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The main challenge for concrete industry - and in general for construction materials - is to serve the two major needs of human society, the protection of the environment, on one hand, and the requirements of buildings and infrastructures by the world?s growing population, on the other. In the past concrete industry has satisfied these needs well. However, for a variety of reasons, the situation has changed dramatically in the last years. First of all, the concrete industry is the largest consumer of natural resources. Secondly, Portland cement, the binder of modern concrete mixtures, is not as environmentally friendly. The world's cement production, in fact, contributes to the earth's atmosphere about 7% of the total CO2 emissions, CO2 being one of the primary greenhouse gas (GHG) responsible for global warming and climate change. As a consequence, concrete industry in the future has to face two antithetically needs. In other words, how the concrete industry can feed the growing population needs being - at the same time - sustainable? The answer to this question is represented by the ?3R-Green Strategy? widely discussed in the first chapter of this PhD thesis: Reduction in consumption of gross energy for construction materials production, Reduction in polluting emissions and Reduction in consuming not renewable natural resources. In particular, this thesis is focused on the alternative binders to Portland cement such as alkali-activated slag cements and calcium sulphoaluminate cement-based binders in order to manufacture sustainable mixtures for special applications such as repair mortars, lightweight reinforced plasters and concretes for slabs on ground. The experimental results show the feasibility of manufacturing both EN 1504-3 R3 class mortars and Portland-free concretes for jointless slabs on ground with calcium sulphoaluminate cement, supplementary cementitious materials (fly ash, ground granulated blast furnace slag) and hydrated lime instead of Portland cement. Moreover, alkali-activated mortars and concretes seem to be a reasonable alternative to natural hydraulic lime-based and/or traditional Portland cement-based mixtures for rehabilitation or restoration of ancient masonry buildings and existing concretes structures. Finally, a new sustainability index was developed taking into account the environmental impact, the performances and the durability of mixtures. In particular, in the environmental impact section, the natural raw materials consumption, the greenhouse gas emissions and the energy consumption have been considered. Furthermore, depending on the applications and the environments, design parameters and properties related to durability have been assigned to each mixture. less

Purpose of the paper: This paper aims to provide a systematic literature review on recycling behaviours in higher education institutions to gather and synthesise the extant knowledge on this topic into a comprehensive framework, in line with the premise that colleges and universities have the moral responsibility to educate people for a better and more sustainable future. More specifically, this study provides a basic understanding of the research topic and identifies the factors affecting recycling intentions/behaviours in higher education institutions. Methodology: A systematic literature review of existing research is conducted. A total of 64 journal articles published between 1995 and 2019 are analysed in five steps: obtaining a basic understanding, coding, categorisation, comparison and further analysis. Findings: This study identifies environmental concern, attitudes towards recycling, social norms, university environmental policy and availability of recycling facilities at higher education institutions as the factors affecting recycling intentions/behaviours in higher education institutions. Theoretical and practical implications: Scholars could use this paper as a reference to systematise knowledge on recycling behaviour in the higher education context and further advance knowledge on this topic by identifying specific research areas that could be theoretically and empirically investigated. University managers could use the findings of this study as a basis for designing behavioural intervention programs in their institutions. Originality of the paper: Previous research focuses on recycling in the home or workplace environments. No systematic literature review on recycling behaviours in the higher education setting has previously been undertaken, despite the key role universities play in increasing awareness of environmental issues.

To remain competitive, manufacturing companies are marketing to customers business offerings based on integrated packages of products and services – Product-Service Systems (PSS). While PSS offerings allow foreseeing economical benefits for customers and manufacturers, the sustainability assessment of PSS has not been extensively studied in the literature. While it is recognized that sustainability can be evaluated under the three dimensions of the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) – i.e. economic, environmental, and social – existing assessment methods usually concentrate only on a single one, neglecting the interplay with the other two. Thus, a more comprehensive method for the evaluation of PSS sustainability is required. This paper proposes the use of Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) as a method for jointly assessing the economic and environmental sustainability of PSS offerings. The social dimension is not considered since the research about the impacts of PSS offering on the social dimension is still at its beginning, as a consequence of the difficulties in finding common social sustainability indicators. The proposed approach overcomes the limitations of traditional sustainability assessment methods by allowing for dealing with the stochastic nature of reality, testing multiple scenarios, and understanding the impacts of PSS solutions on the economic and environmental sustainability in the long-term perspective.

AbstractIn this work a method for identifying the key points and supporting an eco-design activity for SMEs is presented. Amongst the different concurrent approaches in the literature, Active Innovation Management (AIM), is currently developing, jointly with the University of Bergamo, an integrated approach based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and TRIZ eco-guidelines. The main goal of this integration is to simplify the eco-design approach in order to make it accessible to European small medium enterprises (SMEs). All activities are part of a European Community (EC) project called REMake. The proposed method consists of a preliminary scan of a given product or process in order to disclose all involved flows of material and energy, and to assess its environmental impact by means of traditional LCA indexes. The hot points of the process are then identified adding to classical LCA criteria a brand new index, called the “IFR index”, conceived from the TRIZ “Ideal System” concept. Once key points are identified, a set of 330 eco-design guidelines are introduced to develop alternatives and modifications to the given system with the aim of providing a lower global environmental impact. A first version of those guidelines [3,8, and 9] was conceived starting from the eight natural Laws of Evolution of Technical System (LTSE) introduced by Altshuller [10]. Here an extended version allows the user to work in each phase of the product life cycle, and integrates other TRIZ tools and best eco-practices. Preliminary results of the application in SMEs will be presented with a case study concerning a textile home-furnishings and bed linen painting company.

This review presents “a state of the art” report on sustainability in construction materials. The authors propose different solutions to make the concrete industry more environmentally friendly in order to reduce greenhouse gases emissions and consumption of non-renewable resources. Part 1—the present paper—focuses on the use of binders alternative to Portland cement, including sulfoaluminate cements, alkali-activated materials, and geopolymers. Part 2 will be dedicated to traditional Portland-free binders and waste management and recycling in mortar and concrete production.

AbstractAn Eco-Design methodology based on two abridged Life Cycle Assessment tools (eVerdEE [1] developed by ENEA [2] and the French Standard NF 01-005) plus TRIZ [3] Eco-guidelines is presented. This method is one of the outputs of the European project REMake [4] (started September 2009 ended December 2012), which had the goal of developing and testing new approaches for eco-innovation, recycling and material consumption for manufacturing small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The number of SMEs involved in the project has been around 250, in six countries.The proposed method consists of a preliminary scanning of a given product or process in order to disclose all the material involved and the energy flows, and to assess their environmental impact by means of a simplified Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach and the related indexes. The “hot spots” of the product or process are then identified by adding a brand new index called “IFR (Ideal Final Result) index”, conceived from the TRIZ “Ideal System” concept [5], to classical LCA criteria.Once the hot points are identified, a set of over 300 TRIZ based eco-design guidelines [6,7] are selectively introduced to develop design variants to the given system with the aim of providing a lower global environmental impact. An in-depth explanation about ECO guideline implementation is given, together with a case study concerning a manufacturer of machine tools.

Abstract The issue of food waste is increasingly attracting scientific and public interest due to the magnitude of the problem (in terms of quantity and global reach) and the growing attention to healthy and sustainable food production and consumption. As a consequence, an increasing number of initiatives aim to reduce the food discarded in each stage of the supply chain, from production and storage down to cooking and consumption. Still, food waste remains an unsolved issue, and many initiatives struggle to move from the design stage to full-scale implementation. This research paper focuses on a successful food waste reduction project in a school canteen in northern Italy. The case study illustrated in this paper demonstrates how it is possible to implement an effective initiative to reduce food waste with limited investment by leveraging the involvement of stakeholders.