Mine closure of pit lakes as terminal sinks: best available practice when options are limited?

In an arid climate, pit lake evaporation rates can exceed influx rates, causing the lake to function as a hydraulic terminal sink, with water levels in the pit remaining below surrounding groundwater levels. We present case studies from Western Australia for two mines nearing closure. At the first site, modelling indicates that waste dump covers for the potentially acid forming (PAF) material would not be successful over the long term (1,000 years or more). The second site is a case study where PAF management is limited by the current waste rock dump location and suitable cover materials. Pit lake water balance modelling using Goldsim software indicated that both pit lakes would function as hydraulic terminal sinks if not backfilled above long-term equilibrium water levels. Poor water quality will likely develop as evapoconcentration increases contaminant concentrations, providing a potential threat to local wildlife. Even so, the best current opportunity to limit the risk of contaminant migration and protect regional groundwater environments may be to limit backfill and intentionally produce a terminal sink pit lake

Twenty Years of the Polyvinyl Chloride Sustainability Challenges

Intense campaigning pressure on the UK PVC sector up to the late 1990s forced strategic engagement with sustainable development. Simplified outcomes from a detailed, consensus-based analysis by science-based NGO The Natural Step (TNS) took the form of five TNS Sustainability Challenges for PVC published in 2000. UK manufacturing companies initially used these Challenges to direct strategic progress. The Challenges have since been progressively taken up across European PVC value chains. The VinylPlus® programme uses an updated version of the five Challenges as a basis for voluntary commitments and transparent auditing of progress against published targets. Initial framing of the five TNS Sustainability Challenges for PVC were drafted consciously for generic relevance to other materials. Assessing the sustainability performance of some alternative materials to PVC against the five Sustainability Challenges reveals different sustainability performance in a range of potential applications. This highlights the danger inherent in automatic selection or deselection of materials in the absence of assessment of options on a ‘level playing field’ of sustainability principles. The five TNS Sustainability Challenges for PVC remain valid today and into the longer-term future as a basis for making stepwise, profitable progress towards the goal of sustainability for PVC and other materials

“Love for sale”: biodiversity banking and the struggle to commodify nature in Sabah, Malaysia

In Malaysia, second largest palm oil producer worldwide, logging companies, palm oil corporations, and even responsible citizens can now compensate their biodiversity impacts by purchasing Biodiversity Conservation Certificates in an emerging new biodiversity market: the Malua BioBank. Biodiversity markets are part of a wider trend of marketisation and neoliberalisation of biodiversity governance; introduced and promoted as (technical) win–win solutions to counter biodiversity loss and enable sustainable development. The existing neoliberalisation and nature literature has tended to analyse these processes as consequences of an inherent drive of capital to expand accumulation and submit ever more areas of nature to the neoliberal market logic. In contrast, I aim (a) to problematise the agency and the “work” behind marketisation of biodiversity, challenging the story of (corporate-driven) neoliberalisation as the realisation of an inherent market-logic (based on the a false conceptual state–market divide, often prevalent even in activist academic circles working on neoliberalisation of nature) and to see the state not only as regulator, but driving force behind, and part of “the market”; (b) to question the myth of neoliberalisation as state losing control to the market and to show how the state is using the biodiversity market as mode of governing; re-gaining control over its forests and its conservation policy; and (c) to demonstrate empirically the distinction between neoliberal ideology and practice, and to show that marketisation was based on pragmatic decisions, not ideology-driven political action. My analysis is based on 35 qualitative interviews with actors involved in the BioBank

Implementation Gap between the Theory and Practice of Biodiversity Offset Multipliers

Emerging policies worldwide require biodiversity gains as compensation for losses associated with economic development, seeking to achieve “no net loss” (NNL). Multipliers – factors by which gains are larger than associated losses – can be crucial for true NNL. Here, we review the theoretical literature on multipliers. Then, we collate data on multipliers implemented in practice, representing the most complete such assessment to date. Finally, we explore remaining design gaps relating to social, ethical, and governance considerations. Multiplier values should theoretically be tens or hundreds when considering, for example, ecological uncertainties. We propose even larger multipliers required to satisfy previously ignored considerations – including prospect theory, taboo trades, and power relationships. Conversely, our data analyses show that multipliers are smaller in practice, regularly <10.0, and have not changed significantly in magnitude over time. We recommend that NNL policymakers provide explicit multiplier guidelines, require larger multipliers where appropriate, and ensure transparent reporting of multipliers used. Further research is necessary to determine reasons for the implementation gap we have identified. At the same time, there is a need to explore when and where the social, ethical, and governance requirements for NNL reviewed here can be met through approaches other than multipliers

Manual de buenas prácticas para congresos inclusivos

La Comisión de Igualdad del Instituto de Ciencia de los Materiales de Madrid (ICMM), presenta en el salón de actos de dicho centro, esta guía que ha elaborado para resumir aspectos a tener en cuenta en la organización de eventos científicos, material presentado en la «Charla intergeneracional de mujeres en ciencia» celebrada en conmemoración del Día Internacional de la Mujer, 8 de marzo de 2023. Lucía Beltrán es la ilustradora, y responsable del diseño gráfico.[ES] Referencia para aplicar buenas prácticas de inclusividad e igualdad en la organización de eventos de ciencia.Peer reviewe

Manual de buenas prácticas para la igualdad LGTBQIA: + adaptación de las 10 medidas PRISMA

La Comisión de Igualdad del Instituto de Ciencia de los Materiales de Madrid (ICMM), presenta en el salón de actos de dicho centro, esta guía que ha elaborado para resumir aspectos a tener en cuenta para aplicar rn cuanto a inclusividad e igualdad, con atención al colectivo LGTBQIA+ en entornos de trabajos científicos. Material presentado en la «Charla intergeneracional de mujeres en ciencia» celebrada en conmemoración del Día Internacional de la Mujer, 8 de marzo de 2023. Lucía Beltrán es la ilustradora, y responsable del diseño gráfico.[ES] Referencia para aplicar buenas prácticas de inclusividad e igualdad, con atención al colectivo LGTBQIA+ en entornos de trabajos científicos.Peer reviewe

Manual de buenas prácticas para una divulgación inclusiva

La Comisión de Igualdad del Instituto de Ciencia de los Materiales de Madrid (ICMM), presenta en el salón de actos de dicho centro, esta guía que ha elaborado para resumir aspectos a tener en cuenta en actos y materiales de divulgación científica, material presentado en la «Charla intergeneracional de mujeres en ciencia» celebrada en conmemoración del Día Internacional de la Mujer, 8 de marzo de 2023. Lucía Beltrán es la ilustradora, y responsable del diseño gráfico.[ES] Referencia para aplicar buenas prácticas de inclusividad e igualdad en actos y materiales de divulgación científica.Peer reviewe