The purpose of this work is to present the application of Emergy Analysis to a biogas power plant, with the aim at assessing its integrated sustainability and studying how the emergy indicators of sustainability depend on the boundary selection. The object of the analysis is a biogas power plant fed on agriculture and zootechnical biomass. The complex interaction of the involved subsystems and the exchange of resource flows require powerful integrated analyses as well as the definition of reliable performance indicators. Emergy Analysis has been addressed as specifically useful to integrate the upstream and the downstream aspects along with the potential circularity of resource flows, providing in this way a quantitative estimation of the sustainability performance of the systems. The analysis was applied at two scales: the Reference System (biogas power plant plus the agricultural cultivations) and the Expanded System, which includes also the cattle breeding, whose main purpose is meat and milk production, but which provides the liquid cattle manure for the Reference System operation. The main emergy indicators have been calculated and reported: for the Reference System, the transformity of produced electricity results similar to fossil-based energy production systems; the Emergy Yield Ratio is about 1, showing that the system cannot be considered as an energy source, rather acting like a consumer; the Environmental Loading Ratio is very high, as the local renewable fraction of the resources exploited is very low compared to the non-renewable ones. The expansion of the system analysis allows to study the added value of linking the subsystems agriculture-breeding-energy production, which provide more products and services to the economy than the sole energy. The need of performing sustainability assessment at different scales appears to be presently the main issue in the analyses that should result suitable for the policy-making processes.

Digestate derived from the anaerobic digestion of biowaste is a nutrient-rich substance whose direct use on land is not permitted by the Italian Legislation. The possibility of recovering its nutrients can be given by the processes of stabilisation and sanitation required by the Italian Legislation. Among these processes, composting and calcium hydrolysis with neutralization (CHN) permit to obtain useful soil improvers like compost and defecation gypsum (DG). In this paper a gate-to-gate Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of these two processes is performed to evaluate their relative environmental sustainability, by using the ReCiPe H midpoint and endpoint impact assessment methods. The functional units (FUs) used in this analysis are one tonne of digestate treated by each process, and the amount of compost and DG necessary to amend one hectare of maize cultivation. Data used in the assessment were collected from plants located in Northern Italy and were referred to one year of operation. The processes of transport and spreading on land of the final products were not considered. The results of both the analyses show that CHN is the process with the largest environmental impacts, mainly due to the use of chemicals (i.e., sulfuric acid and calcium oxide). For both processes and FUs, the most impacted midpoint categories are Natural land transformation, Marine ecotoxicity and Freshwater ecotoxicity. Among the endpoint categories Resources is the most impacted one (followed by Human Health and Ecosystems), for both FUs, although showing larger differences for the agronomic use.

Although neglected in the narrative about smart and sustainable cities, the communities of animals should be regarded as part of the citizenry, for biophysical, systemic and ethical reasons. The structures taking care of the abandoned dogs in most cases can count almost only on private donations and voluntary work, despite the relevant resource flows needed for the system management. In this work, an emergy analysis is presented for a Dog Shelter, located in North-Eastern Italy, that hosts more than 100 abandoned dogs (plus as many cats), providing health care, food, shelter, company, and -in several casesspecific physical and psychological support. The Shelter provides also the formation of volunteers and, thanks to several public events, promotes public awareness and possibly the re-integration of the four-legged guests in a family. Emergy accounting results showed the criticality of a system that cannot define a budget in advance, nor make any reliable prediction about the flows of resources needed for the next year, or even month. Furthermore, it was pointed out the need for a continuous feedback action between the image of the structure, carried by its own activities and by the public events, and the flow of donations supporting the Shelter, that in turn contribute to increase the quality of the service. The sej/dog was calculated for the whole care of the “average dog” during one year.

Emergy analysis (EMA) is a thermodynamic-based method used for the assessment of systemic sustainability, based on the upstream energy investment necessary for creating a product or a service. Emergy, defined as the available energy used up directly or indirectly to make the product or service at issue, is the common quantity in which all the resource flows are converted. The EMA is carried out through the determination of a systemic diagram, for which all the stocks and flows are quantified by means of an exhaustive resource inventory, including human labor and services. A set of emergy-based indicators may be then calculated to assess the various aspects of the sustainability of the system. In this contribution, the principles of EMA are introduced, and its application is outlined in the case of photovoltaic technology.

Tools and methods to assess sustainability are often focused on lucrative activities, searching for behaviours that preserve some business as usual while at the same time taking into account environmental issues. Emergy analysis was originally inspired from and applied to natural ecosystems as a method able to geobiophysically account for non-monetary inputs. In recent years, however, even emergy accounting has been more and more applied to investigate the supply of products and services that are mostly referred to public or private budgeted investments. In the present contribution, we show the potential of the emergy analysis in addressing activities that are outside the logic of business, depending on voluntary work and donations: this is the case of nonprofit entities (like nongovernmental organisations, associations and movements), unpaid household work, and unpaid care (e.g., towards children, ill or aged people). Our societies significantly rely upon such activities, which are in turn based on the energy, materials and information flows that support the society. If the popular adage 'There is no such thing as a free lunch' was proposed in the early 1970s as one of the laws of ecology (cf. Commoner, 1971), we might also say that there is no such thing as a free service in sustainability studies. Therefore, an assessment of the sustainability of nonprofit activities and entities cannot disregard the systemic interconnections of all of their inputs with the larger support systems, which in turn affect their ability to adapt and survive. In this presentation, some examples will be given of emergy accounting applied to not-for-profit activities. Citation Cristiano, S., F. Gonella, E. Nannini, S. Spagnolo. 2018. Care before business: on the potential of emergy analysis to address the sustainability of not-for-profit systems. 10th Biennial Emergy Research Conference: Emergy Synthesis 10 (Online poster). DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.36375.01443

Biogas power plants (BPPs) have been rapidly developing in Italy in the latest years, thanks also to major government subsidies, especially in Northern Italy where numerous agriculture and zoo technical Companies are located. In this paper, conventional Emergy Analysis (EMA) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods are used to study the sustainability conditions for a BPP. A real power plant located in Northern Italy and operating since 2012 is taken as case study. The quantification, in emergy terms, of natural resources used to build and operate the plant and the possible environmental impacts of materials and energy flows require a detailed analysis of several subsystems in the BPP. In this work, preliminary results are presented pointing out differences and complementarity of the used methodologies, with the aim of setting the basis for an emergy evaluation of the whole BPP and biomass production phases at the technosphere level of detail provided by the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI), using the emergy calculation software SCALEM®.

Green chemistry is the name of a need, that of encompassing chemistry research and the environmental, safety, health, and societal issues that have been creating unprecedent concerns at a global level. Green chemistry is a modern concept, as the label that represents the entry of chemical sciences in the realm of integrated sustainability studies. To do green chemistry research, we need approaches that take into account the use and availability of resources, as well as the direct or indirect impacts of the applications of new chemistry. Systems thinking is a powerful mindset for addressing the complexity of the interconnections between the traditional and the new aspects of chemistry research. Systems thinking can provide suitable and appropriate conceptual tools for the research, requiring that chemistry teaching provides the necessary familiarity with systemic concepts and practices. In this paper, an emergy (spelled with “m”) perspective is presented as suitable to address the green chemistry didactics toward a systemic conceptual framework, which is now more and more mandatory.

Starting with Environment Power and Society in 1971, to the Prosperous Way Down proposal thirty years later, most of Howard T. Odum’s fundamental titles address explicitly the potential of emergy as a general epistemological tool. But despite the growing number of studies and scholars who use emergybased analyses, this philosophical potential remains somewhat underestimated and underexplored, however confined within the “emergy community”. As a matter of fact, Emergy talks us about deep aspects of the reality as a whole. Concepts like energy quality, donor-side view, as well as principles like the maximum (em)power, open a window to a variety of different disciplines and fields, in the holistic framework of an integrated and “universal” culture. Several emergy scholars have been aware of this need and have worked to export emergetic concepts outside the realm of science. But now the factual inability of decision-makers to take on local and global concerns is urgently demanding for further efforts by the scientific community, aimed at providing tools that are analytically reliable and at the same time able to frame the problems within a systemic, holistic awareness, of which emergy is likely to represent one of the most profound ideas. In this contribution, we first provide a short overview of the epistemological aspects of emergy analysis concepts. Then, we discuss about the potential of emergy as an effective bridge to reconcile different “cultures” within the same integrated picture. Epistemology, Language, Axiomatics are -besides Emergysome of the virtual keywords of this contribution.

The sustainability of the renowned artistic glass sector of Murano island, in the Venice Lagoon (Italy), has been challenged in recent years by the evolution of several socio-economic dynamics as well as by environmental constraints. Actually, a renewal of the systemic structure of the artistic glass production is increasingly compelling. In this work, the Emergy Accounting method (EMA) is applied to evaluate the environmental sustainability of a Murano factory producing colored glass. The analysis, for which new Unit Emergy Values (UEVs) were calculated for some chemicals, shows that the activity relies mainly upon purchased resources, which is the most evident element of systemic weakness. An evaluation of the downstream ecosystem services required to dilute some heavy metal pollutants is also presented, again addressing the intrinsic fragility of the system. In particular, it is shown how the sustainability of the sector is indissolubly linked to the problems involved in the management of the entire Venice lagoon, underlining how the safeguard of Murano must be part of that of Venice and its lagoon. The UEV of semifinished artistic glasses results 2.31E+10 sej/g (with labor and services), and 1.87E+10 sej/g (without labor and services).

Emergy (spelled with an "m") analysis is a method for environmental and systemic accounting in terms of sustainability and quality of resources used for a product, service or process. In this paper, it is applied to the assault rifles projectiles used in war battlefields. The specific emergy is evaluated in terms of sej/bullet, pointing out the upstream investment made by both the environment and the human society to produce the bullet in its operating war conditions. Comparison is made with alternative uses of the same resources when addressed to the support of development and wellbeing.

Facing complex social and environmental problems require interdisciplinary knowledge and approaches ranging from hard science to economics, even involving ethical issues. In this context, the assessment of suitable evaluation procedures for planning and managing renewable and sustainable energy systems is strongly needed. The aim of the contribution is at addressing what university students need as Physics cultural background for a scientific approach to environmental as well as social problems. In particular, the concepts of Exergy and Emergy are addressed as effective indicators of the real sustainability of energy supply, and some examples are presented of exergy- and emergy-based description of energy systems. Exergy is a thermodynamical quantity which quantifies the connection between a system and its environment, as the actual work available from a certain energy flow. On the other hand, emergy (from "embodied energy") quantifies the "real" wealth and standard of living, accounting for how much energy is actually embedded in a product or service, in terms of the energy used to "build" it. Furthermore, emergy per money unit is the emergy for the generation of one unit of economic product (in currency), so expressing money transfers in emergy units. In this way, an energy flow process analysis can include monetary transfers, directly related to the purchased emergy. By using these indicators, social, economic and environmental issues may find place in an analytical quantitative approach for the planning of energy systems, indicating how their knowledge is needed by decision-makers (technologists, politicians, economists) at any level.

Facing complex environmental problems require inter- and multidisciplinary approaches which typically range from hard science to Economics and social sciences, even involving ethical issues. In this context, Physics has become a peculiar framework for the description and the analysis of complex systems. For example, concepts like cahotic dynamics, criticality, self-organization, as well as disciplines like econophysics and most of all non-equilibrium Thermodynamics have become useful tools to describe the evolution and the stability condi- tions of several environmental systems. Indeed, Physics can provide quantitative non-traditional approaches which therefore require specific higher education programmes to be effectively managed. In this work, some illustrative examples are outlined as representative cases for establishing instructional methods that incorpo- rate some concepts related to Thermodynamics and complex systems theory. The aim of the contribution is at pointing out what the university students need in terms of modern Physics cultural background and assets for a truly scientific approach to environmental as well as social problems. A course based on the Physics of complex systems approach was delivered in the curriculum for the second level Degree as well as the Doctoral School in Environmental Sciences at the Ca' Foscari University in Venice, during the last two years. Moreover, a course for Economics students was taken about the physical approaches to economic systems. Students, especially those ranked in the top third of the class, manifested a quite remarkable interest for the topics, with the main result that they learned the possibility to exploit the conceptual tools acquired during the lectures in their respective fields of interest, ranging from ecology, global energy policies, energy systems analysis, to ecosystems modelling and data treatment. In this paper, the first part is introduced concerning the energy systmes, while the second part will be dedicated to concepts related to complex systems approaches.