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The increase in international trade due to globalization is evident in southeast Spain, which has become the top exporter of fruit and vegetables. Countries within the European Union, such as Germany and France, emphasize the sustainability and environmental impacts of these products. Hence, a greater understanding of the environmental implications of transporting fruit and vegetables between their origin and their destination might improve the sustainability of this commercial activity. The concept of a carbon footprint is a recognized environmental indicator that can be used for life cycle analysis. Here, a rigorous carbon footprint assessment was developed to examine the impact of using cardboard box containers to store and transport 1,000 t of fruit and vegetable products by road from their origin in Almería, Spain, to a destination market. The assessment included the fabrication of the cardboard boxes, the service they provide while transporting the products to the distribution center of the destination, and the end-of-life of the boxes for the six main products grown in Almería. The results showed that storing and transporting 1,000 t of product by road emits between 58 t and 130 t of CO2e depending on the fruit or vegetable type and the destination market. The implications of the end-of-life scenarios with respect to the destination are also discussed. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis was conducted for the transport distance. Lastly, biogenic CO2 production was also assessed according to standard carbon footprint assessment method. HighlightsThe carbon footprint of storage and transport of fruit and vegetables was assessed as an environmental indicator End-of-life scenarios and transport distance were the key aspects affecting the environmental impact Storing and transporting 1,000 t of fruits from Almería to main European markets emits between 58 t and 130 t of CO2e

Research on current practices and the state of green public procurement enables the identification of areas that can be improved, as well as opportunities to improve the tendering procedures from an environmental point of view. To understand the behaviour of local, provincial, and regional administrations concerning green public procurement, a case study on the Valencia region of Spain is made. The Valencian region is one of the most important communities in terms of population, number of contracting authorities, and weight in the Spanish Gross Domestic Product. In this study, a total of 967 procedures were analysed from calls for tenders made by municipal, provincial, and regional administrations in2016 and 2017.The results of this study show that the use of environmental criteria is 19.7% and the average weight is 4.1 out of 100. The civil engineering subsector, more than the building subsector, employs environmental criteria, particularly in projects tendered by regional administrations, whereas for projects with large budgets the level of use is similar for both subsectors. It is necessary to encourage plans to improve Green Public Procurement (GPP) practices in the Valencian administrations, especially those with a local scope such as municipalities.

Both educators and employers agree there is a growing gap between competences that labor market expects from its new employees and skills they own. Literature review holds that a set of nontechnical, professional abilities and intra-and interpersonal attitudes are required to close this gap and indicates that more training of soft skills is needed to access employment and success in work life. Although these skills are theoretically included in educational stages, project management approach can be incorporated to improve students and new employees' practical curricula. The methodology consists of the critical review of the competency frameworks established by the DeSeCo and Tuning projects, confronting them against the requirements currently demanded by labor market, based on the reports of Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG, to detect inconsistencies between educational and professional stages and check if project management standards, by PMI and IPMA, cover them. Compiling these weaknesses, actions can be established aimed at solving them, based on project management proposals. The incorporation of project management concepts into educational stages, especially the vision by competences, contributes to improve the employability by highlighting those transverse but essential skills that lead to versatile and successful professionals. To achieve this, it is necessary to care for human competences.

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Construction is one of the most important sectors in terms of economic volume and number of employees. It represents approximately 10% of the Gross Domestic Product of the European Union and employs 7% of its total labour force. In a construction project, procurement is employed in many of the stages, so it can constitute an adequate mechanism to integrate sustainability initiatives. Research concerning economic aspects in procurement has always been present in the construction sector, whereas research related to environmental aspects has been gaining attention in the last years. Nevertheless, social aspects are still not very present in the literature on public procurement. The main objective of this research is to analyse the use of social criteria in public tendering processes of public works in the Valencian region of Spain. The results show that Valencian public entities include social criteria for the 11.7% of adjudicated public works. This value is very low when compared with other studies developed in different countries worldwide. Social criteria, just like in other cases, are used more frequently the larger the budget of the project and the longer the execution time. The average weight of social criteria for the tendering process is low (7.0 out of 100), although entities that usually consider these criteria are aware of their importance and give them a higher weight, in global terms.

Agricultural packaging has a direct impact on the environmental performance of food. The carbon footprint (CF) of two of the most used packaging systems for international transport by road of fruit and vegetables is assessed and compared. Corrugated cardboard boxes (CCB) and polypropylene foldable boxes (PPB) in two different sizes are the object of this study. For the reusable boxes, three different scenarios are considered regarding the number of uses of each box (20, 50, and 100 uses). Product CF ISO 14067:2018 standard is applied, and requirements of ISO 14026:2017 and ISO 14044:2006 are met for a cradle-to-grave CF analysis. Product distribution and return of the empty box are the stages with the most significant impact for PPB over the manufacturing stage. CCB that does not have any returning stage or requirements of sanitation has its main impact in manufacturing. The comparison between both packaging systems of the same size, considering the functional unit and defined scope, points out CCB has a lower CF than PPB.

The characteristics of the envelope of a building determine, together with other factors, its consumption of energy. Additionally, the climate zone and insulation material may vary the minimum insulation thickness of walls and roofs, making it different, according to cooling down or warming up the home. Spanish legislation establishes different maximum values for energy demand according to different climate area both for heating and for cooling. This paper presents the results of a study that determines the influence of many variables as the climate zone or the orientation, among others, in the optimization of thickness insulation in residential homes in Spain to reduce the CO2 emissions embodied. To do that, 12 representative cities in Spain corresponding to different climate zones, four orientations, two constructive solutions, and four different configurations of the same house have been combined, for three different hypotheses and four insulation materials, resulting in 4608 cases of study. The results show that, under equal conditions on energy demand, the optimal insulation requirements are determined by heating necessities more than by cooling ones. In addition, a higher insulation thickness need does not necessarily mean more CO2 emissions, since it can be compensated with a lower Global Warming Potential characterization factor that is associated to the insulation material. The findings of this study can serve to designers and architects to establish the better combination of the variables that are involved in order to minimize the CO2 emissions embodied during the construction phase of a building, making it more energy efficient.