Eco-innovation opportunities in the waste management sector in Scotland

Creating more circular economies that retain and recirculate the value of resources within an economy is gaining significant attention, with the concept of industrial symbiosis assisting businesses to reduce resource leakage from local economies. An eco-industrial park applies industrial symbiosis on the scale of an industrial park and may incorporate additional features such as shared infrastructure and services that assist in reducing environmental impacts and improving resource efficiency. This paper provides an overview of the application of the industrial symbiosis concept in Scotland and presents findings of the ACE Eco-Partnerships project, which attempted to identify and develop opportunities for industrial symbiosis in the Tayside and Fife region of Scotland, particularly on the scale of eco-industrial parks. The paper provides reflection on some of the barriers to eco-industrial park development, with specific reference to “retrofitting” industrial symbiosis onto existing industrial parks versus developing new eco-industrial parks

Ecological interface design for eco-driving

Eco-driving issues are of high priority at the moment. Research suggests that a change in driving style can reduce fuel consumption and emissions by around 15% in many cases. In response to this need, the UK Foot-LITE project developed an in-car feedback system to encourage safer and greener driving behaviours. In order to balance positive behaviour change against the potential negative effects of distraction, an Ecological Interface Design approach was adopted. The current paper presents an overview of the humancentred design process adopted in the Foot-LITE project, as well as a review of other similar systems on the market

Integrating Life Cycle Assessment in AT&T's Product Eco-Rating System

AT&T Inc. is an American communications holding company whose subsidiaries and affiliates are providers of AT&T services, including wireless services. In connection with its Citizenship & Sustainability (C&S) efforts, AT&T requires that wireless devices carrying its brand be rated based on a number of environmental factors. These factors are assessed and devices are given an eco-rating of 1-5 stars. Now, AT&T is looking to incorporate life cycle assessment (LCA) into this product eco-rating system. This Master’s Project serves as a reference guide to assist AT&T in the integration of LCA in their eco-ratings. It also serves as the foundation for a business strategy roadmap which leverages the incorporation of LCA in corporate sustainability initiatives. This enhances transparency, reliability and innovation – not only as it relates to the company itself, but in helping consumers and other organizations forge a more sustainable future in an ever-evolving world. This report begins with an overview of sustainability initiatives at AT&T, followed by a breakdown of the company’s product eco-rating system. Subsequent sections consist of an LCA overview and roadmap, an analysis of emerging trends in the ICT industry with regards to life cycle and impact assessment, and recommendations for further development of AT&T’s C&S efforts in this regard

Critical factors for implementing and diffusing sustainable Product-Service Systems: Insights from innovation studies and companies' experiences

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Journal for Cleaner Production. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2012 Elsevier B.V.Eco-efficient Product-Service System (PSS) innovations represent a promising approach to sustainability. However the adoption of such business strategies is still very limited because it often involves significant corporate, cultural and regulatory barriers. An important challenge is not only to conceive eco-efficient PSS concepts, but also to understand the contextual conditions that facilitate their societal embedding, and which strategies and development pathways are the most appropriate. The combination of theoretical insights from innovation studies (in particular Strategic Niche Management and Transition Management) and a case studies research (exploring the innovation journeys made by six companies in introducing their eco-efficient PSS innovations in the market) is used to investigate the factors that influence the implementation and diffusion of this kind of innovations. The article provides a structured overview of these factors, grouping them in four clusters: implementation of socio-technical experiments; establishment of a broad network of actors; building up of a shared project vision; creation of room for broad and reflexive learning processes. Based on these results it is argued that a broader and more strategic system approach should be adopted by companies. Companies should focus not only on the PSS solution and its value chain, but also on the contextual conditions that may favour or hinder the societal embedding of the PSS itself. The article concludes by outlining a key area for future research

Advanced integrated manufacture by application of sustainable technology through product lifecycle: a circular economy approach

An approach has been developed for sustainable integrated manufacture, covering the whole product development process from material acquisition till the product end of life treatment, which is part of the CIRC4Life project supported by the European Commission's Horizon 2020 programme. The approach consists of three new circular economy business models (CEBMs) including Co-creation of products/services, Sustainable consumption and Collaborative recycling/reuse. The CEBMs are supported by an eco-point approach, information and communication technologies, traceability techniques, online data mining, and other enable techniques/methods. In this paper, the overview and three new CEBMs are presented, followed by a case study of domestic lighting products, illustrating how the approach is implemented in an industrial application

Positioning for the Internet of Things: A 3GPP Perspective

Many use cases in the Internet of Things (IoT) will require or benefit from location information, making positioning a vital dimension of the IoT. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has dedicated a significant effort during its Release 14 to enhance positioning support for its IoT technologies to further improve the 3GPP-based IoT eco-system. In this article, we identify the design challenges of positioning support in Long-Term Evolution Machine Type Communication (LTE-M) and Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), and overview the 3GPP's work in enhancing the positioning support for LTE-M and NB-IoT. We focus on Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA), which is a downlink based positioning method. We provide an overview of the OTDOA architecture and protocols, summarize the designs of OTDOA positioning reference signals, and present simulation results to illustrate the positioning performance.Comment: 8 pages; 7 figures; 1 table; submitted for publicatio

Sustainable eco-culture tourism in Royal Belum-Temenggor: emerging prospects and challenges for Orang Asli

First part of this paper provides an overview of the concept of sustainable eco-culture tourism (ECT) including the highlight of three main pillars of sustainable ECT namely; natural and cultural resources, local host community and tourist. The discussion also looks further into the main principles of sustainable ECT. Second part of the paper will explain the process undertaken in conducting a fieldwork and survey of local communities in two selected villages namely Kampung Semelor (Temenggor) and Kampung Sungai Tiang (Royal Belum) conducted in June 2014 to identify possible prospects and/or potentials of ECT project for sustainable development and conservation of biodiversity of Royal Belum-Temenggor Forest Complex (RBTFC). Initial findings indicate a positive response from local communities regarding ECT project especially on economic and social prospects. These include income generation potential, new jobs creation in tourism and tourism-related sectors, wider engagement in training programs and promoting local traditional culture and local ‘forest-water-based’ activities for tourism. Some challenges during ECT project also highlight some issues on poverty, unsolved conflict between people and wildlife and the contest for resources among members of a growing community. The paper concludes with brief outlook on the development ECT project in the rich mega biodiversity area of RBTFC

Environmentally Friendly Thermoelectric Materials: High Performance from Inorganic Components with Low Toxicity and Abundance in the Earth

This review article gives an overview of the recent research directions in eco-friendly, non-toxic, and earth-abundant thermoelectric materials. It covers materials such as sulfides, tetrahedrites, earth-abundant oxides, silicides, copper iodine, Half-Heusler intermetallic compounds, nitrides, and other environmentally friendly thermoelectrics. In all cases, their history, structure, general characteristics, thermoelectric properties, synthesis methods, and related thermoelectric applications are compiled. It is also shown that they are starting to be an excellent alternative for producing cost-effective, sustainable, and non-toxic thermoelectric generators. This review does not try to include all possible materials, but to show that there are high zT thermoelectric materials that are starting to be an excellent alternative for producing cost-effective, sustainable, and non-toxic thermoelectric generators.O.C.-C. and M.M.-G. would like to acknowledge financial support from MAT2017-86450-C4-3-R and the 2D_MESES project from CSIC, and J.R.A., from RTI2018-099794-B-I100

Perspective study: governance for C2C

This perspective study will serve as frame of reference for follow-up activities and exchanges both within and outside the Cradle to Cradle Network (C2CN) and it aims to reflect the current challenges and opportunities associated with implementing a Cradle to Cradle approach. In total, four perspective studies have been written, in the areas on industry, area spatial development, governance and on the build theme