Life Cycle Assessment and Cost–Benefit Analysis as Combined Economic–Environmental Assessment Tools: Application to an Anaerobic Digestion Plant

In the present study, using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Cost–Benefit Analysis (CBA), we assess the economic–environmental performance of an anaerobic digestion (AD) plant, fed by cultured crops (i.e., maize and wheat), in Italy. The biogas generated by the AD plant is used for the production of electricity, imputed into the Italian energy grid. The LCA evaluated potential greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, measured via Carbon Footprint (CF), while the CBA analysed the financial and economic profiles via the Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) indicators. The strength of combining these methodologies is the joint examination of the financial and social–environmental performance of the plant. The results of the CBA are complemented with the GHG emissions avoided by producing electricity from biogas. The CF of 0.28 kg CO2eq·kWh−1 of electricity produced is mainly due to the nitrogen fertilizers involved in the production of the additional feedstock matrix (i.e., maize flour). In the CBA, the negative financial NPV and the financial IRR, which is lower than the discount rate applied, highlight the inability of the net revenue to repay the initial investment. Regarding the social desirability, the economic analysis, enriched by the LCA outcomes, shows a positive economic performance, demonstrating that the combination of information from different methodologies enables wider consideration for the anaerobic digestion plant. In line with the Italian Recovery and Resilience Plan’s aim to strongly increase the exploitation of renewable resources, an AD plant fed by dedicated crops could valorise the marginal uncultivated land, obtaining energy without consuming land for food production. Moreover, this AD plant could contribute to the creation of repeatable small-scale energy production systems able to sustain the demand of local communities

Lifecycle environmental impact assessment of an overtopping wave energy converter embedded in breakwater systems

Overtopping breakwater systems are among the most promising technologies for exploiting wave energy to generate electricity. They consist in water reservoirs, embedded in piers, placed on top of ramps, higher than sea-level. Pushed by wave energy, seawater fills up the reservoirs and produces electricity by flowing back down through low headhydro turbines. Different overtopping breakwater systems have been tested worldwide in recent years. This study focuses on the Overtopping BReakwater for Energy Conversion (OBREC) system that has been implemented and tested in the harbor of Naples (Italy). The Life Cycle Assessment of a single replicable module of OBREC has been performed for analyzing potential environmental impacts, in terms of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, considering construction, installation, maintenance, and the operational phases. The Carbon Footprint (i.e., mass of CO2eq) to build wave energy converters integrated in breakwater systems has been estimated, more specifically the "environmental investment" (i.e., the share of Carbon Footprint due to the integration of wave energy converter) needed to generate renewable electricity has been assessed. The Carbon Intensity of Electricity (i.e., the ratio between the CO2eq emitted and the electricity produced) has been then assessed in order to demonstrate the profitability and the opportunity to foster innovation in the field of blue energy. Considering the impact for implementing an operational OBREC module (Carbon Footprint = 1.08 t CO2eq; Environmental Investment = 0.48 t CO2eq) and the electricity production (12.6 MWh/year per module), environmental benefits (avoided emissions) would compensate environmental costs (i.e., Carbon Footprint; Environmental Investment) those provided within a range of 25 and 13 months respectively

Teaching sustainability within the context of everyday life: steps toward achieving the sustainable development goals through the EUSTEPs module

In a world characterized by Ecological Overshoot, education can nurture sustainability-minded citizens and future leaders to help accelerate the transition towards a one-planet compatible society. Despite the essential role of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in contributing to a sustainable society, a holistic understanding of how to incorporate sustainability initiatives into HEIs is still lacking. Given the importance of HEIs in societies and considering the number of students, educators, and staff they host every day, ensuring that sustainability is both taught and practiced within campuses becomes fundamental. To this end, a strategic partnership was created in 2019 to set up the ERASMUS+ project EUSTEPs - Enhancing Universities’ Sustainability Teaching and Practices through Ecological Footprint. Among the main outputs of the project is a teaching module for introducing the sustainability concept to students. This module takes a 360-degree approach to teach sustainability, allowing students to endogenously realize the full complexity of sustainability, in an engaging and captivating manner. This paper thus aims to: 1) present the EUSTEPs Module, its pedagogical approach and structure, and the learning outcomes and competencies students are expected to gain; 2) review the outcomes of its first pilot teaching in four European HEIs, and 3) shed light on how this Module contributes to the development of competences and pedagogical approaches for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our findings show that 90% of the students were ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with the Module, rating the Ecological Footprint as the most useful teaching tool among those included in the Module, and appreciated the interactive nature of the proposed teaching. Feedback obtained from students during the pilot teaching contributed to shaping the Module’s final structure and content. The Module – an important interactive sustainability pedagogical tool – is now ready for use with students from different disciplines, thus contributing to progress towards the UN 2030 Agenda, particularly SDG 4, SDG 11, SDG 12, and SDG 13.Project “EUSTEPs: Enhancing Universities’ Sustainability Teaching and Practices through Ecological Footprint,” KA 203, Strategic Partnership in Higher Education 2019–2022, Agreement No. 2019-1-EL01-KA203-062941.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Benefit transfer and the economic value of Biocapacity: Introducing the ecosystem service Yield factor

The Ecological Footprint can inform benefit transfer estimates of ecosystem services by considering the different productivity of land-types. In this paper, ecosystem service values are used to calculate Ecosystem Service Yield Factors (ES-YFs) for the world countries as monetary-based alternative to resource-based Yield Factors (YFs). These scaling factors are context-dependent and can be used for transferring ecosystem service values calculated in different locations for cropland, grazing land and forest. The ES-YFs were further used to calculate Biocapacity Economic Values (BEVs) that represent natural capital values and can be used for environmental economic accounting and as a component of wellbeing indicators. Besides improving the accuracy and feasibility of the benefit transfer method, the ES-YFs can inform natural resource management towards more sustainable options and allows for comparison with economic values in markets sensible to asymmetry, incomplete information, unfairness and unethical behaviours

A thermodynamics-based measurements of environmental resource use in buildings and cultural heritage

This paper presents a theoretical thermodynamics-based viewpoint on buildings that is synthetically explained through an energy systems diagram. Considering that buildings, and also historical buildings, can be conceived in terms of energy and material fl ows and stocks, we discussed here two methods for assessing environmental resource use due to building construction, maintenance and use. In a sustainability framework, outcomes provide information about some common activities and practices related to buildings and housing – such as planning practices based on physical limits to the construction of new buildings or more practical activities of restoration of existing buildings, including cultural heritage – in terms of energy, emergy and ecological footprint. A new research is thus needed in order to stimulate good practices such as conservation of historical buildings and the defi nition of new thermodynamics-based urban indexes for regulating building construction in contemporary cities

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) combined with EMergy evaluation for a better understanding of the environmental aspects associated with a crystal glass supply chain

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has gained wider acceptance as a quantitative environmental performance tool, based on mass and energy balances. This paper applies the LCA method in a combined form with Emergy, which is a holistic and thermodynamic tool for the physical evaluation of environmental resources and services. A crystal glass production has been assessed as a case study. According with LCA method, the system was analysed from "cradle to gate". Data elaborated refer to 1 kg of crystal glass packed (functional unit). Results of life cycle inventory and impact assessment showed the highest contribution of the manufacturing phase to the total environmental impact, with evidence of CO2, NOx, SO2, and heavy metals emissions and some acid wastewater releases. Emergy results have been useful for carrying out a more reliable evaluation of the non-renewable resources involved, in terms of solar energy needed for generating 1 kg of crystal glass (sej/kg). Also with emergy analysis, the manufacturing phase highlighted the highest resources exploitation, due to water and natural gas uses. The combined use of emergy and LCA contributes important information useful for the comprehension of the crystal glass system organization and its level of environmental pressure, which could be reduced. Moreover, the integration may provide a base for a future development of the emergy evaluation within an LCA framework. © 2009 WIT Press

La valutazione della sostenibilità ambientale mediante indicatori

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