Considerations When Applying Simplified LCA Approaches in the Wine Sector

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been increasingly used to improve the environmental performance of food systems and simplification of LCA appears to be a vital question, especially for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Following a literature review on simplified LCA tools and their subsequent ranking, some of the best-rated tools were implemented and the results were examined in parallel to those of a full LCA

Overcoming current challenges for circular economy assessment implementation in public sector organisations

Circular Economy (CE) is seen as a key strategy in achieving sustainable development and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To seize the potential of CE, public and private organisations need to evaluate and communicate their progress moving away from the non-sustainable paradigm of “take-make-dispose” towards circularity. The literature and practitioners demonstrate a growing interest in CE assessment as a driver for this transition. Nevertheless, the majority of CE assessments are implemented in private companies and implementation in public sector organisations is low. This article presents the challenges that currently prevent public sector organisations from implementing CE assessment and derives strategies to overcome them. A total of 21 CE and assessment experts from the Portuguese public sector were interviewed, and the results were triangulated with an extensive policy document review. The findings show that cultural barriers, particularly a lack of public and political pressure as well as a resistance towards change, are considered the main challenges for CE assessment implementation. Cultural challenges drive structural ones such as a lack of leadership commitment, the voluntary nature, and a missing clear governance for CE assessment. Technical and financial challenges, contrary to previous findings of the literature, are not prioritised and are seen as a result of the cultural and structural challenges. Overall, the research suggests that CE assessment is often a discussion among academics and highly specialised practitioners. In order to drive its implementation, the debate has to involve stakeholders beyond expert circles to trigger awareness for its necessity and to facilitate usage for a broader audience.publishersversionpublishe

Co‐development of a framework for circular economy assessment in organisations: Learnings from the public sector

To seize the potential of Circular Economy (CE) organisations need to evaluate and communicate their progress moving away from the non-sustainable paradigm of ‘take-make-dispose’ towards circularity. Existing CE assessments for organisations focus on companies. Although the need for CE assessment is recognised in both public and private sectors, little progress has been made towards developing an approach for public sector organisations. CE assessment in public sector organisations is particularly important due to their role model, agenda setting and economic function. Therefore, this article co-develops a CE assessment framework for public sector organisations. Portuguese public sector organisations were involved as a participatory case study. The result is a framework that covers the following components: (i) a system definition; (ii) a definition of 35 CE assessment elements; (iii) CE assessment targets; and (iv) CE indicators. The framework contributes to the understanding of circularity from a public sector perspective considering three key aspects: resources, operations and processes as well as social and employee related activities. Implications for CE assessments in the public and private sector encompass the importance for an early involvement of stakeholders to get a sector specific perspective, the need to address user-friendliness and the requirement for continuous testing of CE assessments

Gait symmetry and regularity in transfemoral amputees assessed by trunk accelerations

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The aim of this study was to evaluate a method based on a single accelerometer for the assessment of gait symmetry and regularity in subjects wearing lower limb prostheses.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Ten transfemoral amputees and ten healthy control subjects were studied. For the purpose of this study, subjects wore a triaxial accelerometer on their thorax, and foot insoles. Subjects were asked to walk straight ahead for 70 m at their natural speed, and at a lower and faster speed. Indices of step and stride regularity (Ad1 and Ad2, respectively) were obtained by the autocorrelation coefficients computed from the three acceleration components. Step and stride durations were calculated from the plantar pressure data and were used to compute two reference indices (SI1 and SI2) for step and stride regularity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Regression analysis showed that both Ad1 well correlates with SI1 (<it>R</it>²up to 0.74), and Ad2 well correlates with SI2 (<it>R</it>²up to 0.52). A ROC analysis showed that Ad1 and Ad2 has generally a good sensitivity and specificity in classifying amputee's walking trial, as having a normal or a pathologic step or stride regularity as defined by means of the reference indices SI1 and SI2. In particular, the antero-posterior component of Ad1 and the vertical component of Ad2 had a sensitivity of 90.6% and 87.2%, and a specificity of 92.3% and 81.8%, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The use of a simple accelerometer, whose components can be analyzed by the autocorrelation function method, is adequate for the assessment of gait symmetry and regularity in transfemoral amputees.</p

Recommended number of strides for automatic assessment of gait symmetry and regularity in above-knee amputees by means of accelerometry and autocorrelation analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Symmetry and regularity of gait are essential outcomes of gait retraining programs, especially in lower-limb amputees. This study aims presenting an algorithm to automatically compute symmetry and regularity indices, and assessing the minimum number of strides for appropriate evaluation of gait symmetry and regularity through autocorrelation of acceleration signals.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Ten transfemoral amputees (AMP) and ten control subjects (CTRL) were studied. Subjects wore an accelerometer and were asked to walk for 70 m at their natural speed (twice). Reference values of step and stride regularity indices (Ad1 and Ad2) were obtained by autocorrelation analysis of the vertical and antero-posterior acceleration signals, excluding initial and final strides. The Ad1 and Ad2 coefficients were then computed at different stages by analyzing increasing portions of the signals (considering both the signals cleaned by initial and final strides, and the whole signals). At each stage, the difference between Ad1 and Ad2 values and the corresponding reference values were compared with the minimum detectable difference, MDD, of the index. If that difference was less than MDD, it was assumed that the portion of signal used in the analysis was of sufficient length to allow reliable estimation of the autocorrelation coefficient.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>All Ad1 and Ad2 indices were lower in AMP than in CTRL (P < 0.0001). Excluding initial and final strides from the analysis, the minimum number of strides needed for reliable computation of step symmetry and stride regularity was about 2.2 and 3.5, respectively. Analyzing the whole signals, the minimum number of strides increased to about 15 and 20, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Without the need to identify and eliminate the phases of gait initiation and termination, twenty strides can provide a reasonable amount of information to reliably estimate gait regularity in transfemoral amputees.</p

Genome-Wide Association Study Reveals Candidate Genes for Flowering Time Variation in Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)

The common bean is one of the most important staples in many areas of the world. Extensive phenotypic and genetic characterization of unexplored bean germplasm are still needed to unlock the breeding potential of this crop. Dissecting genetic control of flowering time is of pivotal importance to foster common bean breeding and to develop new varieties able to adapt to changing climatic conditions. Indeed, flowering time strongly affects yield and plant adaptation ability. The aim of this study was to investigate the genetic control of days to flowering using a whole genome association approach on a panel of 192 highly homozygous common bean genotypes purposely developed from landraces using Single Seed Descent. The phenotypic characterization was carried out at two experimental sites throughout two growing seasons, using a randomized partially replicated experimental design. The same plant material was genotyped using double digest Restriction-site Associated DNA sequencing producing, after a strict quality control, a dataset of about 50 k Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs). The Genome-Wide Association Study revealed significant and meaningful associations between days to flowering and several SNP markers; seven genes are proposed as the best candidates to explain the detected associations

The Use of a Simplified Carbon Footprint Tool for Organic Waste Managers: Pros and Cons

Abstract: Given that the pressure of climate change action on companies is increasing, it is recom- mended to measure the improvement of mitigation activities in terms of GHG emissions. This paper aims to highlight the still-open aspects that characterise simplified GHG accounting tools, starting from the outcomes of a case study. This study was performed using a simplified Italian software for the CO2 eq accounting of composting and anaerobic digestion, two mitigation activities that contribute an important share of global GHG emissions reduction. The tool is based on the life-cycle thinking approach. It has been applied to an Italian company that treats the organic fraction of municipal solid waste. The tool analysis has made it possible to stress several issues that are currently the object of debate in the literature, for example, the trade-off between the flexibility of the software and its user friendliness or the multifunctionality issues and their different interpretations. However, focusing on just one impact category, i.e., climate change, may lead to an incomplete picture of the overall environmental performance of the process analysed. Therefore, this tool could be improved by including other impact categories, such as eutrophication and acidification, which may be affected by the studied activities

Tourism Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): Proposal of a New Methodological Framework for Sustainable Consumption and Production

Tourism has become an important part of modern life styles, besides being one of the largest and fastest growing economic sectors worldwide, in spite of occasional shocks over the last decade (UNWTO 2010). Tourism’s contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) is – when direct contribution and multipliers are included - estimated at up to 10% in some advanced, diversified economies. However, this strong growth also implies an increase of undesired environmental impacts. Tourism is globally responsible for 5% of all carbon dioxide emissions, the most important greenhouse gas causing climate change (UNWTO UNEP WMO 2008). However, in terms of radiative forcing, the direct measure for contribution to climate change, tourism even could have share of up to 12.5% (Scott et al., 2010). Also, the greenhouse gas emissions of tourism are estimated to grow at a rather large rate, while a globally emissions should be reduced with up to 80% by 2050 (e.g. Scott et al., 2010). Finally, it has been shown that the eco-efficiency – the economic contribution per ton emissions – of tourism is rather low (Gössling et al., 2005). Theses data totally clash with the view, actually slightly common to many re¬searchers in the past, according to which tourism is a low environmental impact industry (McCrory 2006). Now, it is a shared concept that tourist activities are strongly related to the environment, since, on the one hand, the natural environment itself may be consid¬ered as a major input resource to the processes of tourism industries, and, on the other hand, the development of tourism as a mass industry may severely increase its overall impact on the environment (Butler 2004; Raggi and Petti 2006; Romeril 1989). Given the predictions of an increased role of tourism industries in the world economy, the environmental aspects of, and impacts gen¬erated by tourist activities should be accurately considered according to a Life Cycle Thinking perspective. This concept has been extensively advocated as the proper way of addressing the challenges linked with sustainable development, and, in particular, with those measures for enhancing sustainable consumption and production. In the framework of sustainable development policies, the “Sustainable Consumption and Production and Sustainable Industrial Policy (SCP) Action Plan” (European Commission 2008) is a building block in the EU. In line with this policy, a wide range of environmental instruments have been developed so far for assessment and labelling/certification purposes of travel and tourist services. This ongoing proliferation of different initiatives shows a high degree of diversity in terms of scope, assessment methodologies and means and tools of communication. Although this proliferation reflects the vast variety of travel and tourist products and the complicated nature in assessing their environmental performance, these environmental instruments seem to suffer from a lack of integration and standardisation or quality control. This situation has the potential to confuse or even mislead travellers and the stakeholders within the industry. Research questions were: - What environmental instruments and initiatives are currently supporting the application of the European Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) Action Plan in the travel and tourism industry? - What are their key characteristics and how do they stand in relation to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) principles? - How can these instruments be combined in a general framework capable to render this industry low carbon and more sustainable from an environmental point of view?JRC.H.8-Sustainability Assessmen