A Life-Cycle Approach to Characterizing Environmental Impact of Logistics Equipment in Container Ports: An Example of Yard Trucks

2013 ◽  
pp. 135-145
Author(s):  
Nenad Zrnić ◽  
Andrija Vujičić
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Life Cycle Approach ◽  
Container Ports

scholarly journals Development of an Approach to Assess the Life Cycle Environmental Impacts and Costs of General Hospitals through the Analysis of a Belgian Case

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 856 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milena Stevanovic ◽  
Karen Allacker ◽  
Stéphane Vermeulen
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Life Cycle Approach ◽  
Healthcare Facilities ◽  
Financial Costs ◽  
Electricity Use ◽  
Hospital Building ◽  
Financial Impacts

With the aim of moving towards a more sustainable society, hospital buildings are challenged to decrease their environmental impact while continuing to offer affordable and qualitative medical care. The aim of this paper was to gain insight into the main drivers of the environmental impacts and costs of healthcare facilities, and to identify methodological obstacles for a quantitative assessment. More specifically, the objective was to assess the environmental and financial impacts of the general hospital Sint Maarten in Mechelen (Belgium) by using a life cycle approach. The hospital building was analyzed based on a combination of a simplified life cycle assessment and life cycle costing. The “MMG+_KULeuven” assessment tool was used for the calculation of environmental impacts and financial costs. The study revealed that the environmental impact was mainly caused by electricity use for appliances and lighting, cleaning processes, material production, and spatial heating, while building construction and electricity use caused the highest financial costs. The most relevant impact categories identified were global warming, eutrophication, acidification, human toxicity (cancer and non-cancer effects), and particulate matter. Various methodological challenges were identified, such as the adaptation of existing methods to ensure applicability to hospital buildings and the extraction of data from a Revit model.

Life Cycle Assessment of Cathode Copper Production

2017 ◽  
Vol 898 ◽  
pp. 2422-2431
Author(s):  
Hao Li ◽  
Xian Zheng Gong ◽  
Zhi Hong Wang ◽  
Yao Li
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Category ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Copper Production ◽  
Life Cycle Approach ◽  
Pyrometallurgical Process ◽  
Environmental Burden ◽  
Cathode Copper

The environmental impact of Chinese cathode copper production was identified and quantified in the context of pyrometallurgy ical and hydrometallurgical method by life cycle approach. Combined with the situation of copper resources in China, the copper ores mining, mineral processing, transportation and smelting sector, were analyzed in detail. The normalization results shows that abiotic depletion is the largest environmental impact in both Pyro-and hydro-metallurgical methods, which were 28.4 kg Sb eq and 32.0 kg Sb eq, respectively. Electrolytic refining is the key process in hydrometallurgical life cycle environmental burden (50.21%), and the mining process contributed the largest environmental impact (17.94%) in pyrometallurgical process. In addition, the total environmental burden of pyrometallurgical process is 1.15 times of hydrometallurgical process. Pyrometallurgical methods has many environmental impact category which were much higher than hydrometallurgical because of the more use of fossil fuels in smelting process. Based on the life cycle assessment results, the key factors to reduce the overall environmental impact for China’s cathode copper production include optimizing the efficiency of copper resource, and clean energy sources for electricity production.

Environmental impact reduction as a new dimension for quality measurement of healthcare services

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (8) ◽  
pp. 910-922 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amin Esmaeili ◽  
Charles McGuire ◽  
Michael Overcash ◽  
Kamran Ali ◽  
Seyed Soltani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Healthcare Services ◽  
Life Cycle Approach ◽  
Imaging Device ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Impact Reduction ◽  
Imaging Department ◽  
Process Energy

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed accounting of energy and materials consumed during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Design/methodology/approach The first and second stages of ISO standard (ISO 14040:2006 and ISO 14044:2006) were followed to develop life cycle inventory (LCI). The LCI data collection took the form of observations, time studies, real-time metered power consumption, review of imaging department scheduling records and review of technical manuals and literature. Findings The carbon footprint of the entire MRI service on a per-patient basis was measured at 22.4 kg CO2eq. The in-hospital energy use (process energy) for performing MRI is 29 kWh per patient for the MRI machine, ancillary devices and light fixtures, while the out-of-hospital energy consumption is approximately 260 percent greater than the process energy, measured at 75 kWh per patient related to fuel for generation and transmission of electricity for the hospital, plus energy to manufacture disposable, consumable and reusable products. The actual MRI and standby energy that produces the MRI images is only about 38 percent of the total life cycle energy. Research limitations/implications The focus on methods and proof-of-concept meant that only one facility and one type of imaging device technology were used to reach the conclusions. Based on the similar studies related to other imaging devices, the provided transparent data can be generalized to other healthcare facilities with few adjustments to utilization ratios, the share of the exam types, and the standby power of the facilities’ imaging devices. Practical implications The transparent detailed life cycle approach allows the data from this study to be used by healthcare administrators to explore the hidden public health impact of the radiology department and to set goals for carbon footprint reductions of healthcare organizations by focusing on alternative imaging modalities. Moreover, the presented approach in quantifying healthcare services’ environmental impact can be replicated to provide measurable data on departmental quality improvement initiatives and to be used in hospitals’ quality management systems. Originality/value No other research has been published on the life cycle assessment of MRI. The share of outside hospital indirect environmental impact of MRI services is a previously undocumented impact of the physician’s order for an internal image.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document