Sustainable, Healthy and Affordable Diets for Children in Lebanon: A Call for Action in Dire Times

Achieving sustainable, healthy diets remains a global challenge to meet the sustainable development agenda by 2030. The purpose of this study is to derive optimal dietary recommendations for children that consider nutritional, environmental, and economic parameters of sustainability, using Lebanon as a case study. Data from the latest national food consumption survey conducted among Lebanese children were used. Optimized diets were derived using Optimeal, a software that produces similar patterns to the usual diet while considering nutrition constraints (energy, and macro/micronutrient needs), environmental footprints ((EFPs): water use, energy use, and greenhouse emissions), and cost. Three optimized diets were derived that meet the nutritional needs of children aged 4–8, 9–13, and 14–18 years, while considering EFPs and cost. Compared to the usual intake, optimized diets included higher intake of vegetables, legumes and dairy, and a decrease in saturated oils, processed meats, sugar, salty snacks, sweets, and sugar-sweetened beverages. Overall, the optimized diets decreased cost by 20% and reduced water use, energy use, and GHG emissions, by 20%, 11%, and 22%, respectively. The proposed models consider various constraints and provide sustainable solutions for decision makers within a country undergoing crises.

Download Full-text

Mediterranean Diet and its Environmental Footprints amid Nutrition Transition: The Case of Lebanon

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11236690 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (23) ◽

pp. 6690 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Naja ◽

Itani ◽

Hamade ◽

Chamieh ◽

Hwalla

Keyword(s):

Mediterranean Diet ◽

Food Consumption ◽

Water Use ◽

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Energy Use ◽

Nutrition Transition ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Inverse Association ◽

Mediterranean Countries ◽

Environmental Footprints

Many Mediterranean countries, including Lebanon, are experiencing a shift in food consumption away from the traditional Mediterranean diet (MD), concomitant with the escalating burden of non-communicable diseases and dwindling environmental resources. Objective: to examine the adherence to the MD and its association with environmental footprints (EFPs), including water use, energy use, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, among Lebanese adults. Data of Lebanese adults were drawn from the national food consumption survey (n = 2610). Assessment of dietary intake was conducted using a food-frequency questionnaire. Adherence to the MD was examined using four published MD scores. Metrics for the EFPs were calculated using a review of existing life cycle assessments (LCAs). For all MD scores, less than 13% of participants were in the highest tertile. After adjustments for covariates, two of the MD scores were associated with lower water use. For GHG, significant inverse associations were observed with all MD scores. Energy use was not associated with MD scores. Overall, low adherence to the MD among Lebanese adults was observed, together with an inverse association between adherence to the MD and water use and GHG emissions. These findings support and enforce ongoing efforts that aim to increase adherence to the MD in order to address health issues, as well as tackle environmental sustainability.

Download Full-text

Environmental Impact of Dietary Choices: Role of the Mediterranean and Other Dietary Patterns in an Italian Cohort

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17051468 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (5) ◽

pp. 1468 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Giuseppe Grosso ◽

Ujué Fresán ◽

Maira Bes-Rastrollo ◽

Stefano Marventano ◽

Fabio Galvano

Keyword(s):

Land Use ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Water Use ◽

Dietary Patterns ◽

Quality Index ◽

Energy Use ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Dietary Quality ◽

The Mediterranean ◽

The Impact

Background: Current scientific literature suggests healthy dietary patterns may have less environmental impact than current consumption patterns, but most of the studies rely on theoretical modeling. The aim of this study was to assess the impact on resources (land, water, and energy) use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of healthy dietary patterns in a sample of Italian adults. Methods: Participants (n = 1806) were recruited through random sampling in the city of Catania, southern Italy. Dietary consumption was assessed through a validated food frequency questionnaire (FFQ); dietary patterns were calculated through dietary scores. The specific environmental footprints of food item production/processing were obtained from various available life-cycle assessments; a sustainability score was created based on the impact of the four environmental components calculated. Results: The contribution of major food groups to the environmental footprint showed that animal products (dairy, egg, meat, and fish) represented more than half of the impact on GHG emissions and energy requirements; meat products were the stronger contributors to GHG emissions and water use, while dairy products to energy use, and cereals to land use. All patterns investigated, with the exception of the Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension (DASH), were linearly associated with the sustainability score. Among the components, higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet and Alternate Diet Quality Index (AHEI) was associated with lower GHG emissions, dietary quality index-international (DQI-I) with land use, while Nordic diet with land and water use. Conclusions: In conclusion, the adoption of healthy dietary patterns involves less use of natural resources and GHG emissions, representing eco-friendlier options in Italian adults.

Download Full-text

Water impacts and water-climate goal conflicts of local energy choices – notes from a Swedish perspective

Proceedings of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences ◽

10.5194/piahs-376-25-2018 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 376 ◽

pp. 25-33 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Rebecka Ericsdotter Engström ◽

Mark Howells ◽

Georgia Destouni

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Water Resources ◽

Water Use ◽

Energy Use ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Water Security ◽

Energy System ◽

Local Energy ◽

Sustainable Energy System ◽

Liquid Biofuel

Abstract. To meet both the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), nations, sectors, counties and cities need to move towards a sustainable energy system in the next couple of decades. Such energy system transformations will impact water resources to varying extents, depending on the transformation strategy and fuel choices. Sweden is considered to be one of the most advanced countries towards meeting the SDGs. This paper explores the geographical origin of and the current water use associated with the supply of energy in the 21 regional counties of Sweden. These energy-related uses of water represent indirect, but still relevant, impacts for water management and the related SDG on clean water and sanitation (SDG 6). These indirect water impacts are here quantified and compared to reported quantifications of direct local water use, as well as to reported greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as one example of other types of environmental impacts of local energy choices in each county. For each county, an accounting model is set up based on data for the local energy use in year 2010, and the specific geographical origins and water use associated with these locally used energy carriers (fuels, heat and electricity) are further estimated and mapped based on data reported in the literature and open databases. Results show that most of the water use associated with the local Swedish energy use occurs outside of Sweden. Counties with large shares of liquid biofuel exhibit the largest associated indirect water use in regions outside of Sweden. This indirect water use for energy supply does not unambiguously correlate with either the local direct water use or the local GHG emissions, although for the latter, there is a tendency towards an inverse relation. Overall, the results imply that actions for mitigation of climate change by local energy choices may significantly affect water resources elsewhere. Swedish counties are thus important examples of localities with large geographic zones of water influence due to their local energy choices, which may compromise water security and the possibility to meet water-related global goals in other world regions.

Download Full-text

Cattle and carcass performance, and life cycle assessment of production systems utilizing additive combinations of growth promotant technologies

Translational Animal Science ◽

10.1093/tas/txaa216 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (4) ◽

Author(s):

Megan J Webb ◽

Janna J Block ◽

Adele A Harty ◽

Robin R Salverson ◽

Russell F Daly ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Water Use ◽

Energy Use ◽

Production Systems ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Beta Agonist ◽

Lower Percentage ◽

Birth Date ◽

Carcass Performance

Abstract The objective of this study was to determine the impact of beef production systems utilizing additive combinations of growth promotant technologies on animal and carcass performance and environmental outcomes. Crossbred steer calves (n =120) were stratified by birth date, birth weight, and dam age and assigned randomly to one of four treatments: 1) no technology (NT; control), 2) antibiotic treated (ANT; NT plus therapeutic antibiotics and monensin and tylosin), 3) implant treated (IMP; ANT plus a series of 3 implants, and 4) beta-agonist treated (BA; IMP plus ractopamine-HCl for the last 30 d prior to harvest). Weaned steers were fed in confinement (dry lot) and finished in an individual feeding system to collect performance data. At harvest, standard carcass measures were collected and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Yield Grade and Quality Grade were determined. Information from the cow-calf, growing, and finishing phases were used to simulate production systems using the USDA Integrated Farm System Model, which included a partial life cycle assessment of cattle production for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, fossil energy use, water use, and reactive N loss. Body weight in suckling, growing, and finishing phases as well as hot carcass weight was greater (P < 0.05) for steers that received implants (IMP and BA) than non-implanted steers (NT and ANT). The average daily gain was greater (P < 0.05) for steers that received implants (IMP and BA) than non-implanted steers during the suckling and finishing phases, but no difference (P = 0.232) was detected during the growing phase. Dry matter intake and gain:feed were greater (P < 0.05) for steers that received implants than non-implanted steers during the finishing phase. Steers that received implants responded (P < 0.05) with a larger loin muscle area, less kidney pelvic and heart fat, advanced carcass maturity, reduced marbling scores, and a greater percentage of carcasses in the lower third of the USDA Choice grade. This was offset by a lower percentage of USDA Prime grading carcasses compared with steers receiving no implants. Treatments did not influence (P > 0.05) USDA Yield grade. The life cycle assessment revealed that IMP and BA treatments reduced GHG emissions, energy use, water use, and reactive nitrogen loss compared to NT and ANT. These data indicate that growth promoting technologies increase carcass yield while concomitantly reducing carcass quality and environmental impacts.

Download Full-text

Assessment of Tomato Peels Suitable for Producing Biomethane within the Context of Circular Economy: A GIS-Based Model Analysis

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13105559 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (10) ◽

pp. 5559

Author(s):

Roberta Selvaggi ◽

Francesca Valenti ◽

Biagio Pecorino ◽

Simona M. C. Porto

Keyword(s):

Circular Economy ◽

Energy Use ◽

Renewable Energy Sources ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

The Sustainable Development ◽

Waste Production ◽

New Frontier ◽

Dedicated Energy Crops ◽

By Products ◽

Biomass For Energy

Biomass is seen as one of the most dominant future renewable energy sources. In detail, agro-industrial by-products represent a cheap, renewable, and abundant feedstock useful for several new products, including biochemical, biomaterials, and above all biogas, which are taking on an ever-increasing role in Italy. In this context, the tomato chain was analysed aiming at estimating the amount of processed tomato and the related waste production as a new suitable resource for producing biofuel as a new frontier within the context of a circular economy. Due the importance of the tomato industry, this research aims at filling gaps in the knowledge of the production and yield of the by-products that are useful as biomass for energy use in those territorial areas where the biomethane sector is still developing. This aim could be relevant for planning the sustainable development of the biomethane sector by reducing both soil consumption for dedicated energy crops and GHG emissions coming from the biomass logistic supply. The achieved results show the localization of territorial areas highly characterized by this kind of biomass. Therefore, it would be desirable that the future policies of development in the biomethane sector consider the availability and the distribution of these suitable biomasses within the territory.

Download Full-text

A Framework for Assessing Commitment Indicators in Sustainable Development Decisions

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13095234 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (9) ◽

pp. 5234

Author(s):

Mustafa S. Al-Tekreeti ◽

Salwa M. Beheiry ◽

Vian Ahmed

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Performance Indicators ◽

Energy Use ◽

Capital Projects ◽

The Sustainable Development ◽

Corporate Leaders ◽

Corporate Decisions ◽

Waste Energy ◽

Infrastructure Project

Numerous decision support systems have been developed to address the decision-making process in organizations. However, there are no developed mechanisms to track commitment down the line to the decisions made by corporate leaders. This paper is a portion of a study that establishes a framework for a comprehensive metric system to assess commitment to Sustainable Development (SD) decisions down the line in capital projects, and sets the groundwork for further development of performance indicators for SD outcomes. This ultimately leads to investigating the relationship between commitment to corporate decisions and better project performance in SD parameters. Hence, this study explores the literature to extract relevant parameters that reflect the degree of the project participants’ commitment to SD decisions and to develop commitment indicators. The study created then validated an index to track this commitment along the project stages: the Sustainable Development Commitment Tracking Tool (SDCTT). The SDCTT was tested on an infrastructure project case study. In this paper, techniques relevant to the first stage of projects (planning and definition) are presented. The SDCTT is the groundwork for the future development of performance indicators for SD outcomes, and within the postulated model should ultimately contribute towards reducing project waste, energy use, and carbon emissions.

Download Full-text

Research and Construction of Clean Production Comprehensive Evaluation System to Printing Equipment

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.731.401 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 731 ◽

pp. 401-406

Author(s):

Rui Ting Pei ◽

Hong Chen

Keyword(s):

Index System ◽

Evaluation System ◽

Energy Use ◽

Comprehensive Evaluation ◽

Evaluation Index System ◽

Expert Advice ◽

The Sustainable Development ◽

Clean Production ◽

Comprehensive Evaluation System ◽

Equipment Manufacture

With the increasingly serious environmental problems, how to achieve the sustainable development of environment and economic has become a widespread concern at home and abroad. Through the research and analysis of clean production and clean production evaluation index system of domestic and foreign, and according to statistical theory, the reasonable and effective sampling method was determined. By researching the printing equipment manufacture and equipment applied enterprise of domestic, the data contained printing equipment energy use, emissions and product characteristic was obtained. By using the method of expert advice and factor analysis, clean production evaluation indicators and index system was determined.

Download Full-text

Impact assessment of climate change and human activities on GHG emissions and agricultural water use

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-57 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Shikun Sun ◽

Yihe Tang

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Water Use ◽

Water Conservation ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Production Factor ◽

Agricultural Water ◽

Dndc Model ◽

Agricultural Water Use ◽

Means Of Production

The agriculture sector is one of the largest users of water and a significant source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The development of low-GHG-emission and water-conserving agriculture will inevitably be the trend in the future. Because of the physiological differences among crops and their response efficiency to external changes, changes in planting structure, climate and input of production factors will have an impact on regional agricultural water use and GHG emissions. This paper systematically analyzed the spatial-temporal evolution characteristics of crop planting structure, climate, and production factor inputs in Heilongjiang Province, the main grain-producing region of China, from 2000 to 2015, and quantified the regional agricultural water use and GHG emissions characteristics under different scenarios by using the Penman-Monteith formula and the Denitrification-Decomposition (DNDC) model. The results showed that the global warming potential (GWP) increased by 15% due to the change in planting structure. A large increase in the proportion of rice and corn sown was the main reason. During the study period, regional climate change had a positive impact on the water- saving and emission reduction of the agricultural industry. The annual water demand per unit area decreased by 19%, and the GWP decreased by 12% compared with that in 2000. The input of fertilizer and other means of production will have a significant impact on GHG emissions from farmlands. The increase in N fertilizer input significantly increased N2O emissions, with a 5% increase in GWP. Agricultural water consumption and carbon emissions are affected by changes in climate, input of means of production, and planting structure. Therefore, multiple regulatory measures should be taken in combination with regional characteristics to realize a new layout of planting structure with low emissions, water conservation, and sustainability.

Download Full-text