Produktorienteret miljøindsats i landbrugssektoren - forudsætninger

For at styrke den produktorienterede miljøindsats i landbruget nedsatte Miljøstyrelsen primo 2003 et produktkædepanel for landbrugsområdet. Panelets primære mål er at fremme udvikling og afsætning af landbrugsprodukter, der set i et livscyklusperspektiv ("fra jord til jord") er mindre miljøbelastende end tilsvarende traditionelle produkter. Som fundament for panelets arbejde er udarbejdet denne rapport, som beskriver de eksisterende forudsætninger for en produktorienteret indsats i sektoren - i form af en kortlægning af relevante projekter/tiltag. Denne rapport har dannet udgangspunkt for udarbejdelsen af et såkaldt fremsyn på området, som er publiceret særskilt. Fremsynet og information om panelets arbejde i øvrigt kan fås på www.produktpanel-landbrug.dk. En produktorienteret indsats vil altid være et supplement til de eksisterende overordnede reguleringer af samfundets adfærd, forbrug og udledninger. Vi vil stadig i fremtiden opleve berettiget miljøarbejde, der tager udgangspunkt i en konkret produktion eller proces eller i ønsket om at reducere en arealbelastning. Med produktorientering følger en anderledes og mere nuanceret opfattelse af, hvad der er "godt og dårligt" for miljøet, hvilke områder, der skal prioriteres i fødevaresektorens miljøindsats, og hvad miljøarbejdet kan omfatte i alle led i fødevarernes produktkæde. Et produktorienteret miljøarbejde stiller krav til og udfordrer alle aktører i produktkæderne. Der skal ikke alene udveksles og håndteres oplysninger om produktets miljøpåvirkning bagud og fremad i produktkæden, men der skal også ageres på baggrund af de erkendelser, denne udveksling af oplysninger giver anledning til. Helhedsorienteringen skaber også muligheder for at synliggøre og dokumentere valg undervejs i produktkæden. Produktorientering giver dermed en enestående mulighed for aktører/virksomheder for at dokumentere adfærd og valg overfor aftagere (herunder forbrugeren). Også for landbrugs- og gartnerierhvervet er produktorienteringen en udfordring. En kvalificeret diskussion af muligheder og perspektiver i produktorienteringen i landbrugserhvervet er derfor langt fra kun et spørgsmål om værktøjer, opgørelsesmetoder og mulighederne for afsætning af miljødokumenterede varer. Produktorienteringen er i langt højere grad den ramme, hvori f.eks. nedenstående spørgsmål kan diskuteres: Hvilke langsigtede scenarier for landbrugserhvervet er tænkelige? Hvilke strategier kan anlægges for erhvervsudvikling, forskning, kompetenceudvikling etc. for bedst muligt at sigte på de mest attraktive scenarier? Hvordan bringes aktørerne i spil, og hvordan skal ansvar fordeles? De hidtidige erfaringer med produktorientering viser, at en væsentlig forudsætning for succes er åbenhed og kommunikation i produktkæderne

Enacting Ethics: Bottom-up Involvement in Implementing Moral Case Deliberation

In moral case deliberation (MCD), healthcare professionals meet to reflect upon their moral questions supported by a structured conversation method and non-directive conversation facilitator. An increasing number of Dutch healthcare institutions work with MCD to (1) deal with moral questions, (2) improve reflection skills, interdisciplinary cooperation and decision-making, and (3) develop policy. Despite positive evaluations of MCD, organization and implementation of MCD appears difficult, depending on individuals or external experts. Studies on MCD implementation processes have not yet been published. The aim of this study is to describe MCD implementation processes from the perspective of nurses who co-organize MCD meetings, so called ‘local coordinators’. Various qualitative methods were used within the framework of a responsive evaluation research design. The results demonstrate that local coordinators work hard on the pragmatic implementation of MCD. They do not emphasize the ethical and normative underpinnings of MCD, but create organizational conditions to foster a learning process, engagement and continuity. Local coordinators indicate MCD needs firm back-up from management regulations. These pragmatic action-oriented implementation strategies are as important as ideological reasons for MCD implementation. Advocates of clinical ethics support should pro-actively facilitate these strategies for both practical and ethical reasons

Client Participation in Moral Case Deliberation: A Precarious Relational Balance

Moral case deliberation (MCD) is a form of clinical ethics support in which the ethicist as facilitator aims at supporting professionals with a structured moral inquiry into their moral issues from practice. Cases often affect clients, however, their inclusion in MCD is not common. Client participation often raises questions concerning conditions for equal collaboration and good dialogue. Despite these questions, there is little empirical research regarding client participation in clinical ethics support in general and in MCD in particular. This article aims at describing the experiences and processes of two MCD groups with client participation in a mental healthcare institution. A responsive evaluation was conducted examining stakeholders’ issues concerning client participation. Findings demonstrate that participation initially creates uneasiness. As routine builds up and client participants meet certain criteria, both clients and professionals start thinking beyond ‘us-them’ distinctions, and become more equal partners in dialogue. Still, sentiments of distrust and feelings of not being safe may reoccur. Client participation in MCD thus requires continuous reflection and alertness on relational dynamics and the quality of and conditions for dialogue. Participation puts the essentials of MCD (i.e., dialogue) to the test. Yet, the methodology and features of MCD offer an appropriate platform to introduce client participation in healthcare institutions

Stochastic and epistemic uncertainty propagation in LCA

Purpose: When performing uncertainty propagation, most LCA practitioners choose to represent uncertainties by single probability distributions and to propagate them using stochastic methods. However the selection of single probability distributions appears often arbitrary when faced with scarce information or expert judgement (epistemic uncertainty). Possibility theory has been developed over the last decades to address this problem. The objective of this study is to present a methodology that combines probability and possibility theories to represent stochastic and epistemic uncertainties in a consistent manner and apply it to LCA. A case study is used to show the uncertainty propagation performed with the proposed method and compare it to propagation performed using probability and possibility theories alone. Methods: Basic knowledge on the probability theory is first recalled, followed by a detailed description of hal-00811827, version 1- 11 Apr 2013 epistemic uncertainty representation using fuzzy intervals. The propagation methods used are the Monte Carlo analysis for probability distribution and an optimisation on alpha-cuts for fuzzy intervals. The proposed method (noted IRS) generalizes the process of random sampling to probability distributions as well as fuzzy intervals, thus making the simultaneous use of both representations possible

Prospective Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Nanosilver T-Shirts

A cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) is performed to compare nanosilver T-shirts with conventional T-shirts with and without biocidal treatment. For nanosilver production and textile incorporation, we investigate two processes: flame spray pyrolysis (FSP) and plasma polymerization with silver co-sputtering (PlaSpu). Prospective environmental impacts due to increased nanosilver T-shirt commercialization are estimated with six scenarios. Results show significant differences in environmental burdens between nanoparticle production technologies: The "cradle-to-gate" climate footprint of the production of a nanosilver T-shirt is 2.70 kg of CO2-equiv (FSP) and 7.67-166 kg of CO2-equiv (PlaSpu, varying maturity stages). Production of conventional T-shirts with and without the biocide triclosan has emissions of 2.55 kg of CO2-equiv (contribution from triclosan insignificant). Consumer behavior considerably affects the environmental impacts during the use phase. Lower washing frequencies can compensate for the increased climate footprint of FSP nanosilver T-shirt production. The toxic releases from washing and disposal in the life cycle of T-shirts appear to be of minor relevance. By contrast, the production phase may be rather significant due to toxic silver emissions at the mining site if high silver quantities are require

Intergenomic Rearrangements after Polyploidization of Kengyilia thoroldiana (Poaceae: Triticeae) Affected by Environmental Factors

Polyploidization is a major evolutionary process. Approximately 70–75% species of Triticeae (Poaceae) are polyploids, involving 23 genomes. To investigate intergenomic rearrangements after polyploidization of Triticeae species and to determine the effects of environmental factors on them, nine populations of a typical polyploid Triticeae species, Kengyilia thoroldiana (Keng) J.L.Yang et al. (2n = 6x = 42, StStPPYY), collected from different environments, were studied using genome in situ hybridization (GISH). We found that intergenomic rearrangements occurred between the relatively large P genome and the small genomes, St (8.15%) and Y (22.22%), in polyploid species via various types of translocations compared to their diploid progenitors. However, no translocation was found between the relatively small St and Y chromosomes. Environmental factors may affect rearrangements among the three genomes. Chromosome translocations were significantly more frequent in populations from cold alpine and grassland environments than in populations from valley and lake-basin habitats (P<0.05). The relationship between types of chromosome translocations and altitude was significant (r = 0.809, P<0.01). Intergenomic rearrangements associated with environmental factors and genetic differentiation of a single basic genome should be considered as equally important genetic processes during species' ecotype evolution