Cleaner Environmental Systems最新文献

{"title":"Trade-offs in technical and environmental performance of water utilities: Insights focused on water-energy-carbon nexus","authors":"Alexandros Maziotis ,&nbsp;Ramón Sala-Garrido ,&nbsp;Manuel Mocholi-Arce ,&nbsp;Maria Molinos-Senante","doi":"10.1016/j.cesys.2025.100300","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cesys.2025.100300","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Within the water-energy-carbon nexus, understanding the trade-offs among resource use, drinking water delivery, and greenhouse gas emissions is essential for ensuring the sustainable provision of drinking water. Addressing this challenge, this study estimates four performance indices—technical efficiency, ecological efficiency, process environmental quality efficiency, and overall efficiency —using a unified framework based on Data Envelopment Analysis. The analysis was conducted under two scenarios, reflecting water companies’ prioritization of production and environmental dimensions. The empirical application, performed on a sample of English and Welsh water companies, revealed that water companies focused on technical efficiency, achieving average scores of 0.648 and 0.798 under environmental and production prioritization scenarios, respectively. In contrast, process environmental quality and ecological efficiency metrics were considerably lower, with average values of 0.179 and 0.129 for the environmental scenario and 0.153 and 0.131 for the production scenario. The temporal evolution of these performance indices highlights a trade-off between technical efficiency and performance indices integrating carbon emissions under the environmental prioritization scenario.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":34616,"journal":{"name":"Cleaner Environmental Systems","volume":"18 ","pages":"Article 100300"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144623357","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Enhancing and monitoring the environmental performance of complex industrial projects: a communication-based approach","authors":"Joseph Mansour Salamé ,&nbsp;Isabelle Nicolaï ,&nbsp;Michael Saidani ,&nbsp;Yann Leroy","doi":"10.1016/j.cesys.2025.100295","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cesys.2025.100295","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Monitoring the environmental performance of projects depends on effective information sharing and indicators that enable stakeholders to track and drive environmental decisions throughout project phases. Several environmental frameworks, assessment tools, methodologies, and standards can guide the definition of these performance indicators. However, it is not always easy for industrial actors to understand, use, or adapt the existing assessment tools to match their business and projects. Additionally, selecting indicators for complex industrial projects is more challenging due to the multiplicity of stakeholders involved, each with different roles, and often lacking effective structured communication.</div><div>This article proposes a communication-based approach for selecting environmental performance indicators appropriate to complex industrial projects. This method utilizes Lasswell's communication model to assign stakeholders the roles of indicators' providers, receivers, and experts based on defined objectives. Lasswell's model bolsters existing assessment frameworks by incorporating the sharing aspect among stakeholders that they lack.</div><div>The proposed method is used to select environmental performance indicators for monitoring rail infrastructure projects. These projects are inherently complex, involving multiple stakeholders with significant technical expertise across several long project phases.</div><div>By using this method, the resulting indicators not only reflect scientific soundness but also incorporate the knowledge and interests of all stakeholders involved. A key feature of this approach is the recognition that selecting environmental indicators is a ‘collaborative challenge’. This challenge can only be addressed through structured information exchange, allowing for a transition from environmental diagnosis to environmental monitoring of complex projects.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":34616,"journal":{"name":"Cleaner Environmental Systems","volume":"18 ","pages":"Article 100295"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144588818","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dynamic vs real time life cycle assessment","authors":"Antonia Vyrkou ,&nbsp;Maria Aryblia ,&nbsp;Nikolaos Savvakis ,&nbsp;Ingrid Nicacio ,&nbsp;Owais Siddique ,&nbsp;George Arampatzis ,&nbsp;Athanasios Angelis-Dimakis","doi":"10.1016/j.cesys.2025.100296","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cesys.2025.100296","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The term “conventional” or “static” Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is used to describe the traditional application of LCA for the environmental impact assessment of a given instance of a system, to differentiate it from the recently developed Dynamic Life Cycle Assessment (DLCA). The latter is defined as monitoring and assessing the environmental performance of a continuously changing system. However, the term “dynamic” has been interpreted differently in various studies, with the temporal aspect of the analysis being satisfied either with the use of timeseries of (historical/predicted) data or with a real-time data collection for the system in question. The focus of this review paper is: (a) to examine the implementation of DLCA by findings common themes, differences and challenges in its application to different sectors, and (b) identify and highlight the differences between dynamic assessment and real-time assessment.</div><div>The review has shown that in the last five years the published literature has grown, with the annual number of articles increasing from less than 30 (between 2015 and 2019) to 62 in 2023. In terms of the traditional LCA steps, the Dynamic Process Inventory is usually populated eiterh (a) with historical data for certain elementary flows and/or (b) using alternative scenarios for selected elementary flows. Dynamic Characterisation is only needed when the time horizon is longer than a decade, while Dynamic Systems had been mostly implemented in correlation with the Building Information Model (BIM). The sectors where DLCA has been predominantly used are: (a) buildings; (b) waste treatment and management; (c) agriculture; and (d) utilities (i.e. energy production and water supply).</div><div>On the contrary, the term “real-time LCA” is rarely used, with only a handful of published papers referring to it, but none of these implemented in a real-life industrial system. Although several studies agree that real-time assessment leads to improved accuracy, better insight to the process and time savings in the analysis, the effort required to implement it and the added value to the industrial plant, does not currently justify its wider implementation. However, in the era of Industry 4.0 and the digitization of industrial plants, there is an opportunity to incorporate the environmental impact assessment in the continuous monitoring of process industries.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":34616,"journal":{"name":"Cleaner Environmental Systems","volume":"18 ","pages":"Article 100296"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144569736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Methodological review of life cycle assessments of carbon capture and utilisation – Does modelling reflect purposes?","authors":"Evelina Nyqvist,&nbsp;Henrikke Baumann,&nbsp;Gulnara Shavalieva,&nbsp;Matty Janssen","doi":"10.1016/j.cesys.2025.100291","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cesys.2025.100291","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Carbon dioxide capture and utilisation (CCU) is considered a climate change mitigation strategy and life cycle assessment (LCA) is often used to assess its decarbonisation potential. The current study investigates the understandability of the LCA studies of CCU systems in this context by reviewing 106 LCA studies of CCU systems on their methodologies. The results show a diversity in LCA studies performed. They studied a range of CCU products created from varying sources of carbon dioxide and had different industrial scopes. The majority of studies compare the climate change impact of the investigated CCU process to the conventional production systems or products. Of the 106 articles, 47 report a reduced and 27 claim a negative impact regardless of the source of captured carbon or the storage time of the CO<span><math><msub><mrow></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msub></math></span> in the product. Half of the reviewed studies did not report the goal with the LCA, and those who stated a goal seldom explained the purpose of the assessment. This made the methodological choices and results of the studies difficult to understand. For more understandable LCA studies of CCU systems, the modelling needs to reflect the purposes of the assessments. This includes considering the time aspects of when and for how long carbon is retained by the studied CCU systems and products. Furthermore, there is a need for improvement in both the reporting of LCA studies and the guidelines, especially regarding the reporting of the goal and how the goal definition phase is connected to the methodological decisions in the LCA study.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":34616,"journal":{"name":"Cleaner Environmental Systems","volume":"18 ","pages":"Article 100291"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144535116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Beyond carbon footprint: practices and tools to implement Circular Economy in Swedish companies","authors":"Mariana Cardoso Chrispim ,&nbsp;Marie Mattsson ,&nbsp;Pia Ulvenblad","doi":"10.1016/j.cesys.2025.100294","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cesys.2025.100294","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Globally, the commitment of companies to Circular Economy (CE) is still limited. Mapping the circular practices performed by companies is a challenging and complex task and few empirical papers have explored CE implementation in companies. Based on interviews and analysis of company reports, we addressed in-depth the implementation of practices, targets, and assessment tools related to CE in ten Swedish companies. Only 10 circular practices out of 21 are implemented in at least 50% of the companies, indicating that the companies have just begun their transition to CE. The most common practices relate to waste reduction and resource efficiency (mainly energy). Barriers to collaboration are competition, keep confidentiality, small company size, lack of interest of other stakeholders, among others. So, there is a potential for increasing collaboration, especially with the municipality. The priority has been emissions reduction targets and the use of climate-focused tools (i.e., carbon footprint) while social aspects and circularity are less explored. We conclude that the monitoring of environmental performance is limited mainly to the use of resources and emissions. The low use of circularity tools is caused mainly by internal barriers such as lack of knowledge and shortage of resources. So, the companies should get more knowledge on CE assessment tools, include social indicators related to circular practices, and set targets for societal impact.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":34616,"journal":{"name":"Cleaner Environmental Systems","volume":"18 ","pages":"Article 100294"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144548370","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sustainability assessment of blood orange production in sicily through the application of the SAFA framework","authors":"Alessandro Scuderi,&nbsp;Gaetano Chinnici,&nbsp;Carla Zarbà,&nbsp;Mariarita Cammarata,&nbsp;Roberta Maria Gravagno","doi":"10.1016/j.cesys.2025.100293","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cesys.2025.100293","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Sicilian blood orange, a Protected Geographical Indication product, represents a significant production sector for the Sicilian territory. In this context, the objective of this paper was to conduct a sustainability assessment comparing the organic and the conventional production systems with the aim to identify their respective strengths and weaknesses. In order to achieve this objective, the <em>Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture systems</em> (SAFA), a framework developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2012 for the evaluation of sustainability across the agri-food value chain, was employed. No notable differences were identified between the organic and conventional production systems, although the organic farms demonstrated a better performance in the environmental dimension. This initial approach to the sustainability assessment of the Sicilian blood orange PGI (<em>Protected Geographical Indication</em>) represents a valuable foundation for promoting Sicilian blood oranges as a high-quality product, associated with the commitment to sustainable production. In evaluating the potential of the SAFA for sustainability assessment, this framework, with its holistic approach, offers a valuable tool for understanding the multifaceted aspects of sustainability. Indeed, this assessment enabled the formulation of recommendations for the enhancement of the overall sustainability performance of the citrus farms. However, the SAFA framework appears too complex to measure the sustainability performances of small and medium-sized farms, particularly with regard to the collection of quantitative data. Accordingly, certain adaptations were always required to more accurately assess this particular context.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":34616,"journal":{"name":"Cleaner Environmental Systems","volume":"18 ","pages":"Article 100293"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144330305","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluating sustainable building strategies: Life cycle comparison of demountable and conventional built-environment structures","authors":"Shoukat Alim Khan ,&nbsp;Hüseyin İlcan ,&nbsp;Oğuzhan Şahin ,&nbsp;Mohammad Jassim ,&nbsp;Ehsan Aminipour ,&nbsp;Şaban Akduman ,&nbsp;Alper Aldemir ,&nbsp;Muammer Koç ,&nbsp;Mustafa Şahmaran","doi":"10.1016/j.cesys.2025.100292","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cesys.2025.100292","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigated the environmental sustainability performance and implications of two different types of building structures: Lego-like demountable and conventional building structures and this assessment encompassed both novel geopolymer-based concrete and ordinary Portland cement-based concrete materials. In the scope of this study, the environmental impact of novel construction and demolition waste (CDW)-based materials and demountable structures was quantified. Environmental implications of novel CDW-based material were unveiled through a comparison between the novel CDW-based geopolymer concrete and traditional cement-based concrete. A comparative analysis was also conducted between demountable and conventional construction systems to identify the hot spot of the developed demountable system process. The study involved modelling and analyzing the production and manufacturing processes through the utilization of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool. The results indicated that the demountable structure using cement-based concrete had more significant environmental implications compared to its counterpart using an equivalent volume of geopolymer concrete. The environmental impact of the building constructed using the fully demountable system was higher than that of the building constructed using the conventional system. However, cyclic use led to undeniable reductions in the overall environmental impact of demountable system. The steel necessary for the fully demountable systems emerged as a significant hotspot, contributing to substantial environmental impacts in all scenarios, primarily due to its energy-intensive production process.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":34616,"journal":{"name":"Cleaner Environmental Systems","volume":"18 ","pages":"Article 100292"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144330304","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Life cycle assessment of clinker and cement production in Spain. Environmental assessment of decarbonisation measures","authors":"Ana María Santos-Montes ,&nbsp;Yolanda González-Arechavala ,&nbsp;Carlos Martin-Sastre ,&nbsp;Léonard Lefranc ,&nbsp;José Ignacio Linares","doi":"10.1016/j.cesys.2025.100290","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cesys.2025.100290","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the environmental impacts of clinker and cement production in Spain, focusing on the effects of current practices and future decarbonisation strategies through a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA). Three scenarios were analysed: the baseline scenario, which uses global statistical data on the production and consumption of raw materials and energy in Spain in 2021, and two future scenarios for 2030 and 2050. The impact of implementing various decarbonisation measures proposed in the Spanish cement sector roadmap was evaluated and analysed in the future scenarios. These measures primarily include substituting fossil fuels with biomass- and waste-derived fuels, improving thermal efficiency, and reducing the clinker-to-cement ratio. The results showed that, in six out of the eleven environmental impact categories assessed, impacts were reduced, while increases were observed in the remaining five categories. Global Warming Potential stands out among the categories with reduced impacts, with reductions of 18 % and 36 % projected for cement production in 2030 and 2050, respectively. On the other hand, the categories that showed increased impacts are mainly associated with the greater use of biomass-derived fuels, suggesting the convenience of further exploring their potential implications on the sector's overall environmental performance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":34616,"journal":{"name":"Cleaner Environmental Systems","volume":"18 ","pages":"Article 100290"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144306982","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Exploring the use of a machine assisted goal and scope in a life cycle studies to understand stakeholder interest and priorities","authors":"Joseph Santhi Pechsiri ,&nbsp;Alexandre Monteiro Souza ,&nbsp;Chaveevan Pechsiri ,&nbsp;Paulus Kapundja Shigwedha ,&nbsp;Uasora Katjouanga ,&nbsp;Benjamin Mapani ,&nbsp;Rosa C. Goodman ,&nbsp;Cecilia Sundberg ,&nbsp;Niclas Ericsson","doi":"10.1016/j.cesys.2025.100288","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cesys.2025.100288","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Goal and scope are essential phases within a life cycle study as they lay the foundation for the subsequent inventory modelling, impact assessment, and interpretation of results. Stakeholder engagement is critical throughout life cycle studies. Addressing diverse stakeholder interests and priorities have so far relied on stakeholder-expert dialogues, which remain challenging, particularly in projects with numerous stakeholders leading to a broad range of environmental, social, and economic impact categories and subcategories. This study therefore introduces a machine-assisted goal and scope approach to manage large volume of stakeholder responses generated in stakeholder-expert dialogues. It is designed to complement current manual stakeholder engagement approaches with semi-automated computer assisted analysis that identifies stakeholder interests, concerns, and prioritises them. We apply Natural Language Processing (NLP) in the goal and scope phase to preprocess stakeholder response documents collected during a life cycle study within a larger EU project. After preprocessing, unsupervised clustering algorithms were used to determine stakeholders’ interests, concerns, and priorities. This innovative use of NLP and clustering was tested on a life cycle study of bioenergy value chains in Namibia (2021–2024). The approach successfully analysed stakeholder responses and identified key impact categories and subcategories on which to focus the assessment. Compared to manual methods, the machine-assisted goal and scope phase improved the level of detail while maintaining the same time frame and resource constraints. The current study serves as a proof of concept and demonstrates how life cycle studies can benefit from a machine-assisted goal and scope approach.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":34616,"journal":{"name":"Cleaner Environmental Systems","volume":"18 ","pages":"Article 100288"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144501443","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mind the method! A systematic literature review of the methodological choices used to assess the environmental impacts of diets","authors":"Yanne Goossens,&nbsp;Thomas G. Schmidt","doi":"10.1016/j.cesys.2025.100289","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cesys.2025.100289","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Our food system is a major driver of environmental impacts, and a large proportion of these impacts are due to animal-based foods and food loss and waste. In recent years, many studies have been published looking at the environmental impact of our diets, often in the context of a shift towards a Planetary Health Diet or other environmentally friendly diets. Each study hereby relies on a number of methodological decisions that affect the calculations. We systematically reviewed the methodological decisions made for assessing the environmental performance of diets in literature. We searched the Web of Science database and identified 301 relevant studies published between 1992 and 2022. The aim was to analyse the comparability of methodological approaches, not to evaluate results of individual studies. The review highlights methodological challenges, as many different methodological choices can be made, not all of which can be correct and can often lead to over- or underestimation of the calculated impacts. For example, half of the studies considered only one environmental concern, mostly climate change, and only a third of the assessments considered all life cycle stages. We also found a lack of transparency, particularly when it comes to how food loss and waste are taken into account. Unless we get our methodologies right and aligned, we risk not measuring the right things and masking trade-offs between impacts in impact categories or life cycle stages. We therefore call for greater transparency and a more standardised and holistic assessment of the environmental performance of diets.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":34616,"journal":{"name":"Cleaner Environmental Systems","volume":"18 ","pages":"Article 100289"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2025-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144231901","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}