainable livestock farming is a hot issue worldwide. Last decade there is an intense transformation that affect all aspects of the sector like economic, social and environmental. This transformation has to deal with the increasing market globalization, the changes in Common Agriculture Policy and the new social awareness in environmental issues. The aim of this study is to profile and classify goat farms according to their performance using farm-level data that concerns economic, social and environmental sustainability. A combination of multivariate analysis techniques, such as Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis were developed for the aggregation of synthetic indicators and for the creation of farm typologies. According to results, Greek goat farming achieves a low performance in almost all pillars of sustainability, but if the sector adopt sustainable practices there is the margin to become more elastic and competitive

CIRCULAR ASSESSMENT TOOLS: ASSESSING CIRCULARITY IN OLIVE OIL MILLS

In the last few years, since the implementation of circular economy (CE) is necessary for the transition to a sustainable food system, academics and practitioners have paid increasing attention to the CE concept. CE evaluations today have not demonstrated satisfactory results to meet the context of CE, as most of the indicators are focused on resource efficiency, waste disposal and recycling rates, or a particular stage of the product or process, ignoring the system perspective. In spite of the research community's extensive work, an effective tool to measure circularity in the agri-food industry has not yet been developed. This study aims to highlight the CE tools, based on scientific literature and practice, so as to identify those that could assess circularity in olive oil mills. Due to the uncontrolled disposal of waste from olive oil mills, the Mediterranean countries that produce the majority of olive oil have to cope with major environmental issues. Therefore, the assessment of circularity in order to identify the transition to CE in this sector is of great importance for these countries

Viral Metagenomic Content Reflects Seawater Ecological Quality in the Coastal Zone

Viruses interfere with their host's metabolism through the expression of auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) that, until now, are mostly studied under large physicochemical gradients. Here, we focus on coastal marine ecosystems and we sequence the viral metagenome (virome) of samples with discrete levels of human-driven disturbances. We aim to describe the relevance of viromics with respect to ecological quality status, defined by the classic seawater trophic index (TRIX). Neither viral (family level) nor bacterial (family level, based on 16S rRNA sequencing) community structure correlated with TRIX. AMGs involved in the Calvin and tricarboxylic acid cycles were found at stations with poor ecological quality, supporting viral lysis by modifying the host's energy supply. AMGs involved in "non-traditional" energy-production pathways (3HP, sulfur oxidation) were found irrespective of ecological quality, highlighting the importance of recognizing the prevalent metabolic paths and their intermediate byproducts. Various AMGs explained the variability between stations with poor vs. good ecological quality. Our study confirms the pivotal role of the virome content in ecosystem functioning, acting as a "pool" of available functions that may be transferred to the hosts. Further, it suggests that AMGs could be used as an ultra-sensitive metric of energy-production pathways with relevance in the vulnerable coastal zone and its ecological quality