Domestic batteries and the environment: a life-cycle approach to consumer electronic products

Author(s):  
A. Faria de Almeida
2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaojun WANG ◽  
Hing Kai CHAN ◽  
Carman K. M. LEE ◽  
Dong LI

Designing environmentally friendly products has become a tighter requirement in the marketplace because of both the increasing trend in awareness of consumers and the obligations from legislation requirements. Unfortunately, this is not a straight forward decision for designers to evaluate whether their design options are satisfactory in terms of balancing various factors (for examples, different forms of environmental assessment) or not. This is partly attributed to the fact that there is no universally accepted approach for conducting such analysis. In this connection, this research makes reference to a European Union (EU) directive as a reference model and makes use of Analytic Hierarchical Process (AHP), which is a useful tool to help designers to make decision, for evaluating eco-design options. The AHP model is developed based on two case studies on consumer electronic products. Pairwise comparisons, one of the key steps in AHP, are conducted with the expertise gained from the case studies and the help from the software package Expert Choice. The paper also reveals how design options can be evaluated, or be screened out. The proposed method does not require the designers to conduct detailed analysis (life-cycle assessment for example) for every new product options and hence can save their time. This is particularly important when they are facing shorter and shorter product life cycle nowadays.


2017 ◽  
Vol 580 ◽  
pp. 147-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Garcia-Herrero ◽  
María Margallo ◽  
Raquel Onandía ◽  
Rubén Aldaco ◽  
Angel Irabien

Author(s):  
Ajay Babu Pazhayattil ◽  
Naheed Sayeed-Desta ◽  
Emilija Fredro-Kumbaradzi ◽  
Jordan Collins

Author(s):  
Kent Lien

As part of its mandate, the National Energy Board (NEB) regulates the construction, operation, and abandonment of interprovincial and international pipelines. The primary legislation which directly and indirectly addresses reclamation of NEB lines are the National Energy Board Act and the associated Onshore Pipeline Regulations, 1999, and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. The NEB uses a life cycle approach to pursue appropriate reclamation of disturbed rights of way. Initially, reclamation related issues are addressed at the application stage. Subsequent to the application process, the actual implementation of reclamation measures occurs during construction of the line. Success of reclamation is monitored during the operational life of a line through inspection and auditing procedures, with additional measures being implemented as necessary.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4886
Author(s):  
Katia Perini ◽  
Fabio Magrassi ◽  
Andrea Giachetta ◽  
Luca Moreschi ◽  
Michela Gallo ◽  
...  

Urban greening provides a wide range of ecosystem services to address the main challenges of urban areas, e.g., carbon sequestration, evapotranspiration and shade, thermal insulation, and pollution control. This study evaluates the environmental sustainability of a vertical greening system (VGS) built in 2014 in Italy, for which extensive monitoring activities were implemented. The life-cycle assessment methodology was applied to quantify the water–energy–climate nexus of the VGS for 1 m2 of the building’s wall surface. Six different scenarios were modelled according to three different end-of-life scenarios and two different useful lifetime scenarios (10 and 25 years). The environmental impact of global-warming potential and generated energy consumption during the use phase in the VGS scenarios were reduced by 56% in relation to the baseline scenario (wall without VGS), and showed improved environmental performance throughout the complete life cycle. However, the water-scarcity index (WSI) of the VGS scenarios increased by 42%. This study confirms that the installation of VGSs offers a relevant environmental benefit in terms of greenhouse-gas emissions and energy consumption; however, increased water consumption in the use phase may limit the large-scale application of VGSs.


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