Environmental Performance PDF

1. Environmental performance can be defined as the ”measurable results of the ability of an organization to handle environmental factors which can be, defined as those elements of an organization’s activities, products or services that can interact with the environment, and have an...

1. Environmental performance can be defined as the ”measurable results of the ability of an organization to handle environmental factors which can be, defined as those elements of an organization’s activities, products or services that can interact with the environment, and have an impact on it” 1.1. Environmental Performance Review (EPR) is an assessment of the progress a country has made in reconciling its environmental and economic targets and in meeting its international environmental commitments. The EPR Programme assists and supports ECE (The Economic Commission for Europe) member countries in improving their environmental management and performance; promotes information exchange on policies and experiences among countries; helps in the integration of the environmental policies into economic sectors; promotes greater accountability to the public; strengthens cooperation with the international community; and contributes to the achievement and monitoring of relevant Sustainable Development Goals. (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe,2020). 1.2. The 2024 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) provides a data-driven summary of the state of sustainability around the world. Using 58 performance indicators across 11 issue categories, the EPI ranks 180 countries on climate change performance, environmental health, and ecosystem vitality. Shown in fig5, these indicators provide a gauge at a national scale of how close countries are to established environmental policy targets. The EPI offers a scorecard that highlights leaders and laggards in environmental performance and provides practical guidance for countries that aspire to move toward a sustainable future. Egypt score is 43.7 (moderate), (Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy.2024). 1.3. Environmental performance indicators (EPIs) examine Fig.5 (The 2024 Environmental Performance Index),(Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy.2024) environmental issues such as pollution, biodiversity, climate, energy, erosion, ecosystem services, environmental education, and many others. Without these EPIs, the success or failure of even the most well-intentioned actions can remain hidden. To evaluate an activity, an EPI needs to include information from up to four types of indicators: inputs, outputs, outcomes, and impacts. Inputs are the natural resources or ecosystem services being used. Outputs are the goods or services that result from that activity. While outputs can often be quantified, outcomes typically cannot be and instead represent environmental, social, and economic dimensions of well-being. In some cases it is useful to think of outcomes as why an output was sought; however, outcomes can also be unanticipated or unwanted effects of an output. Impacts refer to the longer-term and more extensive results of the outcomes and outputs. The indicators cover five categories, with each description below indicating the condition that is more sustainable: environmental systems – maintaining and improving ecosystem health, reducing environmental stress – reducing anthropogenic stress on the environment, reducing human vulnerability – having fewer negative impacts on people from the environment, capacity to respond to environmental challenges – fostering social infrastructures that establish ability and desire to respond effectively to environmental challenges, global stewardship efforts – cooperating with other countries to address environmental problems. 2. The life cycle of construction material: based on discontinuing the liner usage of materials and raw materials. Currently, the Recycle construction process involves producing , material with raw materials and energy, Disposa l implementing the product, its eventual demolition, and storing waste Material (McDonough & Braungart, 2002), Life Utilizati s on Extracti cycle process shown in fig6.Breaking the life on cycle of linearity of this process by reusing some or material the total of the material by recycling may be the proper solution to this problem (McDonough & Braungart, 2002). Such an Manufa Transpo cturing approach makes it possible to reduce the rtation Procces burden on the environment and extend the s life of previously obtained raw materials so Fig.6 (Salim Barbhuiya, Bibhuti Bhusan Das, 2023) that these products turned into waste as late as possible (Koźmińska, 2013).  3. Rice husks are mainly made up of carbon, 35% cellulose cellulose, and silica (Dixit and Yadav, 2019). Silica represents 20% of rice husk, which makes it resistant to 25% hemicellulose water penetration, thus protecting the rice grain when it is inside. Also, this 20% lignin material has been studied due to its thermal insulation properties when mixed with different types of binders 3% crude protin and other materials, such as newsprint cellulose (Buratti et al., 2018). Rice husk has been used as an aggregate 17& ash with 94% silica material in concrete called “bio aggregate concrete”, thus achieving a lighter material, with excellent performance as thermal insulator (Amantino et al., 2022). There are also studies on the potential as a thermal insulator of carbonized rice husks (Dixit and Yadav, 2019) and ash (Antunes et al., 2019). 3.1. Rice Husk Usage: Shown in fig8, Rice husk was long considered a waste from the rice milling process and was often dumped and/or burned. But because it can be easily collected and is cheap, some amount of rice husk has always been used as an energy source for small applications, such as for brick production, for steam engines and gasifiers used to power rice mills, and for generating heat for rice dryers. The high silica content of rice husk ash makes it a good additive for the steel and concrete industries. To a lesser degree, rice husk ash is used as soil conditioner, activated carbon, insulator, and others. More recently, creation of electrical power on a small to medium scale—up to 5 megawatts—has been piloted throughout Asia, with some promising approaches but also some demonstrated limits. Failure was mostly due to feedstock supply problems once the formerly free waste rice husk becomes a traded commodity and due to logistical Fig.7 (Benjamin Iyenagbe Ugheoke, 2012) problems and the high cost when transport distances become too large (Bernard A. Goodman, 2020). Construction Energy Biochar Growing Paper Materials Source Material Water Filter Medium in Products Hydroponics Fig.8 (Prasanniya, 2022) 3.2. Rice Husk as a construction materials: Cement brick consists of cement, fine aggregate and coarse aggregate. By adding recycled rice husk to the mixture resulting a recycled brick type with a better mechanical properties and environmental effect. Rice husk contains 75–90% of organic matter such as cellulose, lignin and other mineral. Rice husk is unusually high in ash compared to other biomass fuels in the range of 10–20%. The ash contains 87–97% of silica which is highly porous and light weight, with a very high external surface area. The presence of high amount of silica makes it a valuable material for use in industrial application. The Ash produced by burning of rice husk through open field burning or under incineration conditions in which temperature and duration are controlled. It is known that rice husk ash can be a highly reactive pozzolanic material based on previous researches. Because of its pozzolanic characteristic, there are some advantages of using rice husk ash, minimize the cost of concrete construction, easy to recycle the waste generated from incineration or combustions of rice husk, reduce carbon dioxide pollution from cement production, improved strength, low shrinkage and higher durability. 3.3. production of Rice husk Bricks: Mix Constituents:Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) from local mark, Fine aggregate: siliceous sand with a maximum size of 5mm , well graded and free from impurities, Coarse aggregate: free of impurities with nominal maximum of 10 mm and it was sieved to remove the particles smaller than 2 mm, Chopped straw fibers with length ranging between 0.5 to 1.5cm, Natural fresh drinking water free of impurities. Process of rice husk bricks shown in fig9, the starting blend idea was the addition ratio of rice straw to mix the concrete bricks to replace the aggregates (Haswa) part as filler and for non-loaded bearing brick to achieve less dense as possible to save the cost of the structure of the building, less cost as possible to achieve an economic retrofit, and enough coherent brick for the trading and handling with minimum damage. Research was conducted with more than 250 different mixtures divided into three main groups based on the ratios of sand to aggregates of 2:1, 4:3 and 1:1 with varying amounts of rice straw and cement in kilograms with each ratio as fiber filler,. A mixture without using aggregates to reduce the weight and increase the amount of straw was also prepared. The parameters of the density-price were initially compared with its corresponding normal cement bricks (1880:1720 Kg/m3) manufactured by the National Company of Cement and then on a local scale thermal performance basis to assess their impacts on the pedestrian comfort as well as on the ambient air temperature which is associated with specific indoor climate conditions, comfort, cooling energy demand and green house gases emissions. (Tamer Akmal, Mohammad Fahmy, 2011). Fig.9 (process of rice husk bricks),( M. Indumathi, G Nakkeeran,2024) 3.4. Measures of cement brick with rice husk: In Egypt, there are a research team at the National Research Center, led by Dr. Gihan L. Garas and Dr.Mostafa E. Allam, makes many experiences to produce the Rice husk- Cement Bricks. Regardless the lack of researches on mix the rice husk with other structural materials, the team already produced the rice brick (R-brick), and performed different tests like loads, fire resistance and the economic feasibility study to evaluate the rice straw brick. The produced R-brick has standard brick dimensions 25*12*6 cm, it is a mixture of chopped rice husk, coarse, fine aggregates, cement and water with specific mixing ratios. Shown in table.1, the density of R-brick was 25% less than regular cement brick, and the production cost was less about 25% of the total direct cost /1000 bricks. The R-brick also can resist fire up to 400 ° C in load-bearing walls and 800 ° C in the structural building for a full hour, like regular concrete brick. In the end, the proposed R-bricks provides an economical, light weight brick, with competing thermal insulation properties, while maintaining adequate mechanical properties, and good fire resistance. Table.1 (Percentage of rice husk brick components),(Tamer Akmal, Mohammad Fahmy, 2011) 3.5. Rice husk insulation is made from the outer protective covering of rice grains, which is typically discarded as waste during the rice milling process. Rice husks are abundant, renewable, and readily available in many rice-producing regions, making them an attractive choice for sustainable insulation. Rice husk insulation is an emerging and innovative insulation material to create a sustainable and efficient thermal barrier. Rice husk insulation has been studied for its thermal properties, and it has been found that the addition of rice husk fibers to thermal insulation wallboards can decrease their thermal conductivity and increase their insulation performance. Also, increase on rice husk content in defined proportion could decreases in thermal conductivity due to bulk density (Antunes et al., 2019). Previous researches have also proven that rice husk cement bricks is better than traditional cement bricks according to the following parameters shown in table.2: Table.2 (comparison between conventional & rice husk cement bricks), (Rahma Kamal, Ahmed Atef, Abeer Mostafa, 2021) Comparison Factors Conventional cement brick Cement brick with rice husk SSDS Less Sustainable Better performance with 1.7% higher rate Raw materials Consume more Raw Materials Save More Raw Materials pollution Higher Pollution Rate Better performance to reduce pollution by 1.97% Co2 Emission Higher Carbon Emissions Rate Better performance with 1.6% higher rate Energy consumption Higher Energy Consumption Rate Better energy saving with 0.74% Waste generated Cause more generated waste Less generated waste with 7.42% Cost Higher Cost Less cost with 3.1% rate Compressive strength Less Compressive Strength Increased to 1.6% rate