• Energy Research
• 11. Sustainability close
• 3. Good health close
• PT close
• English close

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. The Lived experience of climate change: interdisciplinary e-module development and virtual mobility project concerns education and lifelong learning in relation to climate change, to contribute to an informed and active European citizenry and to inform EU policy on this major challenge. Focusing on the lived experiences of climate change -- how individuals, communities and organisations conceive and respond to its perceived local impacts (e.g. extreme weather, biodiversity changes) – the project complements other work in the area. Through collaboration between nine participating institutions, designing innovative teaching modules and a virtual learning space, it aims to create a European community of scholars, students and citizens who collectively make a major contribution to the United Nations decade on education for sustainable development.This document contains Module 1 Textbook : "Introduction to climate change in the context of sustainable development". 504269-LLP-1-2009-1-UK-ERASMUS-ECDSP

This paper explores the implementation of European Union (EU) Cohesion Policy in Portugal under the 2014–2020 programming framework (Portugal 2020) and its contribution to promoting environmental sustainability. It starts with an anatomization of the dominant analytic dimensions of the concept of sustainable territorial development. It then examines the approved projects under Portugal 2020 and relates them to the selected five dimensions of territorial sustainable development, which include a circular economy, social environmental awareness, environmental conservation, a global governance sustainability focus, and a global spatial planning sustainability focus. It concludes that the Portugal 2020’ execution rate on supporting renewable sources of energy is strangely low, in view of the untapped potential of the country in, for instance, exploring solar energy. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

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)

Based on the presentation and discussion at the 3rd Winter School on Technology Assessment, December 2012, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal), Caparica Campus, PhD programme on Technology Assessment Environmental concerns over the use of fossil fuels and their resource constraints have increased the interest in generating electric energy from renewable energy sources (RES) to provide a sustainable electricity supply. A main problem of those technologies (wind or solar power generation) is that they are not constant and reliable sources of power. This results inter alia in an increased demand of energy storage technologies. Related stake holders show a big interest in the technical, economic and ecologic aspects of new emerging energy storage systems. This comes especially true for electrochemical energy storage systems as different Li-Ion batteries, Sodium Sulfur or Redox Flow batteries which can be utilized in all grid voltage levels, a wide range of grid applications as well as end user groups (e.g. private households, industry). A prospective and active Constructive Technology Assessment (CTA) can help to minimize potential mismatches, wrong investments, possible social conflicts, and environmental impacts of new energy storage technologies in an early development stage. It is insufficient to exclusively look at the operation phase to assess a technology. Such an approach can lead to misleading interpretations and can furthermore disregard social or ecological impact factors over the whole life cycle. Different energy storage technologies have to be evaluated in a prospective manner with a full integrated sustainability and life cycle approach to form a base for decision making and to support technology developers in order to allow distinctions between more or less sustainable battery technology variations. Therefore CTA is used as a scientific approach using several “neighbouring” engineering orientated disciplines e.g. Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) or Life Cycle Costs (LCC) and their methodologies which were initially developed for other purposes. The aim of the presented PhD Thesis is to make an economic, technological and ecological comparison of Energy storage technologies based on a life cycle sustainability Analysis (LCSA), multi criteria Analysis (or evaluation) (MCA) and to develop a suitable LCSA-MCA model through a new combined highly interdisciplinary approach in frame of CTA. Dr.-Ing. Marcel Weil Prof. Dr. António Brandão Moniz

To date, fossil fuels prevail as the primary source of energy, with a high consumption in transport and industries, making them a major problem for our planet, given its weak environmental sustainability due to its high greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere and the limited reserves [1]. In this context, biodiesel emerges as a biofuel, biodegradable, environmentally sustainable and less toxic when compared to fossil diesel, which has been acquiring much attention over the years, and it has been used commercially blended with diesel. Chemically it can be defined as a mix of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME), produced through transesterification reactions of vegetable oils or animal fats, with an alcohol, usually methanol, in the presence of basic catalysts, which are highly corrosive and difficult to recover [2]. Therefore, conventional catalysts present several problems for the environment, and for this reason, there is a need to develop more environmentally friendly catalysts. Ionic Liquids (IL) have attracted a lot of attention in recent decades, presenting themselves as the main alternative to traditional catalysts, being green, non-toxic and non-flammable solvents [3]. On the other the production of 1st generation biodiesel using raw materials from edible vegetable oils such as palm oil, sunflower oil, rapeseed oil, among others, has the potential of causing socio-economic conflicts since these oils compete directly with the food sector. This promoted the search for alternatives, such as the use of waste cooking oils (WCO), since it is a residue that can be reused and with high energy content. However, these processes still need better studies, due to the problems associated with the production through transesterification, with regard to the high content of Free Fatty Acids [1]. Hence, the objective of this work is the study of the application of the IL 1-methylimidiazolium hydrogen sulfate ([HMIM][HSO4]) in the catalysis of esterification/transesterification reactions of a WCOs with high free fatty acids contents, through the application of a Response Surface Methodology (RSM) based in a Box-Behnken Design (BBD) in order to determine the optimal reaction conditions (reaction time, catalyst dosage, molar ratio methanol:oil and incorporation of oleic acid (OA) in WCO to simulate an oil with high acidity) for the esterification reaction of waste cooking oil with methanol The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and FEDER under Programme PT2020 for financial support to CIMO (UIDB/0690/2020). info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

In referring to the fashion system or business, we can address to a wide variety of approaches. On an economical and business analysis, fashion can be defined as a cycle that allows to some mature industries, such as clothing, footwear or even cars, to be dynamic and maintain certain profitability over the time. While our attention tends to focus solely on the finished products, we must understand that these are the result of a long chain of stages, activities and technologies whose interaction is largely responsible for the product’s success on the market. Sustainability arises as a main vector of differentiation for fashion brands in today’s world context. In a fast moving industry such as fashion, sustainability is a concept for designers to explore, breaking the grounds for the environmental impact of the production supply, considerations of end uses or the lifecycle of the product. One of the challenges that we can present to fashion brands nowadays is to deliver a blend of both sustainability and elegance in fashion. In an era dominated by economic and financial crises, how can fashion brands coop with this new reality and enhance their differentiation vectors in order to succeed? This paper intends to explore the sustainable business model and strategy for fashion brands towards a more responsible branding, facing the challenges that the new world places upon them. Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

This section analyzes how climate change awareness and political initiatives evolved over the past decades and what role Carbon Credit Card Services (CCCS) play among current decarbonizing initiatives. To answer these questions, factors causing climate change and resulting consequences from an ecological, societal and economic perspective were identified. The study shows the need for climate change mitigation initiatives on three layers: governments, corporations and consumers. The results reveal that among the corporate side, the financial sector plays a significant role in the transition to carbon-neutrality. The specific impact of Carbon Credit Card Services will be further investigated within a thought experiment in the following sections.

The objective of the WADI project is to analyse the sustainability of irrigated agriculture in Europe in the context of post Agenda 2000 agricultural policies and in the context of the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive. The approach followed to evaluate the sustainability of irrigation integrates the concepts of environmental sustainability and economic and social sustainability. This work analyses the implications that the Water Framework Directive (WFD) may have on three major irrigation regions of Portugal – Baixo Alentejo, Lezíria do Tejo and Baixo Mondego– when a volumetric tariff is applied to irrigation water under different policy scenarios. The first sections provide a general description of the main features of agriculture and irrigated agriculture in Portugal; describes the selected study regions and characterizes some typologies within these regions; and explains the methodology used in this study. Later on the impacts of policy change, particularly concerning prospective future scenarios and the impact caused by WFD implementation via a volumetric tariff, are presented at a regionally aggregated level.

The building sector is one of the Europeâ s main energy consumer, making buildings an important target for a wiser energy use, improving indoor comfort conditions and reducing the energy consumption. To achieve the European Union targets for energy consumption and carbon reductions it is crucial to act in new, but also in existing buildings, which constitute the majority of the building stock. In existing buildings, the significant improvement of their efficiency requires important investments. Therefore, costs are a major concern in the decision making process and the analysis of the cost effectiveness of the interventions is an important path in the guidance for the selection of the different renovation scenarios. The Portuguese thermal legislation considers the simple payback method for the calculations of the time for the return of the investment. However, this method does not take into consideration inflation, cash flows and cost of capital, as well as the future costs of energy and the building elements lifetime as it happens in a life cycle cost analysis. In order to understand the impact of the economic analysis method used in the choice of the renovation measures, a case study has been analysed using simple payback calculations and life cycle costs analysis. Overall results show that less far-reaching renovation measures are indicated when using the simple payback calculations which may be leading to solutions less cost-effective in a long run perspective.