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Sustainability assessment and rating systems are intended to foster more sustainable design, construction, operation, maintenance and disassembly/deconstruction promoting and making possible a better integration of environment, societal, and cost concerns with other traditional decision criteria. The use of improved and building technologies can contribute considerably to better environmental cycle and then to the sustainability of the constructions. It is widely recognised in the of Building Sustainability Assessment that Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a much preferable method for evaluating the environmental pressure caused by materials, Building assemblies and the whole life-cycle of a building. Nevertheless, LCA tools are not extensively used in building design and most of building sustainability assessment and systems are not comprehensive or consistently LCA-based. Reasons for this failure above all related to the huge variety and amount of material flows and processes of building’s Lifecycle and to the complexity of the stages of a LCA. This paper will present the difficulties and possible solutions to integrate more accurate environmental methods in rating systems. In this context, the paper will also present the work that is being carried out in the development of the Portuguese Building Sustainability Assessment system (SBTool PT)

AbstractEarthworms may promote the biodegradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soil, but the mechanism through which they exert such influence is still unknown. To determine if the stimulation of PAH degradation by earthworms is related to changes in microbial communities, a microcosm experiment was conducted consisting of columns with natural uncontaminated soil covered with PAH‐contaminated dredge sediment. Columns without and with low and high Eisenia andrei densities were prepared. Organic matter and PAH content, microbial biomass, and dehydrogenase activity (DHA) were measured in soil and sediment over time. Biolog Ecoplate™ and polymerase chain reaction using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis were used to evaluate changes in metabolic and structural diversity of the microbial community, respectively. Earthworm activity promoted PAH degradation in soil, which was significant for biphenyl, benzo[a]pyrene, and benzo[e]pyrene. Microbial biomass and DHA activity generally did not change over the experiment. Earthworm activity did change microbial community structure, but this did not affect its functioning in terms of carbon substrate consumption. Results suggest no relationship between changes in the microbial community by earthworm activity and increased PAH disappearance. The role of shifts in soil microbial community structure induced by earthworms in PAH removal needs further investigation. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 2012;31:794–803. © 2011 SETAC

Abstract This work assesses the impacts of aggressive driving behavior on pollutants emissions and energy consumption at a city level. Furthermore, it performs an economic analysis considering the potential avoided emissions and fuel savings and discusses potential policy measures to address this topic. The results showed that aggressive driving significantly impacts energy consumption and emissions, with energy consumption increasing by more than ∼200% and emissions by 330% for aggressive driving compared to non-aggressive driving (in MJ/km and in g/km, respectively). This increment was found to be even higher for diesel vehicles than for gasoline vehicles. On the contrary, gasoline vehicles showed higher percentages of increase for most emissions (CO, NOx and NO). Results also revealed that aggressive driving impacts are higher for local streets when examining the city level. Moreover, the economic analysis showed that significant cost reductions may be achieved by avoiding aggressive driving, reaching up to 52.5 k€ on a daily basis. In conclusion, this study is of particular relevance to policy makers and urban planners, enabling to obtain a comprehensive overview of the impacts of aggressive driving behaviors at a city level and providing new insights to perform further developments and to assess the feasibility of the implementation of policy measures.

ScopeThis study was designed to evaluate the influence of ethanol on the bioavailability of blackberry anthocyanins.Methods and resultsA total of 18 participants were recruited to consume 250 mL of a blackberry puree (650 mg of anthocyanins) without (BBP) or with 12% ethanol (BBP 12%). Venous blood was collected from participants at baseline and at 15, 30, 60, and 120 min after puree ingestion. Urine samples were collected at baseline and at 120 min. Plasma and urine concentration of anthocyanins and anthocyanin conjugates were quantified by HPLC‐DAD. Methyl‐cyanidin‐glucuronide (Me‐Cy‐Glucr) and 3′‐methyl‐cyanidin‐3‐glucoside (3′‐Me‐Cy3glc) were the main anthocyanin conjugates detected in all plasma and urine samples. Urinary concentration of these anthocyanin conjugates were positively correlated with their plasma concentration. Ethanol increased plasma Cmax of Me‐Cy‐Glucr and 3′‐Me‐Cy3glc. Participants were then stratified according to their body mass index (BMI) and body fat mass. After BBP consumption, plasma Cmax of Me‐Cy‐Glucr and 3′‐Me‐Cy3glc tended to be decreased in overweight/obese participants, in comparison to normal weight participants. The increase on plasma Cmax of Me‐Cy‐Glucr and 3′‐Me‐Cy3glc induced by ethanol was more pronounced in the group of overweight/obese participants.ConclusionsEthanol seems to enhance Cy3glc metabolism that appears to be compromised in overweight and obese individuals.

In this study, air concentrations of BaP in two different seasons (winter 2015 and summer 2016) and BaP levels in ground vegetation from Tarragona County were used as control simulations performed with the WRF-CHIMERE air quality modelling system, in order to reproduce the incidence of that hazardous chemical in air and soils. The CTM was validated for the present climatology, showing a good ability to represent air and soil concentrations of BaP over the target domain (petrochemical, chemical, urban and background sites), particularly in the winter. Then, the variation of the BaP concentrations in air and soils were simulated for the time series 1996-2015 and for the climate change scenario RCP8.5 (2031-2050). While an increase is projected for the levels in air, particularly in chemical and remote sites where the variation can go up to 10%, in terms of soil deposition the findings are the opposite, with an evident decrease in soil BaP concentrations, particularly for background sites. Finally, a potential health effect of BaP for the local population (lung cancer) was assessed. Although according to the projections the EU threshold for BaP atmospheric incidence (1 ng m-3) will not be reached by 2050, there will be an increase in the life-time risk of lung cancer, particularly in the most populated areas within the simulation domain.

Abstract Portugal’s performance concerning the Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) strategy, with particular focus on perspectives for the Northern Region based on the current status of integrated municipal waste management systems in that region, was evaluated. Legal documents, official reports and the market were analyzed. The 2015 national installed capacity of waste treatment technologies, from which the high calorific value fraction (HCVF) for RDF production is obtained, is not far from what was predicted for 2013. However, only around 11% of the HCVF had such destiny and the amount of effectively produced RDF was only 30% of the material sent to RDF production (around 30 kt). In Northern Portugal, no RDF production plant was in operation in 2015; the amount of HCVF was estimated to range from 105 to 204 kt for 2015 and around 2.4 times more is expected in 2020. The strategy laydown for RDF failed so far, and thus, low diversion of waste from landfills is observed, mostly due to low landfill taxes and low HCVF quality, resulting in RDF being non-competitive with the imported higher quality product from countries with very high landfilling fees. Moreover, co-incineration and dedicated recovery solutions are scarce. In the Northern region, the HCVF may be treated in the existing municipal waste incinerator or the RDF might be recovered in new dedicated plants, receiving also non-hazardous waste fractions from other origin. Overall, to ensure a sustainable municipal waste management, the intensification of the reuse, preparation for reuse and recycling of waste components from source segregated collection must be significantly promoted.

The olive oil mill wastewater (OMW) is a by-product (with a high organic load) derived from the production of the olive oil. The OMW steam reforming (OMWSR) process was studied herein, aiming to decrease the environmental damage of such effluents; simultaneously, the waste is economically and energetically valorized with the H-2 production. Several Ni-containing catalysts were prepared and tested to compare their performances for the OMWSR using a synthetic OMW effluent; still, stability tests were also carried out. The materials were extensively characterized: thermogravimetric analysis, temperature programmed oxidation/reduction, temperature-programmed desorption of CO2/NH3, chemisorption of H-2, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry and physical adsorption-desorption of N-2 at-196 & DEG;C. Amongst the materials tested, the Ni-Ru/SiO2 sample stood out, exhibiting high catalytic performance: at 400 & DEG;C, the H-2 yield (> 8 mol(H2)& BULL;mol(OMW)(-1)) and conversion of total organic carbon (asymptotic to 75%) were high during all the 24 h of the long-term test, with only a small deactivation being noticed.

With the concept of climate services rapidly climbing research and research-funding agendas worldwide, the time is ripe for a debate about the objectives, scope and content of such services.