Abstract: A comparative exergoeconomic analysis is reported of waste heat recovery from a Gas Turbine-Modular Helium Reactor (GT-MHR) using various arrangements of Organic Rankine Cycles (ORCs) to produce electrical power. The organic Rankine cycles considered are: a simple Organic Rankine Cycle (SORC), an ORC with an internal heat exchanger (HORC) and a regenerative Organic Rankine Cycle (RORC). The exergoeconomic analysis is performed based on the specific exergy costing (SPECO) approach. For this purpose, the combined cycles are first analyzed thermodynamically from both energy and exergy perspectives. Then cost balances and auxiliary equations are applied to subsystems and exergoeconomic parameters are calculated for the components and the overall combined cycles. Based on fixed operating conditions for the GT-MHR cycle, the three combined cycles are compared. Finally a parametric study is performed to ascertain the effects on the exergoeconomic performance of the combined cycles of such significant parameters as compressor pressure ratio, turbine inlet temperature and evaporator temperature. The results show that the GT-MHR/RORC achieves the lowest unit cost of electricity produced by the ORC turbine, while the highest unit cost of electricity is observed for the GT-MHR/HORC. In addition, the exergy destruction cost rate is found to be highest for the GT-MHR/RORC and lowest for the GT-MHR/HORC.

Sustainable Development was defined as part of a precautionary scheme where risk-preventive capabilities are put in action to meet the needs of the present without compromising future generations, as the Brundtland Report stated. The precautionary scheme has failed to prevent dangerous interference with the climate system. According to recent reports issued by the World Bank and UNEP, the world is on track towards an increase in global temperature of 4 degrees if current inaction continues. The magnitude of climate change consequences with a 4 degree increase in temperature will not allow neither meeting the needs of the present nor the needs of future generations. Can any development be defined as \'sustainable\' under these conditions? Is this the final call for sustainable development before giving up to \'resilience\' in the best case, and \'survival\' in the worst case scenario? These and other questions will be explored throughout this presentation to understand the fundamental importance of successful negotiations under the UNFCCC to mitigate climate change in order to establish and fulfill the Sustainable Development Goals and the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Adaptation to climate change is becoming an increasingly important part of the development agenda in Ethiopia. CC adaptation can be integrated with development imitative at local level through Community-Based Organizations (CBOs). Twenty-one legally recognized CBOs have been established to implement adaptation actions with collective objectives of environmental protection and livelihood improvement (sustainable development) in the Choke Mountain Watersheds, Upper Blue Nile Highlands. These CBOs organized themselves voluntarily, drafted their own bylaws, have registered their Association (cooperative society) before an authorized registering body, by opening their bank account and manage various transaction with reasonable financial bookkeeping. Existing field-based extension approaches and methods of watershed planning were used with the active participation of the local level administration. The adaptation options focused on options that are proven environmentally and economically successful elsewhere, but are not widely known or practiced in the Choke Mountain watersheds, i.e. “no regret” options. Conservation of the natural resource base was taken as an entry point for planning adaptive actions. The sustainability of individual CBOs was assessed based on aggregate values of the five sustainability dimensions (social, institutional, technical, financial, and environment dimensions). The sustainability values ranged from 0.39 to 0.66 with a median of 0.4680 which is below the average value. There is no sustained CBO that obtains a 70% score (or more) in all sustainability dimensions and in aggregated form. Six CBOs (30%) sustained but at risk CBO getting a 50% score (or more) in an aggregated form from all dimensions. The rest 70% (14 CBOs) fail to obtain a 50% score in an aggregated form or in any of the factors and are not sustainable in all the dimensions. Repeatedly occurring critical barriers are community participation, training of local community members and administrators, information management, local govern¬ment commitment, limited farmers’ capacity and extended bureaucracy and difficult terrains. While much has been learned through these projects, the sustainability of projects that take the natural resource base as an entry point has come into question. Based on this experience, we recommend that markets are a more appropriate entry and exit point for future resilience building efforts. This recognition has yielded a model that centers on the establishment and implementation of community-based Innovation Platforms, devoted to achieving a climate resilient green economy through dissemination and uptake of proven technologies and practices.

In its Communication "Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe" the European Commission defined a vision for EU resource consumption by 2050: the economy will have grown compatibly with resource constraints and planetary boundaries, preserving a high standard of living and lowering the environmental impacts. Such vision entails the sustainable management of natural resources, i.e. raw materials, energy, water, air, land and soil as well as biodiversity and ecosystems. In order to support the scientific discussion on the sustainability of resource use and the evaluation thereof, we have analysed the trends of abiotic and biotic resource consumption within the EU27 over the past 20 years. Beyond traditional mass-based approaches to resource accounting (e.g. Domestic Material Consumption DMC and Domestic Extraction Used, DEU), our assessment is twofold: accounting for the biophysical flows of resources and assessing the impact associated to the flows, , using different life-cycle impact assessment methods (LCIA) for resource depletion and scarcity. The resources considered in the analysis include only those extracted in EU territory, including: raw materials (metals and minerals), energy carriers and biotic resources and the timeframe is 20 years (1990-2010). The final aim is the assessment of the evolution of resource flows in the economy and the related resource depletion due to European production and consumption. Trends of resource production and associated depletion as well as other existing indicators for monitoring resource efficiency are reported and analysed with the aim of: highlighting the occurrence of decoupling over time, both in absolute and relative terms; and giving a comprehensive overview of trends related to different resources, usually handled separately in the existing literature. To complete the sustainability assessment of resource consumption research needs are listed, particularly concerning the need ofOPEN ACCESS complementing the study with the analysis of socio-economic drivers underpinning the resource consumption trends.

Attractive opportunities exist to reduce buildings' energy use at lower costs and higher returns in the long run. As little work done using transaction costs (TCs) approach in this area, this paper using empirical case study of Malaysia to demonstrate how TCs, especially uncertainty aspects affect the business investment of BEE by the major stakeholders, i.e. architects. To solicit views regarding BEE investment, in-depth interviews were conducted with 30 architects who work in major real estate development firms in Malaysia. This research applies transaction cost economics (TCE) to understand the underlying barriers resulting from uncertainty that prohibits the acceptance of BEE by choice. It provides a detailed analysis of the current situation and future prospects for BEE adoption through studying the impacts from three uncertainty aspects: economic, market and policy. It delineates the market and suggests possible policy solutions to overcome the uncertainties and to attain the large-scale deployment of energy-efficient building techniques. The findings indicate the uncertainties to the BEE decision-makings from both market and policy sides. It establishes the groundwork for future studies on how to choose a particular policy package and what roles government should play to solve the existing problems in BEE development.

The importance of sustainable consumption has received recent attention in light of the 2013 publication of the United Nations' Post 2015 Development Agenda. Sustainable consumption concerns itself with promoting and maintaining equilibrium between human need and existing resources in order to ensure the longevity and success of tomorrow's generations. Health care is human need and depends on resources. At the same time health clients increasingly want to be in the driver's seat with their health interventions; hence, the concepts of patient-driven healthcare and people driven health research have gained in popularity. We see movements towards a 'quantified self' (where people diagnose themselves), patient-driven healthcare and research models, and health social networks and participatory medicine with an active health technology market that makes consumer personalized medicine possible. Within the sustainable consumption framework the question is which health consumer desires are sustainable. The inclusion of health care and its relationship to sustainable consumption is vital as health care, a finite resource, is essential to good health and sustainable development, but can be negatively impacted by unsustainable consumption patterns. However although one obtains hits in Google or Google Scholar for terms such as "sustainable consumption", "health consumer", sustainable healthcare", "sustainability of healthcare" and "healthcare sustainability" one obtains no hits for the phrase "sustainable consumption of healthcare". In our contribution we posit to bring the sustainable healthcare, health consumer and sustainable consumption discourses together.

The venture of Industrial Risk concerns life, natural – built environment and socio-economic activities. The aim of the research is to identify the threat, its awareness and to ensure the protection of residents. Activities that can lead to a Major Accident (MA), installation process of new units – establishments and responsibilities of investors and the state, are indicated in European Directives, called SEVESO. Employers have responsibility for safety within the industrial establishment; the state is responsible for the perimeter. So governments are responsible for the methods determining the Protection Zones (PZ), the expected impacts of a MA per zone and the Major Accident Prevention Policy (MAPP). In Greece these arrangements are not a result of institutionally entrenched methodological choices. For the first time, new SEVESO installations are related to Land Use Planning in the Directive SEVESO II of 1996, without referring to the existing proximity of corresponding activities to the urban fabric.Western Thessaloniki is the territory in danger and especially the Urban Units (UU) 4 and 5 of Elefterio Kordelio. It is established the fact that the parameter of industrial risk is absent from the urban planning of the area. The urban paradox of residents ’ coexistence to the risk (threat) is probably caused by the diachronic vicinity of urban tissue with industries, without any relative preoccupation, despite occasional incidents. There is not a fauve impact just because of ignorance and lack of information, despite any clear provision from Directives SEVESO. The parameter of industrial risk is completely absent from the urban planning of that region. The correlation of existing protection zones with urban areas, where anticipated impacts in case of major accident, shows a series of conclusions concerning terms and conditions of coexistence.SEVESO installations are obliged to reduce effectively the width of PZ I and II (best practices, closing down, relocation), habitants of UU 5 must be removed directly (changing accommodation, relocation) and finally a plan of Urban Regeneration must be applied in UU 4 in order to temporarily remove urban activities (utilities), disperse land uses, enforce building shells and reuse them, create open spaces, form evacuation plans, create digital info – systems (Information and Communication Technologies ICT), etc. The measures of the above framework will remain active, until the reduction of protection zone II, so that the urban unit 4 will not be covered.

The author present several results of some different European Project about the the call "Smart Cities and Communitiesin Europe". The main objective of these projects is to develop a replicable strategy for the design, construction and management of entire residential neighborhoods with "almost zero" consumption. The experience, both in the competition participation and in the course of the phases of the project, it is particularly significant, especially for the synergy that has necessarily developed at international level, including Municipality, researchers, industries, non-profit companies and finance companies. Regarding the role of the University is evident the contribution in terms of knowledge and strength of cohesion between the different actors involved.

Building social alternatives is essential to resist the destructive impacts of the capitalist organization on the quality of life, social organization, and the planet. This paper offers an analysis of the ways in which peoples are mobilizing to build organizations and to define social movements to move beyond current crises. The construction of an ecologically sound and social-solidarity economy requires mechanisms for mutual cooperation based on alternative systems of decision making as well as for doing work and assuring well-being to every member of the community; poverty and unemployment are not compatible with a sustainable bio-social system. These depend on forging a process of solidarity among the members of a society as well as building alliances among communities; to assure the satisfaction of basic needs while also attending the most pressing requirements for physical, social and environmental infrastructure and to assure the conservation and rehabilitation of their ecosystems.

This paper seeks to address critical elements of science, technology and the environment with a focus on the university as the economic driver of technological innovation. A fundamental knowledge and historical context is needed to place engineering and design innovation on a less speculative path, preserve the academy's integrity and keep capitalist enterprise in check. This paper relies on several key texts and prominent voices to present an argument based on differences of perception and expectations of outcomes within a goal of addressing engineering and design and innovation as an outcome, while viewing engineering's bearing on perceived competitiveness within an emergent and ever more ambiguous multinational global marketplace. Where, how and why ideas will be formed and transformed into innovative new technological solutions presents a major shift in the role of the university in the next century. Visible signs of progress in science, engineering and technology, like the devices we tether to our bodies to communicate with each other, benefit the individual and society at large, but physical evidence of technological transformation can also be destabilizing and blur our grounding in both historical and temporal realities. Innovative art and design practices that rely on technologically shifting frameworks and non-visible realizations of new technologies such as nanotechnology leave product design manufacturing and become new methodologies and products unto themselves. Successfully coping with monumental technological changes requires a giant shift that is not measurable through trending, malleable through branding or even close to being mediated through social networking as we are being led to believe. Design helps realize changes at a pace that humans can digest. Objects and interfaces mediate adaptation, disruptive or not. New design methodologies (research) and practices such visualizing quantitative data that is less than absolute begin to describe potential repercussions of technological change in bits that can be digested and managed, as well as explore the latent relationships between future risks and hopeful potentials through non-traditional means of representation. Fundamental questions about how we even can approach the cultural re-framing of the daunting problems facing society and the environment today are limited to using our limited and outdated tools and means of representation, which Thomas Kuhn would argue is a paradigm that needs to be overcome in itself. If innovation in engineering wrestled with the end of the patronage of the industrial military complex in the 1960's, we are now faced in the post communication age with an abundance of tools, an ease of dematerialization and unusual business models and means of monetizing experiences that we can barely recognize. The online course as the norm is still in limbo, not because of the absence of a face-to-face surrogate experience that will be of equal or better value, but because we still do not have an adequate working business model for monetizing the experience to make it profitable. How did we cope with this level of change last time around? Are we really up to engineering a new and innovative future?