Cost-effectiveness of measures for reducing the environmental impact from buses and official cars in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo¨

2000 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Per Kågeson
2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-93
Author(s):  
Scott A. Thompson ◽  
Graham G. Thompson ◽  
Philip C. Withers ◽  
Emma M. Bennett

ABSTRACT Conservation detection dogs have been widely used for finding scats, retreat sites and specific plant and animal species for a variety of purposes, including monitoring, management, biosecurity and eradication programs. Their cost-effectiveness appears well established in finding cryptic and rare animals, yet they are not included in the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions’ published search protocol for bilbies. In this study a human searcher located six of 90 scats (6.7%) compared to the conservation detection dog that located 89 of 90 bilby scats (98.9%). The dog’s time to locate the first scat in a 25m × 25m site with a ground cover of leaves, sticks and grasses was 72.8 sec (± se 8.10, n = 60) and, when a second scat was present, the mean time to locate the second scat was 186.5 sec (± se 186.517, n = 29). We strongly recommend that conservation detection dogs are incorporated into the State government’s search protocol for bilbies, as they are more accurate and faster than human searchers, and provide development proponents with greater confidence in searches undertaken as part of an environmental impact assessment.


2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 65-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.C.F. Ng ◽  
W. Wang

Over the past few decades, there have been an increasing number of attempts to produce materials for fashion creation aiming at cost effectiveness, low environmental impact, labour friendliness and biodegradability. Among them, biotechnology is believed to be one of the finest substitutes for future fashion creation. A study has been carried out to explore the future development of fashion design and the possible applications of materials which can be grown from natural renewable and degradable resources. A pilot test with five design professionals on the comfort of bacterial cellulosic pellicles produced in varied incubation times and broth concentrations was conducted. This paper reports a further investigation of the receptivity to these bacterial cellulosic pellicles as material for future fashion through comparing and evaluating three comfort factors, namely hand comfort, flexibility comfort and breathability comfort, and two appearance factors, namely colour and texture, with 150 subjects using the random sampling method. The optimal favourable pellicle for fashion creation was identified and presented.


Author(s):  
Georgios Pexas ◽  
Stephen G. Mackenzie ◽  
Michael Wallace ◽  
Ilias Kyriazakis

Abstract Purpose The environmental and economic impacts of livestock production systems are typically assessed using global characterisation factors and data, even though several impact categories call for site-specific assessments. Here, we account for spatial variability by addressing potential interactions between geographic locality and the cost-effectiveness of farm investments that aim to reduce system environmental impact, using Danish pig production as a case-in-point. Methods An LCA-based, spatially explicit environmental abatement cost framework was developed to assess the cost-effectiveness of potential environmental abatement strategies. The framework was tested for Danish pig production in a “4 manure management × 4 geographic location” scenario analysis design. In addition to the baseline, the alternative manure management strategies were on-farm anaerobic digestion, slurry acidification and screw press slurry separation, implemented in an integrated pig farming system. The geographic locations differed in their proximity to Natura 2000 areas and in pig farming density. Eight different impact categories were assessed through an LCA using spatially explicit characterisation factors whenever possible, and annualised abatement potential was estimated for each manure management scenario and in each geographic location. We also estimated the financial performance for each scenario, through a discounted cash flow analysis at a whole-farm level. Results and discussion We observed significant interactions between geographic location and system environmental and economic performance under baseline conditions. Significant location effects were also observed for the cost-effectiveness of all manure management strategies tested. Anaerobic digestion was the only “win–win” strategy that increased farm profits while reducing system environmental impact in two of the geographic cases: when implemented in a region of high pig farming density located near Natura 2000 and when implemented in a region of high pig farming density located far from Natura 2000 areas. Slurry acidification and slurry separation achieved sizeable abatement potential for impacts on ecosystem quality but incurred large additional costs in all geographic case studies considered, particularly when arable land was limited near the pig farm. Conclusions Accounting for basic spatial characteristics within an environmental abatement cost framework had significant impact on the cost-effectiveness of on-farm investments for mitigation of system environmental impact. To the best of our knowledge, no studies to date have utilised such spatial characteristics within environmental abatement cost modelling of livestock farming systems. The presented framework has the potential to be further expanded using more detailed spatial, economic and geophysical data, which could ultimately improve decision-making regarding cost-effective investments that aim to improve the sustainability of livestock farming operations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (9) ◽  
pp. 3206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loredano Pollegioni ◽  
Elena Rosini ◽  
Gianluca Molla

In nature, the D-enantiomers of amino acids (D-AAs) are not used for protein synthesis and during evolution acquired specific and relevant physiological functions in different organisms. This is the reason for the surge in interest and investigations on these “unnatural” molecules observed in recent years. D-AAs are increasingly used as building blocks to produce pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals. In past years, a number of methods have been devised to produce D-AAs based on enantioselective enzymes. With the aim to increase the D-AA derivatives generated, to improve the intrinsic atomic economy and cost-effectiveness, and to generate processes at low environmental impact, recent studies focused on identification, engineering and application of enzymes in novel biocatalytic processes. The aim of this review is to report the advances in synthesis of D-AAs gathered in the past few years based on five main classes of enzymes. These enzymes have been combined and thus applied to multi-enzymatic processes representing in vitro pathways of alternative/exchangeable enzymes that allow the generation of an artificial metabolism for D-AAs synthetic purposes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 182 ◽  
pp. 102843 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgios Pexas ◽  
Stephen G. Mackenzie ◽  
Michael Wallace ◽  
Ilias Kyriazakis

1990 ◽  
Vol 54 (11) ◽  
pp. 688-689 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Jacobson ◽  
B Maxson ◽  
K Mays ◽  
J Peebles ◽  
C Kowalski

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