Environmental Categories Research Articles

Exploring the cooking energy biomass and its impact on women's health and quality of life in rural households: a micro-environmental study from West Bengal in India.

Exposure to household air pollutants has become a significant environmental health concern in developing nations. This study aimed to understand the growing energy consumption within households, particularly for cooking, and its impact on women's health in rural areas. We conducted real-time monitoring of ambient particulate matter (PM2.5) and carbon monoxide (CO) levels in 61 rural kitchens in the Medinipur and Jhargram districts of West Bengal, India. Additionally, we calculated the Standard Living Index (SLI) based on socio-demographic factors from 540 households. Our analyses using ANOVA and chi-square methods revealed significant effects of cooking fuel types and locations on various health indicators among women. Eye irritation was prevalent across all fuel types, followed by shortness of breath (33%), coughing (22%), and dizziness (21%). Alarmingly, nearly half (48%) of children under five consistently accompanied their mothers during cooking, exposing them to health risks. Indoor air pollution, particularly from traditional fuels like fuelwood, cow dung cakes, and leaves, poses a grave threat to families. These fuels emit considerable amounts of PM2.5 and CO, with levels reaching as high as 565µg/m3 and 12.5ppm, respectively, leading to respiratory and cardiovascular complications. Clean cooking fuel users, such as those using LPG, reported improved quality of life scores across physical, psychological, social, and environmental categories. This study highlights the urgent need to transition to cleaner cooking fuels to mitigate adverse health effects on women and children in rural households.

A life cycle assessment of cover crop ensiling and co-digestion with cattle manure

AbstractCover crops offer a potential biogas feedstock, and to enable continuous operation of the biogas plant, ensiling can be used for biomass preservation. The aim of the present study was to assess the environmental impacts of biogas production at an organic dairy farm for two modelled scenarios: (1) harvesting and ensiling of cover crops and cereal straw and co-digestion with cattle manure, or (2) mono-digestion of cattle manure and direct cover crop soil incorporation. The biogas scenarios were modelled in a consequential LCA in relation to a common baseline without anaerobic digestion, with cover crop soil incorporation and field application of raw cattle manure. Biogas scenarios resulted in decreased global warming impacts of (1) 250 and (2) 120 Mg CO2eq for a 1000-hectare example dairy farm due to substitution of natural gas. However, emissions from ensiling, biogas plant operation, and agronomic effects increased other environmental impacts. Agronomic modelling with the Daisy model showed a crop yield increase of 0.11 Mg DM ha−1 year−1 on a sandy loam soil with cover crop digestion, but also an increase in N leaching of 38% and a decrease in soil C stocks of 8.1 Mg C ha−1 over 100 years relative to the reference. Emissions of VOCs and NOx during ensiling increased ozone formation and negative impacts on human health and ecosystems, although further research is needed to better understand these emissions. In conclusion, this modelling study shows that greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by using ensiled cover crops for co-digestion with manure when biogas is used to substitute fossil gas, although trade-offs with other environmental categories must be considered.

The Environmental and Biodiversity Impacts of a New Cableway System: A Comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment

Cars are still used as the primary mode of transportation for daily commuting, with their emissions significantly affecting urban air quality, contributing to overall greenhouse gas emissions. Efforts to reduce car dependency have led to exploration of alternative transportation options such as cableway systems in urban areas. However, limited information exists regarding the environmental impacts and biodiversity implications of such systems. This study conducted a comparative life cycle assessment between a proposed cableway system for the city of Trieste, Italy and its current car transportation mode. The analysis considered both daily operational profiles and passenger occupancy rates of the cableway system. Drawing from similar cableway systems worldwide, it was calculated that the proposed Trieste cableway would accommodate 2,007 daily passengers, on average. Results from the environmental assessment revealed that the cableway's operational phase had by far the greatest impact on all environmental categories, followed by its construction and by land clearance. Additionally, the use phase was found to be the major cause for most biodiversity loss, particularly towards terrestrial ecosystems. Comparisons of life cycle GHG emissions between the cableway and car transportation indicated that the cableway system would be a preferable option if the daily average passengers would reach at least 3,908, which is almost double than the expected ones. Furthermore, the cableway system exhibited larger environmental impacts across most categories compared to current car transportation. Thus, this study challenges the perception that the cableway system is a more sustainable option compared to conventional modes of transport, as additional factors need to be considered for a broader overview of the environmental performances.

The Environmental Stake of Bitcoin Mining: Present and Future Challenges

The environmental impact of Bitcoin mining has raised severe concerns considering the expected growth of 30% by 2030. This study aimed to develop a Life Cycle Assessment model to determine the carbon dioxide equivalent emissions associated with Bitcoin mining, considering material requirements and energy demand. By applying the impact assessment method IPCC 2021 GWP (100 years), the GHG emissions associated with electricity consumption were estimated at 51.7 Mt CO2 eq/year in 2022 and calculated by modelling real national mixes referring to the geographical area where mining takes place, allowing for the determination of the environmental impacts in a site-specific way. The estimated impacts were then adjusted to future energy projections (2030 and 2050), by modelling electricity mixes coherently with the spatial distribution of mining activities, the related national targeted goals, the increasing demand for electricity for hashrate and the capability of the systems to recover the heat generated in the mining phase. Further projections for 2030, based on two extrapolated energy consumption models, were also determined. The outcomes reveal that, in relation to the considered scenarios and their associated assumptions, breakeven points where the increase in energy consumption associated with mining nullifies the increase in the renewable energy share within the energy mix exist. The amount of amine-based sorbents hypothetically needed to capture the total CO2 equivalent emitted directly and indirectly for Bitcoin mining reaches up to almost 12 Bt. Further developments of the present work would rely on more reliable data related to future energy projections and the geographical distribution of miners, as well as an extension of the environmental categories analyzed. The Life Cycle Assessment methodology represents a valid tool to support policies and decision makers.

Modeling the Distribution and Environmental Preferences of the Ladakh Urial in the Arid Himalayas.

Mountains play a crucial role in shaping the climate of an area and subsequently, the environments and species that are suited to those particular conditions. Understanding the relationships between environmental conditions and their influence on the occurrence of a species is necessary to make informed decisions when conserving relevant habitats. This study evaluated and compared the potential for different interactions between climatic variables to describe the environmental preferences and the range of the Ladakh urial, a narrowly distributed sub-species of Ovis vignei, in the arid Himalayas. Species distribution models were created from spatially thinned presence-only occurrence data of 50 locations using a Maximum Entropy (Maxent) model. For this, we subdivided the modeled distribution into environmental categories with varying degrees of suitability. We identified a high cold precipitation to annual precipitation ratio typical of cold desert climates well suited to describe the highest quality environments for urial. The inverse, low warm precipitation to annual precipitation ratio was found to better describe the urial's range at the lower end of potential habitat. In this comparison, we observed that with the exclusion of unsuitable cold steppe habitat with a higher warm precipitation to annual precipitation ratio, we were able to refine the extent of this species range but at a trade-off to the accurate description of high-quality environments. This study demonstrated the strong potential of cold arid climatic conditions to describe the distribution of urial in India, which have implications for identifying important areas for the conservation and management of the species in the high altitude rangelands of Ladakh.

Does the environmental impact of banks affect their financial performance?

AbstractWe empirically study the environmental impact of banks, i.e., the negative externality on the environment and society deriving from the use of a natural resource or the emission of a pollutant. We find that environmental “impact ratios”, that is, environmental damage costs in proportion to total revenues are negatively correlated with bank profitability. Furthermore, banks with a stronger impact on the environment are valued less by equity market investors and pay less cash to shareholders. Among environmental categories, potential damage from greenhouse gas emissions or waste seems to be especially severe. We provide important insights for banks’ environmental management. If bankers can address businesses and practices to be more renewable and lower in their emissions, they could improve both the operating and the market performance. Thus, firms would be financially more stable and could react smoothly to the recent introduction of stricter and onerous environmental regulations.

Impacts of Inventory Management Factors on Inventory Performance Measures: The Sri Lankan Wholesale Sector

Inventory management is a crucial component of sustainability, enabling companies to reduce expenses, enhance cash flow, and increase profitability. Inventory makes up a majority of current assets in the wholesale sector, where inefficiencies are bound to happen, given the large-scale inventory. This research focuses on identifying the factors and performance measures of inventory management and evaluating their interrelationships focusing on the Sri Lankan wholesale sector. The factors identified through a systematic review and industry experts’ interviews were then categorized into key areas with a thematic analysis. The 22 factors identified were grouped into the categories of organization, facilities and equipment, and processes and practices. The 24 performance measures were grouped into operational, customer satisfaction, and environmental categories. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 126 managerial-level employees of wholesale organisations. The partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) method is used to validate the relationship between the variables and the moderation effect of firm size on these relationships. The findings reflect that factors of organisation and facilities and equipment, influence the performance measures. Organisational factors were the most significant in influencing all three performance categories. For most relationships, the firm size did not have a moderation effect. This research assists wholesale businesses in achieving excellence and a competitive edge in the Sri Lankan market while finding answers to the ongoing business issues in the wholesale sector.

Tourism in the polycrisis: a Horizon 2050 paper

Purpose Tourism faces a range of interconnected and potentially transformative global risks – collectively considered an evolving polycrisis – that have not been adequately defined and understood. As a result, the industry struggles to proactively anticipate and mitigate potential future challenges, while governments lack insight for strategic longer-term decision-making on tourism development. The purpose of this paper is to advance tourism sector consideration of global change threats and their complex interactions and more effectively incorporate these risks into tourism futures planning. Design/methodology/approach This conceptual gap is addressed through a discussion of the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Reports, and their definition of environmental, economic, geopolitical, societal and technological risk categories. In applying results to tourism, a preliminary expert assessment of global risks serves as a foundational framework to incorporate potential global change threats more effectively into tourism futures planning and decision-making. Findings Additional research should be prioritized to examine global risks most influential of tourism, how and where they may interact, how to convert risk categories into measurable indicators and to evaluate whether risk assessments can contribute to mitigating the evolving polycrisis. Originality/value This paper discusses the systematic and strategic engagement with global risks for tourism, critically reviews the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Reports from tourism perspective, presents key risk dimensions driving future tourism development, provides a foundational framework to further assess global risk for tourism and compels tourism academy to prioritize global change research agenda.

Exploring Diversity of Hispanic Health Outcomes Through Prism of Environmental Justice

In environmental economics studies US Hispanics are frequently depicted as one large homogeneous group, despite diversity in their countries’ cultural traditions, genetic background and socioeconomic status (SES). This study aimed to compare Florida’s very diverse Hispanic population of Caribbean, Mexican, Central, and South American ancestry.Twelve independent variables were selected from environmental pollution, geospatial challenges, and SES categories. Dependent variables included the relative prevalence of three major chronic diseases: asthma, diabetes, and heart disease. Analysis of pairs correlations was supplemented by multi-variable linear regression. Majority-Hispanic areas have higher than average pollution, diabetes, proximity to disadvantaged neighborhoods, and lower SES. Despite lower pollution than in urban areas, Florida’s inland rural areas had higher rates of all major diseases and lower life expectancies. Cuban and Puerto Rican populations of Miami and Orlando metro areas, respectively, have less favorable SES outcomes and higher diabetes. Columbian and Venezuelan communities have significantly higher education levels than other Hispanic cohorts, and they have the best relative outcome among US Hispanics in SES and health, although still lagging US averages. African-American community in Miami-Dade County was by far the most disadvantaged, with significantly lower SES and health outcomes than any other group in the study, including the nearby Cuban-majority community. Our results confirmed the view that Hispanics are environmentally disadvantaged in Florida, with worse outcomes than the US and Florida average in health and economic factors. Furthermore, the study highlighted significant differentiation of SES and health outcomes among various regional Hispanic cohorts.

Eco‐efficiency improvement strategies for disinfectants

AbstractDisinfectants are essential products for reducing health risks, but they also have significant environmental impacts. This study assessed the Eco‐efficiency of disinfectants based on the NBR ISO 14045:2014. Primary data were collected from Brazilian producers, while secondary data were obtained from patents and the Ecoinvent database. The system boundaries encompassed cradle‐to‐consumer use. The selling price was adopted as the product system value indicator (economic analysis). Raw materials production had the greatest impact on the environmental performance of disinfectants A (Antibacterial, surfactant and preservative) and C (Antibacterial, surfactant and opacifier). Disinfectant B, in addition to raw materials production (Antibacterial, opacifier and surfactant), also experienced significant impacts from consumer transport. These critical processes represent more than 60% of the overall impacts in both categories. The Eco‐efficiency matrix (profile) related environmental and economic indicators. All disinfectants occupied quadrants three or four, indicating high impact on the environmental categories. Disinfectant C had the highest Eco‐efficiency while disinfectant B had the lowest, mainly due to its product system value. Sensitivity analysis indicated environmentally viable changes in the products' composition, such as replacing the antibacterial, surfactant, preservative, and opacifier. Energy and water consumption did not significantly impact the assessed products.

Methyl esters production from Waste Cooking Oil catalysed by iron oxides supported on CaO: Cost and environmental impacts

It was the objective of this work, to assess the midpoint environmental impacts of the catalyst synthesis stage and biodiesel production from waste cooking oil (WCO) as feedstock, depending on the catalyst source, i.e. Fe2O3 or Fe(NO3)3⋅9H2O, lime or waste clam shells, to produce the applied bifunctional catalyst based on iron and CaO. The cost of biodiesel production depending on the catalyst was also established. In the catalyst synthesis stage, the use of clam shells contributed the most to the midpoint environmental categories, mainly terrestrial ecotoxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, marine ecotoxicity and human non-carcinogenic toxicity. In the stage of biodiesel production (esterification-transesterification reaction), the scenario contributing the lowest (20.95–22.16 %) to the midpoint environmental impacts is when using Fe(NO3)3·9H2O and CaO as iron and lime precursors, respectively. Using waste clam shells increases the environmental impacts. Regarding costs, the clam shells lead to the most expensive process ($0.08 USD/MJ). The source of energy to conduct the biodiesel production was also assessed and it was found that the use of wind turbines leads to the lowest global warming potential (GWP), 11.6 g CO2 eq·MJ-1, with the catalyst prepared with the iron salt and with the CaO from lime. The presented results were obtained with the commercial software SimaPro® version 9.6 PhD. For the inventory, experimental data obtained at laboratory scale and previously published were used.It was concluded that based on environmental impacts and costs, it is recommended to use lime instead of clam shells waste as precursor of CaO and Fe(NO3)3·9H2O as precursor of iron.

A Study on the Environmental Impact Assessment According to the Material Change of the Debris Barrier using Life Cycle Analysis: Focusing on the Case of Yanggu-gun, Gangwon-do

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to evaluate and analyze the environmental performance of an debris barrier installed in Yanggu-gun, Gangwon-do through life cycle analysis. Throughout the entire process of the debris barrier, the six major environmental categories, including greenhouse gas emissions, will be quantitatively evaluated and based on the derived alternatives, it is intended to help improve environmentality to the extent applicable to future plans for the installation of the debris barrier.Methods : In this study, the major environmental categories (Resource Footprint, Carbon Footprint, Ozone Depletion, Acidification, Eutrophication and Photochemical Smog) for each scenario were calculated and evaluated for changes to major materials of debris barrier according to the methodology of the Environmental Product Declaration Preparation Guidelines. Considering the characteristics of debris barrier, the life cycle evaluation stage considered raw material collection and production stages, and exclude the use stage and disposal stage.Results and Discussion : As a result of analyzing environmental feasibility after setting scenarios for each major material (ready-mixed concrete, natural stone) derived through life cycle evaluation for the debris barrier that is the subject of this study, the maximum difference was resource footprint 4.45E+02 kg Sb-eq., carbon footprint 1.46E+05 kg CO2–eq., ozone Depletion 6.97E-03 kg CFC-11-eq., acidification 2.16E+02 kg SO2–eq., eutrophication 3.94E+01 kg PO43-–eq., photochemical smog was evaluated as 5.28E-01 kg C2H4–eq.Conclusion : It was found that it was possible to reduce the environmental category by up to 64.54% or more when changing construction materials during the construction of an debris barrier. Among these, the carbon footprint was the highest at over 70%, which confirmed that the environmental impact of the ready-mix concrete production process was significant. Based on the results of this study, it is believed that in order to improve the environment when planning the installation of an debris barrier, it is necessary to minimize the use of ready-mixed concrete, introduce eco-friendly materials such as natural stone, and improve eco-friendly technology and construction methods.

Life cycle environmental impacts of urban water systems in China

Urban water systems in China are facing multiple challenges, including rapid urbanisation, climate change and infrastructure ageing. It is crucial to evaluate their environmental performance from a holistic perspective in planning and management processes. To the best of our knowledge, there is a lack of nationwide life cycle assessment (LCA) studies on China's urban water systems that cover all system stages. Therefore, this study aims to present a comprehensive and nationwide LCA analysis that pinpoints the environmental hotspots and their major sources across China. This study was conducted based on water utility databases at the province level, covering water abstraction and treatment, waterwork sludge treatment, water distribution, sewage collection, stormwater drainage, wastewater treatment and sewage sludge treatment. Nine environmental impact categories were calculated and analysed. The results reveal the inequity of environmental impacts across provinces, with overall impacts geographically higher in the east and south, lower in the west and north. However, at the functional unit level, the impacts in the northern and northeastern provinces are higher than other regions. Most environmental categories are dominated by multiple water system stages. The analyses of underlying drivers found that purchased electricity is the primary source of several environmental impacts. This study provides a holistic understanding of the environmental performance of China's urban water systems, offers some insights for comprehensive decision-making support on sustainable water system management, and can also serve as a benchmark for future scenario analysis to explore options for reducing environmental impact.

Life cycle assessment and biodegradability of biodiesel produced using different alcohols and heterogeneous catalysts

ABSTRACT The synthesis of fatty acid methyl (RME) and fatty acid butyl esters (RME) using heterogeneous catalysts (dolomite, eggshells, snail shells) is attractive as more and more legislations about global warming and energy security encourage to pay attention to renewable energy sources. In this study, the impact of six different RME and RBE production scenarios on the environment was investigated, also biodegradability research of RMEs and RBEs and mineral diesel were conducted. To assess life cycle, SimaPro9 software was used and impact to 11 environmental categories were evaluated. The environmental performance was determined based on their midpoint impacts, CML-IA baseline V3.06/EU25 method. Results of LCA showed that the production of RBE using eggshells and snail shells as heterogeneous catalysts had the most adverse impact on the global warming potential (2298.0 and 2266.1 kgCO2eq t−1 respectively). While the lowest impact to global warming potential was obtained for RME production using dolomite as a catalyst (1436.8 kgCO2eqt−1). The production of RME using dolomite had the lowest impact on almost all categories, while the synthesis of RBE using eggshells had the highest impact on the environment. However, conditions under which biodiesel is produced have a huge impact on life cycle assessment results. RMEs showed higher biodegradability compared with RBEs. HIGHLIGHTS LCA on six different biodiesel production scenarios was investigated. FAME production using dolomite has the lowest impact on the environment. Conditions under which biodiesel is produced have a huge impact on LCA results. Biodegradability of RMEs and RBEs was investigated. Biodegradability depends on the type of alcohol, not on the catalyst which was used.

Sustainable energy supply transition: the value of hydrogen for business customers

PurposeWhile some hydrogen (H2) products are available in the industrial market, new clean H2 applications are considered critical alternatives in decarbonization efforts. As suppliers need to understand how business customers conceive the value of hydrogen, this paper aims to investigate how the value of hydrogen is described in the published evidence and to identify or propose specific tools to assess its value.Design/methodology/approachAn integrative literature review is developed to synthesize studies on the value of hydrogen to identify the main value categories. Then, the authors create a novel guideline by linking three value dimensions: 1) the product-oriented value (including sustainability), 2) the elements of B2B value and 3) the concept of goal-oriented value.FindingsThis paper categorizes the aspects of value discussed so far in the literature, suggesting conceptualizing the value of H2 value-in-use based on economic, environmental, social and technological categories. The missing value categories from the marketing perspective are related to perceived value. A comprehensive guideline for assessing the value of H2 for business customers was developed to address that gap. The guideline can evaluate hydrogen from a multicategory perspective and compare new hydrogen products with alternatives.Originality/valueFirst, the authors present the value of hydrogen in the B2B marketing discussion. Second, the authors propose four hydrogen value categories based on the current state-of-the-art. Third, the authors developed the multicategory guideline for assessing the value of hydrogen products for business customers (VH2-BC).

Identifying and modelling the barriers to returns of end-of-life (EOL) heavy-duty machinery in Nigeria: A consumers’ perspective

EOL product returns has become more prevalently practiced in companies in developed nations as a response to government's strict regulations and customers' expectations. Correspondingly, there is a growing body of theoretical literature on the topic within this context as a crucial strategy to accelerate the development of the circular economy (CE). However, consumers' participation in EOL returns of heavy-duty machinery is immature in developing nations due to barriers, and studies are scarce on the analysis of the barriers. To fill this gap, this study aims to identify and analyze the barriers that hinder consumers' participation in EOL returns of heavy-duty machinery within a developing nation-Nigeria. Barriers were identified from published literature and experts' inputs and then, classified under technological, organizational, and environmental (supply chain) categories. Then, analysis was done via a methodology integrating interval-valued neutrosophic analytical hierarchy process (IVN-AHP) with multi-objective optimization on the basis of a ratio analysis plus the full multiplicative form (MULTIMOORA). Findings indicate that the environmental(supply chain) barriers rank the highest, followed by technological barriers. Specifically, consumers participation in EOL returns of heavy-duty machinery in Nigeria is mostly hindered by lack of regulations, lack of financial incentives, lack of skills, undeveloped reverse logistics system and poor access to facilities for recovery operations. Furthermore, we proposed some strategies to support stakeholders to mitigate the barriers. Thus, this study gives valuable guidelines to decision-makers to enable the transition to a CE paradigm in the heavy-duty sector within developing nations for utmost sustainability.

Implementing a rainwater harvesting system in an arid region with an LCA approach

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to compare the life cycle assessment and reliability of different rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems in residential buildings in Tehran for a period of 50 years. Four main scenarios based on the number of stories (1, 2, 3, and 4) each including five sub-scenarios based on the size of the rainwater storage tank (2.5m3, 5m3, 7.5m3, 10m3, 12.5m3) and one using solely tap water were defined. Simapro software was used for life cycle assessment which was carried out using the endpoint and midpoint methods. The collected rainwater is assumed to be merely used to fill flush tanks and if it cannot satisfy this demand, tap water will be used. The results show that in an arid city like Tehran, collecting rainwater does not even come close to meeting non-potable water needs, and in most scenarios, tap water must be used for more than half of the days. Despite the low reliability of RWH systems, they perform better than tap water in most environmental impact categories because the processes used to produce tap water have the highest contribution to environmental damage. Among the sub-scenarios that use rainwater for flush tank demands, in almost all environmental impact categories, sub-scenarios that collect more rainwater (higher storage tank sizes) have better performance. The performance of sub-scenarios that use more rainwater is better in the endpoint environmental categories of ecosystems and human health; however, this trend is the opposite in the impact category of resources. Graphical abstract

Health vulnerability mapping for drought: a case study in a predominantly rural, agricultural state

Abstract Drought is considered among the most devastating climate hazards impacting civilizations, including human health, throughout history. It causes cumulative damages based on the five generally categorized meteorological, hydrological, agricultural, socioeconomic, and ecological droughts. Reducing damages at the local, regional, and global levels requires a better understanding of human (health) vulnerability to drought. While there are different studies to distinguish and measure vulnerabilities for the five aforementioned conditions, there is minimal effort to identify vulnerabilities to health impacts from drought. Our study aims to develop an analysis of vulnerability for Nebraska based on the established health effects associated with drought. We considered vulnerability as the interaction between exposure to drought and different sensitivity measures for a timespan, including the highest drought levels in the 21st century. To calculate the total sensitivities, we extracted ten initial variables and applied two well-known methods of dimensionality reduction and (Weighted) Additive Overlays of percentile-ranked values. The result showed the inadequacy of the former method for our study. We also grouped the sensitivity variables into socioeconomic, environmental, and water-related intervention categories and developed related intensity maps showing different spatial patterns. We calculated the drought exposure levels by adding the intensity, duration, and frequency of drought over the study period (2012–2016) and developed total vulnerability maps to determine the ten most vulnerable counties, of which nine are rural. The resulting three intervention category maps can help related experts find priority areas within Nebraska, and the final vulnerability maps can help distinguish the areas of concern for general state-wide planning. While the results and some sensitivity variables are unique to Nebraska, the provided framework and the inclusion of two different methods can guide other regions in similar studies.

A new composite index to assess environmental consciousness using survey data and big data: Empirical evidence from European consumers

Environmental consciousness is a multi-dimensional construct that encompasses several dimensions related to pro-environmental attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. The academic literature has attempted to conceptualise and operationalise environmental consciousness over the last 20 years, resulting in a wide variety of measures.However, the available measures are country-specific and with a predominant U.S. focus, based on convenience samples, and rather limited in terms of interpretability and external validity. To overcome these limitations, the present study develops an index of environmental consciousness at both the micro (consumer) and macro (country) levels, taking into account the four main dimensions of environmental consciousness: the affective, cognitive, active and dispositional dimensions. By analysing more than 27 000 “Eurobarometer 92.4” responses from consumers in the 28 EU Member States in 2019, this paper develops a comprehensive measure of consumer environmental consciousness that captures the heterogeneity across European countries. To assess the robustness of the index, the link between environmental consciousness and life satisfaction is also examined. The index is also compared with a big data-based index using Google Trends data on environmental search categories. The results show differences in environmental consciousness between European countries. The link between environmental consciousness and life satisfaction is also supported, in line with previous research in this area. Finally, the index appears to be strongly correlated with actual consumer search patterns on Google. The findings have implications for businesses willing to enter in new markets and policy makers on how to measure and assess environmental consciousness.

Rethinking environmental sustainability in rainfed cropping systems

Activity data from a 30-year on-farm experiment with six soil-management treatments were used to develop inventory data for environmental partial life-cycle assessment (LCA). The purpose was to compare the treatments based on environmental outcomes and evaluate conservation agriculture (CA) in Australia's dryland cropping zone. Multiple trade-offs were revealed that highlight the need for a nuanced approach to sustainable intensification and show that rules-based CA is not sufficient to guarantee low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, nor low overall environmental impact. Nutrient mining in dryland cropping even under CA can lead to losses in soil carbon that can double GHG intensity. In these systems, additional nutrient inputs can reduce the loss of soil carbon as well as net GHG emissions, demonstrating the critical need to include the effects of soil carbon change in LCA to prevent perverse outcomes.The treatment involving strategic tillage and nutrient balancing, along with stubble retention, had the lowest GHG intensity, but there was a trade-off with the higher embedded impacts across several other environmental categories. Higher fertiliser input could lead to toxicity impacts, due to heavy-metal content, that contribute significantly to the Human health endpoint. However, limitations in modelling such local, site-specific impacts were considerable and more research is needed to address this.In general, trade-offs were found to exist between impacts from on-farm activities versus upstream manufacture of inputs; between GHG emissions and land use (yield) versus other environmental categories; and between different on-farm GHG emission sources. Despite these trade-offs, the treatments all had similar overall scores in the Human health and Ecosystems damage categories. There was no single treatment with low, or high, impact scores across all environmental indicators, indicating that trade-offs need to be carefully considered when making farm-management decisions in the context of net-zero or carbon-neutral farming.