Carbon footprint of apple and pear: orchards, storage and distribution

Apple and pear represent 51% of fresh fruit orchards in Portugal. This paper presents a life-cycle (LC) greenhouse gas (GHG) assessment (so-called carbon footprint) of 3 apple and 1 pear Portuguese production systems. An LC model and inventory were implemented, encompassing the farm stage (cultivation of fruit trees in orchards), storage and distribution (transport to retail). The functional unit considered in this study was 1 kg of distributed fruit (at retail). Four different LC inventories for orchards were implemented based on data collected from three farms. Inventory data from two storage companies were also gathered. The main results show that the GHG emissions of apple and pear ranged between 192 and 229 gCO2eq kgfruit-1. The GHG emissions (direct and indirect) from the cultivation phase ranged from 36% to 60% of total emissions. Fruit storage, which lasted for as much as 8-10 months, was also responsible for significant emissions due to high energy requirements.Project ECODEEP (Eco-efficiency and Eco-management in the Agro Industrial sector, FCOMP–05–0128–FEDER–018643) and the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation projects: MIT/SET/0014/2009, PTDC/SEN-TRA/117251/201

Sustainability Competencies and Skills in Software Engineering: An Industry Perspective

Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) demands adequate levels of awareness and actions to address sustainability challenges. Software systems will play an important role in moving towards these targets. Sustainability skills are necessary to support the development of software systems and to provide sustainable IT-supported services for citizens. While there is a growing number of academic bodies, including sustainability education in engineering and computer science curricula, there is not yet comprehensive research on the competencies and skills required by IT professionals to develop such systems. This study aims to identify the industrial sustainability needs for education and training from software engineers' perspective. We conducted interviews and focus groups with experts from twenty-eight organisations with an IT division from nine countries to understand their interests, goals and achievements related to sustainability, and the skills and competencies needed to achieve their goals. Our findings show that organisations are interested in sustainability, both idealistically and increasingly for core business reasons. They seek to improve the sustainability of processes and products but encounter difficulties, like the trade-off between short-term financial profitability and long-term sustainability goals. To fill the gaps, they have promoted in-house training courses, collaborated with universities, and sent employees to external training. The acquired competencies make sustainability an integral part of software development. We conclude that educational programs should include knowledge and skills on core sustainability concepts, system thinking, soft skills, technical sustainability, sustainability impact and measurements, values and ethics, standards and legal aspects, and advocacy and lobbying

Life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of portuguese olive oil

The main goal of this paper was to assess the greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of olive oil production in Portugal. A life-cycle model and inventory were implemented for the entire production process, including a comprehensive analysis of olive cultivation, olive oil extraction, packaging, and distribution. Data originates from five differently-sized Portuguese olive growers and from a total of six olive oil mills, representing the three extraction processes in use: three-phase extraction, two-phase extraction, and traditional pressing. The results show that the GHG intensity lies in the range 1.8-8.2 kg CO2eq/liter and that the main contributors were fertilizers (production and field emissions). Efficient use of fertilizers thus seems to be a key factor for mitigating the GHG intensity of olive oil production

Life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of portuguese olive oil

The main goal of this paper was to assess the greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of olive oil production in Portugal. A life-cycle model and inventory were implemented for the entire production process, including a comprehensive analysis of olive cultivation, olive oil extraction, packaging, and distribution. Data originates from five differently-sized Portuguese olive growers and from a total of six olive oil mills, representing the three extraction processes in use: three-phase extraction, two-phase extraction, and traditional pressing. The results show that the GHG intensity lies in the range 1.8-8.2 kg CO2eq/liter and that the main contributors were fertilizers (production and field emissions). Efficient use of fertilizers thus seems to be a key factor for mitigating the GHG intensity of olive oil production

Effects of internet-based multiple-site conferences on greenhouse gas emissions

There is a growing consensus that ICT can make an important contribution towards the reduction of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, both by increasing the efficiency of existing processes, and by enabling substitution effects in an effort to implement more energy efficient paradigms in production and consumption. While, however, many studies based on theoretical reduction potentials have been presented, in practice, it has only been possible to cite a few examples of such reductions thus far. This paper presents the results of a first field experiment for one particular domain in which ICT can be substituted for more carbon-intensive technologies: using advanced videoconferencing technology to reduce intercontinental conference travel and thus travel-related greenhouse gas emissions. We organized a large resource management conference simultaneously on two continents and assessed the emissions caused by the attendees’ travel and by the Internet traffic and the additional equipment needed to connect the two venues. We further assessed, based on a survey, the emissions in the alternative scenarios of holding the conference at either one of the places, and the satisfaction of the participants with the two-site conference format. The results show that reductions of 37% and 50% in travel-related greenhouse gas emissions were attained as compared to the one-site alternatives, although more people took part than in any of these alternatives. At the same time, the attendees' experience has been overwhelmingly positive, showing that the multiple-site paradigm can serve as an acceptable alternative to the traditional one-site paradigm of holding an international conference

Direkte und indirekte Umwelteffekte der Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie

Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie (IKT) verursacht direkt, jedoch auch indirekt Umwelteffekte. Die direkten Effekte entstehen durch den Energie- und Ressourcenverbrauch entlang des Lebenszyklus von IKT-Hardware (Produktion, Betrieb und Entsorgung) und werden meist mit Lebenszyklusanalysen bestimmt. Indirekte Effekte sind Umweltauswirkungen, welche sich aus der Anwendung von IKT ergeben, beispielsweise durch veränderte Produktions- oder Konsummuster. Da IKT immer mehr Bereiche des Alltags durchdringt und durch verschiedenste Mechanismen sowohl positive wie auch negative Umweltauswirkungen herbeiführt, ist die Bestimmung indirekter Umweltauswirkungen konzeptuell herausfordernd. In diesem Artikel besprechen wir indirekte Umweltauswirkungen von IKT auf drei Ebenen: Auswirkungen einzelner Anwendungsfälle, Sektor-übergreifende Effekte und systemische Effekte. Wir zeigen, wie einzelne Telekommunikationsfirmen und Industrieverbände positive indirekte Auswirkungen von IKT postulieren und unterziehen diese Studien einer kritischen Betrachtung. Wir extrahieren daraufhin die inhärenten methodischen Schwierigkeiten derartiger Studien und zeigen anhand zweier Beispiele, wie IKT gleichzeitig sowohl positive als auch negative Umweltauswirkungen hervorrufen kann. Den Herausforderungen in deren Beurteilung bewusst, jedoch auch die prinzipiellen Wirkungsmechanismen indirekter Umweltauswirkungen von IKT verstehend, plädieren wir letztlich dafür, durch wirtschaftspolitische Maßnahmen Potenziale für den Umweltschutz durch IKT zu erschließen, auch wenn die genauen Effekte noch nicht in Zahlen erfasst werden können. = Information and communication technology (ICT) causes direct and indirect environmental effects. The direct effects arise from the energy and resource consumption along the life cycle of ICT hardware (production, operation, and disposal) and are usually determined with life cycle assessments. Indirect effects are environmental impacts that result from the use of ICT, for example through changes in production or consumption patterns. As ICT penetrates more and more areas of everyday life and causes diverse positive and negative types of environmental impacts, the assessment of indirect environmental impacts is conceptually challenging. In this article, we discuss indirect environmental impacts of ICT on three levels: impact of individual ICT use cases, cross-sectoral effects, and systemic effects of ICT use. We show and critically discuss how telecommunication companies and industry associations postulate positive indirect effects of ICT. Based on these insights, we extract the inherent methodological difficulties of such studies and use two examples to show how ICT can have both positive and negative environmental impacts at the same time. Aware of the challenges in their assessment, but also understanding the mechanisms leading to their indirect environmental effects, we advocate to exploit the potential for environmental protection through ICT through policy measures, even if the exact magnitude of the effects cannot be yet assessed

Assessing Internet energy intensity: A review of methods and results

Assessing the average energy intensity of Internet transmissions is a complex task that has been a controversial subject of discussion. Estimates published over the last decade diverge by up to four orders of magnitude — from 0.0064 kilowatt-hours per gigabyte (kWh/GB) to 136 kWh/GB. This article presents a review of the methodological approaches used so far in such assessments: i) top–down analyses based on estimates of the overall Internet energy consumption and the overall Internet traffic, whereby average energy intensity is calculated by dividing energy by traffic for a given period of time, ii) model-based approaches that model all components needed to sustain an amount of Internet traffic, and iii) bottom–up approaches based on case studies and generalization of the results. Our analysis of the existing studies shows that the large spread of results is mainly caused by two factors: a) the year of reference of the analysis, which has significant influence due to efficiency gains in electronic equipment, and b) whether end devices such as personal computers or servers are included within the system boundary or not. For an overall assessment of the energy needed to perform a specific task involving the Internet, it is necessary to account for the types of end devices needed for the task, while the energy needed for data transmission can be added based on a generic estimate of Internet energy intensity for a given year. Separating the Internet as a data transmission system from the end devices leads to more accurate models and to results that are more informative for decision makers, because end devices and the networking equipment of the Internet usually belong to different spheres of control

Assessing Internet energy intensity: A review of methods and results, Environmental Impact Assessment Review 45

Abstract Assessing the average energy intensity of Internet transmissions is a complex task that has been a controversial subject of discussion. Estimates published over the last decade diverge by up to four orders of magnitude -from 0.0064 kilowatt--hours per gigabyte (kWh/GB) to 136 kWh/GB. This article presents a review of the methodological approaches used so far in such assessments: i) top--down analyses based on estimates of the overall Internet energy consumption and the overall Internet traffic, whereby average energy intensity is calculated by dividing energy by traffic for a given period of time, ii) model--based approaches that model all components needed to sustain an amount of Internet traffic, and iii) bottom--up approaches based on case studies and generalization of the results. Our analysis of the existing studies shows that the large spread of results is mainly caused by two factors: a) the year of reference of the analysis, which has significant influence due to efficiency gains in electronic equipment, and b) whether end devices such as personal computers or servers are included within the system boundary or not. For an overall assessment of the energy needed to perform a specific task involving the Internet, it is necessary to account for the types of end devices needed for the task, while the energy needed for data transmission can be added based on a generic estimate of Internet energy intensity for a given year. Separating the Internet as a data transmission system from the end devices leads to more accurate models and to results that are more informative for decision makers, because end devices and the networking equipment of the Internet usually belong to different spheres of control

Grey Energy and Environmental Impacts of ICT Hardware

Direct energy consumption of ICT hardware is only “half the story.” In order to get the “whole story,” energy consumption during the entire life cycle has to be taken into account. This chapter is a first step toward a more comprehensive picture, showing the “grey energy” (i.e., the overall energy requirements) as well as the releases (into air, water, and soil) during the entire life cycle of exemplary ICT hardware devices by applying the life cycle assessment method. The examples calculated show that a focus on direct energy consumption alone fails to take account of relevant parts of the total energy consumption of ICT hardware as well as the relevance of the production phase. As a general tendency, the production phase is more and more important the smaller (and the more energy-efficient) the devices are. When in use, a tablet computer is much more energy-efficient than a desktop computer system with its various components, so its production phase has a much greater relative importance. Accordingly, the impacts due to data transfer when using Internet services are also increasingly relevant the smaller the end-user device is, reaching up to more than 90 % of the overall impact when using a tablet computer.QC 20140825</p