Rhizosphere <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i> O157:H7 bioluminescence (A) and colonisation (B) of the lettuce cultivars Vaila (open circle) and Dazzle (filled circle).

<p>Data points are the mean of 4 replicates + SEM.</p

Phyllosphere <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i> O157:H7 bioluminescence (A) and colonisation (B) of epiphytic and loosely bound cells (black bars) and endophytic and tightly bound cells (white bars) of seedlings 23 days after sowing in soil 96 days after contamination with <i>E. coli</i> O157.

<p>Data points are the mean of 4 replicates + SEM.</p

Lettuce cultivars used in this study.

<p>Lettuce cultivars used in this study.</p

Bioluminescence of <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i> O157:H7 colonizing the shoot (A and C) and the root (B and D) of different lettuce cultivars.

<p>Bars with different letter codes differ significantly from each other (one-way ANOVA, <i>P</i><0.001; Tukey multiple comparison test, <i>P</i><0.01). Data points are the mean of 4 replicates + SEM.</p

The relationship between CFU and bioluminescence of <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i> O157:H7 colonizing different cultivars of lettuce.

<p>Epiphytic and loosely bound colonization of shoots (A) and roots (B) and colonization by endophytic and tightly bound cells of shoots (C) and roots (D). Lettuce cultivars: Vaila (filled triangle); Rosetta (open triangle); Regina (filled circle); Lakeland (open circle); Marshall (filled square); Webbs (open square); Unrivalled (cross); Lollo Rossa (star); Little Gem (closed diamond); Dazzle (open diamond); Green (filled inverted triangle); Set (open inverted triangle). Data points are the mean of 4 replicates ± SEM.</p

Phyllosphere <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i> O157:H7 bioluminescence (A and B) and colonisation (C and D) of the lettuce cultivars Vaila (open circle) and Dazzle (filled circle) Data points are the mean of 4 replicates + SEM.

<p>Phyllosphere <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i> O157:H7 bioluminescence (A and B) and colonisation (C and D) of the lettuce cultivars Vaila (open circle) and Dazzle (filled circle) Data points are the mean of 4 replicates + SEM.</p

Current and Future Environmental Balance of Small-Scale Run-of-River Hydropower

Globally, the hydropower (HP) sector has significant potential to increase its capacity by 2050. This study quantifies the energy and resource demands of small-scale HP projects and presents methods to reduce associated environmental impacts based on potential growth in the sector. The environmental burdens of three (50–650 kW) run-of-river HP projects were calculated using life cycle assessment (LCA). The global warming potential (GWP) for the projects to generate electricity ranged from 5.5–8.9 g CO₂ eq/kWh, compared with 403 g CO₂ eq/kWh for UK marginal grid electricity. A sensitivity analysis accounted for alternative manufacturing processes, transportation, ecodesign considerations, and extended project lifespan. These findings were extrapolated for technically viable HP sites in Europe, with the potential to generate 7.35 TWh and offset over 2.96 Mt of CO₂ from grid electricity per annum. Incorporation of ecodesign could provide resource savings for these HP projects: avoiding 800 000 tonnes of concrete, 10 000 tonnes of steel, and 65 million vehicle miles. Small additional material and energy contributions can double a HP system lifespan, providing 39–47% reductions for all environmental impact categories. In a world of finite resources, this paper highlights the importance of HP as a resource-efficient, renewable energy system

Cross-sector sustainability benchmarking of major utilities in the United Kingdom

Benchmarking can be a useful tool for utility companies to improve their efficiency, offering many potential positives such as assessing performance objectively, exposing areas where improvement is needed, and identifying best performing companies, ultimately illuminating possible strategies for poorer performers to implement. Despite these positives, the challenge remains of how to compare the performance of different organisations from different sectors. This research aimed to develop a methodology to effectively compare companies across sectors using UK utilities across the water and sewage, energy, and communications sectors as a case study. A meth?odology was constructed based on service, environmental, and financial metrics, and cross-sector benchmarking was undertaken, which generated performance scores based on company metrics relative to sector peers. This circumnavigated issues of indicators often being mismatched across sectors and the lack of relevance and context when sectors do use similar indicators. Results showed that the sample of 18 utilities had two distinct clusters, one of eight sector leaders and the other of ten lower performers. Sky had the highest overall score of 13.5 (maximum 15), suggesting it significantly outperformed the rest of the communications sector. Similarly, British Gas and SSE lead the energy sector, whilst Wessex, Severn Trent, and United Utilities lead the way for water and sewage companies. The two distinct groups of sector leaders and lower performers can be employed to identify other companies that may offer learning opportunities. Top performers can assess top performers in other sectors to identify how they might continue improving, rather than be potentially limited within their sectors. Conversely, lower-performing companies can look within and across sectors to identify best practices to improve their performance. The methodological development and UK utility sustainability results collectively provide novel insight into the water, energy, and communication sectors and contribute to the international academic literature on benchmarking by illustrating an alternative and unique solution to comparing diverse sectors in any region. </p

Bioreduction of Sheep Carcasses Effectively Contains and Reduces Pathogen Levels under Operational and Simulated Breakdown Conditions

Options for the storage and disposal of animal carcasses are extremely limited in the EU after the introduction of the EU Animal By-products Regulations (ABPR; EC/1774/2002), leading to animosity within the livestock sector and the call for alternative methods to be validated. Novel storage technologies such as bioreduction may be approved under the ABPR provided that they can be shown to prevent pathogen proliferation. We studied the survival of <i>Enterococcus faecalis</i>, <i>Salmonella</i> spp., <i>E. coli</i> O157 and porcine parvovirus in bioreduction vessels containing sheep carcasses for approximately 4 months. The vessels were operated under two different scenarios: (A) where the water within was aerated and heated to 40 °C, and (B) with no aeration or heating, to simulate vessel failure. Microbial analysis verified that pathogens were contained within the bioreduction vessel and indeed reduced in numbers with time under both scenarios. This study shows that bioreduction can provide an effective and safe on-farm storage system for livestock carcasses prior to ultimate disposal. The findings support a review of the current regulatory framework so that bioreduction is considered for approval for industry use within the EU

Table_1_The nutritional value of meat should be considered when comparing the carbon footprint of lambs produced on different finishing diets.DOCX

IntroductionLamb production systems are under increasing pressure to reduce their environmental footprint, particularly emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as methane. However, the metrics used to express the carbon footprint of lamb seldom consider its nutritional density and contribution to balanced diets in humans. Lamb production systems vary considerably, from low-input pastoral systems to higher-input systems feeding concentrates for the latter ‘finishing’ period. To date, no studies have explored the effect of finishing diet on the carbon footprint of lamb meat on a nutritional basis.MethodsData from 444 carcasses were collected from four abattoirs across Wales, United Kingdom. Lambs were derived from 33 farms with one of four distinct finishing diets: forage crops (n = 5), grass (n = 11), concentrates (n = 7), and grass and concentrates (n = 15). Carcass data were analysed using mixed effects models. Significant differences were found in fatty acid composition of two large commercial cuts of meat from different finishing diets. To illustrate the effect of different measures of footprint, mass (kg dwt) and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid content (g omega-3) were selected as functional units. GHG emission estimates were calculated using Agrecalc.ResultsThe concentrates diet had the lowest average mass-based product emissions [25.0 kg CO2e/kg deadweight (dwt)] while the grass systems had the highest (28.1 kg CO2e/kg dwt; p 2e/g omega-3); whereas the same muscle cut from lambs finished on the grass and concentrates diet had the highest nutrition-based product emissions (29.4 kg CO2e/g omega-3; p DiscussionWhile mass-based functional units can be useful for comparing efficiencies of different farming systems, they do not reflect how farming systems impact the nutritional differences of the final product. This study demonstrates the importance of considering nutrition when expressing and comparing the carbon footprints of nutrient-dense foods such as lamb. This approach could also help inform discussions around the optimal diets for lamb production systems from both a human nutrition and environmental sustainability perspective.</p