Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been increasingly used to improve the environmental performance o... more Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been increasingly used to improve the environmental performance of food systems and simplification of LCA appears to be a vital question, especially for Small-and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Following a literature review on simplified LCA tools and their subsequent ranking, some of the best-rated tools were implemented and the results were examined in parallel to those of a full LCA.
This study investigates how different typologies of networks could be potentially related to the ... more This study investigates how different typologies of networks could be potentially related to the development of an Industrial Symbiosis (IS). The structural and relational features (entities/nodes and flows/ties, respectively) of various types of typical networks (planned industrial areas, local supply networks, districts, ecologically equipped industrial areas and innovation poles) have been considered. This study is based both on evidences from the literature and on the experience gained by the authors by dealing with the potential development of IS in existing Italian industrial networks and clusters. The approach followed is mainly inductive: data collected in studies concerning the features of the networks analyzed were used for a meta-analysis, in order to investigate how their morphology can be related to the development of an IS. Since the focus is on socio-technical contexts, both qualitative and quantitative data and information have been used. The structural and organizational elements of the various contexts, as well as the physical and social relationships that characterize them, have been investigated. The results obtained show that such networking variables can assume different connotations on the various contexts and are able to play a significant role in the potential development of IS. We expect this analysis to provide both methodological and applicative contributions to IS studies and to the policies for a sustainable industrial re-development at a local level, especially in those countries where local networks are widespread.
Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, Mar 30, 2021
To seize the potential of Circular Economy (CE) organisations need to evaluate and communicate th... more To seize the potential of Circular Economy (CE) organisations need to evaluate and communicate their progress moving away from the non-sustainable paradigm of 'take-make-dispose' towards circularity. Existing CE assessments for organisations focus on companies. Although the need for CE assessment is recognised in both public and private sectors, little progress has been made towards developing an approach for public sector organisations. CE assessment in public sector organisations is particularly important due to their role model, agenda setting and economic function. Therefore, this article co-develops a CE assessment framework for public sector organisations. Portuguese public sector organisations were involved as a participatory case study. The result is a framework that covers the following components: (i) a system definition; (ii) a definition of 35 CE assessment elements; (iii) CE assessment targets; and (iv) CE indicators. The framework contributes to the understanding of circularity from a public sector perspective considering three key aspects: resources, operations and processes as well as social and employee related activities. Implications for CE assessments in the public and private sector encompass the importance for an early involvement of stakeholders to get a sector specific perspective, the need to address user-friendliness and the requirement for continuous testing of CE assessments.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
The debate on the relationship between the long-established concept of sustainability, and the re... more The debate on the relationship between the long-established concept of sustainability, and the relatively novel one of circularity in constantly increasing biogas production remains. In this study, additional discussion elements to such an open debate are provided. With its role in the bioeconomy and ongoing ambiguity, a bibliographic review of anaerobic digestion is provided. In particular, this study aims to i) verify whether sustainability assessments and circularity measurements are performed in different ways in anaerobic digestion projects and ii) understand which indicators have been utilized for each pillar of sustainability. Initially, 152 scientific documents from the Scopus and Web of Science scholarly journal databases were selected. Specific eligibility criteria that were any type of measurement of circularity and/or assessment of sustainability, were used for screening. Fifty-eight articles met these criteria and were analyzed in depth. The results show that the terms circularity and sustainability are not always univocal concepts in the reviewed scientific contributions. Consequently, the relative criteria or measurements for their analysis are not the same. As a result, a different interpretation of the two concepts is suggested. Circularity should be considered as one of the ways to achieve the broadest objective of sustainability.
... Journal of Environmental Management (1992) 36, 237-252 A Proposal for a New Method to Develop... more ... Journal of Environmental Management (1992) 36, 237-252 A Proposal for a New Method to Develop Synthetic Quality Indices for Air and Water Giancarlo Barbiroli*, Palmira Mazzaracchio , Andrea Raggi* and Stefano Alliney ... Water Resources Research 8, 1159-1177 ...
The circular economy (CE) concept has become a major interest for companies, promising new busine... more The circular economy (CE) concept has become a major interest for companies, promising new business opportunities and a decrease in environmental impacts. Though research on circular business models has recently increased, few scholars have investigated how companies engaged with CE view the connection between CE and sustainability. To address this gap, this paper uses a semi-quantitative survey and semistructured interviews conducted with companies based in Italy and the Netherlands. Purposive sampling was employed to target firms associated with national and international CE networks, as these companies already engage with CE practices. The survey was distributed online to over 800 firms, of which 155 provided information on their understanding of the CE concept and its relationship with sustainability. The survey results are complemented through findings from 43 interviews with a subset of the survey respondents. The survey answers show that companies view CE as one of the tools to achieve sustainable development, particularly in the environmental domain, where the focus lies on environmentally friendly resource use. Yet, the respondents are less confident whether CE increases economic and social benefits of firms. Interviews show that a majority of respondents position sustainability as the overarching concept. However, most companies advocate that the private sector should strive for both sustainability and circularity, though the distinction between the two concepts in daily business operations seems synthetic and futile to some. These findings provide an important stepping stone for better understanding how firms could apply CE practices to move towards a more sustainable society.
This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the ad... more This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology, May 28, 2009
Pursuing eco-efficiency in all industrial activities has become a target in the last two decades,... more Pursuing eco-efficiency in all industrial activities has become a target in the last two decades, and many positive results have led to the belief that this could be the solution to resource and environmental questions. However, even by recognising the encouraging results obtained in several large-and medium-sized companies, mainly in the field of energy conversion rates, this paradigm seems to be limited if one considers the questions from a macroeconomic view: no substantial changes have occurred into how energy and mineral resources are utilized, and environmental imbalances have increased all over the world. This is why the recently-developed paradigm and concept of resource-and eco-effectiveness should be considered as most suited to open up wider perspectives in economic development, despite the fact that economic thought has neglected such a concept, whereas it has widely developed the concept of efficiency. Following previous research work, where this new paradigm has been defined and implemented through a model, in this work its potential utilization is analysed and discussed, not only on a theoretical basis, but also with real applications to specific productive branches or to a whole economy, in order to find new solutions able to modify the traditional resource utilization criteria and, consequently, to offset present trends toward resource depletion and environmental imbalance.
International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology, Jun 1, 2008
ABSTRACT A model able to measure eco-effectiveness, which was theoretically proposed and illustra... more ABSTRACT A model able to measure eco-effectiveness, which was theoretically proposed and illustrated in a previous article, is here developed and implemented for three case studies (USA, EU-15 and Japan) in order to verify its potential usefulness in the natural resources field. The results obtained by the application of the 'loss function' – ability to measure the distance between a real and an ideal situation – show that the model can be seen as a fundamental basis to assess the exploitation intensity of resources among different countries/areas and/or over time, especially if new measures and best environmental practices are adopted to increase resource productivity and to reduce environmental burdens. Since a main issue in the model implementation is related to the subjective choice of weights to be given to the various resources in the loss function (materials, fossil fuels and biomass), a graphical approach based on a 'weighting triangle' is also proposed to overcome the problem of previous weight selection. This tool permits us to make a distinction between a 'non-sustainability' area and a 'sustainability' area, based on whether an increase or a decrease of the loss function is more plausible.
Comparisons of various energy systems are often made from partial, limited standpoints that do no... more Comparisons of various energy systems are often made from partial, limited standpoints that do not take into due consideration the numerous factors involved in such systems. A more complete assessment of the global quality of energy systems must consider a wider range of characteristics, such as." conversion and transportation yields, energy potential, added value, risk of accidents during conversion and transportation, coefficients of transportability and storability, and polluting emissions (carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulphur and nitrogen oxides, unburnt hydrocarbons, dust, radionuclides and dispersed heat). This paper not only identifies and quantifies the parameters that allow the above qualities to be expressed, but also defines a tree-structured energy-quality index system which starts from the parameters identified and makes it possible to obtain a global summary index, through various intermediate levels of aggregation. Out" objective is to make an instrument available to professionals (engineers, policymakers and energy managers) which allows them to concentrate their attention each time, according to the specific needs in question, on particular aspects of the quality of the energy, or to obtain numerical indicators that briefly express quality in the broadest sense. In addition, a sample application of the proposed method is presented, using data gathered mainly from the literature on alternative systems for power production and space heating by fossil fuels.
As is demonstrated by a great deal of scientific literature on the subject, an ever-increasing nu... more As is demonstrated by a great deal of scientific literature on the subject, an ever-increasing number of businesses are adopting cleaner production as a strategy to minimise the impact of their activities and their products on the environment. However, the range of approaches which are grouped together and given the common name ‘cleaner production’ is quite broad and diversified and
International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, Oct 27, 2017
Purpose This article analyses, in an industrial ecology (IE) perspective, urban contexts with spe... more Purpose This article analyses, in an industrial ecology (IE) perspective, urban contexts with specific features, such as a reduced space scale, a hybrid nature, which includes a residential, industrial and rural dimension, and a strong spatial contiguity among these three dimensions. Methods The study starts with a retrospective investigation of such contexts and the development of an approach based on contributions from urban metabolism and industrial symbiosis. An integrated analytical framework, based on empirical data and a literature review, is also proposed. Results and discussion The integrated view of the three dimensions, associated with a fourth dedicated to waste and energy flows, can be useful for efficiently identifying and managing material and energy flows beyond the typical use and consumption of Bpure^urban systems. The results of a pilot survey, carried out with reference to the territory of the Province of Pescara (Italy), confirm the widespread diffusion of these Bhybrid^urban contexts, which can potentially grow in a synergistic way. Conclusions Through this framework, land use policies and local improvement actions can be defined in a better way for a sustainable local development, together with a more effective governance. Significant areas of scientific advancement in the IE research field also emerge.
This study concerns the application of a Carbon Footprint (CF) tool to an Italian wine casestudy ... more This study concerns the application of a Carbon Footprint (CF) tool to an Italian wine casestudy to which Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) had already been applied, with the aim of testing this new approach and draw some preliminary comparative remarks. The functional unit used was a 0.75 litre bottle and the supply-chain considered started from the vineyard and ended with the sale of the product, including the transport related to the distribution stage. The results show that the considered tools are similar in terms of applicability, but differ in the outputs they produce. The CF is easier to understand than LCA, which provides more complete data. The studied sample does not permit us to make a meaningful assessment of the considered tools. In conclusion, further studies must be carried out to validate the use of CF in companies of different sizes, which may have significant environmental impacts also in other categories.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been increasingly used to improve the environmental performance o... more Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been increasingly used to improve the environmental performance of food systems and simplification of LCA appears to be a vital question, especially for Small-and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Following a literature review on simplified LCA tools and their subsequent ranking, some of the best-rated tools were implemented and the results were examined in parallel to those of a full LCA.
This study investigates how different typologies of networks could be potentially related to the ... more This study investigates how different typologies of networks could be potentially related to the development of an Industrial Symbiosis (IS). The structural and relational features (entities/nodes and flows/ties, respectively) of various types of typical networks (planned industrial areas, local supply networks, districts, ecologically equipped industrial areas and innovation poles) have been considered. This study is based both on evidences from the literature and on the experience gained by the authors by dealing with the potential development of IS in existing Italian industrial networks and clusters. The approach followed is mainly inductive: data collected in studies concerning the features of the networks analyzed were used for a meta-analysis, in order to investigate how their morphology can be related to the development of an IS. Since the focus is on socio-technical contexts, both qualitative and quantitative data and information have been used. The structural and organizational elements of the various contexts, as well as the physical and social relationships that characterize them, have been investigated. The results obtained show that such networking variables can assume different connotations on the various contexts and are able to play a significant role in the potential development of IS. We expect this analysis to provide both methodological and applicative contributions to IS studies and to the policies for a sustainable industrial re-development at a local level, especially in those countries where local networks are widespread.
Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, Mar 30, 2021
To seize the potential of Circular Economy (CE) organisations need to evaluate and communicate th... more To seize the potential of Circular Economy (CE) organisations need to evaluate and communicate their progress moving away from the non-sustainable paradigm of 'take-make-dispose' towards circularity. Existing CE assessments for organisations focus on companies. Although the need for CE assessment is recognised in both public and private sectors, little progress has been made towards developing an approach for public sector organisations. CE assessment in public sector organisations is particularly important due to their role model, agenda setting and economic function. Therefore, this article co-develops a CE assessment framework for public sector organisations. Portuguese public sector organisations were involved as a participatory case study. The result is a framework that covers the following components: (i) a system definition; (ii) a definition of 35 CE assessment elements; (iii) CE assessment targets; and (iv) CE indicators. The framework contributes to the understanding of circularity from a public sector perspective considering three key aspects: resources, operations and processes as well as social and employee related activities. Implications for CE assessments in the public and private sector encompass the importance for an early involvement of stakeholders to get a sector specific perspective, the need to address user-friendliness and the requirement for continuous testing of CE assessments.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
The debate on the relationship between the long-established concept of sustainability, and the re... more The debate on the relationship between the long-established concept of sustainability, and the relatively novel one of circularity in constantly increasing biogas production remains. In this study, additional discussion elements to such an open debate are provided. With its role in the bioeconomy and ongoing ambiguity, a bibliographic review of anaerobic digestion is provided. In particular, this study aims to i) verify whether sustainability assessments and circularity measurements are performed in different ways in anaerobic digestion projects and ii) understand which indicators have been utilized for each pillar of sustainability. Initially, 152 scientific documents from the Scopus and Web of Science scholarly journal databases were selected. Specific eligibility criteria that were any type of measurement of circularity and/or assessment of sustainability, were used for screening. Fifty-eight articles met these criteria and were analyzed in depth. The results show that the terms circularity and sustainability are not always univocal concepts in the reviewed scientific contributions. Consequently, the relative criteria or measurements for their analysis are not the same. As a result, a different interpretation of the two concepts is suggested. Circularity should be considered as one of the ways to achieve the broadest objective of sustainability.
... Journal of Environmental Management (1992) 36, 237-252 A Proposal for a New Method to Develop... more ... Journal of Environmental Management (1992) 36, 237-252 A Proposal for a New Method to Develop Synthetic Quality Indices for Air and Water Giancarlo Barbiroli*, Palmira Mazzaracchio , Andrea Raggi* and Stefano Alliney ... Water Resources Research 8, 1159-1177 ...
The circular economy (CE) concept has become a major interest for companies, promising new busine... more The circular economy (CE) concept has become a major interest for companies, promising new business opportunities and a decrease in environmental impacts. Though research on circular business models has recently increased, few scholars have investigated how companies engaged with CE view the connection between CE and sustainability. To address this gap, this paper uses a semi-quantitative survey and semistructured interviews conducted with companies based in Italy and the Netherlands. Purposive sampling was employed to target firms associated with national and international CE networks, as these companies already engage with CE practices. The survey was distributed online to over 800 firms, of which 155 provided information on their understanding of the CE concept and its relationship with sustainability. The survey results are complemented through findings from 43 interviews with a subset of the survey respondents. The survey answers show that companies view CE as one of the tools to achieve sustainable development, particularly in the environmental domain, where the focus lies on environmentally friendly resource use. Yet, the respondents are less confident whether CE increases economic and social benefits of firms. Interviews show that a majority of respondents position sustainability as the overarching concept. However, most companies advocate that the private sector should strive for both sustainability and circularity, though the distinction between the two concepts in daily business operations seems synthetic and futile to some. These findings provide an important stepping stone for better understanding how firms could apply CE practices to move towards a more sustainable society.
This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the ad... more This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology, May 28, 2009
Pursuing eco-efficiency in all industrial activities has become a target in the last two decades,... more Pursuing eco-efficiency in all industrial activities has become a target in the last two decades, and many positive results have led to the belief that this could be the solution to resource and environmental questions. However, even by recognising the encouraging results obtained in several large-and medium-sized companies, mainly in the field of energy conversion rates, this paradigm seems to be limited if one considers the questions from a macroeconomic view: no substantial changes have occurred into how energy and mineral resources are utilized, and environmental imbalances have increased all over the world. This is why the recently-developed paradigm and concept of resource-and eco-effectiveness should be considered as most suited to open up wider perspectives in economic development, despite the fact that economic thought has neglected such a concept, whereas it has widely developed the concept of efficiency. Following previous research work, where this new paradigm has been defined and implemented through a model, in this work its potential utilization is analysed and discussed, not only on a theoretical basis, but also with real applications to specific productive branches or to a whole economy, in order to find new solutions able to modify the traditional resource utilization criteria and, consequently, to offset present trends toward resource depletion and environmental imbalance.
International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology, Jun 1, 2008
ABSTRACT A model able to measure eco-effectiveness, which was theoretically proposed and illustra... more ABSTRACT A model able to measure eco-effectiveness, which was theoretically proposed and illustrated in a previous article, is here developed and implemented for three case studies (USA, EU-15 and Japan) in order to verify its potential usefulness in the natural resources field. The results obtained by the application of the 'loss function' – ability to measure the distance between a real and an ideal situation – show that the model can be seen as a fundamental basis to assess the exploitation intensity of resources among different countries/areas and/or over time, especially if new measures and best environmental practices are adopted to increase resource productivity and to reduce environmental burdens. Since a main issue in the model implementation is related to the subjective choice of weights to be given to the various resources in the loss function (materials, fossil fuels and biomass), a graphical approach based on a 'weighting triangle' is also proposed to overcome the problem of previous weight selection. This tool permits us to make a distinction between a 'non-sustainability' area and a 'sustainability' area, based on whether an increase or a decrease of the loss function is more plausible.
Comparisons of various energy systems are often made from partial, limited standpoints that do no... more Comparisons of various energy systems are often made from partial, limited standpoints that do not take into due consideration the numerous factors involved in such systems. A more complete assessment of the global quality of energy systems must consider a wider range of characteristics, such as." conversion and transportation yields, energy potential, added value, risk of accidents during conversion and transportation, coefficients of transportability and storability, and polluting emissions (carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulphur and nitrogen oxides, unburnt hydrocarbons, dust, radionuclides and dispersed heat). This paper not only identifies and quantifies the parameters that allow the above qualities to be expressed, but also defines a tree-structured energy-quality index system which starts from the parameters identified and makes it possible to obtain a global summary index, through various intermediate levels of aggregation. Out" objective is to make an instrument available to professionals (engineers, policymakers and energy managers) which allows them to concentrate their attention each time, according to the specific needs in question, on particular aspects of the quality of the energy, or to obtain numerical indicators that briefly express quality in the broadest sense. In addition, a sample application of the proposed method is presented, using data gathered mainly from the literature on alternative systems for power production and space heating by fossil fuels.
As is demonstrated by a great deal of scientific literature on the subject, an ever-increasing nu... more As is demonstrated by a great deal of scientific literature on the subject, an ever-increasing number of businesses are adopting cleaner production as a strategy to minimise the impact of their activities and their products on the environment. However, the range of approaches which are grouped together and given the common name ‘cleaner production’ is quite broad and diversified and
International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, Oct 27, 2017
Purpose This article analyses, in an industrial ecology (IE) perspective, urban contexts with spe... more Purpose This article analyses, in an industrial ecology (IE) perspective, urban contexts with specific features, such as a reduced space scale, a hybrid nature, which includes a residential, industrial and rural dimension, and a strong spatial contiguity among these three dimensions. Methods The study starts with a retrospective investigation of such contexts and the development of an approach based on contributions from urban metabolism and industrial symbiosis. An integrated analytical framework, based on empirical data and a literature review, is also proposed. Results and discussion The integrated view of the three dimensions, associated with a fourth dedicated to waste and energy flows, can be useful for efficiently identifying and managing material and energy flows beyond the typical use and consumption of Bpure^urban systems. The results of a pilot survey, carried out with reference to the territory of the Province of Pescara (Italy), confirm the widespread diffusion of these Bhybrid^urban contexts, which can potentially grow in a synergistic way. Conclusions Through this framework, land use policies and local improvement actions can be defined in a better way for a sustainable local development, together with a more effective governance. Significant areas of scientific advancement in the IE research field also emerge.
This study concerns the application of a Carbon Footprint (CF) tool to an Italian wine casestudy ... more This study concerns the application of a Carbon Footprint (CF) tool to an Italian wine casestudy to which Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) had already been applied, with the aim of testing this new approach and draw some preliminary comparative remarks. The functional unit used was a 0.75 litre bottle and the supply-chain considered started from the vineyard and ended with the sale of the product, including the transport related to the distribution stage. The results show that the considered tools are similar in terms of applicability, but differ in the outputs they produce. The CF is easier to understand than LCA, which provides more complete data. The studied sample does not permit us to make a meaningful assessment of the considered tools. In conclusion, further studies must be carried out to validate the use of CF in companies of different sizes, which may have significant environmental impacts also in other categories.
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