Search Results (1,455)

This study provides a comprehensive quantitative assessment of the carbon footprint of a four-star hotel in Istanbul, Türkiye, spanning the period from 2022 to 2024, to identify critical operational emission drivers. Methodologically grounded in ISO 14064-1 and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the research integrates direct (Scope 1), indirect energy (Scope 2), and selected value-chain (Scope 3) emissions. The operational data underwent rigorous uncertainty and sensitivity analyses, alongside multi-tier benchmarking against global, climatic, and regional datasets. Findings reveal that total emissions increased from 1444.93 tCO₂e in 2022 to 1592.61 tCO₂e in 2024, predominantly driven by grid-connected electricity, which accounted for approximately 47.1% of the total footprint in 2024. Key operational hotspots include the continuous baseload energy demands of mechanical rooms and lifts, fugitive R-404A refrigerant leakage, and Scope 3 impacts from red meat procurement and organic waste. Furthermore, sensitivity analyses confirmed the footprint’s high elasticity to the national grid’s carbon intensity. Despite the facility outperforming benchmarked peers in overall eco-efficiency, the study concludes with actionable, stratified recommendations for facility engineers, hotel operators, and tourism policymakers to overcome technical, supply-chain, and grid-level barriers to decarbonization. Full article

Educational buildings account for approximately 17% of the building sector’s energy consumption, making them critical for zero-emission building (ZEB) strategies. With students spending over 50% of their time indoors, life-cycle carbon assessments and targeted retrofitting are essential for realizing UN sustainability goals on campuses. This study develops a comprehensive life-cycle carbon assessment framework using a Calibrated Building Energy Simulation to simultaneously evaluate embodied and operational carbon emissions in campus facilities. This research evaluates two distinct university buildings for analysis: a historical 1970 educational building in Cosenza, Italy (Mediterranean climate) and a modern 2009 building in Ankara, Türkiye (semi-arid/continental climate). To minimize the total carbon footprint, seven distinct retrofitting scenarios are systematically simulated and compared: adding photovoltaic (PV) panels, integrating solar films on windows, applying internal and external insulations, implementing green wall applications, applying psychological-adaptive HVAC control and decreasing the heating set-point temperature. Results indicate that psychological-adaptive HVAC control is the most effective, achieving approximately 19.3% operational carbon savings across both cases with a low embodied carbon penalty. Conversely, the green wall application was the least effective, with a carbon payback period of 53.55 years. Ultimately, this study provides actionable engineering pathways for transforming campus buildings into net-zero emission educational facilities. Full article

Artificial intelligence (AI) is commonly assessed through the electricity used by models and data centres, leaving the carbon transferred through the wider production system insufficiently resolved. We disaggregate China’s AI industry from the broader information and communication technology sector and construct comparable 31-sector environmentally extended input–output accounts for 2015, 2017, 2020 and 2023. Embodied-emission accounting is integrated with linkage analysis, structural path analysis and structural decomposition analysis to quantify the footprint, locate critical supply-chain pathways and explain temporal change. AI-related embodied CO₂ emissions increased from 140.03 Mt in 2015 to 324.37 Mt in 2023. Indirect emissions reached 187.01 Mt in 2023 and remained higher than direct emissions, while backward linkages consistently exceeded forward linkages. Approximately half of the footprint was concentrated within the first three production tiers, with other ICT, electricity and heat, transport, metals and non-metallic minerals forming the largest short paths. In the current-price SDA, domestic final demand was associated with a 138.82 Mt increase between 2020 and 2023, outweighing the 20.24 Mt reduction from production-structure change. The results recast AI decarbonisation as a systems-governance problem: operational efficiency must be coupled with demand management, low-carbon electricity, hardware circularity and targeted upstream procurement. Full article

Evidence combining energy management and life cycle assessment of diesel-to-CNG substitution under real fleet operation remains limited. The energy and environmental assessments were jointly applied over a common functional unit—the transport of 30 m³ of non-hazardous wastewater per documented service—with an annual reference flow of 82,422 m³·km derived from 38 services (1140 m³; 5905.2 km) in Lima, Peru. A single primary dataset fed both the energy baseline (characteristic monthly consumption of 22,828 ± 1435 MJ month⁻¹; service-level intensities of $2.209\pm 0.257$ vs. $1.237\pm 0.141$ MJ (m³·km)⁻¹, $n=38$, $p<0.001$) and the life cycle inventory, assessed in SimaPro v9.6.0.1 (ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint (H)) under an extended tank-to-wheel boundary with Pedigree–Monte Carlo uncertainty propagation. The transition—fuel substitution combined with Euro V-to-Euro VI platform renewal—reduced energy intensity by 45.3% and direct-combustion GWP₁₀₀ by 61.1%; this integrated effect is not attributable to the fuel change alone. Methane slip contributed 1.3% of the CNG GWP₁₀₀, and only an upstream leakage of 15.5% of the delivered gas would cancel the climate benefit. Tire replacement remained the dominant hotspot (64.5%/51.7%); immediate 30-vehicle fleet conversion would avoid 2530 t CO₂-eq over ten years. Full article

Environmental sustainability of natural and synthetic fibers used in textiles and composites depends on their impacts throughout production, use, and end-of-life (EoL) stages. Natural fibers are renewable and biodegradable but may require substantial water and agricultural inputs, whereas synthetic fibers contribute to fossil resource depletion, microplastic pollution, and persistent waste generation. Natural fibers are often regarded as more sustainable alternatives to synthetic fiber; however, evidence from a life cycle assessment (LCA) reveals a more nuanced reality. As demand for fiber-based materials increases across textile and composite applications, a deeper understanding of the environmental implications of both natural and synthetic options becomes essential. This review compares these fiber categories from a life cycle perspective, examining carbon footprint, energy demands, resource consumption, and EoL pathways. Natural fibers such as cotton, flax, jute, hemp, sisal, banana, coir, and emerging plant-based alternatives offer advantages including biodegradability and carbon sequestration during cultivation. Nevertheless, agricultural practices and subsequent industrial processing require substantial land, water, and chemical inputs. Synthetic fibers, predominantly derived from fossil resources, provide a long service life and consistent performance but are associated with high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, dependence on non-renewable feedstocks, microplastic pollution, and broader environmental impacts. By presenting a comprehensive life cycle-based comparison, this review identifies the conditions under which each fiber type may offer environmental benefits, supporting informed material selection for sustainable development. Full article

As road transport is a major contributor to anthropogenic CO₂ emissions, the importance of sustainable mobility planning and fleet management becomes very clear. Therefore, this article proposes a physics-based mathematical framework for dynamic estimation of CO₂ emissions. The proposed framework is very flexible and enables CO₂ assessment for different types of vehicles (i.e., combustion engine and electric vehicles), traffic and operating conditions. The proposed software prototype is evaluated through representative urban and peri-urban simulation scenarios. These scenarios involve conventional public transport, private vehicles, and demand-responsive ride-hailing services. The simulation results show that vehicle occupancy is one of the main factors impacting specific CO₂ emissions. In this context, in low-passenger-demand and dispersed travel conditions, demand-responsive mobility services can achieve lower emissions per passenger-kilometer than conventional public transport. In contrast, when occupancy levels are sufficiently high, public transport remains the most efficient option. These results indicate that there is no universally optimal transport mode and that emission efficiency is the result of a matching between vehicle capacity and passenger demand. Therefore, the proposed framework delivers a transparent and practical decision-support tool for transport mobility services. Full article

The decarbonisation of the economy has become one of the key challenges of sustainable development and energy transition, particularly in countries with a high dependence on fossil fuels. Although numerous studies evaluate decarbonisation using environmental indicators, relatively little attention has been paid to assessing the organisational maturity of enterprises and the dynamics of their climate transition. This study aims to assess the maturity of decarbonization processes in Polish enterprises using the Polish Economy Decarbonization Index (IDPG). The research is based on secondary analysis of data from four consecutive editions of the IDPG reports covering the years 2023–2025. To extend the analytical potential of the index, the study applies a multidimensional maturity assessment and proposes a two-dimensional decarbonisation maturity matrix combining the current maturity level with the change intensity across seven key dimensions. The results indicate that decarbonisation has become firmly embedded in corporate business strategies, while employee engagement, business environment pressure and carbon footprint management represent mature dimensions of climate transition. In contrast, public institutional support and regulatory requirements are undergoing the most intensive changes, whereas capital expenditures remain the principal barrier limiting the pace of corporate decarbonisation. The main contribution of this study is the development of a two-dimensional analytical framework that combines current maturity and change intensity and enables the identification of transformational leaders, emerging areas, established areas, and dimensions requiring additional support. The study is supplemented with examples of decarbonization initiatives implemented by selected companies in the Polish fuel and energy sector. The case evidence does not demonstrate that the companies participated in the IDPG surveys or represent the entire Polish energy sector. These serve only as illustrative cases demonstrating their activities’ alignment with the IDPG study results. The study contributes to the literature by extending existing decarbonisation assessment approaches beyond emission-based indicators and offering a practical framework for monitoring corporate climate transition. Full article

Globally, beef customers are seeking verified information regarding the carbon footprint (CF) of the products they buy. As a major supplier of premium grass-finished and natural grain beef supplying markets world-wide, JBS Southern Australia developed a certified Farm Assured (FA) program, launched in 2013, to provide quality beef from independently audited suppliers. This study conducted a life cycle assessment (LCA) with ‘cradle to farm gate’ and ‘cradle to processor gate’ boundaries, using two reference flows—(i) one kilogram (kg) of liveweight (LW) at the farm gate, and (ii) one kg of boxed beef at the processor gate—to assess the greenhouse gas (GHG) CF for beef produced in southern Australia. This study is the first to integrate individual animal carcass characteristics with brand level CF analysis at scale. This was achieved by developing a uniquely comprehensive dataset, with primary data supplied by 200 farms and individual animal data provided for 514,922 heads of cattle. The mean farm gate CF was 11.7 (standard deviation 0.4) kg carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂-e) kg⁻¹ LW, and the mean boxed beef CF was 24.1 kg CO₂-e kg⁻¹ boxed beef. The study’s novel approach to data collection allowed for the CF to be stratified by region, carcass characteristics, farm of origin and product brand. Analysis revealed that the lowest farm-average and individual animal CFs were 29% and 48% lower than the supply chain average, respectively. These findings indicate that the CFs of beef produced from grass and natural grain-finished production systems in southern Australia were comparable or lower than the CFs of beef entering similar markets. Full article

Research Highlights: This study quantifies aboveground biomass for Oreopanax oroyanus and Escallonia resinosa in an Andean relict forest and examines their conservation relevance related to the scale of emissions voluntarily reported by small corporate emitters. Background and Objectives: Andean relict forests face severe fragmentation and degradation. This research evaluates carbon stocks in the Bosque de Zárate Reserved Zone (Peru) and explores how these findings may inform climate mitigation and conservation initiatives by examining their potential alignment with emissions voluntarily reported by Peruvian firms participating in a carbon disclosure system. Materials and Methods: A total of 27 plots were evaluated between 3034 and 3200 m a.s.l., tree height and diameter (DBH ≥ 10 cm) were measured for key species, and biomass was estimated using a pantropical allometric equation. Landsat imagery (1985–2025) was analyzed to assess long-term vegetation conditions, while Dynamic World land cover and Sentinel-1 radar (2018–2025) were used to assess forest cover and canopy structure changes. Voluntarily reported emissions of Peruvian firms participating in the “Carbon Footprint Peru” system (2012–2024) were analyzed to contextualize the forest results in the potential corporate interest in climate mitigation in Peru. Results: Total aboveground carbon stock for the altitudinal belt in the study area was 919.4 Mg C (18.6 Mg C ha⁻¹), equivalent to 3374.2 Mg CO₂, with Escallonia resinosa accounting for approximately 71% of the estimated stock. Multi-decadal satellite observations indicated persistent forest cover within the evaluated belt, while analysis of voluntarily reported corporate emissions identified numerous service-sector firms with annual emissions below 100 Mg CO₂ eq, providing context for the potential scale of future conservation-financing initiatives. Conclusions: Relict forests offer relevant localized carbon storage linked to other ecosystem services. Providing field-based carbon data may support the development of locally relevant community-led initiatives meaningful to climate-financing initiatives. However, the existing carbon stock does not by itself represent a source of carbon credits, and carbon capture-specific studies would need to be implemented to fully assess the mitigation capacity of these ecosystems. Full article

Global food systems must balance productivity with environmental sustainability amid climate change, geopolitical shocks, and unevenly distributed natural resources. This study introduces the Food Supply Sustainability Index (FSSI), a transparent, composite measure of the sustainability of a nation’s food production including international trade, and future climate-driven trade dynamics, with a distance-to-target method. Using FAO and IFPRI data, the FSSI categorises countries into five sustainability classes across three pillars: carbon footprint, soil degradation, and water stress. The results show high-income countries produce food less sustainably, while low-income countries do so more sustainably yet are more vulnerable to climate change and trade disruptions. The FSSI therefore recognises that trade redistributes rather than removes environmental risk, creating a more evenly distributed yet persistent global vulnerability to shocks. Under future climate scenarios, the index identifies that sustainability worsens in poorer regions, especially Sub-Saharan Africa, exposing countries to food insecurity. By combining multiple environmental dimensions into a single metric, the FSSI enables countries to benchmark sustainability performance and identify priority areas for intervention. The FSSI supports policies such as aligning imports with sustainability criteria, diversifying suppliers toward lower-impact origins, and supporting sustainable intensification in low-income settings. The FSSI provides a replicable, policy-relevant tool to assess, compare, and communicate global food system sustainability. Full article

Rainfed wheat covers much of the semi-arid Mediterranean, yet its environmental cost is rarely measured at the field scale where management decisions are made. This study assesses the carbon and environmental footprint of rainfed wheat in the Mygdonia Basin, Northern Greece, drawing on a primary dataset of 1385 fields (~976 ha). Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was coupled with Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to link environmental performance with technical efficiency. Carbon footprint ranged from 2030 to 3110 kg CO₂e ha⁻¹, revealing pronounced spatial variability across management systems. Excess nitrogen fertilization emerged as the principal driver of greenhouse gas emissions, acidification, and eutrophication in lowland systems. High-altitude systems showed lower impacts per hectare, an advantage partly offset by higher terrestrial ecotoxicity from increased machinery use. DEA revealed widespread technical inefficiency, most fields scoring between 0.70 and 0.90, with input slacks tracing this to excess nitrogen and seed. The convergence of LCA and DEA findings identifies nitrogen management as the key leverage point for improving environmental and technical performance without compromising productivity. The findings support spatially differentiated interventions under the Common Agricultural Policy, promoting precision nutrient management and conservation-oriented practices to strengthen the resilience of Mediterranean agroecosystems. Full article

Tourism is carbon-intensive, with transport and mobility driving much of its greenhouse-gas emissions, yet destination-level evidence on carbon hotspots and decarbonization from a supply-chain perspective remains scarce, especially in developing regions. This study examines low-carbon tourism supply chain management in seven purposively selected provinces of Northeastern Thailand (Isan) using a qualitative-dominant convergent mixed-methods design that integrates demand- and supply-side evidence. A visitor survey yielded 74 open-ended responses (60 complete questionnaires), alongside seven semi-structured key-informant interviews with tourism supply chain operators across the seven provinces. Quantitative data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, and qualitative data with thematic analysis using qualitative data analysis software, drawing on code-frequency and co-occurrence analysis; the two strands were triangulated in joint displays. Visitors reported moderate satisfaction (grand mean 3.91 on a five-point scale) but rated environmental management and safety lowest, engaging with sustainability through visible service cues rather than emissions. Key informants identified perceived carbon hotspots, carrying capacity, and seasonality as dominant concerns, attributing the destination’s footprint chiefly to transport dependence (informant-reported estimates ranging from approximately 80% to nearly 100% private-car arrivals, amid limited public transport) and accommodation energy; these hotspots reflect stakeholder perceptions rather than measured emissions, as no carbon accounting, environmentally extended input–output analysis, or life-cycle assessment was conducted. Integration revealed a demand–supply perception gap and five proposed, interdependent low-carbon pathways: coordinated mobility, accommodation energy efficiency, strengthened local procurement, carrying-capacity and waste management, and multi-stakeholder governance. The findings offer a developing-region, supply-chain-oriented basis for future tourism decarbonization research and practice. Full article

This study evaluates, from energy, exergy, exergo-sustainability, and environmental perspectives, two combined-cycle configurations based on a supercritical CO₂ Brayton cycle coupled to an ORC: a simple reheat configuration (S-CO₂-ORC) and a recompression-reheat configuration (SRC-CO₂-ORC). Both were assessed under two thermal sources: concentrated solar power (CSP) and a hybrid biomass-CSP source using oil palm residues. Sizing was based on the cooling demand of a 130-home residential complex in Barranquilla, estimated at 152 kW through hourly simulation. The SRC-CO₂-ORC configuration delivered the best energy performance, reaching 138.38 kW and 55.34% with CSP and up to 157.28 kW and 57.66% under hybrid operation. The highest irreversibilities were concentrated in the solar field and receiver, while the thermal sources contributed more than 85% of the total carbon footprint. The lowest life-cycle impact corresponded to the SRC-CO₂-ORC-Solar configuration, at 0.0117 kg CO₂-eq/kWh, against 0.0194 kg CO₂-eq/kWh for the S-CO₂-ORC-Hybrid case. The results confirm the technical feasibility of these configurations for residential applications and reveal a clear trade-off between thermodynamic performance and minimum carbon footprint. Full article

Solar photovoltaic (PV) expansion in fast-growing tropical regions requires engineering-based frameworks that compare deployment pathways in terms of electricity generation, spatial footprint, and economic performance. This study develops a techno-spatial and economic assessment of rooftop versus land-based PV deployment in a biodiversity-sensitive region of the Mexican Caribbean. The novelty lies in linking the technical, spatial, ecological, and financial dimensions of rooftop and land-based PV deployment within a single place-based framework. The framework uses a common annual electricity-output basis and integrates three modules: rooftop PV technical potential estimated from housing-census data and conservative performance assumptions; an equivalent-generation land-based PV counterfactual to estimate spatial footprint and conditional ecological exposure; and a household-scale discounted cash-flow assessment under Mexico’s subsidized residential tariff category 1C and high-consumption residential tariff (DAC, Doméstica de Alto Consumo). Under baseline assumptions, rooftop PV could provide approximately 227 megawatt-peak ($\mathrm{M}{\mathrm{W}}_{\mathrm{p}}$) of installed capacity and 330 gigawatt-hours per year ($\mathrm{G}\mathrm{W}\mathrm{h} {\mathrm{y}\mathrm{r}}^{-1}$) without additional land occupation. Producing the same output through land-based PV would require about 486 hectares ($\mathrm{h}\mathrm{a}$) and, under a forest-overlap scenario, could imply 89,600–95,300 tonnes of carbon dioxide (${\mathrm{t} \mathrm{C}\mathrm{O}}_2$) in potential conversion-related emissions. Rooftop PV showed positive economic performance under both tariffs, with stronger returns under DAC conditions. The study provides a bounded engineering-oriented comparison of PV deployment pathways rather than predictions of siting, land conversion, or adoption. Full article

The environmental management of highly saline coal mine wastewater presents a critical challenge for European mining regions, particularly under the constraints of the EU Water Framework Directive. This study presents a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment of a novel zero liquid discharge (ZLD) system developed under the EU-funded LIFE Brine-Mining project and deployed at the Ziemowit mine in Poland. The system was designed to treat coal mine brine (TDS ~80 g/L) and recover valuable resources, including high-purity water, sodium chloride, magnesium hydroxide, calcium carbonate, and calcium sulphate. The assessment was conducted in accordance with EN 15804 using the Environmental Footprint v3.1 methodology, ecoinvent v3.10, and a functional unit of 1 m³ of saline wastewater inflow, covering all life cycle stages from raw material extraction to end-of-life and resource recovery (Module D). The results indicate a fossil-based global warming potential of 73.86 kg CO₂ eq. per functional unit, with 66% attributed to operational electricity consumption (module B6, 44 kWh/m³) and 29% to auxiliary chemical consumption (module B1). Three key environmental hotspots were identified: module B1 dominates ozone depletion potential (67%), module B6 dominates acidification potential (66%), and raw material extraction (module A1) dominates abiotic depletion of minerals and metals (43%). Resource recovery credits (Module D) offset 11.80 kg CO₂ eq. of GWP-fossil, cause the ADP-minerals and metals indicator to become net negative, and reduce the water deprivation potential by approximately 50%. A sensitivity analysis confirmed that results are robust to ±10% variations in wastewater inflow, with GWP-total varying within a narrow −0.5% to +0.6% range once the volume-proportional nature of chemical and electricity consumption is correctly accounted for. These findings provide a quantitative sustainability baseline for the scale-up and replication of integrated ZLD technologies in the European mining sector, demonstrating that circular brine treatment can simultaneously address regulatory water quality targets, reduce primary resource consumption, and deliver measurable environmental credits aligned with EU circular economy and sustainable development objectives. Full article