Best Environmental Management Practice for the Waste Management Sector

The way communities generate and manage their waste plays an absolutely key role in their ability to use resources efficiently. While making European economy more resource efficient and circular requires a large spectrum of actions, a huge potential for saving resources lays in improving waste management at local level in Europe. On the basis of an in-depth analysis of the actions implemented by frontrunner organisations in the waste management sector, this report describes a set of best practices with high potential for broad uptake. They are called Best Environmental Management Practices (BEMPs) and aim to help local authorities in charge of waste management and waste management companies move towards circular economy. The BEMPs, identified in close cooperation with a technical working group comprising experts from the sector, cover the waste management areas which determine the most the overall waste management performance: setting a waste management strategy, promoting waste prevention, establishing an efficient waste collection that supports re-use and recycling, and stimulating waste and product re-use. Certain areas of waste treatment are also covered. The BEMPs address mainly the management of municipal solid waste, but also of construction and demolition waste and healthcare waste. Additionally, the report provides a set of environmental performance indicators that organisations can use to assess their waste management performance and monitor progress as well as benchmarks of excellence that give an indication of the levels achieved by best performers. The report presents a wide range of information (environmental benefits, economics, case studies, references, etc.) for each of the best practices and aims to provide inspiration and guidance to organisations of the sector. In addition, the report will be the technical basis for the development of an EMAS (EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) Sectoral Reference Document on Best Environmental Management Practice for the Waste Management sector according to Article 46 of Regulation (EC) No 1221/2009 (EMAS Regulation).JRC.B.5-Circular Economy and Industrial Leadershi

Best Environmental Management Practice for the Car Manufacturing Sector Learning from frontrunners

The European automotive industry is one of the EU's largest manufacturing sectors, and the automotive value chain covers many activities largely carried out within the EU, such as design and engineering, manufacturing, maintenance and repair, and end-of-life vehicle (ELV) handling. This Best Practice report describes Best Environmental Management Practices (BEMPs), i.e. techniques, measures or actions that are implemented by the organisations within the sector which are most advanced in terms of environmental performance in areas such as energy and resource efficiency, emissions, or supply chain management. The BEMPs provide inspirational examples for any organisation within the sector to improve its environmental performance. The report firstly outlines technical information on the contribution of car manufacturing and end-of-life vehicle (ELV) handling to key environmental burdens in the EU, alongside data on the economic relevance of the sector. The second chapter presents best environmental management practice of interest primarily for manufacturing companies (car manufacturers and associated manufacturers in the supply chain) covering cross-cutting issues related to key environmental impacts (such as energy, waste, water management, or biodiversity) before exploring best practice linked to specific topics, such as supply chain management. Subsequently, specific information concerning actors in the treatment of end-of-life vehicles is presented in the third chapter, focussing in particular on best practice applicable to processers of ELVs. This Best Practice Report was developed with support from a Technical Working Group of experts from the car manufacturing and ELV sector and associated fields. The report gives a wide range of information (environmental benefits, economics, indicators, benchmarks, references, etc.) for each of the proposed best practices in order to be a source of inspiration and guidance for any company of the sector wishing to improve environmental performance. In addition, it will be the technical basis for a Sectoral Reference Document on the car manufacturing sector, to be produced by the European Commission according to the EMAS Regulation.JRC.B.5-Circular Economy and Industrial Leadershi

Best Environmental Management Practice in the Fabricated Metal Product manufacturing sector

This report encloses technical information pertinent to the development of Best Environmental Management Practices (BEMPs) for the Sectoral Reference Document on the Fabricated Metal Products manufacturing sector, to be produced by the European Commission according to Article 46 of Regulation (EC) No 1221/2009 (EMAS Regulation). The BEMPs, both of technological and management nature (identified in close cooperation with a technical working group) address all the relevant environmental aspects of the Fabricated Metal Products manufacturing facilities. The BEMPs described in this report provide guidance on the cross-cutting issues and optimisation of utilities of the manufacturing facilities. Moreover, the BEMPs cover also the most relevant manufacturing processes, looking at energy and material efficiency, protecting and enhancing biodiversity, using of renewable energy and using rationally and effectively chemicals e.g. for cooling of various machining processes. Each BEMP gives a wide range of information and outlines the achieved environmental benefits, appropriate environmental performance indicators to measure environmental performance against the proposed benchmarks of excellence, economics etc. aiming at giving inspiration and guidance to any company of the sector who wishes to improve its environmental performance.JRC.B.5-Circular Economy and Industrial Leadershi

Best Environmental Management Practice in the Telecommunications and ICT Services sector: Learning from front runners

The steady growth over the past decades of the Telecommunications and ICT Services sector, and its uninterrupted progress with the constant provision of renewed and ever-faster services as well as new applications, has transformed many aspects of our society and lives but has also spurred the development of ever more power- and resource-hungry systems, contributing to the sector’s ever-growing environmental footprint. On the basis of an in-depth analysis of the actions implemented by environmental front runners and of existing EU and industry initiatives addressing the environmental performance of the sector, this report describes a set of best practices with high potential for larger uptake. These are called Best Environmental Management Practices (BEMPs). The BEMPs, identified in close cooperation with a technical working group comprising experts from the sector, cover improvement of environmental performance across all significant environmental aspects (energy consumption, resource consumption, etc.) at the different life cycle stages (planning and design, installation, operation, end-of-life management, etc.) and for different ICT assets (software, data centres, etc.). Besides actions aimed at reducing the environmental impact of Telecommunications and ICT Services operations (with a special focus on data centres and telecommunications networks), the report also identifies best practices in the ICT sector that contribute towards reducing the environmental impact of other sectors of the economy ("greening by ICT" measures). The report gives a wide range of information (environmental benefits, economics, indicators, benchmarks, references, etc.) for each of the proposed best practices in order to be a source of inspiration and guidance for any company in the sector wishing to improve its environmental performance. In addition, it will be the technical basis for a Sectoral Reference Document on Best Environmental Management Practice for the Telecommunications and ICT Services sector, to be produced by the European Commission according to Article 46 of Regulation (EC) No 1221/2009 (EMAS Regulation).JRC.B.5-Circular Economy and Industrial Leadershi

Best Environmental Management Practice for the Food and Beverage Manufacturing Sector

This report describes best environmental management practices for food and beverage manufacturers. Best environmental management practices are those techniques, measures and actions that can be implemented by food and beverage manufacturers to minimise their impact on the environment all along the value chain of their products. They were identified together with sectoral experts on the basis of practices actually implemented by environmental frontrunners. The report outlines best environmental management practices that are broadly applicable to all food and beverage manufacturers, such as the carrying out of an environmental assessment, sustainable supply chain management, cleaning operations, improvement of energy efficiency, use of renewable energy, optimisation of transport and distribution, refrigeration and freezing operations and food waste prevention. Additionally, specific best practices for nine individual subsectors are presented, namely the processing of coffee, manufacture of olive oil, manufacture of soft drinks, manufacture of beer, production of meat and poultry meat products, manufacture of fruit juice, cheese making operations, manufacture of bread, biscuits and cakes and manufacture of wine. Alongside best environmental management practices, the report also identifies suitable sector specific environmental performance indicators related to the topic of each best practices, and, when possible, benchmarks of excellence, corresponding to the level of performance achieved by frontrunners. This report can be used by food and beverage manufacturers as a source of information to identify relevant actions they can implement to improve their environmental performance. On its basis, the EMAS (EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) Sectoral Reference Document on Best Environmental Management Practice for the food and beverage manufacturing sector was developed (according to Article 46 of Regulation (EC) No 1221/2009).JRC.B.5-Circular Economy and Industrial Leadershi

Evolution comparée de la consommation de médicaments dans les 5 pays européens entre 2000 et 2004 : analyse de 7 classes pharmaco-thérapeutiques

The drug consumption level in France is often considered as being one of the most important in Europe. This study aims at confirming this assertion over the period 2000-2004 by comparing drug consumption in Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the United-Kingdom. The results show that in 2004 drug consumption in France was no more the biggest for all the seven studied classes. Moreover, the consumption levels of the five countries have converged between 2000 and 2004, as well as the consumption structures.Defined Daily Dose (DDD); Drug Consumption; European Comparative Analysis

Stakeholder needs analysis towards a new concept for the identification and promotion of Best Environmental Management Practices

The European Commission has been identifying and promoting Best Environmental Management Practices (BEMPs) in implementation of a provision of the (EU) Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) Regulation. BEMPs are those actions or techniques resulting in improvements of environmental performance well above common practice that can be implemented by organisations in different sectors. They are identified by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) working in close cooperation with sectoral technical working groups (TWG) on the basis of the actions implemented by frontrunner organisations. They are used, on a voluntary basis, by both EMAS registered organisations and all other organisations interested in improving their environmental performance. This stakeholder need analysis was performed to identify the major improvement opportunities in the development and promotion of BEMPs, by taking into account the main needs and barriers faced by stakeholders, with the goal to develop and validate possible solutions to a future format and approach. On these basis, this stakeholder need analysis provides information on the main barriers and needs faced by organisations in the improvement of environmental performance and identifies an interactive web-tool with sectoral specific content and features as the recommended format and approach for both developing and promoting BEMPs, as well as continuing to make available a report with detailed information about the best environmental practices.JRC.B.5-Circular Economy and Industrial Leadershi

Development of conductometric sensors for ammonia sensing in wet atmosphere

L’objectif de cette étude était d’obtenir un capteur à bas coût, fonctionnant à température ambiante, et permettant d’obtenir une information sur la concentration d’ammoniac d’une atmosphère, sans tenir compte de l’humidité. Cela implique une très faible sensibilité à l’humidité et une faible synergie entre l’eau et l’ammoniac.Au terme d’une étude sur la mise en forme de films hybrides hydrophiles, par un procédé « propre » dans l’eau, un capteur a été développé, par un assemblage en couche par couche de polyélectrolytes hydrophiles, la polyaniline et la phtalocyanine tétrasulfonée de cuivre : PANI/TsPcCu. Ce capteur présente une limite de détection d’ammoniac inférieure au ppm et une très faible sensibilité à l’eau, permettant de détecter l’ammoniac sans informations sur l’humidité de l’air.De nouveaux dispositifs, basés sur un mode de transduction breveté, ont été étudiés : les heterojonctions MSDIs (Molecular Semiconductor-Doped Insulator). Ces dispositifs sont formés de deux couches superposées, une sous-couche isolante de type n, F16PcCu ou le PTCDA, et une couche supérieure semi-conductrice de type p, Pc2Lu. L’importance de la jonction entre les deux matériaux, mais aussi de la jonction entre les électrodes et la sous-couche, a été démontrée à l’aide de mesures d’impédances. Les propriétés capteurs des dispositifs MSDI ont été étudiées par exposition à l’ammoniac sur une large gamme d’humidité. Ils présentent une très faible sensibilité à l’eau et permettent de détecter des concentrations d’ammoniac inférieures au ppm. Suite au développement d’un banc de mesures spécifique permettant l’affinage de fromages, celui-ci a pu être suivi par des mesures capteur avec un résistor de PcCo et par GC-MS. Ces mesures ont mis en évidence l’intérêt de tels capteurs pour suivre l’évolution de la maturation des fromages.The aim of this study was to obtain a low cost sensor, working at room temperature, capable to obtain an information about the ammonia concentration without any information about the humidity. These characteristics imply a very low sensitivity to humidity and a low cross sensitivity between humidity and ammonia.After a study on material processing of hydrophilic films using water as solvent, a sensors has been developed by using layer by layer assembly of polyelectrolytes, such as polyaniline and the tetrasulfonated copper phthalocyanine: PANI/TsCuPc. This sensor is able to detect sub ppm ammonia concentration, with a very low cross sensitivity between ammonia and water which allow ammonia sensing without any information about the humidity.New devices based on a patented transduction method were studied: the MSDIs heterojunctions (Molecular Semiconductor-Doped Insulator). This kind of device is prepared with two different layers, a sub layer of an n-type insulator, F16CuPc or PTCDA, and an upper layer of a p-type semiconductor, LuPc2. The importance of the junction between both materials and between the sub layer and the electrodes were studied by using ammonia exposure on a large humidity range. They exhibit a very low sensitivity to humidity and allow sub ppm ammonia sensing whatever the humidity is.A specific workbench has been developed and tested in the laboratory, to follow cheese ripening by using CoPc gas sensors and gas chromatography. These measurements showed readiness to the use of the kind of gas sensors for the follow up of dairy products

Bias and humidity effects on the ammonia sensing of perylene derivative/lutetium bisphthalocyanine MSDI heterojunctions

International audienceIn this paper, we prepared and studied sensors based on Molecular Semiconductor-Doped Insulator (MSDI) heterojunctions. These original devices are built with two stacked layers of molecular materials and exhibit very specific electrical and sensing properties. We studied the properties of a MSDI composed of the perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride, PTCDA, or the fluorinated perylenebisimine derivative, C4F7-PTCDI, as n-type molecular material sublayers, and LuPc2 as a p-type semiconductor top layer. Their response to ammonia was compared to that of a resistor formed of only the top layer of the MSDI (LuPc2). Ammonia increases the current in the MSDIs whereas it causes a decrease in the case of LuPc2 resistors, as previously observed for other MSDIs with a n-type sublayer. At first, we showed the significant effect of the applied potential on the response of these sensors. There is an optimum operating point for which the response to ammonia is maximized, which depends on the nature of the samples. The influence of the thickness of the layers was studied, showing a strong influence of this parameter on the sensing properties. MSDIs prepared with fluorinated PTCDI exhibit a higher energy barrier and a lower current. Finally, in general, PTCDA/LuPc2 MSDIs show a strong response to ammonia with a response up to 250% to 30 ppm NH3 at 50% of relative humidity for the MSDI PTCDA/LuPc2 50 nm/50 nm. A discrimination better than 10 ppm between the ammonia concentrations was observed, regardless of relative humidity between 10 and 70% rh