Inventory analysis and carbon footprint of coastland-hotel services: A Spanish case study

Tourism is a key industry in the Spanish economy. Spain was in the World top three ranking by international tourist arrivals and by income in 2015. The development of the tourism industry is essential to maintain the established economic system. However, if the environmental requirements were not taken into account, the country would face a negative effect on depletion of local environmental resources from which tourism depends. This case study evaluates, through a life cycle perspective, the average carbon footprint of an overnight stay in a Spanish coastland hotel by analyzing 14 two-to-five-stars hotels. Inventory and impact data are analyzed and presented both for resource use and greenhouse gases emissions, with the intention of helping in the environmental decision-making process. The main identified potential hotspots are electricity and fuels consumption (6 to 30 kWh/overnight stay and 24 to 127 MJ/overnight stay respectively), which are proportional to the number of stars and unoccupancy rate and they produce more than 75% of the impact. It is also revealed that voluntary implementation of environmental monitoring systems (like EMAS regulation) promotes collection of more detailed and accurate data, which helps in a more efficient use of resources. A literature review on LCA and tourism is also discussed. Spanish hotels inventory data presented here for the first time will be useful for tourism related managers (destination managers, policy makers and hotel managers among others) to calculate sustainability key indicators, which can lead to achieve real sustainable-tourism goals. Further data collection will be needed in future projects to gather representative data from more hotels, other accommodation facilities and also other products/services offered by tourist sector in Spain (like transport of tourists, food and beverage, culture-sports & recreation and others)

Influencia de la alimentación con altos niveles de ácidos grasos insaturados en la calidad de la canal y de la carne de terneros sacrificados a dos niveles de acabado, linoleico, alpha linolenico,

El objetivo fue evaluar el efecto de la inclusión de semilla de lino en el concentrado de terneros sobre los parámetros productivos, en el perfil de ácidos grasos de la grasa intramuscular y en la calidad sensorial y vida útil de la carne. Se utilizaron terneros de raza Pirenaica que fueron cebados con pienso control, o un pienso con un 5% de semilla de lino, o bien con lino y enriquecido con 200 UI de vitamina E, y los animales fueron faenados a dos niveles de engrasamiento. La composición del pienso no modificó la ganancia media diaria de peso vivo, aumentó la grasa de recorte, redujo el rendimiento canal, aumentó el porcentaje de alfa-linolénico y disminuyó la relación n-6/n-3. La composición del pienso no influyó en ninguno de los atributos sensoriales evaluados ni tampoco la evolución del color de la carne fresca durante el tiempo de exposición. El mayor engrasamiento al sacrificio aumentó la proporción de ácido oleic

Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy for predicting the phospholipid fraction and the total fatty acid composition of freeze-dried beef

Peer reviewe

Risk factors associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in subjects from primary care units. A case-control study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFL) consists in the accumulation of fat vacuoles in the cytoplasm of hepatocytes. Many etiologic factors are associated with NAFL, such as, the metabolic syndrome factors, medications, bariatric surgery, nutritional disorders. However, very little information is available on the clinical relevance of this disorder as a health problem in the general population.</p> <p>Methods and design</p> <p>The aim of the study is establish the risk factors most frequently associated with NAFL in a general adult population assigned to the primary care units and to investigate the relationship between each component of the metabolic syndrome and the risk of having a NAFL.</p> <p>A population based case-control, observational and multicenter study will be carried out in 18 primary care units from the "Area de Gestión del Barcelonés Nord y Maresme" (Barcelona) attending a population of 360,000 inhabitants and will include 326 cases and 370 controls. Cases are defined as all subjects fulfilling the inclusion criteria and with evidence of fatty liver in an abdominal ultrasonography performed for any reason. One control will be randomly selected for each case from the population, matched for age, gender and primary care center. Controls with fatty liver or other liver diseases will be excluded.</p> <p>All cases and controls will be asked about previous hepatic diseases, consumption of alcohol, smoking and drugs, and a physical examination, biochemical analyses including liver function tests, the different components of the metabolic syndrome and the HAIR score will also be performed. Paired controls will also undergo an abdominal ultrasonography.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>This study will attempt to determine the factors most frequently associated with the presence of NAFL investigate the relationship between the metabolic syndrome and the risk of fatty liver and study the influence of the different primary care professionals in avoiding the evolution of the disease.</p

Stabilising Rural Roads with Waste Streams in Colombia as an Environmental Strategy Based on a Life Cycle Assessment Methodology

Roads with low traffic volume link rural settlements together and connect them with urban centres, mobilising goods and agricultural products, and facilitating the transportation of people. In Colombia, most of these roads are in poor conditions, causing social, economic, and environmental problems, and significantly affecting the mobility, security, and economic progress of the country and its inhabitants. Therefore, it is essential to implement strategies to improve such roads, keeping in mind technical, economic, and environmental criteria. This article shows the results of the application of the environmental life cycle assessment—LCA—to sections of two low-traffic roads located in two different sites in Colombia: one in the Urrao area (Antioquia), located in the centre of the country; and another in La Paz (Cesar), located in the northeast of the country. Each segment was stabilised with alternative materials such as brick dust, fly ash, sulfonated oil, and polymer. The analysis was carried out in three stages: the first was the manufacture of the stabiliser; the second included preliminary actions that ranged from the search for the material to its placement on site; and the third was the stabilisation process, which included the entire application process, from the stabiliser to the road. The environmental impacts are mainly found in the manufacture of stabilisers (60% of the total), for sulfonated oil or polymer, due to the different compounds used during production, before their use as stabilisers. The impact categories with the greatest influence were abiotic depletion potential (ADP), global warming potential (GWP) and terrestrial ecotoxicity potential (TETP). For the stabilisation stage (impact between 40% and 99%), ash and brick dust have the highest impacts. The impact categories most influenced in this stage were: acidification potential (AP), freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity potential (FAETP), human toxicity potential (HTP), marine aquatic ecotoxicity potential (MAETP) and photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP)

Inventory analysis and carbon footprint of coastland-hotel services: A Spanish case study

Tourism is a key industry in the Spanish economy. Spain was in the World top three ranking by international tourist arrivals and by income in 2015. The development of the tourism industry is essential to maintain the established economic system. However, if the environmental requirements were not taken into account, the country would face a negative effect on depletion of local environmental resources from which tourism depends. This case study evaluates, through a life cycle perspective, the average carbon footprint of an overnight stay in a Spanish coastland hotel by analyzing 14 two-to-five-stars hotels. Inventory and impact data are analyzed and presented both for resource use and greenhouse gases emissions, with the intention of helping in the environmental decision-making process. The main identified potential hotspots are electricity and fuels consumption (6 to 30 kWh/overnight stay and 24 to 127 MJ/overnight stay respectively), which are proportional to the number of stars and unoccupancy rate and they produce more than 75% of the impact. It is also revealed that voluntary implementation of environmental monitoring systems (like EMAS regulation) promotes collection of more detailed and accurate data, which helps in a more efficient use of resources. A literature review on LCA and tourism is also discussed. Spanish hotels inventory data presented here for the first time will be useful for tourism related managers (destination managers, policy makers and hotel managers among others) to calculate sustainability key indicators, which can lead to achieve real sustainable-tourism goals. Further data collection will be needed in future projects to gather representative data from more hotels, other accommodation facilities and also other products/services offered by tourist sector in Spain (like transport of tourists, food and beverage, culture-sports & recreation and others).Peer Reviewe

Life Cycle Assessment of a solar thermal system in Spain, eco-design alternatives and derived climate change scenarios at Spanish and Chinese National levels

Contents lists available atScienceDirectSustainable Cities and Societyjournal homepage:www.elsevier.com/locate/scsLife Cycle Assessment of a solar thermal system in Spain, eco-designalternatives and derived climate change scenarios at Spanish and ChineseNational levelsJaume Albertía,¿,1, Juliana Raigosaa,b, Marco Raugeia,c, Rafael Assiegoa,d, Joan Ribas-Tura,e,Núria Garrido-Sorianof, Linghui Zhangg, Guobao Songg, Patxi Hernándezh, Pere Fullana-i-PalmeraaUNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change ESCI-UPF, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Pg. Pujades 1, 08003 Barcelona, SpainbInnovation Center on e-government, Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies, Bogotá, ColombiacFaculty of Technology, Design and Environment, Oxford Brookes University, Wheatley Campus, Oxford OX33 1HX, UKdETS Arquitectura, Energy Group-University of Malaga, Pl. El Ejido s/n, 29071 Málaga, SpaineESCI-UPF Research in International Studies and Economics (RISE), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Passeig Pujades 1, Barcelona 08003, SpainfSustainability Measurement and Modeling Lab, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), School of Industrial, Aeroespace and Audiovisual Engineering of Terrassa,Colom st., 08222 Barcelona, SpaingKey Laboratory of Industrial Ecology and Environmental Engineering (MOE), School of Environmental Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, No. 2Linggong Road, Ganjingzi District, Dalian 116024, PR ChinahTecnalia, Barrio Lasao, E-20730 Azpeitia, Gipuzkoa, SpainARTICLE INFOKeywords:Renewable energiesBuildingCircular economyNational emissionsNationally determined contributionsABSTRACTSolar thermal energy is considered a‘clean’form of energy; however, environmental impacts occur during itslife-cycle. The present work compares the environmental performance of two scenarios: a solar thermal systemfor providing domestic hot water (DHW) used in conjunction with a traditional natural gas heating system, andthe natural gas heating system on its own. Weak points are found and different eco-design scenarios are eval-uated in order to achieve a more circular economy. In addition, the authors explore what would be the nationalGreenhouse Gas emission reduction potential of a wider use of domestic solar hot water systems (DSHW) inChina’s and Spain’s built environment. In this case,five displacement methods are suggested to show how theemissions reduction vary.Through a review of the state of the art and a Life Cycle Assessment of a solar system the two scenarios areassessed. Some impact categories, such as global warming, suggest a markedly better performance of the solarsystem (-65%). However, weak points in the solar solution have been identified as there is an increase of impactsin cases such as acidification (+6%) and eutrophication (+61%), mostly due to the metals used. The compo-nents with higher environmental impact are the collector, the tank, and the copper tubes.The reduction of national emissions by promoting DSHW depends on the actual displaced technology/ies. Theconsequences on national emissions reduction depending on these choices are assessed. The potential reductionof emissions, if 30% of the DHW were covered with solar sources, would be between 0.38% and 0.50% in thecase of Spain and between 0.12% and 0.63% in China.Peer Reviewe

Screening premorbid metabolic syndrome in community pharmacies: a cross-sectional descriptive study

Background: Premorbid metabolic syndrome (pre-MetS) is a cluster of cardiometabolic risk factors characterised by central obesity, elevated fasting glucose, atherogenic dyslipidaemia and hypertension without established cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Community pharmacies are in an excellent position to develop screening programmes because of their direct contact with the population. The main aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of pre-MetS in people who visited community pharmacies for measurement of any of its five risk factors to detect the presence of other risk factors. The secondary aims were to study the presence of other cardiovascular risk factors and determine patients" cardiovascular risk. Methods: Cross-sectional, descriptive, multicentre study. Patients meeting selection criteria aged between 18 and 65 years who visited participating community pharmacies to check any of five pre-MetS diagnostic factors were included. The study involved 23 community pharmacies in Catalonia (Spain). Detection criteria for pre-MetS were based on the WHO proposal following IDF and AHA/NHBI consensus. Cardiovascular risk (CVR) was calculated by Regicor and Score methods. Other variables studied were smoking habit, physical activity, body mass index (BMI), and pharmacological treatment of dyslipidemia and hypertension. The data were collected and analysed with the SPSS programme. Comparisons of variables were carried out using the Student"s T-test, Chi-Squared test or ANOVA test. Level of significance was 5% (0.05). Results: The overall prevalence of pre-MetS was 21.9% [95% CI 18.7-25.2]. It was more prevalent in men, 25.5% [95% CI 22.1-28.9], than in women, 18.6% [95% CI 15.5-21.7], and distribution increased with age. The most common risk factors were high blood pressure and abdominal obesity. About 70% of people with pre-MetS were sedentary and over 85% had a BMI ≥25 Kg/m2 . Some 22.4% had two metabolic criteria and 27.2% of patients with pre-MetS had no previous diagnosis. Conclusions: The prevalence of pre-MetS in our study (21.9%) was similar to that found in other studies carried out in Primary Care in Spain. The results of this study confirm emergent cardiometabolic risk factors such as hypertension, obesity and physical inactivity. Our study highlights the strategic role of the community pharmacy in the detection of pre-MetS in the apparently healthy population