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Sustainable development in the agriculture sector can be boosted by integrating a sustainable bioeconomy and transforming renewable resources into added-value products. There are various methods to determine, measure, and compare the extent of sustainability. We promote the bioeconomy concept by utilizing agricultural waste in biopolymers considering the sustainable development in the agriculture sector. This research aims to evaluate biopolymer alternatives based on sustainability criteria and indicators using the integrated multi-criteria decision analysis approach under the sustainability umbrella. We evaluated the PLA, PHA/PHB, starch, protein, and cellulose-based biopolymers. As a result, the cellulose-based biopolymer shows the best performance. The research findings provide valuable information to establish a sustainable pathway for biopolymer production for industries.

The share of renewable energy in heat and power generation is expected to increase significantly and reach record levels in the coming decades. As a result, emerging energy storage technologies will be key elements in balancing the energy system. To compensate the variability and non-controllability of seasonally generated renewable energy (RES) (daily fluctuations in solar radiation intensity, wind speed, etc.) development of sufficient energy storage infrastructure in the regions will play a major role in transforming RES supply potential into reality. However, local public authorities that are responsible for creating an enabling policy environment for RES infrastructure development in regions encounter numerous challenges and uncertainties in deploying sufficient energy accumulation that often remain unanswered due to a lack of knowledge and on-site capacity, which in turn significantly hinders the regional path to climate neutrality. In this study, the PESLTE analytical framework and composite index methodology is applied to examine the multidimensional factors that influence the deployment of renewable energy storage technologies in municipalities: political, economic, social, legal, technological, and environmental. Developed model is approbated in a case study in a Latvian municipality where four different alternative energy storage technologies are compared: batteries for electricity storage, thermal energy storage, energy storage in a form of hydrogen, and energy storage in a form of biomethane.

Advances in technology over the past few years have allowed us to evolve from waste to value. Food waste has been an increased recognition that more attention needs to be paid to this area. With this concern, research on fruit waste valorization into medicinal products has a rich background. This paper approaches the problem with a broader perspective by introducing the fruit waste valorization pathway. The key idea in this paper is to use the multi-criteria analysis method to choose the best essential oil extraction technique from fruit waste. The performance of four different extraction methods i.e., steam distillation, cold-pressing, solvent extraction, and hydro distillation compared in the approach, considering the environmental, economic, social, and technical criteria. The methodology was developed with two scenarios, by using the Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) methods. Our research highlighted that cold-pressing extraction is the most effective technique for essential oil extraction in both scenarios.

It is expected that Cross-laminated timber (CLT) and other engineered wood products will experience rapid growth in the coming years. Global population growth is requiring more housing units, at the same time the negative impact of construction industry cannot stay in the same level as today. Alternatives for concrete and steel reinforced structures are being explored. CLT has proven to be an excellent substitution for concrete regarding construction of buildings up to eight storeys high. In addition to much lower environmental impact, construction process using CLT takes significantly less time due to pre-cut shapes required for specific project. Despite mentioned benefits, there are considerable amount of CLT cuttings generated in this process. Due to irregular shape and small dimensions of these cuttings they are useless for further use in construction. By applying re-processing technology described in this paper, around 70 % of generated cuttings can be re-processed into new CLT panels. In this paper we are evaluating the environmental benefits of re-processing these cuttings into new CLT panels versus business-as-usual scenario with waste disposal. Life cycle assessment results showed significant reduction of environmental impact for the scenario of CLT cutting re-processing.

Energy efficiency policy has been one of the European Union top priorities for decades and will continue to play a vital role in the next 10 years with the introduction of The Clean energy for all Europeans. Likewise, in Latvia energy efficiency has been given high priority; however, the energy efficiency targets for industry has lacked ambitions. This research focuses on evaluating the Latvian industrial energy efficiency policy using top-down approach and benchmarking energy intensity of Latvian industry to the average of the European Union’s. Results confirm that on average Latvian industry consumes 2.6 times more energy to produce the same amount of value added compared to the average in the European Union; however, every saved energy unit in Latvia would save twice less CO2 emissions considering already largely decarbonized energy mix. In the spotlights of the Green Deal proposed by the European Commission, much higher contribution in terms of CO2 reduction and energy efficiency will be expected from the industry. Nevertheless, energy efficiency targets for Latvian industry should be sector-specific, separately addressing CO2 intensive sectors, and non-intensive CO2 sectors with low added value.

Mitigation of CO2 emissions has become a top-question in international and national arenas, likewise on the city level. Existing CO2 mitigation measures are primarily oriented towards wider deployment of low-carbon technologies of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency measures, focusing on energy production, distribution and energy use sectors, as well as the transport sector. Due to higher CO2 reduction efficiency and the cost aspect, the direct CO2 mitigation options currently applied are mostly oriented on large scale CO2 generators. Meanwhile the rural, sparsely populated regions already suffer from a lack of innovative industrial economic activities, inhabitant’s migration to urban areas and mostly involved in agriculture, land use and forestry activities. They are also “saved” by the public authorities from targeted CO2 emissions mitigation actions, therefore, the understanding of processes within rural CO2 economy sectors, factors, interconnections and effects to the environment and nature quality and finally guidelines to future actions are crucial. To analyse CO2 valorisation options for regional development, a multi-modelling approach combining literature review, an indicator analysis method and a multi-criteria decision-making analysis were used. As a result, CO2 valorisation options and key performance indicators were defined and multi-criteria analysis for regional decarbonization scenarios were performed.

The European Union (EU) has set ambitious targets to increase the overall energy efficiency and decrease the environmental impact by introducing the ‘Green Deal.’ It is an EU plan for the transition to zero greenhouse gas emissions. The overall data analyses of GHG emissions per capita and GDP value in different EU countries show that the GDP increase in 2010–2017 has not increased GHG emissions. Therefore, the link between the GDP increase through energy resource usage increase has been eliminated. However, not all of the EU 27 member states contributed to the overall EU green policy equally. The article presents the methodology for the energy and environmental performance status analyses by evaluating nine different indicators (share of renewable energy, greenhouse gases per GDP, energy intensity, primary efficiency, industry efficiency, energy consumption in households, space heating efficiency, pollutant emissions from transport and specific energy consumption of transport sector) for EU member states. Indicators have been tested through correlation analyses. The use of multidimensional Energy and climate policy indicator has been proposed to rank the performance of different EU countries. The results show that the countries with the highest score in climate and energy indicator values are Sweden, Denmark, Latvia, Austria, Finland, Ireland, and Lithuania. The lowest obtained values are Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and France.

The manufacturing industry in Europe is currently enfacing one of its greatest challenges due to the emission reductions needed to reach carbon neutrality by the middle of this century. The European Union’s Energy Efficiency Directive and Green Deal will force manufacturing industries to significantly reduce their present energy consumption, but at the same time sustain their competitiveness globally. Here we use the Latvian manufacturing industry as a case to analyse how different macro-level factors have affected its energy use and how the industrial energy efficiency has progressed during the last decade. We apply the Log-Mean Divisia index decomposition method to decompose the energy use in the manufacturing subsectors over the period of the past ten years from 2010 to 2019. The findings unravel the key driving factors of industrial energy consumption, which could serve as a valuable basis for effective energy efficiency policymaking in the future. The results show that energy consumption trends differed across industrial subsectors and the effect of industrial energy efficiency improvements was more pronounced in the period following the entry into force of Energy Efficiency Law in Latvia. Significant increases in energy consumption are observed in the two largest Latvian manufacturing subsectors, such as the non-metallic minerals production sector and the wood processing sector, where the current pace of energy efficiency improvements cannot compensate for the effect of increasing industrial activity, which increases overall industrial energy consumption. The results suggest that the Latvian manufacturing industry is at the crossroads of the sustainability dilemma between economic gains and energy saving targets.

It is the responsibility of each member state of the European Union, to prepare a national energy and climate plan and set achievable climate targets and meaningful measures and policies to achieve the targets set. Annex 4 of the Latvian National Energy and Climate Plan for 2030 (hereinafter – NECP) provides an overview of policies and measures to achieve the climate targets. The NECP does not provide information on the impact of the policies or which measures are more important and which are less crucial Similarly, the measures in Annex 4 of the NECP were not determined by industry experts but by ministry officials, therefore, it is not clear whether the proposed measures will achieve the set climate targets, a point also made by European Commission in its evaluation report on NECP. The aim of the study is to develop a tool for the early assessment of the impact of energy and climate policy measures. The study developed a methodology to pre-assess the impacts of the policies identified in the NECP, impacts were described by measures effectiveness and stage of development. With this methodology, it is possible to assess the impact of energy policies using indicators to characterize the effectiveness of the policy and the level of development. The study confirmed that both the multi-criteria analysis and composite index method can be used as methods. The results showed that high impact measures were related to the promotion of energy efficiency in buildings, but low impact measures were comprehensive horizontal measures such as measures related principle ‘energy efficiency first’ and review of energy efficiency obligation schemes. The indicators with the highest impact on sustainability rate were possible side effects and transparency of policies.

Within the framework of the study a case study is performed, the data provided by a Latvian textile production company on their electricity and natural gas consumption, as well as production volumes over a three-year period have been analysed. The specific indicators of electricity, natural gas and CO2 emissions have been calculated and the obtained results are shown in graphs. The correlation of specific indicators with production volumes was analysed by correlation coefficient and linear regression methods. An analysis of statistical data for the calculated specific indicators over a three-year period has been performed. The obtained results show high seasonality of natural gas consumption and close connection between electricity consumption and production volumes.

Today cold chain transportation has become more important than before, as countries rely on cold chain logistics to store and transport SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and other temperature-sensitive goods. The cold chain is usually associated with the use of non-renewable materials and higher energy consumption than the regular supply chain. An important part of cold chain sustainability is thermal packaging. Up to now one of the most popular thermal packaging materials is polystyrene – made from fossil raw material. Polystyrene has low thermal conductivity and density, but it breaks down into micro- and nano plastics when exposed to sunlight making it environmentally unsustainable. To determine which factors are important for cold chain regarding thermal packaging, 12 criteria were compared to determine their ranking. Further multi-criteria analysis was used to compare polystyrene to four alternative biodegradable thermal packaging options: mycelium-based, corn starch, non-woven wool, and non-woven feathers. Polystyrene gained only 3rd place with a 0.70 proximity to ideal solution 1, but non-woven wool showed the best result with 0.88 proximity to ideal solution.

Targets set by the European Green Deal to increase efficiency, reach towards sustainable development and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have placed additional focus on necessary improvements in heating and cooling sector. This article aims to determine whether the objectives set at the EU and on the member state level for achieving climate and environmental goals are being implemented at the regional and local levels. The case of Latvia is considered. A keyword extraction text analysis method is used to identify whether improving the efficiency of heating and cooling is included in regional and local sustainable development strategies. Results are evaluated by using multi-criteria analysis methods TOPSIS and AHP, to determine how much attention in the strategies is paid to direct heating and cooling supply aspects and overall efficiency aspects. Results obtained while assessing the sustainable development strategies of cities and municipalities are compared with the climate index of their heating supply. Considerable differences can be seen in the inclusion of heating and cooling efficiency improvement plans in the strategies at regional and local levels.

Early 2020 Latvian government approved the National Energy and Climate Plan 2021 – 2030 (hereinafter - NECP2030) – a long-term energy and climate planning document setting the basic principles, goals and action lines of Latvia’s national energy and climate policy for the next ten years. Although a specific target of 800 MW for wind energy development has been set, there is limited information provided on the means of achieving the wind energy target. A roadmap on wind energy development would be helpful for the stakeholders, providing a clear plan on the wind energy development, including the assessment of the most suitable form of wind energy for Latvia. The goal of this study is to propose a flexible and adaptable tool to assess, compare and select the most advantageous wind energy development alternatives for policy makers. The research goal is met by applying sustainability SWOT analysis in combination with the Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, using the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution. The combination of two provides a) an evaluation of comparable criteria for onshore and offshore wind energy b) assessment of the wind energy sustainability within the selected scenarios c) selection of the best possible scenario. The proposed method can help structure and lessen the complexity around the wind energy dilemma while considering economic, environment, social and technological aspects.

Latvia, like many other European Member States, faces major challenges in achieving climate goals within the Paris Agreement – emission reduction for 50–55 % by 2030 and net-zero emission economy by 2050. Decarbonization of the energy sector is one of the main aims and sustainable use of biogas is one of the ways to reach these targets. Although the biogas sector in Latvia is now mainly based on the production of electricity and heat in cogeneration plants, often using specially grown energy crops, and payments of the mandatory procurement component have expired, biogas plants are preparing for reconstruction for the production of biomethane with the help of European fund investments.

Europe has a course to zero emissions by 2050, with a strong emphasis on energy sector. Due to climatic conditions in Latvia, district heating (DH) plays an important role in the energy sector. One of the solutions to achieve the set goals in DH is to introduce emission-free technology. Therefore, the popularity of installation of large-scale solar collector plants continues to increase in DH in Europe. The first large-scale solar collector field in the Baltic States was installed in 2019. Solar collector active area is 21 672 m2 with heat storage water tank 8000 m3. The article shows the first operation results of this system and evaluates influencing factors. The results of the analysis show that system productivity is mainly demanded by solar radiation, and the strongest correlation between these parameters were established in May. The highest correlation between ambient air temperature and produced thermal energy is reached when ambient air temperature is between 7 °C to 15 °C and production process has not been externally regulated. The temperature difference between flow and return temperatures of the heat carrier affect solar collector performance minimally and strong correlation was not observed.

The awareness of bioeconomy role within currently set EU policy targets towards zero carbon emissions and its contribution to achieving the sustainable development goals has been increasing during the last decade. However, it is not always straightforward how the development scenarios for bioeconomy can be evaluated on national level. Moreover, the large number of factors affecting the development of bioconomy is hard to evaluate altogether. Therefore, this study reviews currently available tools for bioresource value modelling in order to select an approach that is suitable for modelling different scenarios of bioeconomy development. As a result of the review, the study presents a methodology, which allows to estimate how higher added values of bioresource products can be achieved in different bioeconomy sectors. The concept of model is tested within a case study of fisheries sector in Latvia. The results of case study show economically viable scenario for added value target set for 2030. The concept of model is found to be adequate, and the use of the defined methodology is appropriate for bioresource value modelling.

Renewable energy sources are expanding opportunities for industrial development and can boost economic growth and create new jobs. In all European Union (EU) countries, including Latvia, it is possible to use renewable energy resources cost-effectively. The world is now at the beginning of the global energy transformation. Cost-effective renewable energy technologies provided an opportunity for sufficient development to reach ambitious climate targets of the EU Directive 2009/28/EC. Some systems are not only dependent on the interaction of many elements and dynamics over time, but they are also variable in space. In this context, energy production from local and renewable resources is one of the most relevant examples. It is characterized by many spatially variable elements, such as biomass availability, wind speed, solar radiation, location of power plants, transmission network infrastructure, energy demand, etc. It is crucial to explore the spatial distribution of resources to plan territorially-unified development of renewable energy and, consequently, promote efficient use of resources. This paper describes the data acquisition process of the spatial distribution of renewable energy sources. ArcGIS PRO and data collected from the various databases were used to describe the energy sectors according to resources, spheres of consumption and regions.

Many authors have discussed the paradigm shift in economy from linear to circular. Population growth and climate change caused resource scarcity are the main driving forces of shifting to circularity approach. Although consumers have been slower regarding transitioning to more sustainable economy, production companies are the ones who have felt the scarcity of resources first. In this paper we are exploring cross-laminated timber (CLT) production residue utilization possibilities for new product production and using multi-criteria analysis calculating the most promising recycling alternative from the perspective of companies working with wood as raw material. Data matrix for multi-criteria analysis was constructed from literature analysis gathering data on five criteria: (1) production costs; (2) energy consumption; (3) CO2 emissions; (4) product market price and (5) final product to wood residues ratio. Multi-criteria analysis showed that production of mycelium insulation material is the most promising alternative for CLT production residue recycling.

This paper aims to provide an evaluation of solar energy efficiency by composite index and to compare the value of solar energy across 19 countries located over four continents: Europe, Africa, America, and Asia. 15 indicators were evaluated for the year of 2019 and grouped into four dimensions: economic, social, technical, and environmental. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to estimate the weight of each indicator, and consistency tests were calculated to evaluate weight efficiency. The obtained results of the SEI reveals that the technical dimension and economic dimension play an important role in the solar energy efficiency of a country. The results indicate potential improvement areas for increasing solar efficiency. SEI can be used as a tool in assessing solar energy potential integration in a country.

Biodiplomacy involves searching for a delicate balance and establishing a dialogue on the necessity to achieve international goals to develop the bioeconomy. The substantive basis of biodiplomacy is understanding bioresources, technological solutions for their extraction and use, indicators, and evaluation possibilities. The article is devoted to the establishment of a biodiplomatic institution. Such institutions will help young specialists in various economic sectors to develop competence approaches, acquire knowledge and build awareness that will make them competent to solve problems related to bioeconomy development and future, looking for efficient use of bio-resources and high value-added production. The aims and objectives of biodiplomatics are ambitious, which means that forms of study training must be attractive and multi-layered. Thus, the authors have analysed formative work assessment in the form of group work. With the help of a role game, the participation of different sections of society in developing the bioeconomy in agriculture, forestry and aquaculture was simulated. The article is devoted to the situation analysis, creating a model for building competencies, awareness, and knowledge of biodiplomats, and approbating it in the formative assessment work of the Riga Technical University bachelor’s study program in environmental engineering, organised as a role game.

The paper examines the role and place of green enterprises, green jobs and the environmentally sound activities of society in waste management, taking into account the waste management hierarchy with an emphasis on waste reduction and prevention. In the course of the work, a questionnaire was prepared on the role green enterprises, green jobs and the environmentally friendly activities of society play in the development of a waste management system. The TOPSIS method of multi-criteria analysis was used to assess these roles in the development of a circular economy, including in relation to a waste management system. Through the assessment of the roles of these green measures in the field of waste management, the results clearly show that the most effective of the selected alternatives in the circular economy model in the field of separate collection and recycling of waste can be achieved via measure exercised by green enterprises, followed by green jobs and finally – the role of environmentally sound activities taken by the public, which play an important role as well.

The present study has investigated the effect of oil rich medium supplementation with polysorbates Tween 20, 40 and 80, for the cultivation of red oleaginous yeast Rhodotorula glutinis. R. glutinis has been cultivated in yeast extract peptone glucose modified broth (mYPG) supplemented with 2 % of waste cooking rapeseed oil and three polysorbate types with 0.5 %, 1 %, 2%, 3 %, 4 %, 5 %, 6 %, 7 %, 8 %, 9 % and 10 % concentration each. Yeast biomass was measured by the thermogravimetric method at 105 °C each day during 7-day experiment. The oil rich medium supplementation with Tween 20, 40 and 80 at concentrations ranging from 2 % to 10 % significantly increased the biomass of R. glutinis. All three types of the studied polysorbates with 0.5 % and 1 % concentration, did not affect yeast growth and the dry biomass – results were similar to the control sample without polysorbate addition. Between the three types of polysorbates, Tween 20 was selected as the preferable for R. glutinis cultivation with an optimal concentration of 2 %. Cultivation of R. glutinis in oil rich medium with polysorbates Tween 20, 40 and 80, supplementation up to 10 % concentration did not have had an inhibitory effect on the biomass growth.

In this article, work was carried out to study the chemical, mineralogical composition and toxicological properties of waste (phosphogypsum, phosphorus slags, overburden) of the phosphorus industry, the optimal content of the grain composition of gravel-sand mixtures in the composition of road mixtures (crushed stone, sand-gravel, sand) and structures of the Zhambyl region of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The possibilities of using slag-mineral mixtures in the year - round construction of highways were studied on the basis of a comprehensive study of the physicochemical processes of hardening and the formation of the structure of slag-mineral materials at negative temperatures. Technological regimes for the construction of roads of various technical categories from slag binding materials, reformed after long-term freezing, have been established. New, unparalleled, binding road mixtures have been created to increase the utilization of waste from the phosphorus industry and expand the raw material base of road building materials. The main directions of application of road mixtures based on industrial waste for the purposes of road construction have been developed: construction of structural layers of road pavements; construction of road bed layers.

The aim of presented study was to identify the most promising new business models which could help to reach climate and energy targets. ‘Business model’ means new opportunities (e.g. business for profit or non-profit community collaboration models) enabled by various technologies in energy domains, i.e., heat and power supply and demand as well as mobility. Based on scientific publications, nine most important technologies and 37 new business models, which could be among the most important for sustainable energy transition, were identified. Mapping of the new business models was done by looking at synergies between the technologies and the energy domains. Valuation of the business models is done by finding ‘expected impact’ with regards to reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which is obtained by multiplication of two factors: ‘potential’ and ‘feasibility’. The ’potential’ represents ability to reduce GHG emissions considering technical characteristics of technologies involved and scalability. The ‘feasibility’ indicates how realistic is implementation of the new business model in the near to mid-term. Experts in the field of energy and environmental engineering were interviewed to obtain scores for the ‘potential’ and the ‘feasibility’ for all business models. The results show that electric mobility is among the solutions with the largest expected impact for reduction of GHG emissions. Results of this valuation will be used to choose the most promising solutions for further analysis with system dynamic modelling.

Implementation of bioeconomy has become an important topic on the national and global scale. Bioeconomy and its development is considered to be affected by many factors, for example, climate change, production, technology, waste and so on. Even more, there are linkages between these factors which, when discovered, could help to achieve one of the bioeconomy’s goals – sustainable use of bioresources. This paper analysis the interlinkage between two bioeconomy affecting factors – climate change and production. It was discovered that between two chosen factors there are seven common indicators: greenhouse gas emissions, investments in energy efficiency, energy consumption, waste generated, resource productivity, created wastewater, and use of freshwater. Regression method was used to conduct the strongest links between these common indicators. Results showed that the strongest links are between the indicators: resource productivity and GHG emissions, energy consumption and waste generated, and resource productivity and waste generated.