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The goal 12 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development takes into consideration the responsible consumption and production in the perspective of circular economy. The agri-food sector is more actively involved in these initiatives, because it offers the possibility to exploit waste and by-products, by adopting suitable biotechnologies. Such processes can be carried out either under aerobic conditions, for the production of compost, or anaerobically, for the production of biogas. In this work the case of a plant managed by Desag Ecologia, located in the municipality of Sedegliano, in the North-East of Italy, is presented. The plant started up in June 2016. Its main activity consists in exploitation of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste and urban forestry green waste coming from separate waste collection. The basin of provenance of collected materials consists not only of the province of Udine, but also of other areas of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region and other northern Italian regions. The plant ensures the production of both biogas (used in a cogeneration installation for producing electricity and heat) and quality compost, which can be used in agriculture, after submission to physico-chemical analyses to verify the end-of-waste status. In this way, the reduction of waste disposal in landfill is ensured. Thermal energy is partially recovered for the production of hot water to heat the anaerobic digester, the leachate collection tank and the plant rooms. Approximately 10% of electricity is self-consumed for the needs of the anaerobic facility, the remaining amount is fed straight into the public electricity network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, more and more companies are implementing good environmental practices. Environmental certifications, besides being valuable management tools for companies, given the opportunity to strengthen their role on the market. An example of such virtuous behavior is the case of Valcucine, an enterprise of the Livenza furniture district in Northern Italy. Valcucine focuses its care in the production of furniture, in particular of kitchen units, characterized by sustainable production, eco-compatibility of materials and the lowest possible environmental impacts. Valcucine wishes to transfer its philosophy to customers by improving product quality, rationalizing the use of recyclable virgin raw materials, employing also recycled materials and reducing dangerous emissions into the environment. For this reason, Valcucine obtained several certifications, such as ISO 14001, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), F**** (4 stars) Japanese Standard and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). In particular, the LEED certification, obtained for the Invitrum and Meccanica production lines, allows the enterprise both to differentiate from the competitors and to enter new segments of the market, such as the Arab Countries, where the LEED certification is renowned and appreciated. This gives a strong competitive advantage to Valcucine, working in a production field which has been saturated for many years. This virtuous behavior of the enterprise fits well in the principles inspiring circular economy and perfectly embraces the Goals 6 (Clean and Water Sanitation), 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and 15 (Life on Land). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transport of both goods and passengers notably influences air quality. If strong decisions by the governments will not be taken, oil consumption for transport will be nearly doubled in 2030 if compared with 2000, thus considerably increasing the atmospheric presence of greenhouse gases. To boost the purchase of alternatively supplied cars would avoid serious, if not catastrophic, climatic changes. Our investigation shows what the situation is concerning new cars sold by SINA, an official concessionary firm of ten brands in the province of Pordenone, in the North East of Italy, covering about 40% of the local market. The supply types and the brands of the new cars sold in the branch offices of the firm from 2011 to August 2015 have been taken into consideration. The most sold cars are still petrol and diesel supplied, whereas alternatively supplied cars (liquefied oil gases, methane and electric) represent nowadays only 7.51% of the total in this territory. Processing of the data that have been put at our disposal by the firm allowed to compare the situation of the province of Pordenone with the Italian one, and to put in light the critical aspects still hindering the purchase of alternatively supplied cars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]