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• Municipal solid waste (MSW) management drives fundamental future shifts. • An innovative and integrated biorefinery (2IB) is evaluated. • Detailed technical information on the 2IB is presented. • An emergy return of about 20 sej is made available to society by investing in 2IB. • 2IB emerges to be a powerful technological alternative to manage MSW. The rampant municipal solid waste (MSW) generation caused mainly by people's lifestyle has required technological solutions to deal with this global issue. This paper assess an innovative and integrated biorefinery (2IB) to manage MSW. The 2IB is rooted in the circular economy concept, and it differs from any other currently existing technological route in managing MSW due to its integrated processes that receives both inorganic and organic fractions at the same time, besides unveiling an innovative aspect related to thermoplastic production. Due to its scientific-based advantages, the emergy accounting (withy 'm') is considered as method to quantify the 2IB environmental performance, comparing the results with alternatives MSW management facilities. Results show that 2IB has similar performance for the three traditional emergy indicators (m-EYR of 1.17, m-ELR of 5.73 and m-ESI of 0.20) compared to incineration and landfilling, indicating low yield, moderate load on the environment, and unsustainable. On the other hand, the emergy return indicator (ERI of 20.33) indicates higher performance for the 2IB, in which for each solar emjoule (sej) – the measure unit of emergy – invested it generates a return of about 20 sej that becomes available as benefits for societal development. From an emergy perspective, results support that 2IB should be considered as a powerful technological alternative to manage MSW. This study contributes from a theoretical perspective with discussions on the emergy accounting procedures applied on systems located at far right side of energy hierarchy, while contributing from a practical perspective by providing technical information about the 2IB that supports decision makers towards more sustainable MSW management systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A dam's failure losses and damages was evaluated by emergy-based procedures. • Three categories were considered to quantify losses and damages: (I) suppressed stocks in the mud passage and deposition areas, (II) social disruption, and (III) landscape. • The evaluated damages resulting from the tailings passage and deposition can be allocated on an energy hierarchy diagram to assist their spatial visualization. In 2015, the 'Fundão' dam's failure in Brazil released 44 million m3 of tailings that traveled 670 km in the 'Doce' river watershed crossing 40 municipalities and two states until reaching the Atlantic Ocean. Since then, a public civil action (PCA) is responsible for litigation processes, and recently established a value of US$ 43.8 billion to repair losses and damages, a value that brings doubts about its accuracy in expressing the loses and damages of the disaster. This claims for alternative methods for its monetary quantification than the current tradicional economic ones. Among others biophysical approaches, the emergy accounting appears as a powerful tool due to its donor side perspective that objectively quantifies value and recognizes energy quality. This study aims to use emergy accounting as method to firstly identify and then quantify the impacts of 'Fundão' dam's failure, considering exclusively the negative direct and immediate impacts. Three categories are considered to quantify loses and damages: (I) suppressed stocks in the mud passage and deposition areas (MPDA), (II) social disruption, and (III) changes in landscape. For all the three scenarios of turnover times (Tt), results show that about 98% of total emergy in the suppressed stocks are related to (II) and (III), while only 2% in average is related to (I). This discrepancy highlights the importance of accounting for (II) and (III) since they are often disregarded or not directly considered by traditional economic approaches. From a macroeconomic perspective, the highest total emergy-based dollars (emdollar, EmUS$) found for scenario #3 reached EmUS$ 149.18 billion, a value 3.4 times higher than the US$ 43.8 billion established by PCA. This higher value is equivalent to the annual emergy demanded by the Ecuador economy with 18 million inhabitants. Rather than providing an accurate monetary value for the 'Fundão' disaster repair, this study contributes for the advancement of discussions about using biophysical methods such as emergy accounting that allows tracking all numbers for objective verification as alternative to the traditional economic approaches in quantifying losses and damages of high proportion disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lignocellulosic ethanol is considered as a good alternative to increase the current amount of first generation ethanol produced, since it does not compete for land with food production. Biochemical technological routes have high potential to be adopted for lignocellulosic ethanol production, in which hydrolysis processes demand cellulase enzymes to convert cellulose and hemicellulose materials into fermentable sugars. Thus, an integral evaluation of lignocellulosic ethanol requires knowledge of the energetic–environmental costs of production of enzymes, which generally occurs off-site of biorefinery plants in specialized companies. The aims of this work are to assess the energetic–environmental costs of cellulase enzyme production and verify their influence on the lignocellulosic ethanol overall cost. For this, the production of industrial enzyme operating under submerged fermentation process was assessed by (i) emergy accounting, (ii) embodied energy analysis, (iii) and emission inventory. Monte Carlo simulation was used for uncertainty analysis. Results show that cellulase enzyme demands 4.06E14 seJ/kg enzyme and 1664 MJ/kg enzyme with a global warming potential of 21.90 kgCO 2-eq. /kg enzyme . These values are equivalent to 0.41%, 0.49%, and 0.02%, respectively, of the emergy, embodied energy, and global warming potential of lignocellulosic ethanol production, making their contribution to the overall energetic–environmental costs negligible when compared to other input resources of the ethanol production chain such as limestone and diesel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humanity's future depends on the preservation of natural ecosystems that supply resources and absorb pollutants. Rural and urban productions are currently based on chemical products made from petroleum, which are responsible for high negative impacts on the Biosphere. In order to prevent those impacts, efficient public policies seeking for sustainable development are necessary. Aiming to assess the load on the environment (considering the gratuitous contributions of natural systems—a donor's perspective) due to human-dominated process, a scientific tool called Emergy Evaluation has been applied in different production systems, including crops and farms. However, there is still a lack of emergy studies in the context of watersheds, probably due to the difficulty of collecting raw data. The present work aims to carry out an assessment of Mogi-Guaçu and Pardo watershed, through the combined use of Emergy Evaluation and Geographical Information System. The agricultural and natural land uses were considered, while urban areas were excluded. Emergy flows (expressed in seJha−1 yr−1) obtained for all agricultural and natural land uses were expanded for the whole watershed and the emergy indices were calculated. The results show that the watershed has: low renewability (%R =32%); low capture of natural resources through high external economic investment (EYR=1.86); low dependence on natural resources (EIR=1.16); and moderate load on the environment (ELR=2.08). Considering a scenario where sugar-cane crops, orchards and pasture areas are converted from conventional to organic management, watershed's emergy performance improved, reaching a new renewability of 38%, but it is still not enough to be considered sustainable. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this work, emergy analysis was used in association with the Geographical Information System (GIS) in order to improve the evaluation of family-managed farms that adopt either the ecological or the chemical production models. Three small farms, located in Amparo County, in São Paulo state, Brazil, were studied. One of them, Duas Cachoeiras farm, uses agroecological concepts for its agricultural production. The two others (Santa Helena farm and Três Lagos farm) use the conventional chemical model. In an attempt to improve the precision of the data used in emergy analysis, the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) was incorporated to the GIS tool to calculate the topsoil loss in the farms. The GIS tool also allowed the calculation of the amount of rain water that infiltrates the ground and can recharge the aquifer. This percolated water is a system output and was incorporated in the emergy accounting. Another modification in comparison to previous emergy analyses was that the renewability factor of each input was considered in the emergy accounting. Results showed that the agroecological farm is more sustainable and can be used as a model for small farms in their transition to ecological agriculture. The GIS–emergy tools were used to compare the environmental performance of the four main productive areas of Duas Cachoeiras farm (annual cultures, orchard, forest, and pasture). These results demonstrate the emergy performance of each kind of land use and may be used in watershed planning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• A new conceptual model of sustainability is proposed: FIVE SEctor SUstainability (5SEnSU) model. • 5SEnSU model results in a multi-criteria decision making problem solved using the philosophy of goal programming. • 5SEnSU model is applied to the Mercosur countries for illustration purposes. The decision-making process towards sustainability is usually based on quantitative indicators, and becomes more complex the more indicators are considered. The lack of a clear criterion (i.e. a conceptual model of sustainability) supporting the choice of one indicator rather than others creates doubts about the real attainments of such studies. The holistic-based approach in choosing indicators to express sustainability claims for a multicriteria perspective. This work proposes a sustainability assessment tool based on the FIVE SEctor SUstainability (5SEnSU) model that is capable to show the relationships between humans and the natural environment, and the use of goal programming as a multicriteria method. The advantages of the proposed tool are based on clear criteria in choosing indicators supported by the 5SEnSU model, which recognizes the double functions (as a donor and receiver) of natural environment and society, as well the application of goal programming to obtain an easy-to-understand final indicator: the sustainability synthetic indicator of systems (SSIS). The countries that form Mercosur economic bloc were used as a case study to illustrate the application of the proposed model. Results have shown that Uruguay holds the highest sustainability performance among all Mercosur countries, although still demanding efforts from public policies to improve its national happiness level (K52 indicator), employment rate (K41 indicator) and total emergy flow per capita (K12 indicator). Instead of using a single criterion in choosing indicators, this work provides a scientific-based tool in choosing, calculating, and supporting discussions on the sustainability of production systems under a more holistic perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• City-centric global multi-region input-output models for Beijing and Shanghai are developed. • Factor contribution and critical path analysis are adopted. • Sector aggregation effect varies across sectoral datasets. Sector aggregation under the input-output framework may lead to deviation in results and the lack of detailed sectoral information, which hinder the targeted implementation of accurate sectoral adjustment policies. This paper explores the effects of sector aggregation on the embodied carbon emission of the residential consumptions of Beijing and Shanghai based on the city-centric global multi-region input-output (CCG-MRIO) model. Integrating with structural path analysis and structural decomposition analysis, the impacts of sector aggregation on the identifying of critical emission transmission paths and driving forces are also revealed. Three sector aggregation datasets are discussed to track the sector aggregation effect in 2012 and 2017. The findings show that the carbon emission results at 8 sector level better align with the results at the 22 sector level than those at 32 sector level. Moreover, sector aggregation will lead to the absence of some critical carbon transmission paths, some factor contributions on carbon emission also changed their directions at different sector levels. On the basis of clarifying the sector aggregation effect on embodied carbon emission, the research results provide a reference for similar studies to select the appropriate level of sector aggregation, to realize the goal of simplifying the calculation or gaining more detailed sectoral emission information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A methodological framework is proposed to analyze carbon inequality across BRI countries and regions. • The most severe bilateral trade carbon inequality existed between China and BRI West Asia. • Most of BRI countries and regions were negatively affected by global trade carbon inequality. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has boosted global trade and economic development. Carbon inequality embodied in global trade may occur across BRI countries and regions in the world. How to quantify this inequality is the key to achieving the green development of the Belt and Road. In this study, we constructed a methodological framework to analyze carbon inequality across BRI countries and regions under the global trade network. Results showed that nearly half of BRI countries and regions exported net embodied carbon emissions while obtaining net economic benefits. The most severe bilateral trade carbon inequality existed between China and BRI West Asia, whose bilateral trade carbon inequality index (BCI) reached 2.76. Except for Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and BRI West Asia, BRI countries and regions were negatively affected by global trade carbon inequality, with China and India suffering the most, whose global trade carbon inequality indices (GCI) were -2.06 and -1.26, respectively. This methodological framework can be applied to analyze the inequality of other kinds of ecological impacts embodied in trade on any scale. Furthermore, this study can provide policy implications for the green development of the Belt and Road. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture production in Pakistan is one of the main economic and social sector. It contributes about 20–25% to the country GDP and provides more than 60% employment opportunities for rural peoples, playing a backbone role in the country economy and food security. However, sustainable production of the agricultural system is very important to address a societal concern for environmental impacts and nutritional value, while maintaining an economically feasible production system for farmers. Therefore, this study used various indicators based on emergy accounting method to analyze the sustainability of the agriculture production systems in Pakistan from 2001 to 2015 in four provinces namely Punjab, Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan are investigated. The analysis indicates that (1) in all selected provinces the maximum portion among all inputs are purchase non-renewable inputs and purchase renewables input. Among in purchase non-renewable comprise inputs the largest portion are for labors, agriculture machinery and fertilizer inputs, while in purchase renewables comprise inputs the largest share are for water that used during irrigation purposes in all provinces. (2) In Punjab and Sindh, among purchase non-renewable comprise inputs the labor, pesticides and diesel were found decreased, while in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan the pesticides, diesel and electricity were found declined. The efficiency of overall output agriculture production in selected provinces are in the order of Punjab > Sindh > Kbyber-Pakhtunkhwa > Baluchistan. The output emergy share of the agriculture production increased by 66% in Punjab, 34% in Sindh, 110% in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 72% in Baluchistan in the study period. (3) The analysis of overall agriculture performance through emergy based indicators indicates that the NRP% (non-renewable portion) ratio for Punjab declined by 12% while for Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan increased by 1%, 8% and 1%, respectively. That is why the EIR (emergy investment ratio) value is lower in Punjab and higher in other selected provinces. (4) The ESI (emergy sustainability index) values were declined for Punjab, Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan by 18.91%, 16.19%, 35.51% and 11.21% respectively, with average values of 0.51, 0.11, 0.22, and 0.21 indicates increased in Punjab than other provinces. We believe this study provides the policy makers and producers the understanding of the important drivers influencing agricultural system productivity and environmental, social and economic sustainability, and to create more adaptable and responsive management practices and strategies for truly sustainable agricultural production systems in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The Biosphere´s energy quality hierarchy is shown with the use of empirical data. • The results confirm linear, log-log, inverse relation between energy quality and energy quantity. • The hypothesis of Howard T. Odum in 1988 was supported by additional empirical data. The Biosphere is self-organized into a hierarchy of energy transformations. More dilute forms of energy (e.g. solar energy) are concentrated in biological structures and through socioeconomic transformation processes forming energy outputs that are able to perform higher quality work. To assess the hierarchy level of different forms of energy in the Biosphere, over 30 years Howard T. Odum introduced the concept of " transformity ", i.e., the amount of available energy of the same kind (usually solar energy) needed to obtain a specific output of available energy of another kind. Transformities represent energy quality and have been calculated for a broad set of energy forms and products, both natural and anthropic. In this paper, we report on this broad literature illustrating how the energy quality hierarchy of the biosphere works. This study leads to the definition of lower and higher energy quality thresholds supporting H.T. Odum's initial hypothesis of an inverse linear logarithmic relationship between energy quality and quantity. A model is proposed to obtain transformities from data on energy flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]