Sustainable development in rural Poland from the perspective of environmental economics

The author discusses issues of sustainable development in rural areas in Poland from the perspective of environmental economics. It is argued that the growths in the entropy of matter and energy which can be observed in urban areas is also increasing in rural areas. Expressions of this process are growing disorder in space management. Sustainable development indicators show development is rather unsustainable, while policy for sustainable development has not been very successful

European Union's energy policy from the sustainability perspective

In this article, the authors present their views on the main issues, objectives and measures in the EU energy policy in the context of increasing relative energy scarcity and sustainable development. Aims of sustainable access to energy seem to focus on increased access to fossil fuels, which may trade-off with the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and hamper the development of renewable energy resources

Rural houses heating costs

Abstract. Average full (including capital, operation and maintenance costs) annual heating costs in a standard family house with 180 m 2 of floor surface are compared for various heating systems under the Polish economic conditions. The compared heating technologies comprise water to water and ground loop heat pumps with both vertical and horizontal loops, a liquid gas combustion furnace, an earth gas combustion furnace, a coal combustion furnace, a straw combustion furnace, a wood combustion furnace and an electric stove. A sensitivity analysis with regard to the interest rate and the value of owner's work did not change the general conclusion that in most cases heat pumps were the cheapest, while oil and coal burning furnaces or an electric boiler the most expensive solutions. The cost of own labour was decisive for the appraisal of labour intensive systems

Rural houses heating costs

Average full (including capital, operation and maintenance costs) annual heating costs in a 2 standard family house with 180 m of floor surface are compared for various heating systems under the Polish economic conditions. The compared heating technologies comprise water to water and ground loop heat pumps with both vertical and horizontal loops, a liquid gas combustion furnace, an earth gas combustion furnace, a coal combustion furnace, a straw combustion furnace, a wood combustion furnace and an electric stove. A sensitivity analysis with regard to the interest rate and the value of owner’s work did not change the general conclusion that in most cases heat pumps were the cheapest, while oil and coal burning furnaces or an electric boiler the most expensive solutions. The cost of own labour was decisive for the appraisal of labour intensive systems

Comparing development sustainability in Belarus, Poland and Ukraine with special respect to rural areas

A comparison of environmental sustainability in Belarus, Poland and Ukraine using the Environmental Sustainability Index calculated by the Centre for Environmental Law and Policy of Yale University shows a significant advantage of Belarus over Poland and Ukraine while a slight advantage of Poland over Ukraine. Belarus with ESI score of 52.8 points ranked 47, Ukraine with 44.7 points ranked 108 while Poland with 45.0 points ranked 102 among the 146 classified countries of the world. The state of natural environment in Belarus and Ukraine seems to be much better, while Poland has a distictive advantage with respect to the institutional issues in environmental management. All three countries have roughly similar impact on global environment, of a predominantly negative nature, with Belarus qualifying somewhat better in this respect

Porównanie oddziaływania na środowisko wykorzystywania różnych źródeł energii w systemach grzewczych domów rodzinnych

Environmental impacts of using various sources of energy in heating a family house with 180 m2 of floor surface were compared by means of the SimaPro computer programme and attached to its databases, describing the environmental impacts of using typical materials and technologies. The set of compared heat energy sources comprised a ground loop, a heat pump, a liquid gas combustion furnace, an earth gas combustion furnace, a coal combustion furnace, a straw combustion furnace, a wood combustion furnace and an electric stove. After normalisation (which meant recalculating the impacts into their shares in the average impact of the kind, experienced by an average European in a year), weighting (which meant attaching arbitrary weights to three aggregate impact categories according to a methodology Eco-indicator 99 E/E) and aggregating the results into so called eco-points the wood combustion furnace turned out to have the greatest impact. It was followed by a coal burning furnace, an electric stove and an oil burning furnace. The heat pump had the smallest impact. A big impact of the wood and other biomass burning furnaces was due to a high emission of CO presumed in the used database, which can be disputed.Oddziaływanie na środowisko wykorzystywania różnych źródeł energii w systemach grzewczych domów rodzinnych o powierzchni 180 m2 porównano za pomocą programu komputerowego SimaPro i załączonej do niego bazy danych, opisującej wpływ środowiskowy typowych materiałów i technologii. W badaniach uwzględniono następujące źródła energii grzewczej:, pompa ciepła z wymiennikiem gruntowym, piec olejowy, piec gazowy spalający gaz ciekły, piec gazowy spalający gaz ziemny, piec węglowy, piec na słomę, piec na drewno, piec elektryczny. Po normalizacji (tzn. przeliczeniu wpływu środowiskowego jako jego udziału w średnim wpływie danego rodzaju według średniorocznej dla Europy), przydzieleniu wag (tzn. określeniu arbitralnych wag dla trzech arbitralnych zagregowanych kategorii wpływu według metodologii ekowskaźnika 99 E/E) oraz zagregowaniu wyników w tzw. ekopunkty okazało się, że piec spalający drewno cechuje się najsilniejszym oddziaływaniem. W następnej kolejności znalazły się piec węglowy, piec elektryczny oraz piec olejowy. Najmniejszy wpływ na środowisko posiada natomiast pompa ciepła. Tak duże oddziaływanie pieca spalające drewno oraz inne rodzaje biomasy wynika z wysokiej emisji CO przyjętej w wykorzystywanej bazie danych, co może wydawać się dyskusyjne

Life cycle analysis with regard to environmental impact of apple wholesale packaging

Abstract. A comparison between cardboard and plastic boxes for apple packaging in the wholesale and retail trade has been drawn using the SimaPro programme for life cycle analysis. The environmental impact of using plastic cases was estimated much lower, mainly thanks to their repeated use