Valorization of sugarcane bagasse ash: Producing glass-ceramic materials

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Cleaner Production initiatives and challenges for a sustainable world: an introduction to this special volume

This special volume of the Journal of Cleaner Production is comprised of articles presented at the 3rd International Workshop Advances in Cleaner Production held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 2011. The content underscores the recognition of the pressing and inescapable need for making changes from unsustainable to sustainable production and consumption patterns. The 48 articles from 15 countries provide different, but complimentary approaches to help industrial and societal sectors in advancing on their paths towards sustainability. Initiatives and challenges are included, which systematically address problems affecting raw material changes, technological modifications, product and policy changes. The findings range from proposals for alternative uses of wastes, substitution of raw materials for environmentally friendlier substances, optimization of industrial processes by source reductions of wastes and emissions and documented economic and environmental advantages of a wide array of initiatives. The roles of operational and managerial practices are also stressed, highlighting the role of diverse stakeholders as promoters of implementation and internalization of innovative cleaner technologies within companies. Systemic assessment tools are employed and experimented with in order to more effectively evaluate the environmental performance of systems on the biosphere scale. The methodological procedures and proposals presented can help in the design and management of production systems, for governmental and corporate policy development, for implementing and monitoring CP Programs, prevention and mitigation strategies, and evaluation of the outcomes of CP initiatives in the production and service sectors. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Chitosan and alginate biopolymer membranes for remediation of contaminated water with herbicides

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Greening the campus of a Brazilian university: cultural challenges

Purpose - This study examined the relationship between environmental management practices developed at a campus of a Brazilian university (University of Sao Paulo) and the greening of its organizational culture. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach - This article presents a theoretical background based on the concepts of environmental management, organizational culture and environmental management in higher education institutions. The main framework of this research is the model proposed by Harris and Crane.Findings - The studied university has an environmental management program that is sometimes constrained in the following ways: the university bureaucracy and hierarchy; the main performance indicators for lecturers and professors are based on scientific production and publication, giving them little time for complementary activities; and some units develop their own environmental management practices, but they are not disseminated as best practices for use by other units. Some academic units showcase the proactive actions of professors who incorporate environmental management into their daily activities. The general perception is that the phrase environmental management is almost synonymous with solid waste management.Originality/value - This research details the first Brazilian application of the Harris and Crane model. It contributes an original analysis of environmental management and green organizational culture of a Brazilian university, an organizational type that has seldom been studied to date.

Dimensões de competitividade para a empresa Brasileira: informação e conhecimento, qualidade, tecnologia e meio ambiente

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Desafios e oportunidades das incubadoras de empresas para a incorporação de estratégias ambientais

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Modelling the surface circulation and thermal structure of a tropical reservoir using three-dimensional hydrodynamic lake model and remote-sensing data

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Estratégias ambientais na indústria automobilística: um estudo de caso na Wolkswagen de São Carlos-SP

This research has as main objective show how the auto industry has been dealing with the environmental factor, more specifically during the production process and the support areas, and how the environmental management system is implemented, the operation and maintenance. Presents a number of actions related to the theme that has been taking by the automakers, as well as a case of the Volkswagen do Brasil engine plant, in São Carlos - SP

Proposta de implementação da ISO 14001 em uma empresa química

Due to environmental concerns and the current legal requirements, companies are looking for ways to reconcile economic growth with environmental preservation. The purpose of this project is to show the stages of implementation of ISO 14001 in a chemical company and propose changes in chemical procedures creating goals to be achieved. In this paper, the study for the implementation of ISO 14001 is in Viapol ltda., where the lack of environmental management can cause enormous impact to the environment and may generate air, soil and water pollution. The project resulted in a mapping of all the processes and a broad survey of waste and emissions, generating proposals to change some of the processes and and creating programs to achieve the goals and objectives proposed in the Environmental Policy. Adopting an environmental management system (EMS), the company will reduce costs by decreasing the amount of raw material used, shooting down on waste disposal and the amount of it, and increasing productivity. By committing to the implementation of the EMS, companies will be demonstrating a proactive approach to environmental issues and enrich its image to consumers’ point of view

Diagnóstico e proposição de subsídios para a elaboração de plano de gestão ambiental: estudo de caso de um abatedouro avícola

In view of the current environmental concerns and legal requirements, this work aims to achieve a diagnosis and offer subsidies for development of an environmental management plan in an industry. The industry considered to be a subject of study of this research is the aviculture, considered its great importance in Brazil and to present a significant environmental impact. The unit of analysis is a chicken slaughterhouse, located in Rio Claro, SP. The developed methodology for identification and analysis of environmental significative aspects were based in the concepts of environmental impact and in the ABNT NBR ISO 14.001:2004. From the analysis of selected aspects, this research proposed several environmental indicators for the company and identified points of environmental improvement. The results of this study provide methods for identifying its environmental aspects and development of its environmental management plan to chicken slaughterhouse and also to other companies.

Estudo da viabilidade de uma gestão ambiental de pilhas no campus da Unesp de Rio Claro

When exhausted, the batteries are classified as hazardous waste because it has potentially toxic heavy metals and bio-accumulators, such as mercury, cadmium and lead in their internal composition functional. Due to the high level of danger, such waste should be properly designed to not allow theses chemical components to cause significant impacts on the environment. Thus, the recycling of waste in question is the best destination. In this context, was wanted to know, through a questionnaire in interview format, how the graduates of the Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho of Rio Claro / SP are involved with this environmental issue. Since then, has been developed and implemented an environmental management for internal batteries

Proposta de sistemática operacional para implantação de sistemas de gestão ambiental em empreendimentos industriais

The implantation of environmental management systens (SGA) in companies is the first step to the company conquers the environmental certification and consequently the benefits of a sustainable production of products, services and activities can bring. However, in the way as they are proposals in bibliographies the implantation of the SGAs, does not identify the definition of the operational stages of implementation of the same ones, generating doubts on the real environmental and administrative performance that they can come to generate for the organization. In this direction, the present research brings a proposal of operational systematics for implantation of SGA in companies, detailing each stage of implantation, considering its particularitities. For in such a way, a revision of norm NBR ISO 14001:2004 was made, looking for to identify to the interpretation imperfections gifts in the normative system. Moreover, other methods of SGA implantation had been searched gifts in the bibliography, searching proposals that detailed the operational aspects of the implantation of the system. In the same way, the accomplishment of a period of training supervised in the first semester of 2007 made possible the practical experience of the functioning of a system of environmental management, beyond the contact with professionals of the area and the acquisition of documents that had helped in the development of the research. The result was the attainment of a detailed procedure more, defining the operational systematic of SGA implantation, beyond the generation of a flowchart, describing as to develop each stage. This detailing certainly will facilitate the implantation of a SGA in companies interested in improving its environmental performance.

A geração de resíduos sólidos urbanos e sua influência na gestão urbano-ambiental municipal de Sorocaba/SP

In Brazil, rates of urban solid waste generation increase proportionally more than the annual growing of the population. The government, from its federal authority to the municipal spheres, faces increasing challenges for Urban and Environmental management regarding to solid waste in general and, in particular, municipal solid waste. Financial problems added to public health problems that worsen with the serious environmental impacts generated every year. In August 2010 Brazil the PNRS (National Policy on Solid Waste) was approved and sanctioned in which represented a true watershed in the country as a legal framework extremely ambitious and visionary. This work presents the successes and challenges that the municipality of Sorocaba/SP is facing after more than three years of PNRS sanctioned to conduct an Urban and Environmental management suited to the new legal bases towards the subject of solid waste. The results show a large gap between the content proposed by the law and the technical, financial and temporal reality to practical implementation by the municipal government. New legislation and federal incentives, consortiums among the cities, flexible deadlines and environmental education at all levels are certainly some proposals to catalyze processes that aim to solve and overcome the challenges of solid waste

Análise ambiental em um canteiro de obras

The building sector can cause the environmental degradation, by the natural resources consumption, machinery use and natural landscape modifying. The environmental management system (EMS) improves the environmental quality and makes the companies more competitive. So, this work developed an environmental management system in a building site focused on the solid waste and in the development of mitigation proposals for the most significant environmental impacts. To develop this work it was necessary to follow the building site activities; evaluate the solid waste management; identify the law requirements; identify the environmental aspects and impacts; evaluate the environmental impacts; and propose alternatives for mitigating the adverse environmental critical impacts. The main proposals are the reduction of the waste generation in the place that it’s generated; the reuse and correct final disposal of that wastes; the treatment and reuse of the effluent; and the supervising in the trucks and machineries avoiding the oil spilling and the air pollution

Análise da implantação das certificações ambientais LEED e AQUA: estudo de caso em alguns empreendimentos

Given the large potential impact that the construction industry has on the environment and the need to reduce environmental degradation , environmental certifications are important tools of environmental management. This work deals with the environmental certifications of sustainable buildings LEED and AQUA . This project employed the method of exploratory research to identify the requirements that impose the greatest difficulties in the implementation of LEED and AQUA , surveying the reasons for the choice of certification to be deployed and to analyzing the main benefits perceived by certified organizations. Concepts related to the topic were obtained from the literature, leading to the development of a questionnaire that was applied in organizations that have gone through the above certifications . From the analysis of questionnaires, it was possible to highlight that the main reasons for the adoption of an environmental certificate in the construction industry are linked to economic issues such as greater market recognition and appreciation of the project and what is still needed to invest in environmental awareness industry and the whole society