Economic and Environmental Assessment on Implementing Solar Renewable Energy Systems in Spanish Residential Homes

In Europe, buildings are responsible for more than one third of the total final energy demands and greenhouse gas emissions. In the last twenty years, the European Union has published a succession of energy performance of building directives to define and ensure the fulfilment of a series of objectives regarding greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, energy efficiency and energy generation from renewable sources in buildings. For its part, Spain is adapting its legal framework, transposing these directives with the aim of achieving greater energy efficiency and sustainability for buildings. Under this context, an energy, economic and environmental assessment is performed to analyze the impact of these regulatory changes on a single-family home including a photovoltaic installation for self-consumption with surpluses and/or a solar thermal installation for domestic hot water supply, located in each one of the eight thousand one hundred thirty-one municipalities that make up Spain. The energy behavior of the original house is compared with that obtained after it is updated with these new facilities. The transient system simulation tool is used for the energy study. The results show that the European objectives are far exceeded. The energy savings achieved range from 67% to 126%, carbon dioxide emissions decrease by 42% to 100% and energy bills are reduced in cost by 32% to 81%. The findings of this work can be used by policymakers as guidelines for the development of national strategic plans and financial incentives for the promotion of small-scale residential photovoltaic and solar thermal applications, as well as by designers, supervisors, managers and developers to include them in their projects

Traceability of Intra- and Interpersonal Skills: From Education to Labor Market

Both educators and employers agree there is a growing gap between competences that labor market expects from its new employees and skills they own. Literature review holds that a set of nontechnical, professional abilities and intra- and interpersonal attitudes are required to close this gap and indicates that more training of soft skills is needed to access employment and success in work life. Although these skills are theoretically included in educational stages, project management approach can be incorporated to improve students and new employees’ practical curricula. The methodology consists of the critical review of the competency frameworks established by the DeSeCo and Tuning projects, confronting them against the requirements currently demanded by labor market, based on the reports of Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG, to detect inconsistencies between educational and professional stages and check if project management standards, by PMI and IPMA, cover them. Compiling these weaknesses, actions can be established aimed at solving them, based on project management proposals. The incorporation of project management concepts into educational stages, especially the vision by competences, contributes to improve the employability by highlighting those transverse but essential skills that lead to versatile and successful professionals. To achieve this, it is necessary to care for human competences

La ecoeficiencia y el ecodiseño en la industria de celulosa y papel en América Latina y su proyeccion a Venezuela

[ES] La industria es el motor de desarrollo, ya sea sostenible e insostenible de un país y, por medio de la actividad productiva que genera, desempeña un papel protagónico en el progreso de las sociedades, ya que es promotora de la tecnología, además de ser la encargada fundamental de suministrar servicios a los ciudadanos. Asimismo, en contraparte, constituye la principal fuente de impacto ambiental, independientemente de su condición pública o privada. La Industria Química donde se encuentra ubicada la industria de celulosa y papel, forma parte de la cadena productiva del Sector Forestal Primario, en el que existe una gran variedad de especies maderables que conforman los bosques naturales y plantaciones forestales que, al ser explotados, se convierten en una de las materias primas más utilizadas en los procesos industriales de fabricación de papel, conformando de esta manera parte del desarrollo industrial de un país. De ahí, que la justificación e importancia de este trabajo radica en el hecho de que la industria papelera debe mejorar o transformar su organización, para adoptar un nuevo modelo de actividad productiva desde la Ecología Industrial, contribuyendo a la obtención del Desarrollo Sostenible; fundamentado en tres estrategias principales: la ecoeficiencia, la gestión medioambiental y los polígonos eco-industriales, en donde la función de diseño es imprescindible para la consecución de este modelo. Razón por la cual, cada día más se incrementa el interés de organismos, institutos y empresas hacia el ecodiseño, que lo ven como una herramienta de enorme potencial, para poder implantar el modelo de ecología industrial y contribuir de esta manera desde la Industria al Desarrollo Sostenible de la nación.Rondón Sulbarán, M.; Bastante-Ceca, M. (2011). La ecoeficiencia y el ecodiseño en la industria de celulosa y papel en América Latina y su proyeccion a Venezuela. Ecodiseño y Sostenibilidad. (3):147-173. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/105392S147173

Introductory Chapter: The Need to Change the Paradigm - Sustainability and Development at the 21st Century

Since the second half of the twentieth century, the big processes of globalization of the economy, coupled with the development of new technologies and the increase of the population, have led to the emergence of major environmental problems whose importance transcends beyond the limits of the countries, in a manner that we could say that they are global impacts. These problems include, among others, the ozone layer depletion, the climate change due to the greenhouse gas emission, or the depletion of natural resources. Industry, as well as modern societies, must face this challenge, changing their consumption patterns, increasing product life, banishing the concept of "use and throw away," and changing from the traditional productive systems to a more sustainable ones

Study of Major-Accident Risk Assessment Techniques in the Environmental Impact Assessment Process

[EN] Design, implementation, and operation of any project are affected by the environment where it is developed; at the same time, the project will influence the environment, since during its life cycle it can cause an impact on it. This impact can lead to social, economic, and environmental results. Directive 2014/52/EU, on the assessment of the effects of certain public and private projects on the environment, reflects the obligation for the project promoter to consider, in the Environmental Impact Study (EIS) of the project, their vulnerability (exposure and resilience) to major accidents and/or disasters, evaluating both the risk and their effects on the environment, in case these major accidents and/or disasters appear. The IEC 31.010:2019 Risk management-Risk assessment techniques standard defines 45 risk appreciation techniques that are useful when analysing the risks, in general. The objective of this paper is to review these 45 techniques, and establish which ones can be used for the assessment of accidents or disasters required in the specific environmental impact assessment process to accomplish with the regulation. After the revision, the authors propose five risks appreciation techniques that could be used for the assessment of major accidents and or disasters in projects for which EIA has to be carried out.The APC was funded by Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Spain.Fuentes Bargues, JL.; Bastante Ceca, MJ.; Ferrer-Gisbert, P.; González-Cruz, M. (2020). Study of Major-Accident Risk Assessment Techniques in the Environmental Impact Assessment Process. Sustainability. 12(14):1-16. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12145770S1161214Gimenez, C., Sierra, V., & Rodon, J. (2012). Sustainable operations: Their impact on the triple bottom line. International Journal of Production Economics, 140(1), 149-159. doi:10.1016/j.ijpe.2012.01.035Kleindorfer, P. R., Singhal, K., & Wassenhove, L. N. (2009). Sustainable Operations Management. Production and Operations Management, 14(4), 482-492. doi:10.1111/j.1937-5956.2005.tb00235.xZhang, X., Wu, Y., & Shen, L. (2015). Embedding «green» in project-based organizations: the way ahead in the construction industry? Journal of Cleaner Production, 107, 420-427. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.10.024Chofreh, A. G., Goni, F. A., Malik, M. N., Khan, H. H., & Klemeš, J. J. (2019). The imperative and research directions of sustainable project management. Journal of Cleaner Production, 238, 117810. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.117810Armenia, S., Dangelico, R. M., Nonino, F., & Pompei, A. (2019). Sustainable Project Management: A Conceptualization-Oriented Review and a Framework Proposal for Future Studies. Sustainability, 11(9), 2664. doi:10.3390/su11092664Silvius, A. J. G., & Schipper, R. P. J. (2014). Sustainability in project management: A literature review and impact analysis. Social Business, 4(1), 63-96. doi:10.1362/204440814x13948909253866Dong, N., Fu, Y., Xiong, F., Li, L., Ao, Y., & Martek, I. (2019). Sustainable Construction Project Management (SCPM) Evaluation—A Case Study of the Guangzhou Metro Line-7, PR China. Sustainability, 11(20), 5731. doi:10.3390/su11205731Gilbert Silvius, A. J., Kampinga, M., Paniagua, S., & Mooi, H. (2017). Considering sustainability in project management decision making; An investigation using Q-methodology. International Journal of Project Management, 35(6), 1133-1150. doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.01.011Demidova, O., & Cherp, A. (2005). Risk assessment for improved treatment of health considerations in EIA. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 25(4), 411-429. doi:10.1016/j.eiar.2004.09.008Zeleňáková, M., & Zvijáková, L. (2017). Risk analysis within environmental impact assessment of proposed construction activity. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 62, 76-89. doi:10.1016/j.eiar.2016.10.003Marconi, M., Marilungo, E., Papetti, A., & Germani, M. (2017). Traceability as a means to investigate supply chain sustainability: the real case of a leather shoe supply chain. International Journal of Production Research, 55(22), 6638-6652. doi:10.1080/00207543.2017.1332437Torres-Ruiz, A., & Ravindran, A. R. (2018). Multiple criteria framework for the sustainability risk assessment of a supplier portfolio. Journal of Cleaner Production, 172, 4478-4493. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.10.304Oliveira, F. N. de, Leiras, A., & Ceryno, P. (2019). Environmental risk management in supply chains: A taxonomy, a framework and future research avenues. Journal of Cleaner Production, 232, 1257-1271. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.06.032Chen, Z., Li, H., Ren, H., Xu, Q., & Hong, J. (2011). A total environmental risk assessment model for international hub airports. International Journal of Project Management, 29(7), 856-866. doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.03.004Zeleňáková, M., Labant, S., Zvijáková, L., Weiss, E., Čepelová, H., Weiss, R., … Minďaš, J. (2020). Methodology for environmental assessment of proposed activity using risk analysis. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 80, 106333. doi:10.1016/j.eiar.2019.106333Tixier, J., Dusserre, G., Salvi, O., & Gaston, D. (2002). Review of 62 risk analysis methodologies of industrial plants. Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 15(4), 291-303. doi:10.1016/s0950-4230(02)00008-6Marhavilas, P. K., Koulouriotis, D., & Gemeni, V. (2011). Risk analysis and assessment methodologies in the work sites: On a review, classification and comparative study of the scientific literature of the period 2000–2009. Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 24(5), 477-523. doi:10.1016/j.jlp.2011.03.004Zheng, X., & Liu, M. (2009). An overview of accident forecasting methodologies. Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 22(4), 484-491. doi:10.1016/j.jlp.2009.03.005Price, C. J., & Taylor, N. S. (2002). Automated multiple failure FMEA. Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 76(1), 1-10. doi:10.1016/s0951-8320(01)00136-

Green Public Procurement at a Regional Level. Case Study: The Valencia Region of Spain

[EN] Research on current practices and the state of green public procurement enables the identification of areas that can be improved, as well as opportunities to improve the tendering procedures from an environmental point of view. To understand the behaviour of local, provincial, and regional administrations concerning green public procurement, a case study on the Valencia region of Spain is made. The Valencian region is one of the most important communities in terms of population, number of contracting authorities, and weight in the Spanish Gross Domestic Product. In this study, a total of 967 procedures were analysed from calls for tenders made by municipal, provincial, and regional administrations in2016 and 2017.The results of this study show that the use of environmental criteria is 19.7% and the average weight is 4.1 out of 100. The civil engineering subsector, more than the building subsector, employs environmental criteria, particularly in projects tendered by regional administrations, whereas for projects with large budgets the level of use is similar for both subsectors. It is necessary to encourage plans to improve Green Public Procurement (GPP) practices in the Valencian administrations, especially those with a local scope such as municipalities.This research was funded by the Conselleria de Educacion, Investigacion, Cultura y Deporte of the Generalitat Valenciana through the project Analysis of the Green Public Procurement (CPV) of Works in the Valencian Community and Development of Indicators for their evaluation, grant number [GV/2017/027] of the R + D + i Projects for Emerging Research Groups 2017.Fuentes Bargues, JL.; Ferrer-Gisbert, P.; González-Cruz, M.; Bastante-Ceca, M. (2019). Green Public Procurement at a Regional Level. Case Study: The Valencia Region of Spain. International Journal of Environmental research and Public Health. 16(16):1-24. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16162936S124161

Analysis of the main changes introduced by the environmental assessment Act 9/2018 in the process of evaluation of environmental impacts

[ES] El pasado día 6 de diciembre de 2018 fue publicada en el Boletín Oficial del Estado la Ley 9/2018, de 5 de diciembre, de evaluación ambiental, que modifica la Ley 21/2013 de evaluación ambiental, la Ley 21/2015 que modificaba la Ley 43/2003 de Montes y la Ley 1/2005 que regulaba el régimen del comercio de derechos de emisión de gases de efecto invernadero. Esta Ley supone la transposición al ordenamiento jurídico español de la Directiva 2014/52/UE del Parlamento Europeo y del Consejo, que fue aprobada el 16 de abril de 2014 y entró en vigor el 15 de mayo de 2014. Esta última Directiva tiene como objeto reforzar las actuaciones en materia de cambio climático, eficiencia en los recursos y prevención de riesgos, que cobran mayor importancia y se ven reflejadas de manera más explícita en el nuevo proceso de evaluación. Este artículo tiene como objetivo analizar los principales cambios que supondrá la puesta en marcha efectiva de la Ley, y su repercusión tanto en los procedimientos como en los plazos, que redundarán en una mayor agilidad a la hora de tramitar expedientes de evaluación ambiental de proyectos, planes y programas.[EN] Last month, on December 6, 2018 it was published in the Spanish Official Bulletin of the State the Law 9/2018, of 5 December, of environmental assessment, amending the Law 21/2013 of environmental assessment, as well as the Law 21/2015 amending Law 43/2003 of Montes, and the Law 1/2005 that regulated the Greenhouse Gas Emission allowance trading scheme. This Act is the transposition into Spanish law of Directive 2014/52/EU of the European Parliament and the Council, which was approved on April 16, 2014 and entered into force on May 15, 2014. The new directive aims to reinforce actions on climate change, efficiency in resources and prevention of risks, among other aspects which take on greater importance and are reflected more explicitly in the new evaluation process. This article aims to analyse the major changes that will result in the effective implementation of the law, and their impact both in procedures and deadlines, which will result in a greater agility in the processing of dossiers of environmental assessment of projects, plans and programmes.Bastante-Ceca, M.; Fuentes Bargues, JL.; González-Cruz, M.; Viñoles-Cebolla, R. (2019). Análisis de las principales modificaciones introducidas por la Ley 9/2018 de Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental en el proceso de EIA. AEIPRO. 1085-1094. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/1812881085109

Methods and tools for the generation of ideas that follow circular criteria in the early stages of the product design

Ponència presentada al 26th International Congress on Project Management and Engineering, Terrassa, 5 th -8 th July 2022The circular economy offers an alternative to the traditional linear economy based on the classic model of production. Currently, there is great pressure to achieve some sustainability goals in different areas. In reference to product design, main environmental and economic decisions affecting the whole life cycle of product are adopted during the conceptual design stage. There are many tools and methods that support the generation of ideas allowing the development of products with low environmental impact. This work shows a compilation and analysis of the tools and methods that consider product circular design and that can help in the creative phases, where the design proposals are still abstract or incomplete. The information analyzed will allow identifying the appropriate method according to the type of product, the circularity criteria to be integrated or the way of integrating them. On the other hand, it will allow identifying the aspects of improvement of the available methods in order to be able to develop a more complete tool, which could help designers in the generation of ideas for sustainable products under circularity criteria in an agile and effective way.La Economía Circular ofrece una alternativa a la tradicional economía lineal basada en el modelo clásico de producción. Hoy en día existe una gran presión por alcanzar determinados objetivos de sostenibilidad en diferentes ámbitos. En lo que respecta al diseño de productos, es en la fase conceptual donde se adoptan las principales decisiones que afectarán posteriormente a los impactos ambientales y económicos de un producto durante todo su ciclo de vida. Existen multitud de herramientas y métodos que ayudan en la generación de ideas que permitan desarrollar productos de baja incidencia ambiental. Este trabajo muestra una recopilación y análisis de las herramientas y métodos que consideran la circularidad y que pueden ayudar en las fases creativas, donde las propuestas de diseño aún son abstractas o incompletas. La información analizada de cada uno de ellos permitirá identificar el método adecuado en función del tipo de producto, los criterios de circularidad a integrar o el modo de integrarlos. Por otro lado, permitirá identificar los aspectos de mejora de los métodos disponibles pudiendo así desarrollar una herramienta más completa, que de manera ágil y efectiva, ayude a los diseñadores en la generación de ideas de productos sostenibles bajo criterios de circularidad

Public procurement of municipal works. Analysis of cemetery execution projects

[EN] The public procurement of works from the local administration includes from new projects within the scope of building subsectro: administrative and educational buildings (schools, libraries) as within the scope of civil engineering subsector: housing developments, parks and gardens, sports infrastructure and/or bike lanes. Municipal public works also include the repair, rehabilitation and maintenance of municipal infrastructures such as lighting, air conditioning, roads and sidewalks, etc., which means a wide range of types of work. In a study carried out on public procurement in the Valencian Community during the years 2016 and 2017, it was found that, after road projects (including actions on public lighting), the projects most tendered by the local administration are extensions and improvements to cemeteries, which in most cases are municipally-owned. Given this importance, at least in terms of the number of projects identified, this communication is proposed in order to carry out an analysis of cemetery execution projects, identifying their main characteristics, typologies, construction processes, aspect of the tender, etc.[ES] La contratación pública de obras desde la administración local comprende desde proyectos de nueva planta dentro del ámbito de edificación: edificios administrativos y educativos (colegios, bibliotecas), etc., como dentro del ámbito obra civil: urbanizaciones, parques y jardines, infraestructuras deportivas y/o carriles bici. Dentro de las obras públicas municipales también se encuentran los trabajos de reparación, rehabilitación y mantenimiento de las infraestructuras municipales como alumbrado, climatización, viales y aceras, etc., lo que supone un abanico muy amplio de tipologías de obra. En un estudio realizado sobre la contratación pública en la Comunidad Valenciana durante los años 2016 y 2017 se ha podido comprobar que, tras los proyectos de reparaciones de viales y calzadas (incluyendo las actuaciones sobre alumbrado público), los proyectos más licitados por la administración local son las ampliaciones y mejoras de los cementerios, los cuáles en la mayoría de los casos tienen titularidad municipal. Dada esta importancia, al menos en el número de proyectos identificados, se propone esta comunicación que tiene como objeto realizar un análisis de los proyectos de ejecución de cementerios, identificando sus principales características, tipologías, procesos constructivos, aspecto de la licitación, etc.Este trabajo surge como resultado del proyecto GV/2017/027: Análisis de la Contratación Pública Verde (CPV) de Obras en la Comunidad Valenciana y Desarrollo de Indicadores para su Evaluación, aprobado en la convocatoria de Proyectos I+D+i para Grupos de IFuentes Bargues, JL.; González-Cruz, M.; Ferrer-Gisbert, P.; Bastante-Ceca, M. (2019). La contratación pública de obras municipales. Análisis de los proyectos de ejecución de cementerios. AEIPRO. 375-385. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/181292S37538

An integrated method to calculate an automobile's emissions throughout its life cycle

[EN] Although studies can be found in the literature that present emissions inventories associated with different types of automobiles, distinct technologies or various stages of their life cycles, they do not enable us to compare the environmental impact of the complete life cycle of two vehicles. This is because there is no valid emissions inventory for all types of automobiles that covers all the life cycle stages (the cradle to grave approach). This paper proposes a method to estimate the principal types of emissions throughout a vehicle's life cycle based on primary data (weight, year of manufacture, engine technology, fuel type used, etc.). The proposed method requires neither sophisticated life cycle assessment software nor knowledge of specific information on individual vehicles. The proposal has been validated by analyzing three different gasoline and diesel-fueled internal combustion engine vehicles and by considering a life span of 100,000 km.The translation of this work has been funded by the Language Center of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia as a part of the Mobility and Academic Internationalization of VLC - CAMPUS (International Campus of Excellence Program), of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports.Viñoles Cebolla, R.; Bastante-Ceca, MJ.; Capuz-Rizo, SF. (2015). An integrated method to calculate an automobile's emissions throughout its life cycle. Energy. 83:125-136. doi:10.1016/j.energy.2015.02.006S1251368