Because of their many health benefits, blueberries are highly sought after as superfoods. There are also ongoing initiatives to enhance sustainability in blueberry packaging by selecting appropriate materials. Ideal packaging should ensure the safe delivery of the fruit to consumers while maintaining product quality, addressing environmental concerns, and promoting circularity. The environmental impact of four different packaging materials was assessed using a comparative cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment. The materials evaluated included a cardboard package (CB), a cardboard package with a cellulose lid (CBC), a polypropylene (PP) as a control, and a punnet made from rice straw topped with polylactic acid (RPLA), a bio-based plastic. The evaluation considered all environmental impact categories, utilizing Sphera GaBi software and the CML 2016 method. Special attention was given to various end-of-life scenarios, determining energy resources and fossil abiotic depletions. The results indicate that RPLA is the most eco-friendly option, with the lowest carbon footprint and energy resources. CB has a larger carbon footprint but less overall impact than traditional incineration, while CBC has the highest impact during recycling, mainly due to marine ecotoxicity. PP has a relatively low impact on energy resources and fossil abiotic depletion compared to CB and CBC packaging materials.

It is a serious challenge for humanity to find an appropriate response to stop the accelerating rise in global temperature caused by atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions. After a methodological review of the literature, online and in-person modelling of education, work, and conferences, and relying on the results of life-cycle studies, we sought the answer to what reasonable solutions are available for decarbonization and energy reduction. During the research, the organizational carbon footprint of a selected office, educational institution and conference, and then the carbon footprint created by a person in 1 h, were examined. The two-day online education significantly reduced the daily commute load in transport by 402 tons of CO₂ equivalent per year. Still, the energy demand of home learning subtracts 136 tons from this, so the real benefit was 266 tons above in an institution educating nearly 3500 students. In a workplace of 180 people, where 52% of employees commute, 90% teleworking saved 222 tons of carbon dioxide emissions in one month, taking into account the carbon footprint of working from home. In the case of conferences, the online solution reduces the carbon footprint due to the absence of travel and catering. Comparing the three areas, for the in-person case, the conference’s carbon footprint per person per hour was the highest (11.91 kg CO₂ eq.). This value for education was 1.15 kg CO₂ eq.; for work, it was the lowest with a value of 0.90 kg CO₂ eq. Moving to an online space resulted in the most significant savings for the conference (11.55 kg CO₂ eq.), followed by working (0.54 kg CO₂ eq.), and minor savings were achieved in hybrid education (0.13 kg CO₂ eq.). The sensitivity analysis highlighted the impact of transport on carbon footprint in all three cases. However, the life cycle cost analysis showed that moving to a virtual space reduces the life cycle cost of de-carbonization by 42%.

Polymer-based insulation materials are widely used to enhance the energy efficiency of buildings; however, their growing application raises concerns related to resource use and end-of-life management. Rigid polyurethane (PUR) foams are key core materials in structural insulated panels due to their favorable thermal and mechanical performance, yet their life cycle environmental impacts—particularly at end-of-life—remain insufficiently quantified. In this study, a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) of PUR-based insulation used in structural insulated panel systems is conducted in accordance with ISO 14040/44 and EN 15804 standards. The assessment is performed using Sphera LCA software (version: GaBi 10.5) and the CML 2016 impact assessment method. Formulation-level variations in rigid PUR foams, including changes in methylene diphenyl diisocyanate content and pentane blowing agent ratio, are explicitly incorporated to evaluate their influence on key environmental impact categories. The results indicate that increasing pentane content leads to higher global warming potential, while this effect may be mitigated or intensified by concurrent changes in diisocyanate content and foam density in fully formulated systems. Three end-of-life scenarios—landfilling, incineration with energy recovery, and mechanical recycling—are analyzed. The findings provide material-level, decision-relevant insights that support environmentally informed formulation strategies and contribute to the development of more circular polymer-based insulation solutions for the built environment.

Because of their many health benefits, blueberries are highly sought after as superfoods. There are also ongoing initiatives to enhance sustainability in blueberry packaging by selecting appropriate materials. Ideal packaging should ensure the safe delivery of the fruit to consumers while maintaining product quality, addressing environmental concerns, and promoting circularity. The environmental impact of four different packaging materials was assessed using a comparative cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment. The materials evaluated included a cardboard package (CB), a cardboard package with a cellulose lid (CBC), a polypropylene (PP) as a control, and a punned made from rice straw topped with polylactic acid (RPLA), a bio-based plastic. The evaluation considered all environmental impact categories, utilizing Sphera GaBi software and the CML 2016 method. Special attention was given to various end-of-life scenarios, determining energy resources and fossil abiotic depletions. The results indicate that RPLA is the most eco-friendly option, with the lowest carbon footprint and energy resources. CB has a larger carbon footprint but less overall impact than traditional incineration, while CBC has the highest impact during recycling, mainly due to marine ecotoxicity. PP has a relatively low impact on energy resources and fossil abiotic depletion compared to CB and CBC packaging materials.

Polymer-based insulation materials are widely used to enhance the energy efficiency of buildings; however, their growing application raises concerns related to resource use and end-of-life management. Rigid polyurethane (PUR) foams are key core materials in structural insulated panels due to their favorable thermal and mechanical performance, yet their life cycle environmental impacts—particularly at end-of-life—remain insufficiently quantified. In this study, a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) of PUR-based insulation used in structural insulated panel systems is conducted in accordance with ISO 14040/44 and EN 15804 standards. The assessment is performed using Sphera LCA software and the CML 2016 impact assessment method. Formulation-level variations of rigid PUR foams, including changes in methylene diphenyl diisocyanate content and pentane blowing agent ratio, are explicitly incorporated to evaluate their influence on key environmental impact categories. The results indicate that increasing pentane content leads to higher global warming potential, while this effect may be mitigated or intensified by concurrent changes in diisocyanate content and foam density in fully formulated systems. Three end-of-life scenarios—landfilling, incineration with energy recovery, and mechanical recycling—are analyzed. The findings provide material-level, decision-relevant insights that support environmentally informed formulation strategies and contribute to the development of more circular polymer-based insulation solutions for the built environment.

Improving the environmental performance of ageing residential buildings requires design strategies that consider both thermal performance and material-related embodied impacts. This study provides early-stage, wall-level comparative evidence on the decarbonization potential of alternative external wall assemblies. A representative Hungarian “Kádár” Cube house is used as a reference to evaluate three configurations under identical geometric and climatic conditions: (i) the original uninsulated masonry wall, (ii) a masonry wall retrofitted with an External Thermal Insulation Composite System (ETICS), and (iii) a modular wall system based on Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) applied in a morphology preserving reconstruction scenario. The analysis combines steady-state thermal transmittance (U-value) calculations with a cradle-to-gate (A1–A3) embodied-carbon assessment. Results show that both ETICS and SIP solutions substantially reduce heat loss compared to the baseline wall. The SIP configuration achieves the lowest U-value and cradle-to-gate embodied carbon due to its lightweight structure and reduced material mass. As the study focuses exclusively on wall-level A1–A3 impacts and steady-state thermal indicators, the findings support early design-stage decision-making rather than full building-level decarbonization modelling. The results highlight the importance of jointly considering thermal-transmittance performance and embodied impacts when comparing retrofit and modular reconstruction options for ageing residential buildings.