Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) analysis of the Sicilian artistic and traditional ceramics as a tool for sustainable manufacturing

In the last few decades, greater attention is being paid by the Italian industrial ceramics sector to the environmental impacts related to ceramics production cycle and many companies have acquired voluntary environmental certifications (ISO 14001 or EMAS) or labeling (Ecolabel or EPD). This is not the case with the artistic ceramics sector in which few companies are certified. One of the most common and used tool for evaluating the environmental impact of products is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. This paper presents the preliminary results from a Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) analysis of the artistic ceramics sector in Caltagirone (Italy). Representative life cycle inventories are essential for any good quality LCA. They represent the fundamental blocks for compiling the full LCA of the ceramics production process, hence promoting environmental sustainability

dOCRL maintains immune cell quiescence in Drosophila by regulating endosomal traffic

Lowe Syndrome is a developmental disorder characterized by eye, kidney, and neurological pathologies, and is caused by mutations in the phosphatidylinositol-5-phosphatase OCRL. OCRL plays diverse roles in endocytic and endolysosomal trafficking, cytokinesis, and ciliogenesis, but it is unclear which of these cellular functions underlie specific patient symptoms. Here, we show that mutation of Drosophila OCRL causes cell-autonomous activation of hemocytes, which are macrophage-like cells of the innate immune system. Among many cell biological defects that we identified in docrl mutant hemocytes, we pinpointed the cause of innate immune cell activation to reduced Rab11-dependent recycling traffic and concomitantly increased Rab7-dependent late endosome traffic. Loss of docrl amplifies multiple immune-relevant signals, including Toll, Jun kinase, and STAT, and leads to Rab11-sensitive mis-sorting and excessive secretion of the Toll ligand Spåtzle. Thus, docrl regulation of endosomal traffic maintains hemocytes in a poised, but quiescent state, suggesting mechanisms by which endosomal misregulation of signaling may contribute to symptoms of Lowe syndrome

Corporate eco-efficiency and financial performance

Corporate social responsibility (“CSR” for short) is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. CSR policy functions as a mechanism whereby business monitors and ensures its active compliance with the respect of the law, ethical standards, and international norms. The goal of CSR is to embrace responsibility for the company’s actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere. In this paper the environmental aspect of CSR for the highest relevance in corporate governance and policy will be put in focus, and it can be synthesized in the “environmental social governance” concept. Particularly, a very interesting approach, analysed in this work, is concerning the link between CRS in environmental governance and corporate success, which could result in financial returns, in fair stock pricing, in a higher asset value, in efficient portfolio investment, in pricing firm equity, and so on – roughly speaking – in capital investment and in all financial and economic activity of the companies for satisfying shareholders. In order to establish the internal drivers of environmental performance, are usually selected a number of indicators that better reflect the characteristics of the enterprises and their environmental and financial performances, such as profitability, costs, size, energy consumption, efficiency, potential pollution and risk

Life Cycle Assessment Interpretation and Improvement of the Sicilian artichokes production

This paper presents the results obtained from the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the production of Sicilian artichokes (Cynara scolymus) with the aim of reducing impacts, interpreting the results, suggesting possible improvements and enriching the sustainability knowledge already existing in the agro food field. Artichokes represent one of the excellent Italian agricultural products even if still not well-known and not appreciated despite their nutritional and functional quality. According to FAOSTAT (2013) data, Italy is the world leader in artichokes production, grown mainly in the central and southern regions of Italy, in particular in Sicily, Apulia and Sardinia. In particular, among all the Italian regions, Sicily, which is highly suited for this type of cultivation, is ranked first in terms of quantity produced: the reason for this lies in the excellent combination of climate and geological conformation of the soils. The study was conducted in accordance with the ISO standards 14040 and 14044 (2006), with the functional unit of 1 ha of land and, as the system boundaries being the phases of: pre-implantation preparation of the field; artichoke implantation; and harvesting. The most impacting phases are those related with the consumption of fuel and fertilizers as well as with the use of the PVC pipes for irrigation. Possible improvements could be the use of methanol instead of the naphtha (reduction of the total damage of about 13%) and the possibility of recycling the PVC pipes once the field is dismantled (furthermore reduction of the damage of about 3%)