Showing papers on "Environmental impact assessment published in 2016"

Crop protection and environmental health: legacy management and new concepts

Abstract: This the Editorial of the special issue of the journal "Environmental Science and Pollution Research" dedicated to the annual congress of the French Group on Pesticide (GFP with its initials in French) that was held in Martinique in May 2014.

Environmental impacts of food consumption and nutrition: where are we and what is next?

Abstract: This article introduces the special issue “LCA of nutrition and food consumption” and 14 papers selected from the Ninth LCA Food Conference in San Francisco in October 2014. The scientific literature in the field of food LCA has increased more than ten times during the last 15 years. Nutrition has a high contribution to the total environmental impacts of consumption. Agricultural production often dominates the impacts, but its importance depends on the type of product, its production mode, transport, and processing. Local or domestic products reduce transports, but this advantage can be lost if the impacts of the raw material production are substantially increased. Diets containing less meat tend to be more environmentally friendly. Several studies concluded that respecting the dietary recommendations for a healthy diet would reduce the overall environmental impacts in the developed countries, although this is not a universal conclusion. Eight papers analyze the environmental impacts of catering and in-house food consumption and impacts on sectoral and national levels; four papers presents tools and methods to better assess the impacts of nutrition and to implement the results in practical decision-making. Finally, two contributions analyze the impacts of food waste and reduction options. (i) Comprehensive assessment. Most studies only analyze climate impacts, although data, methods, and tools are readily available for a more comprehensive analysis. (ii) Assessment of sustainability. The social dimension remains the weakest pillar. (iii) Data availability is still an obstacle, but significant progress has been made in recent years. (iv) Lack of harmonization of methodologies makes comparisons among studies difficult. (v) Land use. Enhanced consideration of land use impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services is required in LCA. (vi) Defining the functional unit including nutritional aspects, food security, and health needs further work. (vii) Consumer behavior. Its impacts are still little assessed. (viii) Communication of the environmental impact assessment results to stakeholders including policy-makers and consumers needs additional efforts. (i) Development of holistic approaches for the assessment of sustainable food systems, (ii) assessment of land use related impacts and inclusion of ecosystem services, (iii) exploration of LCA results for policy support and decision-making, (iv) investigation of food consumption patterns in developing and emerging countries, and (v) harmonization of databases.

Brazilian politics threaten environmental policies

Abstract: The tumultuous political situation in Brazil carries risks for the environment in the most biologically diverse country in the world, home to the world's largest tropical forests and rivers. Among the threats is a proposed one-sentence constitutional amendment (PEC-65) that would revoke 40 years of progress in building a licensing system to evaluate and mitigate environmental impacts of development projects ( 1 ). Under PEC-65, the mere submission of an environmental impact assessment (EIA), regardless of its content, would allow any project to go unstoppably forward to completion. The scientific community contributed greatly to Brazil's environmental licensing system and now must redouble its efforts to communicate its importance.

Impact of Environmental Performance on Firm Value for Sustainable Investment: Evidence from Large US Firms

Abstract: This research examines the impact of environmental performance on firm value, applying the event study methodology to Newsweek’s ‘Green Rankings’ announcement of 2012 for large US firms. Specifically, it analyzes the impact of the absolute green score and green rank of firms on their performance in the stock market. We found that investors perceive the announcement as positive news, leading to significant positive standardized cumulative abnormal returns (SCARs). After controlling for industry- and firm-specific effects, we observed that firms with repeated green rankings for enhancing environmental performance showed significantly higher SCARs than those with either reduced or unchanged environmental performance. In addition, the environmental impact score measuring environmental damage from a firm's operational activities was found to be the most influential factor in improving the firm's value. Our findings are beneficial to managers in allocating resources to different types of environmental initiative, and provide valuable insight for sustainable environmental investment. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

On the impact of collaborative strategies for goods delivery in city logistics

Abstract: City logistics refers to the process of total optimisation of the logistics and transport activities in urban areas while considering economic, environmental, social and safety aspects. This paper considers a collaborative scenario for the urban goods transport planning and management as a way to reduce transport costs, congestion and environmental impact of this activity. An approach from the Operations Management field, using mathematical modelling, for tactical and operational decision-making is proposed to discuss and compare both collaborative and non-collaborative scenarios. This approach is validated using real data taken from the city of Bogota, Colombia. Results put in evidence the quantitative benefits that can be achieved when collaborative logistics operations are implemented, represented in both transportation costs and environmental impacts. Although these results might not be surprising (like in the field of supply chain management), the contribution of this paper is centred in the ...

Green finance for sustainable green economic growth in India

Abstract: Green fi nance is a core part of the low carbon green growth, because it connects the fi nancial industry, environmental improvement an d economic growth. Th e objective of this paper is to study the green fi nance and to validate the concept as feasible in the Indian industries for balancing the ecological depreciation due to the assimilation of carbon gases in atmosphere. Green Finance is a market-based investing or lending program that factors environmental impact into risk assessment, or utilizing environmental incentives to drive business decisions. Th erefore, the paper also discusses the recent trends and the future opportunities and challenges in green fi nance in the emerging India. Green investing recognizes the value of the environment and its natural capital and also seeks to improve the human well-being and social equity while reducing environmental risks and improving the ecological integrity.

Linking Corporate Policy and Supervisory Support with Environmental Citizenship Behaviors: The Role of Employee Environmental Beliefs and Commitment

Abstract: This study investigates the social–psychological mechanisms leading individuals in organizations to engage in environmental citizenship behaviors, which entail keeping abreast of, and participating in, the environmental affairs of a company. Informed by the corporate greening and organizational behavior literature, we suggested that an employee’s level of involvement in the management of a company’s environmental impact was the overt manifestation of his or her discretionary sense of commitment to environmental concerns in the work context, and that such commitment developed through the interplay of individual, organizational, and supervisory factors. Our general findings support the idea that when environmental protection is valued and encouraged by the company and line managers, organization members are more likely to experience a volitional sense of attachment and responsibility to corporate environmental goals and values, which is enacted through citizenship behaviors. We also expected that individual ecological beliefs would strengthen the environmental commitment of employees via identification with, and adherence to, the socially responsible cause embodied by the organization and its managerial staff. But it did not. On the contrary, the data indicated that corporate environmental policy is more likely to influence an employee’s level of environmental commitment when he or she holds weak versus strong personal ecological beliefs. Theoretical and managerial implications of our findings are discussed.

Environmental impact studies in coalfields in India: A case study from Jharia coal-field

Abstract: Coal is the major fossil fuel used for power generation in India. For producing more and more coal, mining activities are increasing day by day. Coal mining activities lead to environmental changes to a large extent such as degradation in quality of air, water, soil, changes in landform, land use/land cover and vegetation distribution. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is therefore important to study the nature and impact of mining activities on the environment. The present study includes a review of the environmental impact studies done on various specific aspects in India, which involve methodologies of field-site investigation, laboratory analysis and satellite data processing. The study could be broadly divided into two parts. Firstly, taking Jharia coal-field as a case study, the parameters/criteria affecting the environment have been identified. The parameters that are the most affected due to mining are air, water, soil, agricultural land, vegetation and, topography. Later, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) has been used for prioritizing of these parameters/criteria to carry out EIA in Jharia coal-field. Upon analysis, air has been found to be the most affected followed by water, soil, vegetation, agricultural land and topography. Moreover, the alternatives for each parameter/criterion have also been prioritized. The proposed methodology will help in deriving relationships based on field, laboratory and satellite data analysis. Once these relationships are derived, steps could be taken by policy makers for modification of the existing mine policies and incorporating the new measures in future mine planning so as to reduce the impact of coal mining on the environment.

The generic impact scoring system (GISS): a standardized tool to quantify the impacts of alien species.

Abstract: Alien species can exert negative environmental and socio-economic impacts. Therefore, administrations from different sectors are trying to prevent further introductions, stop the spread of established species, and apply or develop programs to mitigate their impact, to contain the most harmful species, or to eradicate them if possible. Often it is not clear which of the numerous alien species are most important in terms of damage, and therefore, impact scoring systems have been developed to allow a comparison and thus prioritization of species. Here, we present the generic impact scoring system (GISS), which relies on published evidence of environmental and socio-economic impact of alien species. We developed a system of 12 impact categories, for environmental and socio-economic impact, comprising all kinds of impacts that an alien species may exert. In each category, the intensity of impact is quantified by a six-level scale ranging from 0 (no impact detectable) to 5 (the highest impact possible). Such an approach, where impacts are grouped based on mechanisms for environmental impacts and receiving sectors for socio-economy, allows for cross-taxa comparisons and prioritization of the most damaging species. The GISS is simple and transparent, can be conducted with limited funds, and can be applied to a large number of alien species across taxa and environments. Meanwhile, the system was applied to 349 alien animal and plant species. In a comparison with 22 other impact assessment methods, the combination of environmental and socio-economic impact, as well as the possibility of weighting and ranking of the scoring results make GISS the most broadly applicable system.

Expanding the concept of sustainable seafood using Life Cycle Assessment

Abstract: Fisheries management and sustainability assessment of fisheries more generally have recently expanded their scope from single-species stock assessment to ecosystem-based approaches, aiming to incorporate economic, social and local environmental impacts, while still excluding global-scale environmental impacts. In parallel, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has emerged as a widely used and recommended framework to assess environmental impacts of products, including global scale impacts. For over a decade, LCA has been applied to seafood supply chains, leading to new insights into the environmental impact of seafood products. We present insights from seafood LCA research with particular focus on evaluating fisheries management, which strongly influences the environmental impact of seafood products. Further, we suggest tangible ways in which LCA could be taken up in management. By identifying trade-offs, LCA can be a useful decision support tool and avoids problem shifting from one concern (or activity) to another. The integrated, product-based and quantitative perspective brought by LCA could complement existing tools. One example is to follow up fuel use of fishing, as the production and combustion of fuel used dominates overall results for various types of environmental impacts of seafood products, and is also often linked to biological impacts of fishing. Reducing the fuel use of fisheries is therefore effective to reduce overall impacts. Allocating fishing rights based on environmental performance could likewise facilitate the transition to low-impact fisheries. Taking these steps in an open dialogue between fishers, managers, industry, NGOs and consumers would enable more targeted progress towards sustainable fisheries.

How Does Scale of Implementation Impact the Environmental Sustainability of Wastewater Treatment Integrated with Resource Recovery

Abstract: Energy and resource consumptions required to treat and transport wastewater have led to efforts to improve the environmental sustainability of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Resource recovery can reduce the environmental impact of these systems; however, limited research has considered how the scale of implementation impacts the sustainability of WWTPs integrated with resource recovery. Accordingly, this research uses life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate how the scale of implementation impacts the environmental sustainability of wastewater treatment integrated with water reuse, energy recovery, and nutrient recycling. Three systems were selected: a septic tank with aerobic treatment at the household scale, an advanced water reclamation facility at the community scale, and an advanced water reclamation facility at the city scale. Three sustainability indicators were considered: embodied energy, carbon footprint, and eutrophication potential. This study determined that as with economies of scale, there are benefits to centralization of WWTPs with resource recovery in terms of embodied energy and carbon footprint; however, the community scale was shown to have the lowest eutrophication potential. Additionally, technology selection, nutrient control practices, system layout, and topographical conditions may have a larger impact on environmental sustainability than the implementation scale in some cases.

Environmental impacts of food trade via resource use and greenhouse gas emissions

Abstract: Agriculture will need to significantly intensify in the next decades to continue providing essential nutritive food to a growing global population. However, it can have harmful environmental impacts, due to the use of natural and synthetic resources and the emission of greenhouse gases, which alter the water, carbon and nitrogen cycles, and threaten the fertility, health and biodiversity of landscapes. Because of the spatial heterogeneity of resource productivity, farming practices, climate, and land and water availability, the environmental impact of producing food is highly dependent on its origin. For this reason, food trade can either increase or reduce the overall environmental impacts of agriculture, depending on whether or not the impact is greater in the exporting region. Here, we review current scientific understanding of the environmental impacts of food trade, focusing on water and land use, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. In the case of water, these impacts are mainly beneficial. However, in the cases of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, this conclusion is not as clear. Overall, there is an urgent need for a more comprehensive, integrated approach to estimate the global impacts of food trade on the environment. Second, research is needed to improve the evaluation of some key aspects of the relative value of each resource depending on the local and regional biophysical and socio–economic context. Finally, to enhance the impact of such evaluations and their applicability in decision-making, scenario analyses and accounting of key issues like deforestation and groundwater exhaustion will be required.

Regional probabilistic risk assessment of heavy metals in different environmental media and land uses: An urbanization-affected drinking water supply area

Abstract: In this study, we proposed a Regional Probabilistic Risk Assessment (RPRA) to estimate the health risks of exposing residents to heavy metals in different environmental media and land uses. The mean and ranges of heavy metal concentrations were measured in water, sediments, soil profiles and surface soils under four land uses along the Shunde Waterway, a drinking water supply area in China. Hazard quotients (HQs) were estimated for various exposure routes and heavy metal species. Riverbank vegetable plots and private vegetable plots had 95th percentiles of total HQs greater than 3 and 1, respectively, indicating high risks of cultivation on the flooded riverbank. Vegetable uptake and leaching to groundwater were the two transfer routes of soil metals causing high health risks. Exposure risks during outdoor recreation, farming and swimming along the Shunde Waterway are theoretically safe. Arsenic and cadmium were identified as the priority pollutants that contribute the most risk among the heavy metals. Sensitivity analysis showed that the exposure route, variations in exposure parameters, mobility of heavy metals in soil, and metal concentrations all influenced the risk estimates.