Designing for resilience: Using a Delphi study to identify resilience issues for hospital designs in a changing climate

Hospitals are facing a triple challenge - meeting mandatory climate change targets and refurbishing aging infrastructure while simultaneously providing quality of care. With the potential of more frequent disruptive weather events, a UK government-funded project was launched in 2009 to investigate practical strategies for the National Health Service to increase its resilience to climate change. This paper presents the process of defining resilience by using the Delphi method and demonstrates its applicability within healthcare design. A Delphi survey is nearing completion which has determined the significant resilience issues and temperature ranges for ideal and critical conditions. Our preliminary findings identified six priorities that lead towards increasing resilience. Using the Delphi method can be a useful tool in clarifying the focus for healthcare design considerations. Copyright © 2002-2012 The Design Society. All rights reserved.

Polymer film packaging for food: An environmental assessment

Plastics packaging is ubiquitous in the food industry, fulfilling a range of functions including a significant role in reducing food waste. The public perception of packaging, however, is dominated by end-of-life aspects, when the packaging becomes waste often found littering urban, rural and marine environments. A balanced analysis of the role of packaging demands that the whole lifecycle is examined, looking not only at the packaging itself but also at the product being packaged. This paper focuses on packaging in the meat and cheese industry, analysing the impact of films and bags. The functions of packaging are defined and the environmental impact of delivering these functions is assessed. The influence of packaging on levels of waste and energy consumption elsewhere in the system is examined, including the contentious issue of end-of-life for packaging. Strategies for minimizing the environmental impact of the packaging itself involve reduction in the amount of material used (thinner packaging), rather than emphasizing end-of-life issues. Currently, with polymer recycling not at a high level, evidence suggests that this strategy is justifiable. Biodegradable polymers may have some potential for improving environmental performance, but are still problematic. The conclusion is that although current packaging is in some ways wasteful and inefficient, the alternatives are even less desirable. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.