Feni Agostinho

Primary evidences on the robustness of environmental accounting from emergy

Agricultural systems operate in the interface between environment and human economy, combining the use of natural and purchased resources in food production. With the aid of the ternary diagram, data of agricultural systems taken from literature are organized in order to evidence the influence of the type of culture and of the analyst’s criteria on the results of environmental accounting in emergy. All the systems represented in the ternary diagram determine a qualitatively well-defined region, less or more extended according to the case. Points defined for the emergy coordinates were localized in defined regions observed in the diagram. Emergy accounting is presented as a method able to environmentally characterize production systems in a robust way, even with variations in analyst’s criteria and data nature or origin. It is shown that the results of environmental accounting obtained with the use of the emergy methodology are only slightly influenced by the analyst’s criteria. On the other hand, the ternary diagram appears as an interesting graphical tool to determine finding and checking robustness of emergy accounting. The robustness of emergy methodology is remarkable.

Avaliação de impacto da escala econômica na dimensão ambiental das empresas do ISE da BM & FBOVESPA conforme parâmetros da Política Nacional do Meio Ambiente (Lei nº 10.165)

Stock exchange is the space in which companies can raise capital by stimulating entrepreneurial activity. Environmentally responsible investors seek to invest in stocks of sustainable enterprises because they are more profitable. Given this demand, the Corporate Sustainability Index (ISE) was created in Brazil in 2005 - a pioneer initiative in Latin America and the fourth indicator of this kind in the world. This index compares the performance of the companies listed on the Securities, Commodities and Futures Exchange (BM & FBOVESPA) considering aspects of the sustainability concept. It is an index of referential actions for socially responsible investments comprising companies that excel in sustainability in the long term. The purpose of this index is to create an environment for investment compatible with the demands of society`s sustainable development and encourage more sustainable practices in businesses. Investments in sustainable companies create value for the shareholder, because these companies are better prepared to face economic, social and environmental risks. Integrating the ISE is equivalent to having a quality seal recognized by the market as a company that operates under the concepts of sustainability. For the 40 companies listed in the ISE in 2013, according to standards of the National Environmental Policy Act (Law No. 10,165), interference on a territory was ranked by their potential for pollution and use of natural resources. However, Law No. 10,165 does not include in its classification the economic scale impact of the potential pollution and use of natural resources of these enterprises. When the impact of the economic scale of the members of the ISE in 2013 is considered, the original classification of Law No. 10,165 is expanded, enabling stakeholders to measure the interference of these companies in the biosphere. SABESP, CPFL ENERGIA, TELEFONICA BRASIL (Vivo), CEMIG, OI, FOODS BRF (Sadia, Perdigao, Batavo and Elege), ELETROBRAS, BRASKEN, GERDAU, IPIRANGA and VALE are companies that require greater attention from stakeholders, because they present high potential for pollution and use of natural resources according to the extended parameters of Law No. 10,165.

Greening A Cuban Local Mango Supply Chain: Sustainability Options and Management Strategies

Resumo Articulating all actors and activities of supply chain having an impact on sustainability is a complex task especially for a limited domestic market production sector. This complexity is the result of several factors, such as the quality of the product, the degree of competitiveness and the high costs of transactions, which arise from a small economic scale. This paper proposes a sustainability analysis using emergy accounting and the Cleaner Production approach applied to the case study of a mango pulp supply chain on a local level in Santiago de Cuba. The results obtained show that the current agricultural economy model is characterized by i) the use of chemical fertilizers, II) a large presence of labor and iii) a small use of natural resources. The cleaner production strategy applied to the local fruit supply chain increased the benefits for ecosystems and society. Emergy indices pointed towards higher efficiency, lower energy appropriation for production, lesser pressure on the environment, and a greater contribution to the local economy. The assessment method used proved to be helpful in evaluating the agricultural chains dynamics, especially, after the introduction of Cleaner Production practices

Avaliação em emergia como ferramenta de gestão nos parques urbanos de São Paulo

O municipio de Sao Paulo vem investindo na implantacao de areas verdes para melhoria da qualidade de vida da populacao. Neste sentido, a Secretaria do Verde e do Meio Ambiente do municipio de Sao Paulo vem ampliando a cobertura vegetal por meio de um programa de arborizacao e da criacao de novos parques urbanos. Entretanto, nao ha uma avaliacao quantitativa dos beneficios ambientais providos por esta iniciativa. Este trabalho utiliza a contabilidade ambiental em emergia para avaliar 73 parques da cidade de Sao Paulo. Para todo o conjunto dos parques, foram calculados os indicadores e os custos em emergia a fim de avaliar quais parques aproveitam mais os recursos da natureza, quais demandam maiores investimentos da prefeitura e quais fornecem maior quantidade de servicos ambientais para a cidade. A razao entre os recursos da natureza e os recursos provenientes da economia (I/F) foi estabelecida como um importante indicador para a gestao dos parques urbanos existentes e a relacao I/F x Em

Streamlined Life Cycle Inventory of Dental Syringes Manufacturing

/m2 e proposta como indicador para tomada de decisao, permitindo determinar a melhor configuracao de cada parque e priorizar as acoes para novos projetos e para a manutencao dos antigos.

Activity-Based Costing Using Multicriteria Drivers: An Accounting Proposal to Boost Companies Toward Sustainability

Among the methods proposed to environmental management of productive activities, Life Cycle Assessment is one of the most integrated, complete and effective. The product assessed is the dental Carpule syringe. The aim of this work is to achieve a Streamlined Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) to quantify the electric energy consumption and the solid waste release from dental Carpule syringes manufacture. The methodological framework is based on ISO 14040/2006. The LCI covers the syringe life cycle from mining to disposal. The limits of the system include the stages of copper and zinc mining and ore beneficiation, the production of polyethylene used for syringe and needle packing, the production of steel for needles and syringe coils, and the use of the whole set by dentists. The functional unit was defined as 10 6 (one million) applied anesthesia. During improvement assessment, the proposed solutions allow reducing the energy consumption at about 20% in the manufacturing stage. The solid waste quantity may be reduced by almost 40 % in the manufacturing stage, equivalent to approximately 6.5 % of the total solid waste released during the entire life cycle of the Carpule dental syringe.

Performance Assessment for a Sustainable Supply Chain at Local Level

Recognizing that natural environment is reaching its maximum limits in providing resources and diluting the waste generated by human production systems, efforts towards more sustainable production systems are mandatory to secure the development of future generations. For this purpose, changing the productivity model adopted by companies that are almost exclusively rooted on circulating money to generate profit, named business as usual, is an important issue. In this sense, an alternative would be establishing the relationship of stocks and flows of energy, material, and information with environmental, economic and social outcomes, thus resulting in new accounting approaches. This work aims to propose an activity-based costing (ABC) based on multicriteria drivers including economic, emissions, and emergy (with an “m”) values. The proposed ABC costing allocates each one of the multicriteria drivers into a specific part of the sustainability conceptual model, in an attempt to embrace a holistic perspective and allow for a sustainable-based decision, rather than considering purely economic drivers. The goal programming method is considered so as to support a decision based on multicriteria aspects. Results show that the proposed accounting approach known as ABCsustain allows for decisions towards a company’s sustainability by acting on both the amount and kind of a company’s product that should be managed, as well as on the effective increase of a specific company’s activity or process. The proposed ABCsustain could make the insertion of environmental issues into companies strategic planning more effective. It is expected that environmental issues go beyond a simple diagnoses and begin to be considered as action in factum in the companies’ decisions towards achieving a more sustainable world system.

Analysis of the Polyethylene Terephthalate Production Chain: An Approach Based on the Emergy Synthesis

This article aims to provide a tool to diagnose the supply chain management from a performance reference model allowing evaluating the links individually and the supply chain as a whole, taking as case study the mango pulp supply chain at local level in Santiago de Cuba in Cuba. The reference model considers a territorial approach to rural development that do not have a specialized logistics system. The identification and better understanding of the obstacles that limit the supply chain is the great importance both for the definition of public policies and for awareness and making sustainable decisions of companies operating in the sector.

Energy Efficiency and Global Warming Potential of a Wind-Energy Complex at Brazilian Piauí State

The petrochemical industry is characterized by the intense use of non-renewable resources, such as crude oil, associated to a high environmental load derived from efforts from nature and human systems to produce these products. These efforts may be accounted for by emergy synthesis, which is a tool that determines the amount of energy, directly or indirectly, necessary to obtain a product or service by means of a common unit (solar equivalent Joules seJ). In this work, emergy synthesis is applied to the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) production chain in the European petrochemical sector. The unit emergy values (UEV) of the system products are estimated, enabling comparative interpretations among the quality of energy usage and processes’ efficiency.

Naphtha Production Assessment from the Perspective of the Emergy Accounting

The human addiction to fossil fuel and global warming leads to the search for alternative energy sources. The Brazilian government intends to increase its dependence on renewable energy sources, including hydropower, biomass, and wind. Many political and economic efforts have been directed to wind-energy, however, there is a lack of case-specific information regarding its performance for CO2 emissions and dependence on fossil fuels. The aim of this work is to assess the global warming potential (GWP) and the fossil energy embodied in an important wind-energy complex located at Piaui State, Brazil. Results show that evaluated wind-complex demands lower amount of fossil energy (0.0404 MJ) and has lower GWP (4.13 gCO2-eq.) per kWh of electricity generated when compared to landmark studies. Wind-electricity showed better performance than hydroelectricity (0.1516 MJ/kWh and 11.84 gCO2-eq./kWh), which supports wind-electricity as an important alternative towards an economy decarbonization.