Ecologia Industrial

As preocupações ambientais em Portugal assumiram desde cedo uma perspectiva de preservação da natureza quando, em 1948, foi fundada a Liga Portuguesa de Protecção da Natureza. A preservação da natureza dá lugar à perspectiva de conservação do ambiente actuando essencialmente nos agentes poluidores. Já na década de 90 o sector industrial era visto como o único agente responsável por um mau Ambiente. Nesta altura, o controlo de poluição incluía essencialmente actuações em fim de linha frequentemente com custos elevados para os intervenientes. Na base desta actuação estaria a obrigação do cumprimento, por parte das empresas, de uma legislação imposta por uma multiplicidade de diplomas legais ambientais recentes. Cedo se compreendeu que seria necessário fazer algo mais do que apenas garantir o cumprimento de uma legislação imposta. Encarou-se a problemática ambiental numa perspectiva mais abrangente e global, onde à vertente ambiental se acrescenta uma visão sobre os aspectos económicos e sociais. Estes três pilares são actualmente encarados como sendo fundamentais para equilibrar, os recursos naturais que são utilizados e os materiais que são produzidos, numa perspectiva temporal inter e intra-gerações. A emergente disciplina, designada por Ecologia Industrial, integra esta perspectivaPlaneta Azul. Canal Saber - Tema Sustentabilidade

Engagement with the Community and Partnerships for Sustainable Food Production and Consumption in Portuguese Higher Education Institutions

Trabalho apresentado em International Conference on Water, Energy, Food and Sustainability (ICoWEFS 2022), 10-12 de maio de 2022, Portalegre, PortugalThe Sustainable Food Production and Consumption Working Group of the Sustainable Campus Network (RCS) participated, in 2020/21, in a survey of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Portugal. One of the sections of this survey aimed to better understand what is happening in HEIs in terms of the food service sustainability. Food Production and Consumption is a critical theme for sustainability and has a very high importance within the scope of actions and interventions of HEIs in the society. Training, research, internal practices, and partnerships are easily identified as ways for HEIs to impact society. The work presented here focuses on the results obtained from the survey in terms of existing partnerships and connections within the community. The survey was answered by 30 HEIs, comprehending Public and Private Universities, Polytechnic Institutes and Non-Integrated Schools. In the set of responses, 24 HEIs (80%) responded positively to the question: “Does the HEI have initiatives for the promotion of sustainable food consumption?”. One of the survey goals´ was to analyse the HEIs “connection to the Community”. The results show usthat there are few references to the relationship regarding the supply chain, namely, on producers and HEI’s. However, references to the traditional HEIs´partnerships are frequent namely functional research and teaching partners amongst other scientific areas, active networks, internships, and conferences. A good practice is the brand-new network regarding partnerships focused on the reduction of food waste and evolving academic community. The results suggest that mainly all the HEIs lack a systemic strategy of building bridges with the community, as a two-way avenue to achieve sustainabilityN/

Editorial: waste challenges in the context of broad sustainability challenges

https://v2.sherpa.ac.uk/id/publication/26071Editorial on the Research Topic Waste Challenges in the Context of Broad Sustainability Challengesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Revision of the EU Green Public Procurement Criteria for Food and Catering Services

This report forms the basis to revise the existing EU Green Public Procurement (GPP) criteria for Food and Catering services. This will assist in the reduction of negative impacts of the, public procurement of these services, on the environment, human health and natural resources. The revision of EU GPP requires in-depth information about the technical and environmental performance of the service group as well as about the current procurement processes. The scientific body of evidence gathered will be cross-checked with sector experienced stakeholders, to develop consensus on how the criteria should be revised to deliver optimum environmental improvements. This Report which will be the basis for producing the draft EU GPP criteria proposals that will be discussed in the Ad Hoc Working Group (AHWG) meetings. Chapter 1 focuses on the definition for and scoping of Food and Catering Services to overview of the different scope and definitions and to narrow down the services in order to obtain a homogenous scope. Chapter 2, market analysis, presents the market overview and the market structure by focusing on the contract catering market. The environmental analysis (Chapter 3) provides a detail analysis of the main environmental hotspots for the food product categories by reviewing a number of LCA studies. Other non-LCA aspects including ethical and health consideration are also summarised. The technical analysis focus on the current schemes and labels identified as important for the revision of the current EU GPP criteria. Chapter 4 provide improvement options, based on the best sector practices and national cases studies which could assist the revision of the EU GPP, and reduce the sectors environmental impacts, by drawing on findings from the market and technical analysis.JRC.B.5-Circular Economy and Industrial Leadershi

The Water Footprint of Wine Production in Portugal: A Case Study on Vinho Verde

The water footprint (WF) of a product is an indicator of the consumptive use of freshwater resources along the product life cycle. Water scarcity is recognised to be a large global problem. Therefore the calculation of the WF of agro-industrial products is important as they are widely known as having a significant footprint on water resources. The objective of this study was to calculate the WF of a very specific Portuguese wine: the vinho verde. The total WF is disaggregated into three components: green, blue and grey. The green WF refers to the consumption of rainwater stored in the soil. The blue WF refers to the consumptive use of surface and groundlevel freshwater. The grey WF measures the volume of freshwater needed to assimilate the pollutant load when considering current water quality standards.The WF is calculated for the activities taking place during the viticulture and the wine production process. The data, from 2009, were provided by a Portuguese company (Aveleda), that produces an important share (16%) of the national wine production. The total WF is calculated to be 463 liters of water per 0,75 liters of wine. The green and grey WF accounted for, respectively, 89% and 11% of the total WF. The green WF is exclusively associated with the viticulture and the grey WF is mainly caused during the wine production process.The blue WF is negligible because currently there is no irrigation during viticulture.The viticulture is responsible for about 91% of the total WF due mainly to the green water consumption. Therefore the WF of vinho verde depends mainly on the climate and soil conditions and crop properties. These are not controlled by the wine producing company. On conclude that a significant reduction of the WF may be achieved throughout the reduction of the pollutant load in the wastewater caused during the wine production phase.A sensitivity analysis was also carried out in order to evaluate the effects on the WF induced by changes in some input data