scholarly journals The critical role of advanced sustainability assessment tools in enhancing the real-world application of biofuels

2020 ◽  
pp. 67-73
Author(s):  
Meisam Tabatabaei ◽  
Mortaza Aghbashlo
Keyword(s):  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Biofuel Production ◽  
Real World Application ◽  
Production And Consumption ◽  
Energy Accounting ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Sustainability Assessment Tools

Sustainability has become of paramount importance in the biofuel industry. Accordingly, various ‎sustainability assessment schemes such as emergy analysis, techno-economic analysis, life ‎cycle ‎assessment, energy accounting, and exergy analysis and its extensions (exergoeconomic, ‎exergoenvironmental, and ‎exergoeconoenvironmental analyses) are being employed increasingly for decision-‎making on biofuel production and consumption systems. In this opinion paper, after classifying ‎and describing biofuel generations, the developed sustainability assessment tools are critically ‎explained, and their pros and cons are discussed. Overall, among the various sustainability assessment approaches introduced so far, exergy-based methods appear to be ‎the most promising tools for developing ‎sustainable biofuel systems. This can be attributed to the fact that the exergy ‎concept is deeply ‎rooted in the well-defined principles of thermodynamics.‎

scholarly journals Social criteria to develop an in use holistic urban sustainable assessment tool: UHU2SAT

2021 ◽  
Vol 237 ◽  
pp. 04031
Author(s):  
Antonio Sánchez Cordero ◽  
Marta Videras Rodríguez ◽  
Sergio Gómez Melgar ◽  
José Manuel Andujar Márquez
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Urban Mobility ◽  
Human Comfort ◽  
Operation And Maintenance ◽  
Holistic Assessment ◽  
Sustainability Assessment Tools

Recently, several urban sustainability assessment tools (USAT) have appeared to reduce the human impact provided by the built environment. Few of them focus on the assessment of urban spaces like squares, streets, and parks, etc., but they don’t operation and maintenance (OM) phase is not considered. It would be necessary to develop an in use holistic urban sustainable assessment tool (UHU2SAT) to specifically assess urban spaces under OM phase. This paper provides a qualitative research among 188 studies, with the aim to classify them according to the impacts they pursue: environmental (ENV), social (SOC) economic (ECO) and Others. Finally, the SOC criteria are reduced up to 21 and arranged into 4 different groups: Human comfort, Urban mobility, SOC Cohesion, and Health & safety. These SOC criteria have been discussed and revised according to the literature review to identify the most suitable indicators for the UHU2SAT. Finally, it can be concluded that this methodology could also be useful to obtain ENV and ECO criteria to provide a holistic assessment of the sustainability.

scholarly journals The Inclusion of a Sustainability Awareness Indicator in Assessment Tools for High School Buildings

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana Saraiva ◽  
Manuela Almeida ◽  
Luís Bragança ◽  
Maria Barbosa
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
High Schools ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
School Buildings ◽  
School Students ◽  
Global Environmental Problems ◽  
Sustainability Assessment Tools

The growing debate about global environmental problems is evident in several spheres of society. The concern for the future of the planet is used as a political slogan, inspiring the creation of new laws and encouraging academic research that serves this purpose, as well as increasing the number of government agencies concerned with this matter. The 21st century is considered the “century of sustainable development”. Sustainability education in high schools has the potential to make the benefits of civil construction more visible to society and media by showing students, parents, and communities in general how sustainability in the built environment can improve their lives in economic, social, and environmental aspects. This study was applied in three high schools of Juiz de Fora (Brazil) and Guimarães (Portugal). These high schools have similar characteristics regarding teaching patterns and commitment to strengthening sustainability in their respective regions and reflect their socio-economic conditions, governmental strategies, everyday habits, and cultural attributes. The information was collected through questionnaires applied to high school students in 2017. This paper shows the need for including an indicator of sustainability awareness in sustainability assessment tools for high school buildings.

scholarly journals Modifiable Campus-Wide Appraisal Model (MOCAM) for Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 6821 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yusuf A. Adenle ◽  
Edwin H. W. Chan ◽  
Yi Sun ◽  
C.K. Chau
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Analytic Hierarchy ◽  
Campus Sustainability ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
Sustainability Assessment Tools ◽  
Hierarchy Process

Institutions of higher education across the globe have commenced the appraisal of their sustainability performance via the utilization of various existing campus sustainability assessment tools. A comprehensive review of these existing tools reveals insufficient utilization of weighting methods and theoretical approaches that allow for the monitoring, review, and enhancement of the appraisal process and tools. Social media and spatial-based indicators usage are also deficient in the existing tools. This paper addresses these research gaps and develops a Modifiable Campus-wide Appraisal Model (MOCAM) for a comprehensive spatial-based information and assessment framework for policymakers, local authorities, and campus planners in countries with unknown campus sustainability status. In this model, the specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) approach was utilized to identify environmental-dimension indicators with campus-wide and spatial-based attributes. The Twitter social media platform, Elastic stack, and Python Library were used for the extraction and analysis of local stakeholders’ user-generated content for the identification of localized indicators. The analytic hierarchy process was used for the determination and analysis of the attribute level of importance and weights. The model also broadens the application of symbolic interactionism by translating it from the predominant field of social science to sustainable campus appraisal.

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