Comparing the environmental impacts of meatless and meat-containing meals in the United States

This study compares the environmental impacts of meatless and meat-containing meals in the United States according to consumption data in order to identify commercial opportunities to lower environmental impacts of meals. Average consumption of meal types (breakfast, lunch, dinner) were assessed using life cycle assessment. Retail and consumer wastes, and weight losses and gains through cooking, were used to adjust the consumption quantities to production quantities. On average, meatless meals had more than a 40% reduction in environmental impacts than meat-containing meals for any of the assessed indicators (carbon footprint, water use, resource consumption, health impacts of pollution, and ecosystem quality). At maximum and minimum for carbon footprint, meat-containing dinners were associated with 5 kgCO2e and meatless lunches 1 kg CO2e. Results indicate that, on average in the US, meatless meals lessen environmental impacts in comparison to meat-containing meals; however, animal products (i.e., dairy) in meatless meals also had a substantial impact. Findings suggest that industrial interventions focusing on low-impact meat substitutes for dinners and thereafter lunches, and low-impact dairy substitutes for breakfasts, offer large opportunities for improving the environmental performance of the average diet

Life cycle management as a way to operationalize sustainability within organizations

This chapter proposes a value creation framework to operationalize sustainability within organizations through an improved link between life cycle management tools and business drivers for value creation. Internal and external stakeholders’ need to be first identified and accounted for, and value creation must be clearly identified in order to be acknowledged and communicated. The question “what do we want to achieve?” needs to be answered before thinking how to best achieve the identified business value. We propose to apply “reverse-engineering” to define the value creation path and identify the departments and collaborators to be involved at different level of the organization. LCM offers an essential and flexible integrated management framework of concepts, techniques and procedures to think how to best operationalize sustainable actions to achieve the identified business value. The sustainability action involves a team that should include, at least a sponsor or a pilot from the department that is expecting final value creation (Human Resources – HR for employee engagement, marketing for product positioning, etc.) and a representative from each department involved in the value creation path. Each of them will need an LCM tool adapted to their need and specific objectives. Last but not least, one needs measurable indicators on global goals that are to be monitored by the overall project sponsor, through KPI (key performance indicators) and follow-up

Optimal foraging behavior by Castor canadensis: examining preferences for tree size, distance of tree to water, and tree species.

Optimal foraging theory attempts to simplify complex foraging behaviors into formulaic models from which simpler trends can be observed and tested. In the present study, I examine the foraging behavior of a beaver (Castor canadensis) in an area of forest near a beaver lodge on Douglas Lake in Cheboygan County, northern lower Michigan. The three major variables examined are species of trees, diameters of trees, and the distance of trees to the waterline. Optimal Foraging Theory predicts that the beaver would show preferences with respect to all three of these variables. Small trees should be preferred over large, and near trees over far. Additionally, difference should exist between species. In all cases, it is assumed that the beaver will act to maximize net energy gained from a foraging event. My results show that beavers prefer big toothed aspen (Populus grandidentata) to all other species present. Also, small trees are shown to be preferred over large. However, the data show that no distance preference exists. The results of the distance measurements contain too many uncertainties to reach firm conclusions about such preferences. Many theoretical aspects of the system under study are explored and several problems with the study and future directions for research are contemplated. The study is very informative about the foraging behavior of beaver and offers new perspectives on theoretical ecology. More importantly, it demonstrates the effectiveness of Optimal Foraging Theory in offering simplified models of complex foraging behavior. The future prospects for uses of such theory are promising.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/54879/1/3320.pdfDescription of 3320.pdf : Access restricted to on-site users at the U-M Biological Station

Co-digestion of dairy cow manure and food waste creates a more efficient biogas cycle

The AgSTAR project of the U.S. EPA analyzed the possibility of installing anaerobic digesters with energy generation and nutrient capture in all confined dairy operations in the US with 500+ cows, with a total potential capacity of more than 2,000 digesters nationwide. This study uses environmental life cycle assessment to identify the potential benefits of disposing locally accessible commercial food waste with manure at those digesters (via co-fermentation) in comparison to other disposal options. Anaerobic digesters show an advantage compared to compost or landfill for all impact indicators examined: human health, climate change, ecosystem quality and water withdrawal. For greenhouse gases, the installation of digesters could potentially reduce 20-25 million metric tons (MMT) CO2e of fugitive methane emissions from manure compared to current manure management practices, 10 MMT CO2e of fugitive methane emissions from landfilled food waste, and another 10 MMT of CO2e from avoided electricity, fertilizer production and peat moss production by harvesting energy, nutrients, and fibers from digesters, respectively

The EPOS project : operationalizing cross-sectorial industrial symbiosis for the European industry

This presentation will introduce the European project EPOS (Enhanced energy and resource Efficiency and Performance in process industry Operations via onsite and cross-sectorial Symbiosis) and present its current status of work, with a focus on the work package Business scenarios and the applied methodology. The EPOS project brings together five process industries from five key sectors: steel, cement, chemicals, minerals and engineering. With the intention of reinforcing competitiveness of the EU industry, EPOS partners aim to increase cross-sectorial knowledge and investigate cluster opportunities using an innovative Industrial Symbiosis (IS) tool. EPOS' main objective is to provide a wide range of technological and organisational options for making business and operations more efficient, more cost-effective, more competitive and more sustainable across the different process sectors. An innovative tool is to be developed, applying a proven methodology for the thermo-economical optimization of energy and resource use within and between industrial clusters, taking into account sustainability opportunities. To achieve the objectives of the EPOS tool, a cross-sectorial energy, material and service integration approach is considered, based on process integration methodology. This holistic tool will enable an on-site optimized resource management, further targeting cross-sectorial opportunities. The expected users are process industries, suitable for both small and large scale. The tool will be usable by non-experts, after a reasonable training period, and will thus have a user-friendly interface such that the final user will not be directly in contact with the internal model, but will rather use a 'high-level' platform that reflects his knowledge and understanding of the sites. In addition to the ongoing tool development, a full work package led by Strane is dedicated to developing a generic business case for industrial symbiosis, taking into consideration monetized and non-monetized aspects. One main focus includes internalizing positive social and environmental externalities within the business models of industrial companies. A market study of the potential for industrial symbiosis in Europe was performed. It included the mapping of all industrial sites in the EPOS sectors, the generation of more than 1000 possible synergies, and a preliminary assessment of the economic and environmental relevance of a selection of 28 synergies. The study highlighted industrial hotspots, a consistent approach to identifying and assessing synergies. Each EPOS sector demonstrated a good potential for industrial symbiosis. Future work of the EPOS Project will focus on deepening the analysis of business models and their associated environmental impact assessment, using the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach. The presentation will detail the methodology to link LCA and business models, which may serve as a reference model for future similar undertakings