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Circular actions cannot be considered sustainable if their financial benefits are not demonstrated. While the environmental benefits of the circular economy have been widely studied, sustainable development from a financial point of view has been much less studied. In this paper we assess the financial benefits of circular innovations applied in the fashion industry that have been previously assessed as sustainable using the Life Cycle Assessment. The focus is on two innovative processes such as salt recovery and tannin baths reuse that reuse water, chemicals and raw materials in an Italian small company operating in the tanning industry. A cost benefit analysis was carried to evaluate the net contribution of these actions to the operating margin. Then we model a forward-looking cash flow projection in order to determine the fundamental value of circular investments. Through these practices, the company achieved an increase in operating profitability above 30% and the 10-year value of the salt recovery is 159,061.40 euros, while the reused tanning water equals just over one million euros. The results show unexpected and strong financial benefits that can leverage similar initiatives that would advance resource equity and finally promote a real and convenient industrial dedication to environmental guardianship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the influence of temperature and of rainfall intensity and the effect of such variations on the treatment efficiencies and on the electrical consumptions in seven medium-large size Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) in Apulia in South Italy (Bari, Barletta, Brindisi, Lecce, Foggia, Andria and Taranto). It has been observed, in the considered WWTPs, a slight but clear increase of the incoming flow due to the increase in rainfall intensity, which results to an increase of the energy consumption per incoming volume. The impact of the climate change to the incoming flow, during the last five years (2016–2020), has been assessed indicating that an increase in rainfall intensity results to an increase of the WWTPs energy consumptions per wastewater treated volume. More specifically, for a specific WWTP (Lecce) it was found that the electrical consumption increases from 0.36 kw/m3 to 0.51 kw/m3 when the rainfall intensity was increased from 0.8 mm/min to 2.9 mm/min. Some adaption measures have been considered to upgrade the existing WWTP so to mitigate the energy increase and to limit the global effects of climate change. [Display omitted] • As Rain intensity rises, wastewater influx into WWTPs increases. • Rainfall intensity influences negatively electrical consumptions. • BOD removal is lower with increasing annual precipitations. • Temperature influences BOD, COD and SST removal efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The resilience of a building designed to be nearly zero energy is evaluated in Mediterranean climate. • Weather file defined with monitored data are used for a short-term analysis. • Projections of climate changes are considered in the construction of weather files. • The net primary energy will decrease (–23%) and the in-situ renewable adoption will increase (85%). • Overheating will occur in the intermediate months with the need to turned on the cooling system. The paper is focused on the evaluation of how the climate changes can influence the performance of buildings designed to be nearly zero energy (nZEB) and on the evaluation of the resilience in term of energy balance. A real case study is used; it is named BNZEB, a single-storey dwelling built in Benevento (South Italy, Mediterranean climate). With five-years monitored meteorological data, both a short-term and medium-term analysis is developed; the first one consists in the evaluation of the energy behavior compared to the first operating year. Then, the energy performance is evaluated considering the medium-term climate projections generated using the CCWorldWeatherGen tool. This analysis, with reference to the case study, suggests to designers and researchers that, in a typical Mediterranean climate, the reduction of the heating demand could compensate the increment in the cooling request. In the worst climatic scenario, the net primary energy could change from 25.4 kWh/m2 year (first year of life, 2017) to 19.5 kWh/m2 year (projection to 2050) with a rate of self-consumption of 85% (80% for 2017). However, a critical point is the operating period of the cooling system. Indeed, an indoor overheating problem could occur during the spring with operative temperature higher than 30 °C; this indicates that in future, the occupants will require higher number of operating hours with most frequent switch off. This could change the results of the energy balance, reducing, for instance, the imbalance between production and consumption that currently occurs in the intermediate periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, agriculture uses about 70–80% of global water resources and, in the Mediterranean area, it accounts for the high pressure of freshwater demand. This study provides a useful framework for the meso-level assessment of the Water Footprint (WF) in agriculture. Particularly, the WF methodology is used to quantify the water consumption and pollution of olives, grapes and tomatoes, traditional crops widespread both in the Apulia region, in Southern Italy, and in the Mediterranean area. Hence, from a meso-level assessment of the Water Footprint of Apulian agriculture, a general level of evaluation of the use of Mediterranean water resources was provided, estimating the Virtual Water (VW) too. Furthermore the climate change effects on the Water Footprint of the traditional crops identified were predicted, proposing some scenarios useful to reduce the grey component, which values for olives were evaluated by a sensitivity analysis. The results highlight that olives present the highest value of the WF and that grapes are the most affected by the variations according to the climate change scenarios, increasing over 200% of the green component and 77% of the blue one. Finally, a Circular Economy proposal, based on the reuse of the wastewater from a meso-scale perspective, highlights saving up to 70% of the water resource. The research questions proposed displayed the novelty of this paper, particularly as concerns the use of the Water Footprint analysis on a meso-level evaluation. Particularly, the new insights of this research addressed the needs of stakeholders in areas suffering from drought, such as the Mediterranean, to integrate and systematize a data-set of indicators to rationalize and plan water resource usage and safety in agriculture. [Display omitted] • Water stress spurs Water Footprint assessment in the Mediterranean area. • Multi-level approach of water quantifying for olive, grape and tomato is applied. • Italian grapes have the highest Virtual Water, compared to Spanish and Greek ones. • Effects of climate change on Water Footprint of traditional crops are estimated. • Grey Water Footprint of the olives is evaluated by a sensitivity analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Weather files defined with different methodology and dataset are compared. • Projections of climate changes are considered in the construction of weather files. • The case study is a residential building in a cooling dominated climate. • The composition of weather files greatly influences the energy performance prevision. • Traditional efficiency measures are not resilient for the expected climate changes. The methodology, the site and the dataset as well as the emissions scenario considered in the weather file definition influence the numerical evaluation of efficiency measures resilience. With a complete statistical and critical approach, the paper analyzes the importance of these aspects by means of a residential case study simulated in Benevento, a city of south Italy. Using data monitored from 2015 to 2020, a current weather file is built with different methodologies. The comparison indicates that there is not repeatability of the year chosen as a reference for the various months and thus the resolution of the building energy balance could bring different results. Some future climate projections are also generated on medium (2050 s) and long (2080 s) term considering different emission scenarios. With long term projection, the heating degree days are reduced also of − 21% meanwhile the cooling degree days are more than double compared with the current condition. This suggests a remarked transition towards a dominant cooling climate for Benevento. Moreover, when the climate change is considered, the insulation intervention and the installation of double glazed low emissive window is not resilient because the heating energy need decreases also of −56%, but the cooling energy need increases of + 62% (2080 s). If the efficiency measures include also the cool roof and the external shadings, the cooling demand could be reduced until –33% in some scenarios (e.g. RCP 4.5-50th percentile) and increased (+31%) in some others (e.g. 2080 s). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic analysis of climate change requires estimates at both aggregate and local level. Although there are numerous studies that estimate the global impact of climate change, country-level studies are still rare, particularly as far as Italy is concerned. By exploiting a panel of 110 provinces observed between 1980 and 2014, this paper investigates the impact of variation of weather variables on GDP per capita and agricultural productivity in Italy. To address issues of model uncertainty, the analysis explores to what extent these economic outcomes are affected by weather variables, linearly or non-linearly, as well as how their growth rate and levels are affected as a result. Main findings show that there is considerable model uncertainty. The most robust econometric results showing statistically significant effects of temperature for both the GDP and agricultural reaction function are from a levels specification, where temperature is included in a non-linear form while weather variables and economic outcomes enter in first differences. Projections of the impact of climate change by the end of the century show slight average effects for GDP per-capita, but important losses in agriculture, due to a persistent increase in average temperatures under both the RCPs 4.5 and 8.5. • We study the economic impact of weather variation on GDP and agriculture in Italy • We exploit a rich panel dataset across 110 territorial units over 1980–2014 period • To address problems of model uncertainty, we compare several different specifications • The "best" performing model is a non-linear specification estimated in first differences • End of the century predictions, suggest nil effects on GDP, but important loss in agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]