Theme: 03. Green and Sustainable Remediation

Topic Area: 3b. GSR Metrics and Sustainable Remediation Assessment Tools

Formatted Title:

Green Metrics Analytics: A New Approach to Sustainable Resilient Remediation

Background/Objectives:

Sustainable Resilient Remediation (SRR) has become increasingly important in the current context of climate change and extreme weather conditions. The Green Metrics Analytics (GMA) is a digital tool for assessing greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions in contaminated site management projects, created from the perspective of resilient and sustainable operations, whose concept is based on making conscious decisions to limit the environmental impacts and maximize the social and economic outcomes of the projects. The GMA considers products and technologies that mitigate the risk of contaminants for receptors while reflecting the interests of communities, economic impacts, and environmental effects of operations. The main objective of the digital tool is to provide support for reducing the carbon footprint of remediation projects towards more sustainable and cost-effective operations. Several site clean-up projects were supported by the GMA, covering sectors such as agriculture, mining, oil, gas, and technology, given its characteristics of being customized and scalable for various project scopes.

Approach/Activities:

Calculation basis from the GHG Protocol for Scope 2 (emissions due to electricity consumption) and Scope 3 (emissions by third parties) is used to quantify carbon emissions. Moreover, the digital tool, developed in Power BI, considers the characteristics and composition of inputs to calculate GHG emissions due to the life cycle of materials, the fuels used to supply machinery and vehicles, in addition to other technical assumptions. Actions implemented under remediation projects are analyzed against sustainability indicators, such as those described by the United Kingdom's Sustainable Remediation Forum (SuRF-UK) and the Sustainable Development Goals from the United Nations (UN SDGs). Legal, technical, and operational precepts are considered by the GMA to analyze such indicators, aiming to apply science-based, innovative strategies that represent less pressure on natural resources.

Results/Lessons Learned:

The GMA has been enabling more conscious decision-making to reduce the environmental impacts of remediation systems through the development of SMART indicators, contributing to implementing SRR concepts in contaminated site management projects. Among the remediation systems considered for analyzing CO₂e emissions from Scope 2 of the GHG Protocol, the greatest contribution was reported for the dual-phase extraction system (83% of emissions due to electricity consumption; 0,026 CO₂e emitted per hour of operating system), followed by Pump&Treat system (13% of emissions; 0,006 CO₂e emitted per hour). For the categories from Scope 3 of the GHG Protocol considered by the GMA, Category 5 (treatment of waste generated in operations; 87.4% of total emissions) was responsible for the greatest CO₂e values reported, followed by Category 6 (business travel; 6,7%). By analyzing emissions reported for Category 5, coprocessing of solid waste accounted for 50.5% of total emissions (1.70 CO₂e per ton of waste treated), while incineration produced 49.5% of the total emissions (1.69 CO₂e per ton of waste treated). Among the fuels considered for transport of employees (Category 6 of Scope 3), values of 0.173, 0.177, and 0.251 tCO₂e per ton of ethanol, diesel, and gasoline used were reported per 1,000 km of land travel, respectively. In contrast, 1.87t CO₂e were reported per 1,000 km of air travel. Such indicators developed through the GMA analysis are applied for selecting fuel, materials, and technologies that represent lower carbon emissions during project design, implementation, and execution. Moreover, the total water reinjected on the remediation systems was 27,332,220 liters, while 3,322,772 liters were recycled, which contributed to reducing the water footprint of the operations. ENV03 - Groundwater and surface water and ECON01 - Direct economic costs and benefits are examples of SuRF-UK indicators achieved by applying the GMA, which relates to several UN SDGs, such as SDG 13 - Actions against global climate change. Other actions developed at the clients’ sites through the GMA that represented proactive strategies in SRR were the optimization of costs, reinforcement of regulatory compliance, minimization of the levels of uncertainty related to the remediation monitoring processes, use of high-resolution techniques (e.g., direct imaging tools), promotion of solid waste management considering the lower potential of carbon emission, implementation of health and operational safety trainings, use of renewable fuels, promotion of gender equality, hiring of local suppliers, decision-making based on analytical approaches, delivery of digital reports, among other actions that contribute to accelerating the transition to a net zero strategy, generating better results for all stakeholders and ultimately improving the quality of life.

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Margarida Goncalves