Search results for "environmental sustainability"
showing 10 items of 65 documents
Microbiological characteristics of compost produced from dairy and wine by-products
2019
Wine and dairy chains rapresent of the agri-foof leading sectors in Sicily. Composting residues from these two chains would contribute to increase the environmental sustainability of the production with additional advantages represented by the reduction the costs recover soil fertility. This work represents the first attempt to combine the green of the vine cultivation as well as wine and dairy by-products. Raw materials provided potential bioactivators identified as Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus velezensis and Kocuria rhizophila which showed cellulolytic activity. The strain were inocultated in the mass to be composted in order to accelerate the process. Four compost trials were performed: (…
Entrepreneurial strategies of Etna wine farms
2014
Viticulture, as well as agriculture in general, performs an environmental and landscaping function and it encourages rural development through the creation of income and job opportunities in the areas where wine is produced. The wine sector, in fact, is of great social and economic importance within the Sicilian agriculture and food industry, because of the job opportunities it provides and due to Sicilian pedoclimatic peculiarities, variety of grape wines cultivars and production process. The present study aims at assessing the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises that cultivate wine grapes in the Etna area. In particular, it has been examined a sample of wine farms that p…
Design ed eco-sostenibilità: le fibre vegetali in Sicilia tra tradizione ed innovazione
2012
Il dibattito sulla questione ambientale, sorto tra gli anni ‘60 e ‘70 del secolo scorso, con la formazione delle prime associazioni ambientaliste, ebbe come nodo centrale il rapporto tra economia e ambiente, nella sempre più evidente necessità di preservare la qualità del patrimonio naturale e nella consapevolezza che, essendo le risorse del pianeta tendenzialmente esauribili, dovessero essere rivisti ed equilibrati i modelli di sviluppo. Gli oggetti, secondo la lezione di Bruno Latour, simboleggiano stili di vita che comprendono al loro interno processi comunicativi e riguardano in ogni caso la sfera dell’informazione, dell’interazione, del ricordo e anche del desiderio. L’omologazione del…
The Landfilling of Municipal Solid Waste and the Sustainability of the Related Transportation Activities
2022
The management of municipal solid waste is a crucial issue to address as we move toward the decarbonization of urban contexts. Not by chance, this sector plays a relevant role in the Covenant of Mayors program, whereby municipalities are called to design their own Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SECAPs). However, despite new regulations strongly pushing the recycling and reuse of materials contained in municipal waste, many cities still use large landfills. As part of the overall environmental pressure exerted by these urban systems, the transport of waste from collection points to landfills or treatment facilities must be considered in order to correctly assess the full environmental burd…
Measuring the Economic, Environmental, and Social Sustainability of Short Food Supply Chains
2019
The production and distribution of food are among the hot topics debated in the context of sustainable development. Short food supply chains (SFSCs) are now widely believed to be more sustainable in comparison to mass food delivery systems. To date, very little quantitative evidence exists on the impacts of various types of food supply chains. Using a cross-sectional quantitative approach, this study assesses the sustainability of distribution channels in short and long food supply chains based on 208 food producers across seven countries: France, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam. Ten distribution channel types are used in this study. To provide a comprehensiv…
Development of sustainable ORC applications in the tertiary sector: a case study in the Mediterranean climate
2022
Abstract In recent decades, climate change strong advancement has led many countries, especially the most developed ones, to a greater sense of environmental responsibility. On a global, European and national level, adaptation/mitigation strategies and actions aimed at improving energy-environmental sustainability and resilience in the tertiary sectors have been increasingly intensified. In this sector, therefore, plays a fundamental role the integration/introduction of technologies able to operate an efficient conversion of energy, such as indeed Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) plant, other than renewable energy sources, in order to reduce both energy consumption and pollutant emissions. Withi…
Increasing the Circularity of asphalt mixtures: Integrated Sustainability and Circularity Assessment as a progress monitoring tool towards more Circu…
2021
Sustainability and Circular Economy (CE) are two concepts that lately have been profoundly linked to each other. The road engineering industry has gradually been adapting practices that are considered both circular and sustainable. However, not all of these practices entirely consider the whole life environmental and circularity assessment and implications of asphalt mixtures.; which in turn leads to doubtfully circular and sustainable approaches. For this reason in this thesis, after analysing the ways that National Road Authorities implement and communicate CE through questionnaires and web searches, a Material Circularity Index quantifying framework, based on the proposed methodology of …
Towards bioeconomy : a three-phase Delphi study on forest biorefinery diffusion in Scandinavia and North America
2012
Determinants of Immigration in Europe. The Relevance of Life Expectancy and Environmental Sustainability
2017
This research analyzes the main variables that determine immigration in Europe and includes aspects related to the economy, population, healthcare, and environmental sustainability. The empirical analysis consists of two sets of data: one made up of all EU member states (EU-28) and the other containing countries that form a part of the Eurozone (EU-19), using the Generalized Method of Moments. The sample covers the period between 2000 and 2014, and the data are analyzed separately and comparatively in the most relevant stages during that time (economic prosperity, crisis, and recovery). The most notable results indicate that the variables related to GDP and public debt largely serve to just…
Riqualificazione e sostenibilità - L’involucro verde come campo privilegiato di sperimentazione tecnologica.
2015
The study of the housing green for the redevelopment of the buildings along with the testing of innovative products for the realization of vertical gardens and the design of guidelines for the construction and environmental transformation of the waterfront of Marina Todaro of Palma di Montechiaro "act as instruments to define the possible prospects to Palma di Montechiaro can apply for green city of the Province of Agrigento, exploring scenarios still little practiced in this context and in the short and medium term can be attributed character priority ". The originality of this research is also experienced in site participatory approach with the participation of the inhabitants, considered…