“What is the weather like this weekend?”. We ask every week when Friday comes. “Sunny, but we can’t trust on weather” answers our colleague. “You’re right! It’s the climate change fault” both conclude.
In our previous posts, you have been able to know how CARTIF is working to help to mitigate climate change, through the development of new technologies and awareness. And let’s say that, if climate change is responsible even for our change of plans during the weekend, it’s time to know it a little better, to talk about when and by whom was discovered.
Eduard Punset has written an excellent introduction to this issue in his latest book and we have collected here an excerpt:
“The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1995 was awarded jointly to Paul J. Crutzen (Dutch), Mario J. Molina (Mexican) and F. Sherwood Rowland (American), to warn the world of a thinning of the ozone layer surrounding the Earth, between twenty and fifty kilometers above our heads (…). They showed, to the disbelief of many people, that the Earth’s ozone layer was thinning in the region of the poles, especially in the South, over Antarctica, and the cause of this degradation was some gases that don’t exist in nature but, after their discovery, in the early twentieth century, were widely used in the industry as refrigerants and propellants (in aerosol). They are the chlorofluorocarbon gases, also commonly known as CFCs, included in many normal household items like in refrigerators, spray deodorants etc … What Nobel laureates discovered was that, despite being harmless to human health, these gases are so stable and stay in the atmosphere for very long times, long enough to reach the upper atmosphere, where UVB photons turn them into highly reactant catalysts. Ozone depletion is caused by the products of those processes” (extract from Carta a mis nietas: todo lo que he aprendido y me ha conmovido. Eduard Punset, 2015, published by Destino, in Spanish).
And although the alert came in 1974, yet it took a few years for society to become aware of the problemand to increase the knowledge about the possible greenhouse gases. Let’s look back to history.
It’s in Rio de Janeiro, in 1992, where countries joined an international treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a frame for international cooperation that outlines how specific international treaties may be negotiated to set binding limits on greenhouse gases.
Three years later, the first Conference of the Parties (COP1) was held in Berlin and in 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, in Japan, with the aim of providing policies and measuring plans for industrialized countries, to reduce emissions by 5 % in the period 2008-2012. In 1999, 84 Parties signed the Kyoto Protocol but to enter into force, the Protocol must be ratified, and this fact was a problem because there was no agreement on how to apply the rules. In 2001, George W. Bush announced that the United States of America was no longer intending to comply with the objectives set out in the Protocol and in 2005, it entered into force without the signature of USA and China, the world’s largest carbon polluters.
But it was necessary to keep on working and the COP15 arrived, in Copenhagen in 2009, a crucial event in the negotiating process, remembered as unsuccessful because it was closed with a minimal agreement that did not commit countries. It was in Doha, in 2012, where a new timetable to reach an effective universal climate agreement was set out, choosing 2015 as the deadline. And with this purpose, COP21 took place last December, in Paris, and it has been the first time that a legally binding and a universal agreement on climate have been achieved, with the aim of limiting their emissions.
“Never too late to do well”, says a Spanish proverb, so we are confident that a successful chapter has begun in climate change history. Let’s cross our fingers.
This is E2REBOT, our neurorehabilitation robot which enables and makes easier the rehabilitation of the upper limbs of people with some kind of neuromotor disability.
On 26 September it was celebrated in Madrid the “4th Meeting point against food waste” organized by AECOC, where the waste problem was analyzed from different perspectives and pooling actual experiences of prevention and reduction.
Social enterprises as “Espigoladors”, which employs people at risk of social exclusion, transferred their experience in preventing waste through the use of fruits and vegetables discarded in the field (by size, defects, appearance) for the production and sale of jams and creams, contributing in a sustainable way to reducing waste, creating jobs and getting an economic benefit.
Innovation in packaging it has also been discussed and how can reduce the waste, or in the case presented by Pepsico, how through a program of valorization of its by-products is achieved zero waste in one of its production plants snacks.
Several posts have been dedicated about food waste in this blog, trying to find solutions for the waste reduction and its valorization. We have discussed the need for prevention as a tool to reduce waste throughout the food chain, but besides preventing, what can it be done to decrease the amount of waste generated by the food industry?
The food industry is one of the main generators of waste organic nature in our country, mainly composed of those parts of the raw materials are not useful in the development process and can represent up to 85% by weight of the raw material received.
Few years ago these organic wastes were leaded to animal feed industry or agronomic valorization. But in recent decades, in the face of need for food industry to value their by-products, the R & D and the work of the research teams, are aimed at finding innovative and tangible solutions with economic return and high value-added .
Companies are slowly changing their outlook towards the environment, gradually transforming its working methods towards more sustainable manufacturing processes, but while optimizing their resources, reduce waste and obtain an economic benefit.
Trends in R & D in terms of the valorization of by-products go in parallel to trends in the food industry in the manufacture of new foods. Thus, many food by-products are source for obtaining compounds with high added value as antioxidants, fiber, essential fatty acids, antimicrobials, minerals, etc., which can later be included in production processes to obtaining new foods of high added value and in many cases with functional properties.
The food industry is not the only one who can benefit from using these products. Currently, there are cosmetics or pharmaceuticals in the market incorporating different compounds such as antioxidants or polyphenols, which have been obtained from by-products valorization.
The CARTIF experience in this research field has been wide, and it has developed several projects where the objective has been to obtain compounds with high added value from by-products of the food industry. The DIANA project led by several companies and accompanied by research centers, where the goal was to obtain from different products like coffee, grape marc, algae, etc., compounds with high added value for their incorporation into different food matrices and provide various improvements, thanks to these compounds.
The LACTISHOE project works in a very different meaning, because from whey as a by-product of the cheese industry and through and hybrid membrane-fermentation reactor, that it will produce lactic acid. Then, it will perform the lactic acid microencapsulation, and then it will be incorporated in the templates and in the lining of shoes, giving them beneficial properties for the foot.
Waste generation by food industries is an inherent consequence of their activity, but the search for sustainable and environmentally friendly alternatives is a necessity that faces all companies, not forgetting that both have an economic benefit through the valorization of their by-products.
Given that the food and beverage industry in Spain comprises about 22% of industrial GDP and is formed by 30.000 companies (of which 96% are SMEs), it is not strange that our country avails one of the most important exhibitions in Europe: Alimentaria.
This biennial meeting is undoubtedly a professional showcase and a benchmark event in the food sector. With nearly 4.000 exhibitors from 63 different countries, it allows to know the news, and current and future trends in food, in addition to doing business.
In ALIMENTARIA 2016, held last week, it highlights the strong internationalization of companies and products as a vector of change (or overcoming of the famous ‘crisis’) and an increase in the market of organic products and food products elaborated through sustainable processes.
Some of the main areas in ALIMENTARIA 2016 are Intercarn, Interlact, Intervin, Multifoods o Restaurama. In them, we have seen many new products, always from our point of view as researchers in food field.
We have found pearls of olive oil, almond oil, vinegar and juice.
Chorizo, Catalan sausage and salami for vegetarians; without meat, but with egg white as a protein source.
Going on with meat, we have found shoulder blade or rack of young lamb semielaborated, which is finished in the oven inside a container without staining and leaving the meat in its point and with crispy crust. Easier and cleaner, ¡impossible!
Omelets stuffed with black pudding, Catalan sausage or goat cheese.
Salt of all flavors and colors.
About drinks, in addition to the multitude of wineries with delicious wines and precious labels and bottles, we have found several drinks based on extracts. Drinks made from beans and strawberries, vegetable drinks, rice drinks with coconut or almonds, craft beer with aloe…
Pizza flour charcoal. That is; black pizza bases in order to stand out the rest of foods. And with the purifying benefits of charcoal, of course.
Wide variety of healthier snacks based on peas, beans, broccoli, mango, banana, pineapple or apple textured. And, as a novelty, snacks based on beef jerky with different flavors (spices, chili, curry).
Sauces and chutneys: carob with dates, apple or pineapple mustard, honey with ginger or cinnamon, cocoa butter or jam with wine, oil or vinegar…
Personally, I want to highlight a delicious mango gazpacho.
And finally, one of the foods with hardest presence was quinoa. Quinoa flour, cereals, biscuits, bars, quinoa ready to eat with vegetables, and a long etcetera.
Today’s consumer looks for pleasure in food, but, without doubt, the trend that marks the development of new products is the health concern. This factor includes feeling good, getting fit, improving health and not growing old.
CARTIF collaborates with several food companies in this field, developing new products, improving existing ones, changing ingredients, valorazing subproducts, in order to suit a demanding and competitive market which is constantly in movement.
Spanish SOHOs and SMEs have faced in recent years to a very complex macroeconomic environment. Indeed, it might be more precise saying that they are still facing this situation. The fall in the domestic consumption, along with financial constraints, has caused a contraction of the main economic indicators in most productive sectors of our economy.
Despite this unfavorable scenario, we happily can see that the adoption of ICT –Information and Communications Technologies – tools is clearly consolidated in the daily procedures of management and control. ICT tools introduction is considered absolutely necessary for survival in the market. IC Technology keeps being one of the best allies of entrepreneurs in their attempt to improve the competitiveness of their business, allowing the opening of new markets and the optimization of the internal management processes.
Regarding their information systems, one of the biggest challenges that these companies may face, is the adoption of an advanced management system capable to accurately identify the current and future situation of their business. That is, a system that centralizes all the company data and numbers.
However, unfortunately, much more often than expected, we can found SMEs who have suffered serious problems in the process of implementing such systems. If we wanted to enumerate the different possible causes for the occurrence of these problems, every entrepreneur, worker or implementation technician that have faced a situation like this, could probably provide two or more reasons based on their particular suffering experience. What we can state is that, in too many occasions, projects fail because their excessive implementation required time. Companies must adapt to the new market trends while they are implementing already obsolete tools associated to their production processes.
However, we must not understand these problems as an obstacle to the adoption of such systems within our companies. We simply must consider it as a warning of the deserved importance of the implementation processes within the company. It is crucial to accept and understand that, every worker in the company must be an active element in the implementation process, and each worker role is equally relevant, with completely independence on their position within the organization. In order to success in the implementing project, there are two equally important choices to make: system and people. The final selection of the system, in order to choose the most suitable one for the company profile and the required objectives. The company personnel, involved in the data collection must be aware of the importance of doing it rigorously in time and place.
Obviously, all the responsibility for the success or failure must not be attributed only to the company staff. The role developed by the technician staff of the outsourced implementing company will be also essential. Implementing tasks will face predicted and also unexpected problems. The external technicians must be able to early detect them and choose the most suitable solution for each situation.
Regarding this last issue, in CARTIF, we have developed our own advanced management ICT system specifically oriented for the SMEs: SAGIT. It was initially though and designed targeting the agrofood industrial companies and their traceability requirements. First developments and implementing were focus on the vegetables and winery sectors. After that, additional functionalities were added in order to be implemented in diverse sectors like fresh and cured meat, flour mills, daily-products, industrial bakery, snacks, etc. Over time the system has evolved into a multi-sector solution capable of managingany company in any sector. In addition, we managed to create, build and maintain a work team with extensive experience in adapting and implementing the same solutions in many different processes and situations.
Six more aspects to know everything about Energy Performance Certificates
Even though at first sight Energy Performance Certificates required nowadays when selling or renting a property might seem a burden for the owner; they are a huge source of information for the future property tenant or buyer. When choosing a new residence or premise for rent or sale, its price, location or size should not only be what matters to us, but we should worry as well about its energy demand and, thus, the expense that it will generate in the future. If those topics matter to us when we buy a car or an electrical appliance, why shouldn’t they matter to us as well when talking about real state with a much higher repercussion?
What is it?
The Energy Performance Certificate is a report written by an accredited person, which entails a global rating of our property based on the carbon dioxide emissions that we are producing through heating, domestic hot water, cooling and lighting. Moreover, it also provides us with the energy demand coming from heating and cooling and primary energy consumption. At the end of the certificate a series of recommendations are offered to us in order to improve our rating and, therefore, save in our invoices.
What does the energy rating mean?
The rating obtained is organised in a scale that ranges from A (most efficient) to G (less efficient), which depends on our CO2 emissions. This scale is not proportional and, for example, the difference between an A and B rating is much lower than the one existing between an E and an F, as it can be seen in the picture.
How is it done?
An accredited person will visit the property and will gather information regarding windows, building envelope, energy systems, and hot water production system and, in case of business premises, information related to lighting. The data is introduced in a tool validated by the State (CEX, CE3X, HULC or CERMA in the case of Spain), where the certificate will be issued. Moreover, this certificate should include at least two recommendations about how to reduce energy.
What are the recommendations about how to reduce energy?
The energy certificate tool asks to introduce recommendations which can be classified into four categories: insulation, windows, thermal bridges and building systems. The accredited person will have to value, after having covered the previous steps, which are the best recommendations to offer in each case. This means carrying out an energy audit of our property, which provides us with highly valuable information to be able to implement an energy retrofit.
Dwelling certification vs certification at building level, what is mandatory?
Energy certificates can be done both for the complete building, as well as for individual business premises or dwellings. For buildings built less than 50 years ago it is not mandatory to issue a certificate at building level (except regional or local specification), therefore it is common practice that the owner requests this certificate whenever he or she has to rent or sell their property. However, it is worth noting that issuing the certificate at building level is less expensive than the individual ones.
If our building is more than 50 years old or we want to apply for a grant we will be asked to carry out the IEE (in Spanish – Informe de Evaluación del Edificio – a building assessment report) which specifies the conservation state of the building, the accordance to the accessibility regulation and its energy efficiency rating at building level. Certification at building level is compulsory either way for new buildings.
