Press releases and news

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  • | pressrelease
    1,000 environmental product declarations now registered
    There is a growing need for information describing the impact that goods and services have on the environment. This is made clear by the rapid rise in the number of registrations in the international EPD system. This autumn the programme, run by a subsidiary of the IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, has registered a thousand environmental declarations. The biggest increase is in construction products.
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    Inauguration of pilot plant for Stockholm’s future water treatment solutions
    In a few years’ time, the world's biggest sewage treatment plant based on membrane technology will open in Stockholm. The projected facility will substantially increase the rapidly expanding city’s sewage treatment capacity, and simultaneously cut back on the discharge of eutrophic substances into the Baltic Sea. Last Wednesday the completed pilot plant was inaugurated at IVL’s Hammarby Sjöstadsverk research centre.
  • | pressrelease
    New report targets nanomaterials in the work environment
    During the last decade, the use of nanomaterials has become widespread in a wide range of applications, they are ubiquitous in medicine, cosmetics, building materials and other industrial products. But the health risks associated with many nanomaterials are still poorly understood. IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute has published a report describing how to address nanoparticle risk assessment issues and prevent hazardous human exposure.
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    Environmental technology companies need lengthier support if they are to grow
    A new study from IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute indicates that it takes more than five years for the average Swedish environmental technology company to reach the expansion phase. For the most successful companies a clear growth phase begins around the ninth year of operation. This means that today’s investment aid given to start-ups is not enough to bridge the gap from start to when the fledgling business starts to grow.
  • | pressrelease
    Gotland to be platform for developing innovative smart solutions to reduce water shortages
    For some years Gotland has suffered from a scarcity of drinking water. IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, together with Region Gotland, has been awarded funding from Sweden’s Innovation Authority Vinnova to build a testbed platform at Storsudret on the island of Gotland. The facility will develop and test a variety of sustainable technologies and systems for supplying water.
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    New project integrates public transport in rural areas with new mobility solutions
    Vinnova has granted IVL Swedish Environment Research Institute 4 million SEK to develop business models to strengthen cooperation between public transport operators and new car-pooling services in sparsely populated and rural areas. The so-called Collaborative Public Transport Project will run for three years.
  • | pressrelease
    New model important piece of the land-sea carbon cycle puzzle
    Researchers at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, SLU, Norwegian NIVA, English CEH and Scottish Water, have developed a method that makes it easier to estimate both the rate at which dissolved organic carbon in lake water is produced or conversely the rate at which it is consumed – this as a function of water nutritional status and turnover. Their findings have been published in the Nature Geoscience journal.
  • | pressrelease
    Former Minister for the Environment Åsa Romson recruited to IVL
    Åsa Romson, also a renowned environmental lawyer and environmental policy expert, will develop new research and mission projects, primarily focusing on urban challenges and commitments at national and international levels.
  • | news
    Commentary: The emissions trading system has been rescued but will play a less significant role in the future
    After two years of negotiations, last week EU member states reached a compromise over the EU ETS emissions trading system. The reform proposal is more comprehensive than many realize. At the last moment, emissions trading has been rescued, but in future national climate policy will be far more relevant to climate change in the EU, commented Lars Zetterberg, climate policy expert at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, in an article published in Aktuell Hållbarhet.
  • | pressrelease
    Why are Swedish lakes turning brown?
    Lakes and streams are turning browner. In a new report to the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, researchers at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute have summarized about a hundred Swedish studies investigating the mechanisms behind this phenomenon, and how it in turn affects the ability to assess the acidity in our lakes.
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    Cultivation of Japanese giant oysters in new innovation project
    Can Japanese giant oysters increase the profitability of Swedish mussel and oyster farms and contribute to sustainable aquaculture? Outside Lysekil on the west coast of Sweden an innovation project is underway in which IVL will test new methods for cultivating foreign species in the sea.
  • | pressrelease
    Hazardous substances must be phased out during recycling
    Increased recycling leverages a suite of environmental benefits, but may also mean a heightened risk of recycling hazardous substances in society. IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute and the Swedish Waste Management Association have studied a range of chemicals in goods – including the freons used in building insulation, PVC softeners and household flame retardants – to determine where they end up in the waste management chain.
  • | pressrelease
    The government appoints IVL’s Åsa Stenmarck to investigate the impact of plastic on the environment
    ​IVL waste expert Åsa Stenmarck has been appointed special investigator tasked with reviewing the possibilities of reducing negative environmental effects of plastic.
  • | pressrelease
    Smart cities can heat themselves
    Every year, an enormous amount of energy is wasted across the EU. The new EU Reuseheat project aims to demonstrate four different scalable systems designed to reuse and recycle unused heat streams in urban environments. These systems utilize heat from, for example, subway systems and wastewater flows in residential buildings and offices.
  • | news
    Twelve million SEK to digital environmental monitoring
    Vinnova has awarded the Luft och Vatten (LoV-IoT) project, one of eight hubs in Sweden, 12 million Swedish crowns to further develop digital environmental monitoring. IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute is an active participant in the project that utilizes the Internet of Things and arrays of sensors to build efficient systems for gathering information about air and water quality in urban areas.
  • | pressrelease
    Continued high emissions from new diesel cars
    Diesel cars adhering to the latest environmental class legislation, Euro 6, release about five times as much nitrogen oxides in real mileage as is required by law. This according to a survey conducted by IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute. In the study, exhaust emissions from more than 30,000 cars were measured in Gothenburg traffic.
  • | news
    IVL comments to reactions in media on battery study
    IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute recently carried out a study estimating C0 2-emissions from lithium-ion battery production and their recycling, aiming to provide a better understanding of the underlying data used in complete vehicle comparisons.
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    Volcanic eruptions caused 25-fold increase in sulphur content in northern Sweden
    From August 31, 2014 to February 27, 2015, a volcanic eruption in Iceland discharged twice as much sulphur dioxide as is emitted by all human activity in a single year. The eruption impacted air quality throughout Sweden with elevated sulphur levels in air and precipitation, especially in northern Sweden.
  • | pressrelease
    Locally produced biofuels will reduce the climate impact of aviation
    IVL Swedish Environment Research Institute will, together with the Fly Green Fund association, launch a project to leverage large-scale production of biofuel in Sweden. At present, biofuel is only produced at a single plant in California, and the project is keen to change that. The plan is to utilize Swedish forests and make possible access to locally produced biofuel.
  • | news
    “Reports about harmful effects of microplastic have opened many people’s eyes”
    The first UN Ocean Conference, hosted by Sweden and Fiji, took place in New York. Issues with microplastic in the sea and marine littering were high on the agenda. These questions were also taken up in Sweden, where the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency delivered a report commissioned by the Swedish government on the sources of microplastic and proposed measures for reducing emissions in Sweden.
  • | pressrelease
    New report highlights climate footprint of electric car battery production
    In the quest for greater mileage per charge, electric car batteries are getting much bigger. But since battery production is energy consuming and to some extent cancels out climate benefit, it is vital that production becomes more energy efficient and that the use of fossil electricity is minimized. This according to a report that IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute has carried out on behalf of the Swedish Energy Agency and the Swedish Transport Administration.
  • | news
    “There is more to biofuels than CO2 reduction”
    Researchers from IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Luleå University of Technology, Bio4Energy and Lund University have evaluated Swedish biofuels production. The result indicates that there are many environmental and socio-economic benefits that should be taken into account when designing future biofuels instruments.
  • | news
    Chemical pollutants in preschool dust
    Researchers from the City of Stockholm “Chemical-Smart Preschool” project have examined levels of plasticisers and bisphenols in the dust collected from 100 Stockholm preschools. The researchers also identified other factors in the preschool environment that impact levels of these pollutants.
  • | pressrelease
    What will the environmental weather be like today?
    The wonder of IoT- Internet of Things – has come to reach the issues of environmental research. The “Environmental Weather” IoT project has developed smart sensors to measure air pollution and noise and send real-time data directly to your mobile phone or computer. At its concluding seminar in Universeum in Gothenburg, the project presented the possibilities of connected environmental monitoring.
  • | pressrelease
    Putting a price on nature drives sustainable innovation
    Timber has a price, as do coal and oil. Fish in the supermarket do too, but does a living fish have a price? To include monetary environmental values in considerations associated with the production of goods and services is still a bit ahead of time, but already today businesses and government agencies are following the topic with interest.
  • | news
    Reducing nitrogen emissions from shipping can save 28.3 billion euros in health costs
    A new study conducted by the IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute on behalf of the Air pollution and Climate Secretariat (AirClim), shows that a nitrogen oxide emissions tax and refund mechanism, combined with the introduction of NOx Emission Control Areas in the Baltic and North Seas, would serve to improve adverse public health effects in coastal countries.
  • | news
    Second-hand trade saved 16,3 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions
    Schibsted Media Group has, in collaboration with IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, estimated the potential environmental benefits of second-hand trade conducted in eight of the media group's marketplaces. The calculations show that by shopping second-hand instead of purchasing new items 16.3 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions was saved in 2016. This is the equivalence to no traffic in Stockholm during 19 years.
  • | pressrelease
    Wood burning and traffic greatest threats to air in cities
    Health effect measurements from Stockholm, Gothenburg and Umeå shows that the importance of local air pollution emissions from wood burning and road traffic is greater than earlier national level estimates have shown. What most surprised the researchers was the impact from wood burning, with effects in the form of mortality in the same magnitude as that from traffic. The study also shows a clear link between exposure to soot and the risk of stroke.
  • | news
    Strategic projects to review the potential of Industrial Symbiosis in Sweden
    Researchers from IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Linköping University, Rise and through collaboration with industrial partners from Sotenäs Symbioscenter, HiFab, Econova, Tekniska Verken i Linköping and Holmen have begun collaboration on several projects to improve and the use of industrial symbiosis in Sweden. The projects are funded through the Strategic Innovation Program, Resource.
  • | pressrelease
    Automatic rather than manual sorting provides new opportunities for increased textile recycling. In a unique pilot plant in Avesta, a thirty-metre machine uses optical sensors to sort textiles based on their fibre content.
  • | news
    Increased production of biofuels from the sea and its possible impact on the ecosystem
    Research is underway to determine whether cultivating algae and sea squirts may be a promising alternative for the production of biofuels. However, more knowledge is needed about how large-scale production might affect the sea and its ecosystem services.
  • | news
    How can emissions trading become a more effective climate policy tool?
    What is needed to make emissions trading work? How can the system become more proactive when it comes to climate adaptation? Researchers from IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, the University of Gothenburg, and the American organization Resources for the Future are setting out to investigate just that, with support provided by the Swedish Energy Agency.
  • | news
    IVL active in research on smart materials
    Smart materials are the focus of a new Mistra research programme tasked with discovering effective ways of removing hazardous substances from air, water and land. IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute will take part in the initiative, which is led by the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology (KTH).
  • | news
    Decisive action for better water with the help of unique EU project
    IVL is engaged in Sweden’s first LIFE IP project. The goal of the Rich Waters project is among other things to reduce the impact of nutrients and pollutants, create free migration routes for fish and streamline municipal water planning.
  • | news
    Peringe Grennfelt leaves CLRTAP after 30 years
    After nearly 30 years as Swedish delegate to the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution, where in recent years he was Chair of the Working Group on Effects, IVL’s Peringe Grennfelt ends his mission.