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The main purpose of this research study is to explore higher education students' environmental knowledge, attitudes and behavior. To achieve this goal, a questionnaire was conducted among the students of a public higher education institution (HEI) in Portugal. Our findings result from 371 valid responses and allow us to conclude that most students have significant environmental knowledge, have environmentally friendly attitudes and are environmentally responsible in the areas of use of paper, recycling and energy consumption. Results also indicate that most students are aware of the importance of protecting the environment and consider themselves well informed about environmental issues. Students' main information sources of environmental information are television, social networks and the HEI they attend. We conclude that more attention should be given to HEIs, due to their significant potential to educate and train future decision makers in a society, to enhance a more protective approach to the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the development of a carbon dioxide emissions matrix for the Oeiras municipality, one of the largest Portuguese municipalities, located in the metropolitan area of Lisbon. This matrix takes into account greenhouse gas emissions, caused by an increase of electricity demand in buildings as well as solid and liquid wastes treatment, from the domestic and services sectors. Using emission factors that were calculated from the relationship between the produced energy and amount of treated wastes, greenhouse gas emissions in the Oeiras municipality, were estimated for a time series of six years (1998 to 2003). The results obtained showed that the electricity sector accounts for about 75% of the municipal emissions in 2003. This study constitutes a tool to define sectors for appropriate action, including energy planning and also public information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research focuses on electric vehicles as part of the Portuguese policy to make the transportation system more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. The main goal is to estimate the fleetwide energy consumption and corresponding carbon dioxide emissions up to 2030 and examine to what extent the introduction of electric vehicles will reduce those indicators. A system dynamics model of the Portuguese car fleet was developed that captures the inter relationships between the main drivers of the system while simulating the car owners’ behavior when selecting technologies. To analyze the evolution of energy consumption and carbon emissions, a scenario analysis is followed. In addition, a series of transportation policy instruments is tested in each scenario in order to analyze reduction effectiveness of emissions and increasing diffusion of electric vehicles. We concluded that a fast-growing economy is the best scenario to decrease energy consumption mostly due to the expected increase in fuel efficiency of the car stock deriving from a faster technological turnover of internal combustion engine vehicles. Regarding transportation policy instruments, the increase in the tax applied to fossil-fuel sales as well as applied to conventional vehicles’ sales are the most efficient policies to increase the diffusion of electric vehicles. Importantly, according to our results, the uptake of electric vehicles is expected to be rather low (less than 10% of new cars until 2030), regardless of the scenario or transportation policy analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Indoor air quality recently entered legislation in Portugal. Several parameters must be evaluated and kept within limits in order to obtain a certification for air quality and energy consumption. Certification parameters were analyzed in two Portuguese archives in order to assess indoor air quality both for people attending or working on these premises and for maintenance of a written heritage that must be retained for future generations. Carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2), formaldehyde, and fungal counts were kept within stipulated limits. Relative humidity (RH), volatile organic compounds (VOC), particulate matter (PM10), and ozone (O3) showed values above legislated levels and justified the implementation of corrective measures. In terms of conservation, studies on the limit values are still needed, but according to the available international guidelines, some of the analyzed parameters such as PM10, O3, and RH were also above desirable values. Corrective measures were proposed to these institutions. Although this study was only of a short duration, it proved valuable in assessing potential eventual problems and constitutes the first Portuguese indoor air quality assessment taking into consideration both aspects of an archive such as human health and heritage safekeeping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A methodology for assessing fossil fuel-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from operations performed in eucalypt and maritime pine stands was developed and applied to Portugal. This methodology includes all the operations carried out during site preparation, stand establishment, stand tending, logging and infrastructure establishment. For the year 2000, CO2 emissions for the entire area of maritime pine and eucalypt stands in Portugal were estimated to be 51 and 67 Gg CO2 year-1, respectively. These results demonstrate the more intensive nature of the management activities used in eucalypt stands, as these stands occupied an area approximately 30% smaller than maritime pine stands and produced only 5% more harvested wood than maritime pine stands. Wood logging accounted for approximately 40% of the total annual CO2 emissions in both stands. The results obtained from a sensitivity analysis suggest that annual CO2 emissions from eucalypt and maritime pine stands could be decreased by nearly 20% if, simultaneously, mowing is used instead of disking in clearing/cleaning operations, soil scarification is made by furrowing and ridging instead of ripping followed by subsoiling, and forwarders are used instead of modified farm tractors in wood extraction. A reduction of approximately 30% could be obtained for maritime pine stands if, in addition, natural regeneration is used instead of planting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]