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Nowadays the biggest challenge for most organizations is a real and substantial application of sustainability through the measurement and comparability of results in order to satisfy the principles of sustainability of all the stakeholders. Definitively, it is necessary to pursue sustainability through the measurements of specific indicators and control the variables that influence the state of the economic, social and environmental issues. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the development of a comprehensive, yet practical and reliable tool for a systematic sustainability assessment, based on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to support decision makers in complex decision problems in the field of environmental sustainability. The results are applied to a novel compressed air energy storage system proposed as a suitable technology for the energy storage in a small scale stand-alone renewable energy power plant (photovoltaic power plant) that is designed to satisfy the energy demand of a radio base station for mobile telecommunications. The outcome is a dynamic analysis and iterative integrated sustainability assessment of corporate performance

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Twelve single chambered, air-cathode Tubular Microbial Fuel Cells (TMFCs) have been filled up with fruit and vegetable residues. The anodes were realized by means of a carbon fiber brush, while the cathodes were realized through a graphite-based porous ceramic disk with Nafion membranes (117 Dupont). The performances in terms of polarization curves and power production were assessed according to different operating conditions: percentage of solid substrate water dilution, adoption of freshwater and a 35mg/L NaCl water solution and, finally, the effect of an initial potentiostatic growth.All TMFCs operated at low pH (pH= 3.0 ± 0.5), as no pH amendment was carried out. Despite the harsh environmental conditions, our TMFCs showed a Power Density (PD) ranging from 20 to 55 mW/m 2 ·kg waste and a maximum CD of 20 mA/m 2 ·kg waste , referred to the cathodic surface. COD removal after a 28−day period was about 45%.The remarkably low pH values as well as the fouling of Nafion membrane very likely limited TMFC performances. However, a scale-up estimation of our reactors provides interesting values in terms of power production, compared to actual anaerobic digestion plants. These results encourage further studies to characterize the graphite-based porous ceramic cathodes and to optimize the global TMFC performances, as they may provide a valid and sustainable alternative to anaerobic digestion technologies.

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