Assessing the Urban Mining Potential in the City of Huddersfield, UK

With the increasing demand of metals from industrial facilities and the construction sector, the abundance of discarded metals within the infrastructure of a typical city may be considered as an attractive source for metal recovery. The term “urban mining” refers to the process of recovering metals from secondary metal stocks in urban locations, which provide an alternative resource to conventional mountainous mines. An integrated urban mining potential assessment comprises of two steps: (a) mapping and size estimation of a certain metal reserve and (b) evaluation of the economic feasibility of its recovery, by determining the necessary extraction process. The infrastructure systems (or infrasystems) in the city of Huddersfield, and UK in general, are to a great extent buried underground and surface cables are usually immediately removed after being decommissioned. Thus, the major infrasystems (and the corresponding metals) in the studied region are (a) AC/DC power (Cu/Al), (b) telecommunication (Cu), (c) natural gas (Fe) and (d) water mains (Cu/Fe). In the current study, we focus on the assessment of urban iron mining potential, through mapping the spatial distribution of hibernating iron deposits in Huddersfield, identifying potential hotspots in the city and assessing alternative options for their recovery

Identifying Clusters of Regions in the European South, Based on Their Economic, Social and Environmental Characteristics

Regional development has been the focal point of both academics and decision makers in the central and local governments of many European countries. Identifying the key problems that regions face and considering how their solutions could be effectively used as a basis for planning their development process, are essential in order to improve their conditions. The growth of a region depends on its ability to attract and retain both business units and the right blend of people to run them. In this context, we introduced a variable which is referred to as the image of a region and quantifies its attractiveness. A region’s image depends on a variety of factors, economic, social and environmental, some of which are common for all potential movers and some specific for particular groups, and expresses its current state of development and its future prospects. The paper examines a number of south European countries and focuses on their NUTS 2 level regions. Its objective is to estimate the image values of those regions and to group them into different clusters on the basis of the characteristics used to define their image. The results are presented and discussed

A country’s process of development as described by a butterfly catastrophe model. The case of European South

For a long period of time a country’s development has been synonymous with its economic growth. Over the last years, however, economies and societies have been undergoing dramatic changes. These changes have led to the concept of sustainable development, which refers to the ability of our societies to meet the needs of the present without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Measuring sustainable development means going beyond a purely economic description of human activities; requires integration of economic, social and environmental concerns. New techniques are required in order to benchmark performance, highlight leaders and laggards on various aspects of development and facilitate efforts to identify best practices. New tools have to be designed so as to make sustainability decision-making more objective, systematic and rigorous. The majority of those methodologies make use of a single indicator in order to measure separately the evolution of each component i.e. the economic, the social and the environmental. Our objective in the present paper is to: - Outline the process of a country’s development taking into account all its three dimensions, economic, social and environmental. - Present a model for quantifying its process of development encompassing all those dimensions. - Apply the model to European South countries. - Discuss the results

Enabling CO2 reuse value chains

Strategies to capture CO2 from existing industrial processes are considered important in the transition to low carbon economies. CO2 reuse offers the possibility of making different contributions to the mitigation of overall emissions. In order to enable re-use at different scales, knowledge on the practical logistics of capture, treatment and transport is essential before establishing whether a final conversion process would be viable. In addition to knowledge on individual stages of the value chain, the implications of each stage must be adapted to the processes of subsequent and preceding stages in the local context. This understanding helps stakeholders to search for partners and explore business cases according to the composition and scale of the source, feasible distances and final application requirements

Policy analysis and recommendations for EU CO2 utilisation policies

To safeguard the competitiveness of energy-intensive industries, in light of lower-cost energy supplies elsewhere, Europe requires combined resource and energy efficiency technology. Most technical components of CO2 utilization can in principle be mobilized in Europe in the short term. Nevertheless, infrastructural, logistical, regulatory and business strategic issues must be addressed imminently by all relevant stakeholders. Given the already dense EU policy landscape, industry stakeholders need to assess first the applicability of the current framework and then the impact that policy changes could bring. Notably, connectivity infrastructure requires more analysis and coordination. This paper presents relevant policies to support CO2 utilisation along the value chain. It outlines the applicability of current policy and benefits of policy enhancements to address barriers to deployment of CO2-derived products. It also lays out the role of key stakeholders to effect appropriate changes in policy. Finally, it explores the justification for a CO2 Utilisation Directive, comparable to the Carbon Capture and Storage Directive

Value chain upgrading in a textile dyeing industry

Eco-efficiency has been widely recognized during the last two decades as a suitable measure of a given system’s progress towards a greener and sustainable development. It combines the economic welfare and the ecological impact of products or services throughout their lifecycle. The need for improving eco-efficiency leads to the development of appropriate metrics for measuring the performance of a given system and the identification of the most promising alternative solutions (eco-innovations). This paper briefly presents a methodological framework for the eco-efficiency assessment of water-use systems, using a life-cycle oriented approach and a set of selected eco-efficiency indicators. The environmental performance of the system is evaluated through the relevant midpoint environmental impact categories, while the economic performance is measured using the total value added to the system’s final product due to water use. The proposed framework is applied to the textile industry in Biella, Italy. The analysis reveals that the major environmental problems of the textile industry in the region are freshwater resource depletion, as well as human toxicity and ecotoxicity (both aquatic and terrestrial). The identification of the environmentally weak stages of the system has led to the selection of alternative actions, which could upgrade the whole value chain and improve the overall eco-efficiency. Six innovative technologies are examined and two alternative technology scenarios are formulated. The first scenario focuses on resource efficiency, while the second one focuses on reducing the emissions to water. The results show that all technologies could potentially improve the majority of the environmental performance indicators of the system. However, the scenario towards pollution prevention and control has proven to be not economically viable due to the high investment cost required and the current economic conditions, while the implementation of the scenario towards resource efficiency requires additional economic incentives and governmental support in order to be considered feasible by the industrial stakeholders

Systemic eco-efficiency assessment of meso-level water use systems

Eco-efficiency has recently become an important concept of environmental decision making, serving as a policy objective and, if linked with resource efficiency, can be a measure of progress towards sustainability. The need for improving eco-efficiency leads to the challenge of identifying the most promising alternative solutions which improve both the economic and the environmental performance of a given system (“eco-innovations”). A methodological framework for the eco-efficiency assessment of a water use system at the meso level has been developed in the context of the EcoWater research project and consists of four distinct steps. The first step leads to a clear, transparent mapping of the system at hand and the respective value chain, while the second step provides the means to assess its eco-efficiency, following a life-cycle oriented approach using the midpoint impact categories. An important novelty is the distribution of economic costs/benefits and environmental pressures over different stages and stakeholders in the value chain. The third step includes the selection of innovative technologies, which are assessed in the last step and combined with mid-term scenarios in order to determine the feasibility of their implementation. The proposed methodological framework has been applied to eight alternative water use systems, revealing all their environmental weaknesses and identifying potential opportunities for eco-efficiency improvement. At the same time, through the systemic approach all the involved actors are urged to cooperate in order to (a) propose and build innovative technological solutions that will improve the overall eco-efficiency of the system; and (b) make suggestions on the necessary policy framework that will facilitate and promote their uptake. This ensures that upstream decisions in the value chain are coordinated with downstream activities and all potential synergies are identified, leading to the creation of “meso-level closed resource loops” and thus the promotion of a circular economy

e-Learning – Experience from the Energy Academy distance training project

Academic and professional education programmes currently available in the areas of energy and environment cannot fully satisfy market demands. Furthermore, closed and isolated systems, such as islands, face additional problems due to geographical discontinuity. The role and the potential of e-learning in both instructor-led (synchronous) and online (asynchronous) course delivery in such isolated systems are investigated. The discussion focuses on the ”Energy Academy”, a distance learning programme of continuous education and training on Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and Energy Savings for local administration officials and for persons involved in the formulation of energy and environmental policies in the Aegean islands of Greece. The programme has been developed by the Environmental & Energy Management Research Unit, School of Chemical Engineering - National Technical University of Athens, and Ios-Aegean Energy Agency, a nonprofit organization focusing on increasing the islands' energy production from RES and promoting energy efficient technologies and practices. The main characteristics of the programme and of the web platform that supports it are presented. From the experience gained during the first two years, it could be said that the programme has come to fill a training need and satisfy an existing demand. The increasing number of participants and the programme’s evaluation by them, have shown that it has achieved its goals, at a great extent. Some failings, however, like the high dropout rate and the rather low percentage of the target audience in the participants, should be taken into account for the programme’s continuation

The Role of Environment in a Region's Sustainable Development

Mankind’s relationship with the environment has gone through several stages, starting with primitive times in which human beings lived in a state of symbiosis with nature, followed by a period of increasing mastery over nature up to industrial age, and culminating in the rapid material-intensive growth pattern of the twentieth century which adversely affected natural resources in many ways, thus becoming a serious impediment to further growth. The present paper outlines the changing role of environment in a region’s development, presents a measure of a region’s overall attractiveness and incorporates environmental factors into it

The INECO experience - Main outcomes and lessons learned from participatory Case Study processes

Multi-stakeholder participatory processes are increasingly viewed as the only means of developing policies and strategies for alleviating real (or perceived) water-related conflicts at local, national and international level. They are considered as problem-solving, institutional innovations to democratise water management, manage conflict and enhance effectiveness of water management operations. Methods and tools employed to foster stakeholder engagement vary greatly, depending on issues at hand, opportunities for dialogue and information sharing, as well as the overall socio-economic and political context. This paper outlines the approach followed in the EC-funded INECO Project (Institutional and Economic Instruments for Sustainable Water Management in the Mediterranean Region, Contract No: INCO-CT2006-517673) for fostering dialogue among diverse stakeholder groups and facilitating joint agreement on policy recommendations for mitigating water stress issues in seven Case Studies in the Mediterranean region. The scope of these Case Studies was defined through situation analysis, aimed at depicting significant water management issues faced by the local societies. Subsequently, through different methods (e.g. stakeholder workshops, surveys and questionnaires, individual consultation meetings with key actors), stakeholders jointly collaborated to identify ways through which these issues could be addressed in a desired water resources management situation. In this regard, the recommendations derived for problem mitigation incorporated the very different perspectives of stakeholders and facilitated the comprehensive analysis of the wider economic, societal, institutional and sustainability implications of proposed water management options