Environmental Sustainability Assessment Research Articles

The Environmental Sustainability Assessment of an Orthopedics Emergency Hospital Supported by a New Innovative Framework

Due to their high consumption of resources and enormous amount of generated waste, healthcare systems are not considered to be sustainable. Given the constant changes in internal needs, improvement of this state cannot be achieved only through policies, strategies, and interventions administered from the outside. Thus, it is necessary to design tools that, through their constant application, facilitate the sustainable development of health institutions. The objective of this research is to develop and validate in practice an innovative framework for assessing the sustainability of healthcare facilities that is compatible with hospital accreditation legislation and other community frameworks. The research is limited to the study of environmental sustainability and its results are validated in a healthcare facility with an orthopedic profile. The research method consists of defining the domains of the new innovative framework, collecting the latest medical practices related to environmental sustainability, designing indicators related to environmental responsibility and a matrix of indicators, followed by its validation in practice at an emergency hospital. The new innovative framework is organized in three areas, including environmental, economic, and social sustainability, to which is added organizational capacity along with management and provision of sustainable healthcare services. It contains 57 indicators, of which 8 are dedicated to the environmental area. The indicators are described in detail together with evaluation grids structured by the coupled degrees of importance and achievement. The practical implementation of the innovative framework at the County Emergency Clinical Hospital of Targu Mures highlights its added value by promoting sustainability strategies together with continuous quantification of the organization’s sustainability level.

Evaluating source separation wastewater systems using traditional life cycle assessment and the planetary boundaries approach

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a commonly used method for assessing environmental impacts of systems, but cannot produce absolute values, i.e. a comparison with existing calculated values, which represents limits of what can be emitted into the environment. Therefore, absolute environmental sustainability assessments have been developed to assess impacts against the planetary boundaries (PBs) of the safe operating space for humanity. Since PB-LCAs are novel, it is useful to analyze both results from this method and conventional LCAs, something which has not been done before. This study applied both methods to two full-scale sanitation systems in the city of Helsingborg, Sweden. The current conventional system for handling wastewater with active sludge and food waste to biogas production was compared with the novel project H+ source separation system with three pipes (food waste, grey and black water) with increased resource recovery through anaerobic digestion, ammonia stripping, struvite precipitation and pelletization. The Planetary Boundaries LCA (PB-LCA) results showed that both systems exceeded eight of the assigned shares of PBs, including climate change and biogeochemical flows of nutrients. Traditional LCA (ReCiPe impact assessment) showed net savings for the H+ system in a few categories and considerable reductions in several impacts, e.g., global warming potential (GWP), stratospheric ozone depletion, terrestrial acidification, and water consumption. In PB-LCA the H+ system gave additional impacts in both assessments for a few categories, mostly due to high consumption of chemicals in the ammonium stripping process used for nutrient recovery. In conclusion, the combined assessments highlight hot-spots for process optimization in the H+ system. From a methodological standpoint, PB-LCA still needs improvements to better reflect avoided burdens and results from traditional LCA should be fully transparent and analyzed carefully. The assessment methods complement each other and can be combined to better represent environmental performances of systems.

Integrating Absolute Sustainability and Social Sustainability in the Digital Product Passport to Promote Industry 5.0

The establishment of the digital product passport is regarded to be a prominent tool to promote environmental and social sustainability, thus enabling the transition towards Industry 5.0. In this way, it represents a holistic tool for the decision-making process of several actors of a product’s value chain. However, its development is still ongoing and the absolute perspective of environmental sustainability and the social sustainability have been overlooked. The present work aims to fill these gaps and complement the literature currently available on the digital product passport with a threefold purpose. Firstly, by referring to social life cycle assessment methodologies, useful social indicators to include in the digital product passport are discussed and proposed. Secondly, the need for an absolute perspective of environmental sustainability that respects the natural limits of our planet is presented; based on the LCA methodology and the Planetary Boundaries framework, environmental attributes and environmental impact indicators with the corresponding threshold are proposed to be included in the passport and enable the so-called absolute environmental sustainability assessment of products. Finally, a framework based on a cyber-physical system for filling in the digital product passport throughout a product lifecycle is conceived. This work represents an example of how the hallmark technologies of Industry 4.0 can be used towards Industry 5.0.

Assessment of environmental sustainability using ecological footprint in urban ecosystems of North Western Himalayas

Rapid urbanization in cities is crafting major environmental problems, leading to degradation of urban ecosystems and is responsible for creating an imbalance between demand and supply of resources. Ecological Footprint Analysis (EFA) is a tool that can be used to assess this imbalance scientifically and determine the sustainability of a particular area. Our study aims to determine the urban sustainability of Kangra district in Himachal Pradesh, a hilly state in North Western Himalayas, India situated in North western Himalayas by using one of the Ecological Footprint Analysis (EFA) components, the built-up land footprint, as a pragmatic tool for analysis and planning of the urban region. The total built-up land footprint, total biocapacity and total ecological deficit are 18146.095 g ha,15968.564 g ha and 2177.531 g ha respectively whereas built-up land footprint per capita, built-up land biocapacity per capita and ecological deficit per capita are 1.371 g ha, 1.206 g ha, and 0.164 g ha respectively in different urban areas. Consequently, it is concluded that the built-up land results in an ecological deficit, and the system is considered unsustainable because its ecological footprint exceeds its bio capacity. It is suggested that urban sustainability should move and work on ecological principles so that the vision encompassing global goals and agenda 2030 for sustainable development can be achieved.

Environmental sustainability assessment of gasoline and methanol blended smart fuel for reduced emission formation

Environmental sustainability assessment of gasoline and methanol blended smart fuel for reduced emission formation

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECSS): Life cycle environmental and economic assessment of electricity generated from palm oil wastes

Rapid deployment of negative emissions technologies (NETs) will be needed to help mitigate climate change. Among various NETs, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is seen as an option with multiple environmental benefits, including increasing the share of renewable energy while capturing carbon and providing an effective solution for waste management if waste biomass is utilised. This research presents the first environmental and economic sustainability assessments of BECCS utilising palm oil waste abundant in palm oil producing countries, such as Malaysia. The following five types of waste are considered: fronds, trunks, empty fruit bunches (EFBs), shells and fibres. Process simulation, techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment (LCA) are combined to determine the life cycle impacts and costs of BECCS from cradle to grave. Two units of analysis are considered for both the impacts and costs: ‘generation of 1 MWh of electricity’ and ‘capture of 1 tonne of CO2’. The global warming potential (GWP) is net-negative for both functional units, ranging from −1270 to −1410 kg CO2 eq./MWh and −840 to −1729 kg CO2 eq./t CO2 removed, the latter depending on the credits for electricity generation. However, all other 17 impacts increase by 13–217% with the addition of CCS. The systems without CCS have net-positive GWP of 59–126 kg CO2 eq./MWh. Per MWh electricity, the system with fibres has the lowest and palm fronds the highest impacts for most of the categories considered; per tonne of CO2 removed, there is no clear feedstock preference. The levelised costs of electricity (LCOE) of BECSS plants are US$98–119/MWh, with fibres being the best and fronds the worst feedstock. Compared to the systems without CCS, the LCOE of BECCS are 3.6–4.1 times higher. The costs of BECSS per tonne of CO2 removed are US$66–74, with CCS contributing US$50–53/t CO2. Based on the current availability of palm oil wastes in Malaysia, the system could generate 7730 GWh/yr, boosting the national share of bioenergy by 7.6 times, while removing 12 Mt CO2/yr, equivalent to 10% of annual emissions from the electricity sector.

Techno-economic and environmental sustainability assessment of succinic acid production from municipal biowaste using an electrochemical membrane bioreactor

The techno-economic and environmental performance of succinic acid (SA) production by an engineering Yarrowia lipolytica strain has been evaluated in a process using the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) as feedstock and a novel electrochemical membrane bioreactor (EMB) for simultaneous SA production and extraction. The minimum selling price (MSP) of SA ($2.70–3.71/kg) considering 50,000 tSA/year production capacity using the EMB-based process was slightly lower than the conventional bioprocess depending on OFMSW management fees ($0–35/tOFMSW). Life Cycle Assessment was carried out for the EMB-based bioprocess and the conventional bioprocess considering either conventional electricity production mix (grid) or renewable electricity production from photovoltaics. The use of renewable electricity in the EMB-based bioprocess led to lower Global Warming Potential (0.81 kg CO2-eq/kgSA), Abiotic Depletion Potential (15.71 MJ/kgSA), Acidification Potential (1.87 kg SO2-eq/kgSA) and Eutrophication Potential (0.25 kg PO4-eq/kgSA) than the conventional bioprocess when renewable electricity was used, while higher Human Toxicity Potential (0.29 kg DCB-eq/kgSA) was observed due to the raw materials (e.g. heavy metals) and utilities (e.g. electricity) used in photovoltaics production. It has been demonstrated that the EMB-based system could improve the sustainability of SA production.

Implementation of the European Union´s packaging and packaging waste regulation: A decision support framework combining quantitative environmental sustainability assessment methods and socio-technical approaches

The recent proposal for a European Union Regulation on packaging and packaging waste has a two-fold aims: i) to reduce the negative environmental impacts of packaging and packaging waste and ii) to improve the functioning of the internal market. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has historically been able to address the specific objectives of the proposal and is recognized as a key decision support tool in the circular economy context. In this short communication, it is argued that the new EU regulation calls for systemic changes, i.e. changes that are not simply just technological changes, but changes that might give rise to conflicts among actors and that are reliant on the active involvement of end-users. Therefore, to tackle the challenges in the implementation of the requirements of the new regulation a multi-disciplinary research approach able to address both technical aspects and social relations is needed. Accordingly, a conceptual framework combining quantitative environmental sustainability assessment tools (i.e. LCA and Material Flow Analysis) and qualitative socio-technical approaches (i.e. Actor-Network mapping and Practice Theory) is presented. The added value of such combination is illustrated in relation to two cases relevant for packaging, i.e. take-away food and food waste sorting. To exploit the full potential of LCA as a support to the decision-making process, the need to move beyond a product-centric analysis and instead adopt a socio-material perspective is outlined and the packaging sector has the potential to be a frontrunner in this context.

Economic and Environmental Viability of Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling—Case Study in Two Canadian Regions with Different Energy Mixes

Lithium-ion battery (LIB) pack is the core component of electric vehicles (EVs). As the demand is continuously increasing, it puts a lot of strain on the battery raw material supply chains. Likewise, the large quantity of spent LIBs from different sources will add to the complexity of end-of-life (EoL) management. Battery recycling processing is a potential source of critical cathode precursor materials as an alternative to virgin raw material sourcing. Indeed, metal sulfates (nickel, cobalt, and manganese) and lithium carbonate could be recovered through EoL processing. This study aims to provide an economic and environmental life cycle sustainability assessment of recycled battery materials. This assessment is based on a bottom-up approach considering geographical boundaries and process data inputs. The two sources of critical cathode battery materials, virgin and recycled battery materials, are compared based on economic and environmental indicators. This study identified the province of Quebec in Canada as the geographical boundary where several battery processing plants have been recently announced. The best available recycling process (hydrometallurgy) was selected. For the virgin materials, this study considers the option of importing from other jurisdictions by using global average supply chain values. Furthermore, a comparison of alternative supply chain configurations was performed using a spatially differentiated approach. The main findings of this study are as follows: (i) the environmental credit of recycled cathode active materials (CAMs) is estimated as −6.46 kg CO2e/kg CAM, and (ii) the overall cost and environmental impacts of producing LIB cathode active material from recycled battery materials can be 48% and 54% lower than production from virgin materials, respectively, considering the upstream, midstream, and downstream stages of the CAM supply chain. The main drivers for the reduction in these financial costs and emissions are the local transportation and the hydrometallurgical process. The assessment results provide insights to support the development of appropriate policies and R&D solutions adapted to local considerations as well as offer additional possibilities to improve the design of sustainable supply chains for LIB recycling.

A sustainable circular supply chain network design model for electric vehicle battery production using internet of things and big data

AbstractDesigning and developing sustainable circular supply chain networks for electric vehicle (EV) lithium‐ion battery recycling and production requires complex environmental sustainability and economic viability assessment. EVs use a lot of data for battery management and delivering optimum performance, and the Internet of Things (IoT) plays a major role in managing this data. This study develops a bi‐objective mixed‐integer linear programming model for designing a sustainable circular supply chain to manage the manufacturing, remanufacturing, and distribution of EV lithium‐ion batteries under uncertainty using the IoT and big data. The proposed model simultaneously minimizes total costs and CO2 emissions and uses IoT to improve network performance and create a traceable and secure environment. A fuzzy multi‐objective method solves the bi‐objective optimization model under uncertainty, and a simulation algorithm examines the effectiveness of the proposed model through simulated problems.

The development of a grey relational analysis-based composite index for environmental sustainability assessment: Towards a net-zero emissions strategy in Saudi Arabia

Climate change and environmental sustainability assessment are essential in city planning, design, and smart city advancement. Despite Saudi Arabia's high global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions ranking, a comprehensive review of extant studies revealed insufficient tools enhancing the policymaking and comprehension of climate change and environmental performance. This paper developed a hybrid green city index (GCI) and grey relational analysis (GRA) composite index for appraising national environmental sustainability via a robust, efficient, effective, and replicable grading process. The index is designed based on two primary considerations. The first is the selection of quality underlying indicators/categories, while the second is the adoption of GRA for conducting the normalization, weighting and aggregation process. These two considerations influenced the proposed composite index, which was later applied to Saudi Arabia as a study area. The results revealed that the environmental sustainability of Saudi Arabia is not significant, with the most outstanding of 0.3127 for 2010. At the category level, the favourable environmental sustainability ranking is between the 2010 and 2012 assessment period, with a gradual decline till 2018. This study's findings are unique as no studies within the context of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region have utilized this study's research approach. Although not all indicators of the proposed index were used in the study area, this study's methodology and outcomes have the beneficial impact of assisting Saudi Arabia's decision-makers across the cities in monitoring the status and progress of implementing its net zero carbon emissions by 2060.

Life cycle assessment of energy consumption and GHG emission for sewage sludge treatment and disposal: a review

With increasing population and urbanization, the amount of municipal sewage sludge generated is huge and growing rapidly. In order to minimize resource inputs and pollutant emissions in the sludge disposal process, it is crucial to carry out an environmental impact analysis and sustainability assessment of different strategies based on life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA provides a flexible framework for quantifying the consumption and emissions of different processes to determine the energy consumption and environmental impact of sewage sludge treatment and disposal. The aim of this review is to compare the energy consumption and GHG emissions of existing sludge management options for energy and nutrient recovery. At the same time, the characteristics of sewage sludge and the potential to convert sludge from waste to valuable products were assessed. While the excessive moisture content and ash content make sludge unsuitable for use as fuel, and the potential risk of contamination with heavy metals makes it less suitable for use as organic fertilizer, energy and material recovery during disposal can reduce disposal costs and environmental impacts. In the context of the current limitations reviewed, the level of potential GHG emissions of existing sludge treatment and disposal routes is: composting > anaerobic digestion > pyrolysis > incineration. With suitable sludge treatment routes, negative GHG emissions could potentially be achieved by substituting fossil fuels for heat and electricity generation, or as a fertilizer substitute. The development and application of future sludge management strategies should aim at reduction and harmless disposal, thereby reducing the operating costs and environmental burdens through resources.

Environmental sustainability assessment of excavation, construction, and demolition waste conditions and practices across Greece and Cyprus

The construction industry led by the real estate sector plays a significant role in the environmental performance. Excavation, construction, and demolition waste are important waste generators in Europe. Many of the materials are recyclable or reusable, however rates of reuse and recycling vary greatly across Europe. The objective of this preliminary research is to analyse the excavation, construction, and demolition waste conditions that have prevailed in recent years throughout Europe, with a focus on Greece and Cyprus, considering the scarce coverage of this specific subject matter. The study outlines the excavation, construction, and demolition waste management principles and trends, as well as the methods for prevention, reduction, reuse, and recycling. Findings suggest a) an increase of the excavation, construction, and demolition waste, in connection with the construction industry growth, b) uncontrolled disposal is a common practice, which, however, severely pollutes the environment, and c) policymakers advocate for circular economy integration strategies. The current analysis argues that the answer to the efficient management of excavation, construction, and demolition waste involves prevention policies development, long-term strategic planning across all levels, as well as treatment, reuse, and recycling in waste management establishments using vertically integrated operations.

Reflecting the importance of human needs fulfilment in absolute sustainability assessments: Development of a sharing principle

AbstractAbsolute environmental sustainability assessments (AESAs) evaluate whether the environmental impact of a product system is within its share of a safe operating space as determined by biophysical sustainability limits such as the planetary boundaries (PBs). The choice of sharing principle has significant influence on the result of an AESA, and any studies call for further research on how to share the safe operating space in an operational way that relates to the product's contribution to the welfare of the user. In this study, we develop the “Fulfilment of Human Needs” (FHN) principle as a sharing principle that operationalizes sufficientarianism (making sure everyone gets enough). The FHN principle is tested on two case studies (a food item and a textile) against four of the PBs: climate change, land‐system change, water use, and nitrogen cycling. The operationalization of the FHN principle is slightly different between the PBs; the starting point for climate change is the average consumption pattern in countries classified as “most sustainable,” while for the other three PBs the status quo impact in the most sustainable countries is used. To operationalize the FHN principle on the product level, each consumption category is downscaled according to objective sources that determine the value delivered to the users. We demonstrate that, compared to other previously applied sharing principles, the FHN principle supports a stronger relation to the importance to the users of the delivered outcome.

Material quantities and estimated construction costs for new elevated IRC 2015-compliant single-family home foundations

Residential foundation selection is critical for the lifetime performance of the project, but the type of foundation selected can depend on cost. This study aims to compare the new construction costs of residential slab-on-fill and four types of crawl space foundations for residential projects by quantifying the material quantities for each and exploring the effect of building characteristics on material quantities and total costs. The building characteristics selected are size (139 m2, 186 m2, and 232 m2), footprint aspect ratio (1:1, 1:2.5, and 1:5) and first floor elevation (0 m–1.2 m in 0.3 m increments). We find that material quantities and total costs change not only with building size and elevation, but also with footprint aspect ratio. Applying 2022 RSMeans Building Construction Cost data, the results show that for any building size, aspect ratio, or elevation, raised wood flooring on pier foundations ($118–$180 per m2) and slab on fill ($103–$211 per m2) are the least expensive, while crawl space foundations with stemwalls are the most expensive ($147–$280 per m2). The results of this study can be used by residential builders, developers and designers in evaluating foundation costs and design alternatives. The methodology may also be adapted for use in other applications such as flood mitigation or energy efficiency projects or environmental sustainability assessments.

Environmental, economic, and social sustainability assessment: A case of using contaminated tailings stabilized by waste-based geopolymer as road base

Contaminated tailings, e.g., iron tailings, could be stabilized by low-carbon geopolymers for recycling as road base, but the sustainability has yet to be evaluated comprehensively. This study developed a sustainable framework from the life cycle perspective, consisting of quantitative indicators in environment, society, and economy, to assess five stabilization cases (i.e., M1, M2, C1, C2, and cement). Moreover, a modified AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process)-CRITIC (CRiteria Importance Through Inter-criteria Correlation)-TOPSIS (Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) model was applied to select the most sustainable stabilization method. The sustainability scores of four cases using geopolymers were higher than that of the cement case (0.22), with C2 (0.75), C1 (0.64), M1 (0.56), and M2 (0.54), respectively. Sensitivity analysis confirmed that the assessment results were relatively stable, especially when the subjective weight of the economy was not the highest (the cement counterpart had economic advantages). This study constituted a novel approach to complement the selection of sustainable stabilization cases, bridging the gap of focusing exclusively on green stabilization performance.

Absolute environmental sustainability assessment of rice in Pakistan using a planetary boundary-based approach

The increasing anthropogenic pressure with high food demands requires fundamental changes in global food production practices while respecting the environmental and resource limits of the Earth. Half of the world population consume rice as a staple food which is grown in more than a hundred countries. This study aimed at evaluating the environmental repercussions of rice production in Pakistan following a novel approach. The adopted methodology, planetary boundary-based life cycle assessment, enabled the evaluation of the sustainable limits while respecting the carrying capacity of the Earth. The results revealed that the rice production had considerable impacts in terms of global warming (5632 ± 17.8 % kg CO2 eq), freshwater eutrophication (0.67 ± 43.5 % kg P eq), and water use (3928 ± 12.7 % m3) per tonne of milled rice; contributing to the triple planetary crisis, viz., global warming and nutrient pollution as well as unsustainable use of valuable resources. Field emissions due to microbial activity of methanogenic bacteria, fossil-based irrigation processes, and agrochemical applications were identified as the hotspots. Sensitivity analysis revealed that yield increment could be a beneficial approach to reduce environmental burdens; particularly where the impacts were surpassing the sustainable limits. Furthermore, sensitivity and uncertainty analyses also confirmed the obtained results for most of the impact categories (global warming, freshwater eutrophication, and water use) were significantly higher than the considered sustainable limits. Environmentally friendly irrigation systems, improved fertilizer use efficiency, and short-duration rice varieties with higher yield were recommended due to the substantial impacts reduction potential.

Assessment of Environmental Performance and Development Sustainability of Systems Product

Assessment of Environmental Performance and Development Sustainability of Systems Product

Application of integrated LCA-GIS model in the agricultural sector: A brief overview

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Geographic Information System (GIS) are two different and complementary tools. LCA is used to evaluate only environmental consequences and cannot be employed to assess spatial environmental impacts, while GIS is a decision-making spatial tool capable of restoring, retrieving, analyzing, modelling, and mapping large areas with a huge volume of spatial data. The Integrated LCA-GIS model is a framework that aims at addressing the unsuitable match in spatial firmness/resolution of LCA. This paper conducted a brief overview of the application of the LCA-GIS model in the agricultural sector to investigate and clarify the current situation of the technique, especially in the areas of environmental assessment, sustainability assessment, energy-environment assessment, and qualitative assessment in terms of system boundaries, functional unit and impact categories in the agricultural sector. Cradle-to-gate system boundary was used in all the studies reviewed and this shows that there was a lack of depth analysis in evaluating the environmental impacts of the whole agricultural process. It is also observed in this paper that, few impact categories were assessed and no single damage category was evaluated, it further revealed that the LCA-GIS methodology for sustainability assessment does not evaluate socio-economic factors thus leading to the establishment of Regional Sustainability Assessment Methodology (RSAM). This paper recommends the use of a cradle-to-grave system boundary thus will help in an in-depth analysis of evaluating the environmental impacts of any agricultural product; evaluation of all the impact and damage categories and development of a single software that integrates LCA with GIS that applies to any research field.

Environmental sustainability assessment of a polyester T-shirt – Comparison of circularity strategies

The considerable environmental burden of textiles is currently globally recognized. This burden can be mitigated by applying circular economy (CE) strategies to the commonly linear, short garment life cycles that end with incineration or landfill disposal. Even though all CE strategies strive to promote environmental sustainability, they might not be equally beneficial. Environmental data on different textile products is insufficiently available, which leads to complications when assessing and deciding on different CE strategies to be implemented. This paper studies the environmental impacts of a polyester T-shirt's linear life cycle through life cycle assessment (LCA) and evaluates the benefits attainable by adopting different CE strategies, and their order of priority, while noting uncertainty arising from poor data quality or unavailability. The LCA is complemented by assessing health and environmental risks related to the different options. Most of the linear life cycle's LCA-based impacts arise from use-phase washing. Hence, it is possible to reduce the environmental impact notably (37 %) by reducing the washing frequency. Adopting a CE strategy in which the shirt is reused by a second consumer, to double the number of uses, enables an 18 % impact reduction. Repurposing recycled materials to produce the T-shirt and recycling the T-shirt material itself emerged as the least impactful CE strategies. From the risk perspective, reusing the garment is the most efficient way to reduce environmental and health risks while washing frequency has a very limited effect. Combining different CE strategies offers the greatest potential for reducing both environmental impacts as well as risks. Data gaps and assumptions related to the use phase cause the highest uncertainty in the LCA results. To gain the maximum environmental benefits of utilizing CE strategies on polyester garments, consumer actions, design solutions, and transparent data sharing are needed.