Publications | Umweltbundesamt

Waste | Resources, Water

PIWI and the plastic soup

The Pool-Cleaning-Robot PIWI (Pool-Intelligent-Water-Inspector) PIWI 3.14 keeps his pool clean and ship-shape and is quite happy. However his friend, Wilma the cat, confuses the issue when she tells him what the next stream looks like. The two of them get on their way to sort things out.But that is not the only job, as the stream flows into the river and the river into the sea. Everywhere PIWI mak...read more

Chemikalien

National Implementation Plan of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Stockholm Convention

In the National Implementation Plan, Germany describes the measures taken to implement the obligations under the Stockholm Convention. These include both the legal measures implementing these obligations into national and European law and measures to reduce or eliminate releases of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) from intentional and unintentional production and use as well as from stockpiles...read more

Chemicals

Identification of Priority Topics in the Field of Sustainable Chemistry

To enable the ISC3 a quick start in its substantive work, the customers (UBA/BMUB) have commis-sioned the drafting of three studies. The objective of this study was to identify to identify priority top-ics, i.e. technical solutions, concepts, business models etc., in the field of Sustainable Chemistry. A desk-top research has been performed to elucidate specific challenges and recent innovations i...read more

Chemicals

Sustainability initiatives and approaches in the chemical sector

To allow the ISC3 a quick start to its substantive work, the clients (UBA/BMUB) have commissioned the drafting of three studies. The objective of this study was to create a knowledge base by mapping the most relevant initiatives/approaches in the field of sustainable chemistry. For this purpose, the follow-ing sectors were examined: Green chemistry (n = 8), international organizations (2), (chemic...read more

Soil | Land

Immobilisation of nitrogen in context of critical loads

Literature review and analysis of German, French and Swiss soil data

Estimating the nitrogen immobilisation under steady state condition is a crucial part of the critical load calculation. This report contains the results of a literature review focusing on this topic and the description of a new method to estimate the nitrogen immobilisation. For this approach, soil inventories from France, Switzerland and Germany were used to estimate nitrogen immobilisation on ba...read more

Sustainability | Strategies | International matters

Extending land footprints towards characterizing sustainability of land use

Beyond area-based land footprint indicators, additional information is needed to assess the sustainability of land use. This report discusses extensions of area-based land footprints with meaningful impact-oriented indicators for the assessment of the effects of different consumption patterns on the ecosystems and sustainability of land use. It discusses: System indicators, which considers globall...read more

Sustainability | Strategies | International matters

Quantifying the land footprint of Germany and the EU using a hybrid accounting model

Footprint analysis reveals the appropriation of land resources from a consumer’s perspective. This report presents a novel hybrid land-flow accounting method for the calculation of land footprints, employing a globally consistent top-down approach and combining physical with environmental-economic accounting. It delivers detailed results for cropland, grassland and forest land footprints for Germa...read more

Sustainability | Strategies | International matters

Review of land flow accounting methods and recommendations for further development

This report provides an in-depth review of the current state of the art in measuring land footprints. It identifies differences in available accounting methods and indicates their shortcomings. It offers options and gives clear recommendations for the further development of actual and virtual global biomass and land flow accounting methods.read more