Integrando sustentabilidade ambiental e gestão de portfólio de projetos: estudo de caso em uma empresa de energia

Resumo: Apesar de existirem muitos trabalhos sobre sustentabilidade ambiental, por um lado, e sobre gestão de portfólio de projetos, por outro, não há pesquisas que analisem esses temas de maneira integrada. Assim, as duas áreas seguem separadas e com apenas raras interfaces teórico-empíricas. Seguindo uma estratégia de estudo de caso em uma das maiores firmas europeias de energia, que se destaca mundialmente na produção de energias renováveis, este artigo tem como principal objetivo analisar e compreender as práticas adotadas para a integração das duas componentes, sustentabilidade ambiental e gestão de portfólio. Entre os principais resultados obtidos observou-se que os aspectos ambientais e sociais são indissociáveis nos principais projetos da empresa. A boa comunicação com stakeholders e, especialmente, com as comunidades locais e as diretamente afetadas pelos projetos também foi destacada como prática de gestão que pode ser empregada para melhorar o desempenho de projetos. Notou-se também que a lógica para a análise e aprovação de projetos na empresa, admissão de projetos para o portfólio empresarial também se pauta pelas análises das externalidades ambientais e sociais previstas pelos próprios projetos

What Stops Designers from Designing Sustainable Packaging?—A Review of Eco-design Tools with Regard to Packaging Design

Packaging has caused much waste and its sustainability has received much attention in the past decades. Designers have made efforts to mitigate environmental impacts of packaging. However, many packaging designs are still far from achieving their sustainability goals. The purpose of this study is to perform a literature review of the principal design methods and tools for sustainable packaging published over the last twenty years. The objective is to understand the main obstacles that limit their effective implementation in the packaging design process. This study develops a sustainable packaging design and development model and proposes criteria for accessing packaging tools and methods. This study has found that to achieve sustainable design, many tools have limitations in demonstrating usage and balancing trade-off situations. Most of the tools focus on defining problems rather than suggesting possible solutions

Electric field control in DC cable test termination by nano silicone rubber composite

The electric field distributions in high voltage direct current cable termination are investigated with silicone rubber nanocomposite being the electric stress control insulator. The nanocomposite is composed of silicone rubber, nanoscale carbon black and graphitic carbon. The experimental results show that the physical parameters of the nanocomposite, such as thermal activation energy and nonlinearity-relevant coefficient, can be manipulated by varying the proportion of the nanoscale fillers. The numerical simulation shows that safe electric field distribution calls for certain parametric region of the thermal activation energy and nonlinearity-relevant coefficient. Outside the safe parametric region, local maximum of electric field strength around the stress cone appears in the termination insulator, enhancing the breakdown of the cable termination. In the presence of the temperature gradient, thermal activation energy and nonlinearity-relevant coefficient work as complementary factors to produce a reasonable electric field distribution. The field maximum in the termination insulator show complicate variation in the transient processes. The stationary field distribution favors the increase of the nonlinearity-relevant coefficient; for the transient field distribution in the process of negative lighting impulse, however, an optimized value of the nonlinearity-relevant coefficient is necessary to equalize the electric field in the termination

Integrated approach for eco-lighting product development

Lighting products are essential in our lives, but they also produce a high environmental impact in our planet. One of the most effective and feasible approaches to reduce their environmental impact is eco-design. However, there are not comprehensive and updated systematic methods to eco-design lighting products. This chapter presents an effective comprehensive eco-design integrated approach to design lighting products. The approach integrates eco-design guidelines, life cycle assessment, finite element analysis, lighting driver selector and experimental methods into the product development process. The approach is demonstrated with a case study based on the design of a luminaire with low environmental impact produced by a lighting manufacturer. The advantages and disadvantages of the methods/tools involved in the approach are discussed. This approach contributes to the body of knowledge in the area of methods and tools to support designers to design lighting products with lower environmental impact