Carbon balance of plywood from a social reforestation program in Indonesia
Social reforestation programs plant trees on degraded, uncultivated land in low-income regions to allow the local population to generate income from selling wood products and—in case of agroforestry systems—to grow food. For fundraising it is of interest to demonstrate not only positive social impacts but also environmental ones. Proving negative greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions would allow the programs to enter the market for carbon offsetting projects and liberate further funding. In a case study of a social reforestation program in Kalimantan, Indonesia, GHG emissions of laminated veneer lumber plywood are determined as 622 and 21 kg CO₂‑e/m³ for short-term and long-term use, respectively. Switching to lignin-based resins and renewable electricity could reduce emissions down to −363 kg CO₂‑e/m³ for long-term use. The analyzed agroforestry system produces almost carbon–neutral plywood today and could be climate positive in the mid-term.
Visualization supported corporate decision making for life cycle sustainability assessment
– Illustrated using a case study for selecting a sustainable packaging system for self‑leveling compounds
Product life cycle assessment (LCA) and sustainability assessment have proven as powerful methods to identify sustainability hotspots and support decision making. In practice, corporate decision support is often hampered by the complexity resulting from the three sustainability dimensions and inherent uncertainties. In this study, a novel a posteriori visualization is presented, based on the concept of satisficing or similarly sustainable alternatives integrating scenarios to account for different use options. This allows the decision makers (DMs) including management‑relevant information in their decision while selecting a satisficing alternative. The presented approach supports consensus building among DMs with differing weighting preferences for the three pillars of sustainability as common in life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) and leads to a consensus in product selection for relevant scenarios. This also supports the selection of more robust alternatives under a variety of use cases compared to the common focus on best performing alternatives for a particular use case.
Polyoxometallat‐ionische Flüssigkeiten (POM‐ILs) als Antikorrosions‐ und antibakterielle Beschichtung für Natursteine
Die Korrosion von Steinen durch sauren Regen oder Biofilmbildung verursacht weltweit Schäden an Industrie‐und Wohngebäuden sowie an kulturhistorischen Artefakten wie Statuen. Hier zeigen wir, wie typische Bausteine vor Korrosion (Verwitterung) sowie Biofilmbildung (biologischer Verfall) durch dünne Polyoxometallat‐ionische Flüssigkeitsfilme (POM‐ILs) geschützt werden. Steinproben, die mit wasserabweisenden, säureresistenten, antimikrobiellen POM‐ILs beschichtet wurden, widerstehen dem Angriff von simuliertem saurem Regen, wohingegen unbeschichtete Proben starke Korrosion zeigen. Zudem verhindern die bioziden Eigenschaften der POM‐ILs effektiv die Bildung von Biofilmen auf den beschichteten Steinen. Eine neue Klasse modularer molekularer Materialien für den Schutz von Steinen kann nun entwickelt werden. Mögliche Einsatzgebiete sind das Bauwesen, der Umweltschutz sowie der Kulturgutschutz.
From CO2 to carbon nanomaterials – Potentials for climate change mitigation
In most scenarios limiting climate change to 2 °C as aimed for in the Paris Agreement is only achievable by including negative emission technologies (NET). For the 1.5 °C target, scenarios without NET aren’t even existing. In our contribution we explore the possible role carbon nanomaterials (CNM) could play for negative carbon emissions.
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Ökobilanzexperte und Verifizierer für Treibhausgase bei TÜV SÜD.
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