Synthetic environmental appraisal of waste management system: an application to the Sicilian region

This paper addresses the problem of synthetically evaluating the environmental performances of urban solid waste systems. This, in fact, represents a crucial point in the management process of complex systems that local administrations are called to cope with, in order to provide decisions about policy options that involve different issues characterising the quality of life of people. Suitable methods of evaluation are clearly required for this aim. This work introduces the dashboard of sustainability and the ecological footprint approaches as aggregate indicators of the performances of solid waste management systems. The methods have been selected due to their intrinsic simplicities, provided that the required data are available, although the first one can be defined as a political tool, while the second one can be defined as a technical tool. An application of both methods to the situation of Sicily is proposed here

Towards the energy optimization and decarbonization of urban settings: proposal of a strategy at Neighbourhood Level to Foster Nearly Zero and Positive Energy Districts

Optimizing energy management in urban contexts has been one of the biggest challenges of the last decades for both the scientific community and international governments to pursue carbon neutrality, enhance energy security and promote energy equity and accessibility. In this regard, particular emphasis has been given by the EU and its member States on improving the energy performance of built environments by reducing building energy consumption (implementing adequate retrofit interventions) and fostering the integration of renewable energy sources (RES) to achieve the conditions of Nearly Zero and Positive Energy Districts. To this aim, the most recent energy-environmental initiatives promote as an effective solution the joining of energy users into groups/units (e.g., Energy Communities, consortia, etc.) which usually include buildings located in portions of territory, i.e. districts that share and collaborate in the management of energy supply and consumption. The case study presented in this paper intends to provide a contribution to this matter by using a modeling/simulation-based approach involving the evaluation of different scenarios of energy efficiency measures, i.e. building envelope retrofit interventions, RES integration and their combination, in a historic existing neighborhood. The analysis aims at identifying which are the most effective strategies to implement at district level in a typical Southern Italy building context

Towards Nearly Zero Energy and Environmentally Sustainable Agritourisms: The Eectiveness of the Application of the European Ecolabel Brand

Tourism represents an important economic driver in Italy, being responsible for approximately 13.2% of the total GDP (a value higher than the reference European average) and for nearly 10% of the regional GDP. Among the touristic sectors, the agritourist ones show a persistent growth, experiencing in 2019 a 6.7 point percentage improvement compared to the 2017 figures. Given this situation, the transition towards a low-carbon path, aecting the building sector for some time, should also involve agritourist buildings, through the release of EU directives, member state laws, and technical rules. On the other hand, agritourism sites could be awarded the Community EU Ecolabel. Unfortunately, awarding theEUenvironmental excellence brand implies the availability of several data on building energy behavior that should then be managed by complex evaluation tools. To overcome this issue, the use of the simplified ARERA (Italian Regulatory Authority for Energy Networks and Environment) technical datasheets, issued to assess environmental improvements consequent to energy eciency interventions in the urban residential building stock, is proposed. The application of this tool totally avoids using building computer-based simulation models, thus facilitating the preparation of the EU Ecolabel request documentation by agritourism owners. Being awarded the Community EU Ecolabel also implies approaching a net zero energy condition because of a lower energy consumption and a minor recourse to fossil fuels. For this purpose, an application of an easy graphical method, previously developed for residential and commercial buildings, which visually represents improvements achievable by a given agritourism when implementing energy eciency measures, is presented

Foster Carbon-Neutrality in the Built Environment: A Blockchain-Based Approach for the Energy Interaction Among Buildings

Decarbonizing urban environments and reducing their energy consumption is one of modern society biggest commitments. In this regard, both the scientific community and international governments have been giving special consideration on improving the energy-environmental performance of mostly single buildings; recently the focus has been shifting towards a broader Positive Energy District (PED)/ Energy Community (EC) vision, from small clustered group of buildings to neighborhoods up until urban settlements. In this respect, integrating the use of renewable energy resources (RES) and actively involving building users can have a significant environmental impact on local areas. Within this framework, this work discusses the possibility of employing an innovative blockchain-based approach for the energy interaction among buildings. The blockchain technology can, in fact, be useful in managing such scenarios since it would allow to, not only consider buildings occupants behaviors, but also take into account concernings regarding the need for transparency, engagement, environmental and human health benefits, as well as the stakeholders role in the interaction/integration between PEDs/ECs and local/national electricity systems

Comparison Between Conventional and Vegetated Roof by Means of a Dynamic Simulation

Abstract In this paper, a dynamic simulation of a building located in the Campus University of Palermo, Italy, has been carried out. We considered two different scenarios; in the first one, the building as it is, with a conventional covering, while in the second one the roof was equipped with a green roof. The results of the two simulations have been compared, suggesting that such building component could contribute to the energy savings of the building. However, it has to be considered as part of other possible actions devoted to improve the energy efficiency of the whole building

Indoor Parameters of Museum Buildings for Guaranteeing Artworks Preservation and People’s Comfort: Compatibilities, Constraints, and Suggestions

Since people tend to spend an increasing amount of time in museums, more accurate requirements are needed for the indoor environmental conditions of these confined spaces where two main requisites concur in defining their optimal indoor microclimate conditions: the needs for the ap-propriate artwork preservation and suitable levels of indoor comfort conditions for people visit-ing the exhibition buildings and/or working there. Unfortunately, human and artworks require-ments are sometimes characterized by different reference values of the environmental parameters that, not rarely, could become conflicting. Another important point to consider is that museums hosted by heritage buildings (particularly in Mediterranean climates, as is often the case in Italy) are often not equipped with climatization systems because of difficulty in installing generally bulky equipment such as HVAC system. This circumstance represents another important limit for achieving suitable conditions for the two requisites. In addition, the recent pandemic related oc-currences are pushing technicians and designers to rethinking the criteria for controlling the mi-croclimate of public buildings, and museums among them. In this paper this issue is addressed by reviewing current regulations, standards and handbooks (and by means of a real case example related to the Italian context), in order to ascertain whether such documentation could facilitate the development of effective rules/guidelines for a proper management of indoor parameters in museums

Off-Line Methods for Determining Air Quality in Museums

This paper will examine three methodologies deployed in off-line research relating to air quality in museums. These methodologies made use of sensors based on the different chemical-physicalproperties of various materials (corrosiveness, hardness and absorption). Various field applications were applied to case studies, which were performed in two museums in Palermo, Italy: the Regional Gallery of Palazzo Abatellis and the Diocesan Museum. This review of methodologies and sensors examines which protocol should be put into practice in museums in monitoring the air quality of display spaces and the conservation of cultural artefacts

Environmental assessment of a new building envelope material derived from urban agriculture wastes: the case of the tomato plants stems

Purpose: Decarbonizing cities is one of today’s biggest challenges. In this regard, particular attention has been paid on improving the environmental performance of buildings. In this framework, this work consists in assessing the environmental impact of an innovative building envelope component derived from urban agriculture (UA) wastes. In fact, rooftop UA seems to be a possible solution to the rising food demand due to increasing urban demographic growth. Consequently, rooftop UA wastes need to be treated in sustainable ways. Methods: This study aims to determine the carbon footprint and embodied energy of a new infill wall material, derived from UA wastes produced by a building rooftop greenhouse tomato crop, and evaluate the potential biogenic carbon that such by-product could fix temporally until its end of life. After an initial description of the manufacturing process of the new material, its carbon footprint and embodied energy have been calculated by means of the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology according to the ISO 14044 and the ISO 14067 guidelines adapted to the analyzed context. In particular, the inventory analysis is based on data collected from the production of samples of the new material at the laboratory scale. Results and discussion: The results of the LCA indicate that, when the biogenic carbon fixed in the UA wastes is considered, a negative carbon footprint of − 0.2 kg CO2 eq. per kg of material can be obtained. Hence, it can be assumed that from a life cycle perspective the material is able to fix carbon emissions instead of emitting them. Specifically, for the considered scenario, approximately 0.42 kg CO2 eq./m2 per year could be sequestered. However, the crop area required to produce enough waste to manufacture a unit of material is quite high. Therefore, future studies should focus on individuate solutions to reduce the density of the new component, and also different urban crops with higher waste production rates. Conclusions The outcomes of the study put in evidence the potential of the new proposed infill wall component in fixing carbon emissions from UA, allowing to also compensate those relating to the production and transportation stages of the component life cycle. Moreover, producing by-products with UA wastes, hence temporally storing the carbon fixed by crops, may contribute to reduce the carbon cycles speed conversely to traditional waste management solutions, other than lower new raw materials depletion