Search results for " Sustainable"
showing 10 items of 322 documents
Progress towards sustainable agriculture – Drivers of change
2021
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 calls for global action to “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture”. Meeting this challenge requires global partnerships to support more productive, nutritious and equitable food systems, while helping to conserve environmental resources and reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions responsible for global climate change. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) offers a global vision for a more sustainable agriculture that encompasses economic, social and environmental dimensions of food and agriculture systems. This technical study examines the key factors driving changes in…
Neighborhood resources associated with active travel in older adults: A cohort study in six European Countries
2020
Objectives: To study associations between perceived neighborhood resources and time spent by older adults in active travel. Methods: Respondents in six European countries, aged 65–85 years, reported on the perceived presence of neighborhood resources (parks, places to sit, public transportation, and facilities) with response options “a lot,” “some,” and “not at all.” Daily active travel time (total minutes of transport-related walking and cycling) was self-reported at the baseline (n = 2,695) and 12–18 months later (n = 2,189). Results: Reporting a lot of any of the separate resources (range B’s = 0.19–0.29) and some or a lot for all four resources (B = 0.22, 95% confidence interval [0.09, …
Willingness to Adopt Biochar in Agriculture: The Producer’s Perspective
2017
Most research on biochar has focused either on the mechanistic or the biophysical aspects, and there has been relatively little research into the social applicability and acceptance of biochar as a soil enhancer in agriculture. However, whether to adopt biochar in their practice is ultimately the farmers’ decision, and their willingness to do so is crucial. Here, we show the producer’s perspective on adopting biochar, using Polish farmers as a case study. Poland is an interesting case study because biochar has only recently attracted the attention of researchers, entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders there. We performed standardized, semi-structured interviews with 161 Polish farmers to eva…
STREAMLINING THE BUDGET PROCESS BY PRIORITIZING PUBLIC INVESTMENT PROJECTS
2014
The substantiation of the state budget for 2014 has also considered some measures to improve budget planning activities by prioritizing public investment projects. The prioritizing approach of public investment projects in the budget process is a particularly important and complex one, involving a set of coherent and responsible evaluation, selection and prioritization activities of such projects based on a well defined prioritizing criteria and mechanism. It was started in 2012, unfortunately not as an undertaking of public decision makers in Romania, but as a requirement of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in order to improve the budget process. The reason is the fact that n…
Business model innovation for the SDGs: Towards a performance measurement system
2019
Business model innovation can be a key element for realizing the transformation needed to accomplish the Sustainable Development Goals. However, literature on Sustainable Business Models still lacks quantitative-oriented approaches and tools supporting the implementation and assessment of business model innovations for sustainability. This study proposes an eight-phase performance measurement system supporting organisations in implementing, assessing and managing business model innovations aiming at contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals. The performance measurement system builds upon literature on business model innovation for sustainability, performance measurement and manageme…
A review of sustainable and intensified techniques for extraction of food and natural products
2020
International audience; This review presents innovative extraction techniques and their role in promoting sustainable ingredients forthe food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. These techniques (such as microwave, ultrasound, pulseelectricfield, instant controlled pressure drop, sub- and super-criticalfluid processing, extrusion, mechano-chemistry, high pressure, and ohmic, UV and IR heating) use or produce less solvent, energy, and hazards.This review will provide the necessary theoretical background and some details about green extractiontechniques, their mechanisms, some applications, and environmental impacts. We will pay special attentionto the strategies and present them as succ…
Have information technologies forgotten pedestrians?
2018
Worldwide, pedestrians make up close to half of all motor-vehicle related fatalities but disproportionally little of the research in Information Technologies (IT) in general and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) in particular has aimed at pedestrian safety improvements. This paper analyses and compiles three different ways so that IT and ITS can be used in order to improve mobility and safety of pedestrians in urban spaces: (a) for contacting and/or being localized, (b) for guidance (leading/navigating), (c) for alerting or informing of a danger. The aim is to categorize recent experiences where ITS can improve pedestrians’ mobility and safety so that new ideas based on ITS will be d…
Industrial Areas and the City. Equalization and Compensation in a Value-Oriented Allocation Pattern
2016
This study deals with the allocation of the firms in a large industrial area of Quarto, a town in the Naples’ district subject to a “Piano di Insediamenti Industriali” – PIP (Industrial Settlement Masterplan). The main concern of the Municipality is the fair integration between environmental issues, economic development and urban identity. Therefore a structured evaluation process, based on a survey about the company profiles and their geographical location, has been carried out in order to make the plan meet the needs of the firms, and to select the best companies to settle in the planned area. A “generative” MAVT pattern has been designed to outline several layout options and to select th…
Correlation of wood-based components and dewatering properties of waste activated sludge from pulp and paper industry.
2010
Large amounts of wet sludge are produced annually in municipal and industrial wastewater treatment. Already in pulp and paper industry, more than ten million tons of primary sludge, waste activated sludge, and de-inking sludge is generated. Waste activated sludge contains large quantities of bound water, which is difficult to dewater. Low water content would be a matter of high calorific value in incineration but it also has effects on the volume and the quality of the matter to be handled in sludge disposal. In this research waste activated sludges from different pulp and paper mills were chemically characterised and dewatered. Correlations of chemical composition and dewatering properties…
Reversing agriculture from intensive to sustainable improves soil quality in a semiarid South Italian soil
2010
Intensive agriculture (IA) is widespread in South Italy, although it requires frequent tillage, large amounts of fertilizers and irrigation water. We have assessed the efficacy of reversing IA to sustainable agriculture (SA) in recovering quality of a typical South Italy soil (Lithic Haploxeralf). This reversion, lasting from 2000 to 2007, replaced 75% of nutrients formerly supplied inorganically by farmyard manuring and reduced the tillage frequency. Several chemical and biochemical properties, functionally related to C and N mineralisation–immobilisation processes and to P and S nutrient cycles, were monitored annually from 2005 to 2007 in the spring. Reversing IA to SA decreased soil bul…