Researchers have modelled the exposure to multiple hazards across different regions of Europe in relation to heat, cold, drought, wildfire, flooding and wind. The study indicated that, over the next century, environmental hazards are likely to increase, particularly along coastlines and on floodplains, and that south-western Europe is likely to be the worst-hit region.

The available and emerging renewable technologies suitable for urban environments have been assessed in a recent study. Wind and solar technology can now be integrated into building design, and smart grids and metering can more efficiently manage energy production and demand at a local level. Investing in community-level renewable-energy projects can, therefore, help meet the future energy needs of towns and cities.

A new study has assessed the vulnerability of 571 European cities to heatwaves, droughts and flooding caused by climate change. The causes of vulnerability differ across Europe and the researchers say the results could be used to design policies to mitigate the impacts.

Phytoplankton are essential to marine food webs and fisheries. However, a new study indicates that their levels have declined in the North Atlantic since the beginning of the 19th century. This coincides with weakening ocean-circulation patterns, partly caused by melting ice caps. If the melting continues, the study warns of a dramatic fall in North Atlantic plankton levels that could have cascading effects across marine food webs, reducing the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon and threatening the supply of seafood for humans.

Reducing uncertainties about how and why recycling should be sorted could help to increase the amount of waste that is recycled, according to new research from Sweden. Uncertainties could be reduced by providing people with more information, but are more likely to be resolved by making the recycling systems themselves easier to use, the researchers suggest.

Although life cycle assessment (LCA) is a widely accepted method for supporting decision-making, it can face difficulties when being translated into practical life cycle management. A recent case study on local waste management has led to the development of several principles to ensure that LCAs are understandable and applicable.

End-of-life-vehicles are a major stream of waste in the EU. A new study investigates the costs of landfill, advanced thermal treatment and incineration of waste from vehicle recycling factories and suggests that the factories are profitable, even while operating under strict conditions designed to meet the requirements of the EU’s Directive on End-of-Life vehicles.

Vast resources are required to extract speciality and difficult-to-recycle metals that are often only used once before disposal. Researchers argue in a new analysis that more must be done to improve metal recycling rates in order to secure our material needs for the future.

Sustainable management of phosphorus requires better information on how it flows through the environment via consumption and waste. New research from Sweden has found that 40% of phosphorus released by Gothenburg to the environment is in sewage sludge and a further 40% is in incineration ash. This suggests that phosphorus could be recycled from solid waste as well as from wastewater.

The environmental benefits of recycling construction and demolition waste (CDW) are considerable, even after accounting for the impacts of the recycling process itself, research confirms. By assessing CO2 and energy use at a large-scale recycling plant in Portugal reseachers have shown that, over its 60-year lifespan, the CO2 emissions prevented will be ten times as much as those produced, and eight times as much energy will be saved, than is used.

Management of waste from construction and demolition sites is a major concern, particularly in urban areas where large volumes of materials are generated. A recent study on the construction and demolition waste (CDW) produced in Lisbon, Portugal, suggests that improved municipal collection systems are needed to reduce the amount of waste ending up in landfill or illegal disposal sites.

Recycling ships for scrap is a known asbestos exposure hazard, yet this study is one of few to trace asbestos-related cancer rates in shipbreaking workers. The results, obtained from former shipbreakers in Taiwan, show higher rates of cancer overall, especially oesophageal and lung cancers.

A 2013 study has estimated the costs of upgrading existing ship recycling facilities to more environmentally friendly, and regulatory compliant, standards. The research focuses on alternatives to the ‘beaching’ method of shipbreaking, widely criticised for its environmental impact and safety record.

Ship recycling at the end of a ship’s useful life aims to make the shipping industry more environmentally sustainable and is a major source of employment in developing countries. However, there are associated health, safety and environmental concerns. This study argues these concerns are due to inappropriate design and explains how ‘design for recycling’ can reduce the costs and risks of ship recycling.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) can measure the environmental impact of the different stages of a ship’s life cycle, from design to dismantling. This assessment focused on the impact of recycling the metal parts of a ship and did not consider the crucial impact of the hazardous materials present on board. The results showed that re-use of metals had environmental benefits, but overall these were small compared to the environmental impact of other life cycle stages, such as operation.

Recycling has significant environmental benefits and is key to a circular economy. The EU has set a goal for Member States to recycle 50% of their municipal waste by 2020 and plans to set a 65% target for 2030, although progress towards this goal is variable. This study assessed a waste separation scheme in Malta, a Member State with traditionally low levels of recycling. Even though mixed waste was collected more frequently and for free, residents contributed to the voluntary recycling scheme, with participation increasing over time. This study provides useful insights for developing voluntary policy approaches.

The development of future recycling technologies must be informed by data about products and materials that will enter the waste stream, but such forecasts are subject to a high level of uncertainty. In this study, researchers have proposed a methodology for predicting emerging waste materials, applying it to silicon-based photovoltaic (PV) panels. The findings show that closed-loop recycling — when post-consumer waste is recycled to make new products — of PV panel materials could mitigate up to 0.2% of the annual environmental impact of Flanders1, Belgium, if suitable technology was developed.

The decline of urban populations and abandonment of buildings and land could provide an opportunity to promote ecosystem services, a new study suggests. The researchers examined the relationships between the use of abandoned land and ecosystem services, providing insight into the pros and cons of different urban planning policies.

"The importance of hybrid cloud and AI has accelerated. What has changed is the pace at which they're being adopted. Transformation journeys (of) last few years are now being compacted into months...They're looking for long lasting answers on what they can do with technology to address the key issues that COVID-19 has brought to light," he said.

Sixty-four per cent of organizations in India and Europe invested in cloud technologies in the last two years, followed by IoT, where 51% firms made investments.

As clients turn to vendor consolidation, IT firm may acquire captives global firms may hive off

Traditional services also have some very strong propositions, like digital workplace, engineering services. Some of the demand for that is intact and it is only getting accelerated.

Aeration technologies designed to help landfill waste break down faster need to be refined in order to reduce pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and the long-term costs associated with landfill. This is according to a recent review of landfill aeration, which outlines some of the different systems currently available and highlights the need for better monitoring and sharing of data.

The growing use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services is producing an increasing amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. New research has proposed a network model spanning Europe, USA and Canada that uses ‘cloud computing’ to supply renewable energy to IT data centres.

Recycling offers a promising means of supplying the rare earth elements neodymium and dysprosium, used in computing and low-carbon technologies, research suggests. If recycling infrastructure and technologies are prepared now to deal with the larger volumes of high-tech waste expected in the future, 7-9% of global demand for these critical elements could be met by recycling by the year 2030.

Desktop three-dimensional (3D) printers, available for use in offices and homes, can release between 20 and 200 billion ultra-fine particles (UFPs) per minute, finds new research. UFPs may pose a risk to health, and the study’s authors recommend caution when operating 3D printers inside unventilated or unfiltered indoor environments.

‘Climate-smart agriculture’ aims to sustainably increase agricultural production and increase resilience to climate change. One aspect focuses on climate-smart technologies. This study interviewed users and producers of these technologies, highlighting barriers to adoption and possible means of overcoming them, including increasing awareness, user-focused design and changes to policy.

Storing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) has the potential to mitigate the impacts of changes in climate. Researchers have now developed a way to inject CO2 into volcanic rock, and tested it in Iceland. Over 95% of the injected CO2 was mineralised (converted into a solid) within two years, instead of taking centuries or millennia as previously anticipated. The technique demonstrates potential for the permanent and safe storage of CO2 within basaltic rocks.

Indium, a unique metal, is in short supply worldwide and is not recycled at the end of its life (EoL). Indium is used in a wide range of technologies, causing regions across the world that are reliant on its import — such as Europe — to be concerned about security of supply. Primary sources of indium are thought to be sufficient for medium-term needs, but with growing demand comes growing concern over long-term supply. A new study has conducted a material flow analysis and examined secondary sources of indium within European ‘urban mines’ and in-use stocks (IUS) of indium products, identifying these as potential sources of 500 tonnes of indium — if it were recycled at EoL.

A new study lists 10 factors to help create a closed-loop supply chain for critical materials. However, interviews with key actors in supply chains for photovoltaic (PV) panels and wind turbines suggest that manufacturers and recyclers hold different perspectives on these factors. The research highlights the importance of cooperation between supply-chain actors, as well as investment in technologies and infrastructure for closed-loop supply chains.

A new study explores how to weigh up the costs and benefits of technologies that extract phosphorus from livestock waste for re-use as fertiliser. Findings from a US case study suggest that recycling phosphorus in this way can cut both water pollution levels and the costs of cleaning up the mineral. However, the technologies’ long-term economic feasibility depends on the yield, quality, and market value of the recovered phosphorus.

Researchers use life-cycle assessment (LCA) as a tool to evaluate the environmental impact of products and technologies across their entire lifetime — from extraction of raw material to end-of-life (disposal or recycling). It is challenging to apply the conventional LCA method to new or emerging technologies, however, due to the sheer quantity of data needed for such studies. This study proposes a screening-to-LCA method that uses available data to systematically evaluate the performance of such technologies, and support the uptake of those that are most environmentally sustainable.

Scheduled cleanup

Following extreme weather events, many countries are unable to afford the costs of providing relief to communities and repairing infrastructure, a new study suggests. The researchers estimate that providing relief on a global scale for events which recur every 10 to 50 years would cost US$3.3 billion (€2.37 billion) annually.

The environmental and economic costs of a selection of common crops have been determined by a new study, which hopes to improve agricultural sustainability assessments in Europe. The researchers used life cycle analysis on organically farmed tomatoes and pears, and intensively farmed wheat, apples, and lettuce to show the overall impact of agricultural methods.

The economic costs of replacing energy inefficient high-pressure mercury (HPM) lamps, used in outdoor lighting, with more efficient alternatives have been explored in a recent study. High-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps would be more cost effective than light-emitting-diode (LED) technology, although the researchers say LEDs could become more economical in the future.

Grapes are sensitive to small changes in temperature, rain and sunlight, meaning climate change will have implications for wine producers worldwide. This study assessed local vulnerabilities and adaptation strategies in two wine-producing areas in France. The findings may help growers to develop suitable methods of adapting to long-term climate change.

A new study has estimated how changes to climate might affect the value of European farmland. Based on data for over 41 000 farms, the results suggest that their economic value could drop by up to 32%, depending on the climate scenario considered. Farms in southern Europe are particularly sensitive to climate change and could suffer value losses of up to 9% per 1 °C rise. The researchers say policy, on water and land use, for example, will be crucial to help farmers adapt to climate change and mitigate economic losses.

Consumers are willing to pay more for food that has been produced via sustainable processes and with a reduced environmental impact. A large-scale US survey, that questioned strawberry consumers on aspects of sustainable food production, suggests that food producers could benefit from increased premiums if product ecolabels were to advertise specific environmental virtues.

The U.S. prison population continued to rise even after the crime rate began declining in the mid-1990s because judges were faced with more repeat offenders, a new study suggests.

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In the real-time economy, the demand for cloud services keeps growing with the hybrid cloud as the optimal architecture for handling the inevitable complexity of the agile company’s IT infrastructure.

Recent research suggests that increasing the number of private electric vehicles would have very little impact on electricity consumption in Milan, Italy. However, unless there are suitable regulations, the daily demand for power to recharge the vehicles at peak times could overload the capacity of the electric supply system.

Researchers have identified policies in Denmark, Germany and The Netherlands that have made cycling safe, convenient and mainstream in these countries. Coordinated transport, educational and land use measures have increased the popularity of this sustainable mode of transport over recent decades.

A recent study has assessed the lifecycle environmental impact during the production and use phase of three battery types for plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and full performance battery electric vehicles (BEV). The study indicates that newer lithium-ion (Li-ion) technologies outperform current nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries and identifies processes contributing to 13 environmental impacts.

The promotion of diesel-fuelled cars in Europe may not have had the beneficial environmental effects that were expected, research suggests. It has been assumed that they help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the transport sector, but studies show that their fuel efficiency is lower than previously believed, while their black carbon and nitrogen oxides emissions are higher. The consequent reduction in global warming effects from diesel cars may therefore be negligible, perhaps even negative.