Modelling Representative Life Cycle Inventories for Swiss Arable Crops (9 pp)

Goal, Scope and Background Life cycle inventories (LCIs) of agricultural products, infrastructure, inputs and processes are required to optimise food supply chains. In the past, the use of LCA was hindered by the limited availability of databases with LCIs for such agricultural inputs, processes and products in combination with LCIs of other major economic sectors. The ecoinvent database covers this need for the Swiss, and to an extent, the European context. A suitable approach had to be outlined for defining representative datasets for products from arable crops, since there was no comprehensive survey of agricultural production.Methods No single data source was available for defining representative datasets for arable crops. It was therefore decided to define model crops on the basis of a variety of sources in collaboration with experts on the crops in question. The datasets were validated by experts and by comparison with literature. Field emissions were calculated using a set of models taking into account situation-specific parameters. Data defined by this procedure are more generally usable, but their definition is also more laborious. Results and Discussion Selected results (inventories and impact assessment) are presented for infrastructure (buildings, machinery), work processes, fertilisers, pesticides, seed and arable crop products. Infrastructure has a higher share of environmental impacts than in typical industrial processes, often due to low utilisation rates. Energy use is dominated by mechanisation, the use of mineral fertilisers (particularly nitrogen) and grain drying. Eutrophication is caused mainly by nitrogen compounds. In general, field emissions are of decisive importance for many environmental impacts. Conclusion and Outlook The ecoinvent database provides representative agricultural data for the Swiss, and to an extent, the European context. It also provides the meta-information necessary for deciding whether a dataset is suitable for the purpose of a particular LCA study. To further improve the representativeness of the datasets, an environmental farm monitoring network is required.     

Hybrid Framework for Managing Uncertainty in Life Cycle Inventories

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is increasingly being used to inform decisions related to environmental technologies and polices, such as carbon footprinting and labeling, national emission inventories, and appliance standards. However, LCA studies of the same product or service often yield very different results, affecting the perception of LCA as a reliable decision tool. This does not imply that LCA is intrinsically unreliable; we argue instead that future development of LCA requires that much more attention be paid to assessing and managing uncertainties. In this article we review past efforts to manage uncertainty and propose a hybrid approach combining process and economic input–output (I‐O) approaches to uncertainty analysis of life cycle inventories (LCI). Different categories of uncertainty are sometimes not tractable to analysis within a given model framework but can be estimated from another perspective. For instance, cutoff or truncation error induced by some processes not being included in a bottom‐up process model can be estimated via a top‐down approach such as the economic I‐O model. A categorization of uncertainty types is presented (data, cutoff, aggregation, temporal, geographic) with a quantitative discussion of methods for evaluation, particularly for assessing temporal uncertainty. A long‐term vision for LCI is proposed in which hybrid methods are employed to quantitatively estimate different uncertainty types, which are then reduced through an iterative refinement of the hybrid LCI method.     

Integration of life cycle assessment in the environmental information system

Background, aim, and scope  As the sustainability improvement becomes an essential business task of industry, a number of companies are adopting IT-based environmental information systems (EIS). Life cycle assessment (LCA), a tool to improve environmental friendliness of a product, can also be systemized as a part of the EIS. This paper presents a case of an environmental information system which is integrated with online LCA tool to produce sets of hybrid life cycle inventory and examine its usefulness in the field application of the environmental management. Main features  Samsung SDI Ltd., the producer of display panels, has launched an EIS called Sustainability Management Initiative System (SMIS). The system comprised modules of functions such as environmental management system (EMS), green procurement (GP), customer relation (e-VOC), eco-design, and LCA. The LCA module adopted the hybrid LCA methodology in the sense that it combines process LCA for the site processes and input–output (IO) LCA for upstream processes to produce cradle-to-gate LCA results. LCA results from the module are compared with results of other LCA studies made by the application of different methodologies. The advantages and application of the LCA system are also discussed in light of the electronics industry. Results and discussion  LCA can play a vital role in sustainability management by finding environmental burden of products in their life cycle. It is especially true in the case of the electronics industry, since the electronic products have some critical public concerns in the use and end-of-life phase. SMIS shows a method for hybrid LCA through online data communication with EMS and GP module. The integration of IT-based hybrid LCA in environmental information system was set to begin in January 2006. The advantage of the comparing and regular monitoring of the LCA value is that it improves the system completeness and increases the reliability of LCA. By comparing the hybrid LCA and process LCA in the cradle-to-gate stage, the gap between both methods of the 42-in. standard definition plasma display panel (PDP) ranges from 1% (acidification impact category) to −282% (abiotic resource depletion impact category), with an average gap of 68.63%. The gaps of the impact categories of acidification (AP), eutrophication (EP), and global warming (GWP) are relatively low (less than 10%). In the result of the comparative analysis, the strength of correlation of three impact categories (AP, EP, GWP) shows that it is reliable to use the hybrid LCA when assessing the environmental impacts of the PDP module. Hybrid LCA has its own risk on data accuracy. However, the risk is affordable when it comes to the comparative LCA among different models of similar product line of a company. In the results of 2 years of monitoring of 42-in. Standard definition PDP, the hybrid LCA score has been decreased by 30%. The system also efficiently shortens man-days for LCA study per product. This fact can facilitate the eco-design of the products and can give quick response to the customer's inquiry on the product's eco-profile. Even though there is the necessity for improvement of process data currently available, the hybrid LCA provides insight into the assessments of the eco-efficiency of the manufacturing process and the environmental impacts of a product. Conclusions and recommendations  As the environmental concerns of the industries increase, the need for environmental data management also increases. LCA shall be a core part of the environmental information system by which the environmental performances of products can be controlled. Hybrid type of LCA is effective in controlling the usual eco-profile of the products in a company. For an industry, in particular electronics, which imports a broad band of raw material and parts, hybrid LCA is more practicable than the classic LCA. Continuous efforts are needed to align input data and keep conformity, which reduces data uncertainty of the system.     

Bottom-Up Life-Cycle:Assessment of Product Consumption in Belgium

The present study shows the results and methodology applied to the study of the identification of priority product categories for Belgian product and environmental policy. The main goal of the study was to gather insight into the consumption of products in Belgium and their related life-cycle environmental impacts. The conclusions of this project on the product categories with major environmental contributions can be used to start up working groups involving stakeholders and initiate detailed product studies on the impact reduction potential that could be achieved by means of implementing product policy measures. Several ways of assessing product category environmental impacts and the effects of policy measures have been developed; 'bottom-up' or 'market-life-cycle assessment' is one of these, and we tried this approach for the situation in Belgium. Simplified life-cycle assessment (LCA) studies were conducted for representative average products within each function-based product category and the results were multiplied with market statistics. Using this approach, we found that building construction, building occupancy, and personal transport are among the major categories for Belgium. The major drawbacks of this approach are the system-level limitations and the existence of a broad spectrum of nonharmonized methods and datasets from which a sound preliminary selection had to be made. Consequently, the retrieval and selection of data was very time consuming and due to this we had to accept some major limitations in the study design. Nevertheless, the study has contributed to the development of a methodology for market-LCA and elements that can be picked up in currently ongoing and future work. The study concludes that to improve the feasibility and acceptance of this type of study there is a need for the development of a harmonized methodology on market-LCA, policy-relevant impact indicators as well as a harmonized and stakeholder-agreed-upon LCA databases.     

LCA of Danish Fish Products. New methods and insights (9 pp)

Goal, Scope and Background This article presents the main results from a PhD dissertation about environmental impacts from Danish fish products. The focus is on LCA results for flatfish, but the article also gives an overview of screenings of other fish species. Furthermore, it includes an analysis of the energy consumption in the fishing stage – as a function of fish species and fishing methods. Alternative impact categories that have not been included in the quantitative LCA and policy perspectives are elaborated in the discussion part of the paper. Methods The study represents a consequential LCA approach (opposed to attributional) and the functional unit is one kg consumed flatfish filet in units of 300 gram (cardboard boxes). Data are obtained from statistics, interviews, literature, and databases – mainly ETH-ESU 96 and the Danish LCA food database. The EDIP 97 method has been applied for life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) and the results have been verified by Ecoindicator 99. Results The results of the flatfish LCA show that the fishing stage has the largest impact potential for the investigated impact categories. This is mainly due to a relatively high fuel consumption and significant emissions of biocides from anti-fouling agents (contributing to ecological toxicity). But large reductions in fuel intensity (fuel consumption per kg caught fish) can be obtained by changing the type of fishing gear – particularly in flatfish fisheries. The consumption and retail stages represent significant impact potentials as well, while processing is insignificant. LCA screenings of other fish species show the same picture, but there are cases (herring, mackerel and mussels) where the fishing stage is less important, while the opposite is the case for processing – mainly due to energy intensive packaging materials. Discussion A limited number of impact categories have been investigated, but a 'qualitative' LCA, focusing on other fishery specific impacts, emphasises that the fishing stage is indeed the overall most important. In this regard, it is argued that fuel requirements in many cases are proportional to environmental impacts related to 'discard' and 'seafloor damage'. Hence, it is worth focusing on energy for many reasons. In a policy context, it is a paradox that mainly the fish processing industry has been subjected to environmental regulations. Recommendation and Perspective Future scenarios indicate that energy consumption will remain one of the most important environmental aspects in the fishing stage – partly due to regulations of anti-fouling biocides (e.g. TBT) and partly because of the continued depletion of fish stocks. From an environmental policy perspective, it is therefore recommended to broaden the perspective of existing fishery regulations and increase the focus on fishing gear and energy in the primary production (fishing stage).     

Cradle to gate: life cycle impact of primary aluminium production

Purpose

The International Aluminium Institute’s (IAI) aim was to publish life cycle inventory (LCI) data for use by life cycle assessment (LCA) practitioners through professional databases. The need to provide robust data stems from the increasing application of LCA as a tool for making material and design choices and the importance for representative, up-to-date information to underpin such studies. In addition to this, the institute aimed to evaluate the significance of potential environmental impacts, based on the LCI results, against a defined set of impact categories which can be tracked over time.

Methods

Key environmental data collected as part of the IAI’s long-running industry surveys provided the foundation for the life cycle inventory. In order to evaluate the environmental impact, direct input and output data for primary aluminium production were supplemented with background data for indirect processes available in GaBi version 6 (PE International, 2013b). A cradle-to-gate model was constructed with two distinct datasets, global (GLO) and global minus China (rest of world (RoW)). A partial life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) was completed using the models, and the following six CML (2001–Nov 2010) midpoint environmental impact categories were reported: acidification potential, depletion of fossil energy resources, eutrophication potential, global warming potential, ozone depletion potential and photo-oxidant creation potential. Water scarcity footprint of primary aluminium (Buxmann et al. in this issue) was also included.

Results and discussion

The results indicated that the largest greenhouse gas contributions were attributed to the alumina refining and electrolysis unit processes in both datasets, with electricity and thermal energy, being the major contributing factors to these higher values. The energy intensive nature of primary aluminium production means energy supply can significantly influence the overall environmental impact. Electricity production was found to contribute between 25 % and 80 % to all impact category indicator results, with higher values in the global dataset, a result of the inclusion of Chinese energy data and the increased share of coal-based electricity consumption that it represents.

Conclusions

The global aluminium industry remains dedicated to transparent reporting of its environmental impacts and ensuring that up-to-date, representative LCI data is available. Development of suitable methodologies for new indicators will be required to ensure that the industry continues to report accurately all its relevant impacts. Additionally, with the increased importance of Chinese aluminium production, inclusion of foreground data from Chinese production would further enhance the dataset from which the global impacts of aluminium production are assessed from cradle to gate.

     

Fusion of conflicting information for improving representativeness of data used in LCAs

Purpose

Employing representative data is necessary for producing a credible LCA informing decision making process. When the data is available from multiple sources, and in incompatible formats such as point estimates, intervals, approximations, and may even be conflicting in nature, it is important to synthesize it with minimal loss of information to enhance the credibility of LCA. This article introduces a framework for information fusion that can serve this purpose within the current operational procedure of LCA.

Methods

The character of information gathered from multiple sources is inherently different than that exhibited by the information generated by a single random source. The framework of possibility theory can be used to merge such heterogeneous information as demonstrated by its application in the diverse fields such as engineering, finance, and social sciences. This article introduces this methodology for LCAs by first introducing the theory behind data modeling and data fusion with possibility theory. Then, this framework is applied to the disparate data from literature on the manufacturing energy requirements for semiconductor device fabrication, and also to a hypothetical example of linguistic inputs from experts in order to demonstrate the operationalization of the theory. A flowchart is provided to recap the framework and for easy navigation through the steps of merging procedure.

Results and discussion

The framework for fusion of information applied the numerical and linguistic heterogeneous data in the LCA context illustrates that this methodology can be implemented relatively easily to increase the data quality and credibility of LCA. This can be done without making any changes in the usual preferred way of conducting an LCA. Information fusion may be performed either after the sensitivity analysis identifies the most impactful categories that need further investigation, or it can be performed upfront to the select input categories of interest.

Conclusions

The article introduces a well-established framework of information fusion to the field of LCA where disparate data may need to be fused to perform the assessment under certain conditions. This framework can be easily implemented, and will enhance data quality and LCA credibility. We also hope that data entry software such as ecoEditor make provision for the data entry mechanism necessary to enter fused data.     

Performance and environmental accounting of nutrient cycling models to estimate nitrogen emissions in agriculture and their sensitivity in life cycle assessment

Purpose

Several models are available in the literature to estimate agricultural emissions. From life cycle assessment (LCA) perspective, there is no standardized procedure for estimating emissions of nitrogen or other nutrients. This article aims to compare four agricultural models (PEF, SALCA, Daisy and Animo) with different complexity levels and test their suitability and sensitivity in LCA.

Methods

Required input data, obtained outputs, and main characteristics of the models are presented. Then, the performance of the models was evaluated according to their potential feasibility to be used in estimating nitrogen emissions in LCA using an adapted version of the criteria proposed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and other relevant studies, to judge their suitability in LCA. Finally, nitrogen emissions from a case study of irrigated maize in Spain were estimated using the selected models and were tested in a full LCA to characterize the impacts.

Results and discussion

According to the set of criteria, the models scored, from best to worst: Daisy (77%), SALCA (74%), Animo (72%) and PEF (70%), being Daisy the most suitable model to LCA framework. Regarding the case study, the estimated emissions agreed to literature data for the irrigated corn crop in Spain and the Mediterranean, except N₂O emissions. The impact characterization showed differences of up to 56% for the most relevant impact categories when considering nitrogen emissions. Additionally, an overview of the models used to estimate nitrogen emissions in LCA studies showed that many models have been used, but not always in a suitable or justified manner.

Conclusions

Although mechanistic models are more laborious, mainly due to the amount of input data required, this study shows that Daisy could be a suitable model to estimate emissions when fertilizer application is relevant for the environmental study. In addition, and due to LCA urgently needing a solid methodology to estimate nitrogen emissions, mechanistic models such as Daisy could be used to estimate default values for different archetype scenarios.

     

Sensitivity analysis as a tool to extend the applicability of LCA findings

Purpose

Life cycle assessment (LCA) results are often used to communicate the environmental impacts of products and measure environmental performance for comparison between different options on the market. Sensitivity analyses are a routine part of LCA but often used with a narrow focus. In a case study on foodstuff packaging, the environmental performance of two food cartons in comparison with competing packaging solutions, i.e. food cartons, glass jars, steel cans, plastic pots and retortable pouches, was examined. Furthermore, the benefits of additional sensitivity analyses as a tool to model country-specific conditions to extend the applicability of LCA findings across a number of systems were evaluated.

Methods

A cradle-to-grave LCA in compliance with ISO standards 14040 and 14044 for the European market (EU27?+?2) was performed. The study was accompanied by a critical review process. The choice of the analysed packaging systems was made according to the European market share. Relevant processes were modelled with primary input data wherever possible; otherwise, average data from public LCI databases were applied. A wide range of environmental impact categories were covered: Climate Change, Ozone Depletion Potential, Summer Smog, Acidification, Eutrophication, Human Toxicity: PM10 and Abiotic Resource Depletion. To comply with ISO standards, a sensitivity analysis on allocation was performed. In addition, sensitivity analyses on recycling rates were included.

Results and discussion

The primary environmental impacts for both food cartons arose from base material production for primary packaging. The environmental performance of the food cartons compared favourably with all competing systems for virtually all examined impact categories, primarily due to the fact that primary packaging materials for food cartons are derived from renewable resources. The additional sensitivity analyses quantifying the influence of end-of-life management did not change overall results yet revealed trajectories that could be indicative of trends in a range of different settings from no to complete recycling. Thus, the additional sensitivity analyses revealed a robust result that may be informative in circumstances that depart from European settings.

Conclusions

Both food cartons show a superior performance in comparison with alternatives. The sensitivity analyses on recycling rates confirm this result even with very low or high quotas applied. These analyses provide valuable information on how different parameters depending on different geographic scopes may influence the overall results. Future LCA work would benefit from low-effort additional sensitivity analyses to broaden applicability of results and examine the robustness of findings.

     

Defining a nutritionally healthy,environmentally friendly,and culturally acceptable Low Lands Diet

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that linear programming can support to define nutritionally healthy, environmentally friendly, and culturally acceptable diets, using the Low Lands as an illustrative example.

Methods

Our study quantifies the historical Dutch diet of 75 years ago, based on a cultural history research. We calculate the greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) and land use (LU) of this diet, using actual life cycle assessment (LCA) data for the 206 most consumed products, and the health score, based on ten nutritional characteristics. In order to meet the current requirements, we optimize this diet for adult males using linear programming. We compare the diet with the present Dutch, Mediterranean, and New Nordic Diet.

Results and discussion

An optimized Low Lands Diet has the same healthy nutritional characteristics (Health Score 123) as the Mediterranean Diet (122) and results in a lower environmental impact than the Mediterranean and New Nordic Diet (higher Combined GHGE-LU Score 121 versus 90 and 91). GHGE are 2.60 kg CO₂eq per day and LU 2.86 m²?*?year per day.

Conclusions

Through applying the method of linear programming, it is possible to calculate an optimal diet for the Low Lands with a short cultural distance, that is, as healthy as and more sustainable than a transition to more foreign European diets.

     

Insights on the Use of Hybrid Life Cycle Assessment for Environmental Footprinting

Establishing a comprehensive environmental footprint that indicates resource use and environmental release hotspots in both direct and indirect operations can help companies formulate impact reduction strategies as part of overall sustainability efforts. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a useful approach for achieving these objectives. For most companies, financial data are more readily available than material and energy quantities, which suggests a hybrid LCA approach that emphasizes use of economic input‐output (EIO) LCA and process‐based energy and material flow models to frame and develop life cycle emission inventories resulting from company activities. We apply a hybrid LCA framework to an inland marine transportation company that transports bulk commodities within the United States. The analysis focuses on global warming potential, acidification, particulate matter emissions, eutrophication, ozone depletion, and water use. The results show that emissions of greenhouse gases, sulfur, and particulate matter are mainly from direct activities but that supply chain impacts are also significant, particularly in terms of water use. Hotspots were identified in the production, distribution, and use of fuel; the manufacturing, maintenance, and repair of boats and barges; food production; personnel air transport; and solid waste disposal. Results from the case study demonstrate that the aforementioned footprinting framework can provide a sufficiently reliable and comprehensive baseline for a company to formulate, measure, and monitor its efforts to reduce environmental impacts from internal and supply chain operations.     

The environmental impact of packaging in food supply chains—does life cycle assessment of food provide the full picture?

Purpose

Due to the urgency and the magnitude of the environmental problems caused by food supply chains, it is important that the recommendations for packaging improvements given in life cycle assessment (LCA) studies of food rest on a balanced consideration of all relevant environmental impacts of packaging. The purpose of this article is to analyse the extent to which food LCAs include the indirect environmental impact of packaging in parallel to its direct impact. While the direct environmental impact of food packaging is the impact caused by packaging materials’ production and end-of-life, its indirect environmental impact is caused by its influence on the food product’s life cycle, e.g. by its influence on food waste and on logistical efficiency.

Methods

The article presents a review of 32 food LCAs published in peer-reviewed scientific journals over the last decade. The steps of the food product’s life cycle that contribute to the direct and indirect environmental impacts of packaging provide the overall structure of the analytical framework used for the review. Three aspects in the selected food LCAs were analysed: (1) the defined scope of the LCAs, (2) the sensitivity and/or scenario analyses and (3) the conclusions and recommendations.

Results and discussion

While in packaging LCA literature, there is a trend towards a more systematic consideration of the indirect environmental impact of packaging, it is unclear how food LCAs handle this aspect. The results of the review show that the choices regarding scope and sensitivities/scenarios made in food LCAs and their conclusions about packaging focus on the direct environmental impact of packaging. While it is clear that not all food LCAs need to analyse packaging in detail, this article identifies opportunities to increase the validity of packaging-related conclusions in food LCAs and provides specific recommendations for packaging-related food LCA methodology.

Conclusions

Overall, we conclude that the indirect environmental impact of packaging is insufficiently considered in current food LCA practice. Based on these results, this article calls for a more systematic consideration of the indirect environmental impact of packaging in future food LCAs. In addition, it identifies a need for more packaging research that can provide the empirical data that many food LCA practitioners currently lack. In particular, LCA practitioners would benefit if there were more knowledge and data available about the influence of certain packaging characteristics (e.g. shape, weight and type of material) on consumer behaviour.

     

LCA study of unconsumed food and the influence of consumer behavior

Purpose

In the light of anthropogenic resource depletion and the resulting influences on the greenhouse effect as well as globally occurring famine, food waste has garnered increased public interest in recent years. The aim of this study is to analyze the environmental impacts of food waste and to determine to what extent consumers’ behavior influences the environmental burden of food consumption in households.

Methods

A life cycle assessment (LCA) study of three food products is conducted, following the ISO 14040/44 life cycle assessment guidelines. This study addresses the impact categories climate change (GWP100), eutrophication (EP), and acidification (AP). Primary energy demand (PED) is also calculated. For adequate representation of consumer behavior, scenarios based on various consumer types are generated in the customer stage. The customer stage includes the food-related activities: shopping, storage, preparation, and disposal of food products as well as the disposal of the sales packaging.

Results and discussion

If the consumer acts careless towards the environment, the customer stage appears as the main hotspot in the LCA of food products. The environmental impact of food products can be reduced in the customer stage by an environmentally conscious consumer. Shopping has the highest effect on the evaluated impact categories and the PED. Additionally, consumers can reduce the resulting emissions by decreasing the electric energy demand, particularly concerning food storage or preparation. Moreover, results show that the avoidance of wasting unconsumed food can reduce the environmental impact significantly.

Conclusions

Results of this study show that the influence of consumer behavior on the LCA results is important. The customer stage of food products should not be overlooked in LCA studies. To enable comparison among results of other LCA studies, the LCA community needs to develop a common methodology for modeling consumer behavior.

     

Impact categories for life cycle assessment research of seafood production systems: Review and prospectus

Goal, Scope and Background In face of continued declines in global fisheries landings and concurrent rapid aquaculture development, the sustainability of seafood production is of increasing concern. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) offers a convenient means of quantifying the impacts associated with many of the energetic and material inputs and outputs in these industries. However, the relevant but limited suite of impact categories currently used in most LCA research fails to capture a number of important environmental and social burdens unique to fisheries and aquaculture. This article reviews the impact categories used in published LCA research of seafood production to date, reports on a number of methodological innovations, and discusses the challenges to and opportunities for further impact category developments. Main Features The range of environmental and socio-economic impacts associated with fisheries and aquaculture production are introduced, and both the commonly used and innovative impact categories employed in published LCA research of seafood production are discussed. Methodological innovations reported in agricultural LCAs are also reviewed for possible applications to seafood LCA research. Challenges and options for including additional environmental and socioeconomic impact categories are explored. Results A review of published LCA research in fisheries and aquaculture indicates the frequent use of traditional environmental impact categories as well as a number of interesting departures from the standard suite of categories employed in LCA studies in other sectors. Notable examples include the modeling of benthic impacts, by-catch, emissions from anti-fouling paints, and the use of Net Primary Productivity appropriation to characterize biotic resource use. Socio-economic impacts have not been quantified, nor does a generally accepted methodology for their consideration exist. However, a number of potential frameworks for the integration of such impacts into LCA have been proposed. Discussion LCA analyses of fisheries and aquaculture call attention to an important range of environmental interactions that are usually not considered in discussions of sustainability in the seafood sector. These include energy use, biotic resource use, and the toxicity of anti-fouling paints. However, certain important impacts are also currently overlooked in such research. While prospects clearly exist for improving and expanding on recent additions to environmental impact categories, the nature of the LCA framework may preclude treatment of some of these impacts. Socio-economic impact categories have only been described in a qualitative manner. Despite a number of challenges, significant opportunities exist to quantify several important socio-economic impacts. Conclusion The limited but increasing volume of LCA research of industrial fisheries and aquaculture indicates a growing interest in the use of LCA methodology to understand and improve the sustainability performance of seafood production systems. Recent impact category innovations, and the potential for further impact category developments that account for several of the unique interactions characteristic of fisheries and aquaculture will significantly improve the usefulness of LCA in this context, although quantitative analysis of certain types of impacts may remain beyond the scope of the LCA framework. The desirability of incorporating socio-economic impacts is clear, but such integration will require considerable methodological development. Recommendations and Perspectives While the quantity of published LCA research for seafood production systems is clearly increasing, the influence this research will have on the ground remains to be seen. In part, this will depend on the ability of LCA researchers to advance methodological innovations that enable consideration of a broader range of impacts specific to seafood production. It will also depend on the ability of researchers to communicate with a broader audience than the currently narrow LCA community.     

LCA of food products and production systems

This article is a summary of my dissertation in which LCA was applied to food products and production systems. The overall objectives were: (1) to learn more about the feasibility and limitations of LCAs of systems for the production and consumption of foods (food systems); and (2) to generate information on the environmental impact of such systems. Case studies of tomato ketchup and white bread were carried out. The main conclusion is that LCA is very valuable for incorporating environmental aspects in the development of more sustainable food systems. One of the major problems encountered was the great scarcity of environmental data. It was found that there is a need for simplified methods that can be used as a compass to show the direction towards sustainability. Accordingly, the feasibility of combinng the concept of sustainabiliry principles and LCA for product development was examined and discussed. This combination was found to yield a simplified method well suited for screening analysis and product development.     

Implicit prioritization in life cycle assessment: text mining and detecting metapatterns in the literature

Purpose

Life cycle assessment aims to evaluate multiple kinds of environmental impact associated with a product or process across its life cycle. Objective evaluation is a common goal, though the community recognizes that implicit valuations of diverse impacts resulting from analytical choices and choice of subject matter are present. This research evaluates whether these implicit valuations lead to detectable priority shifts in the published English language academic LCA literature over time.

Methods

A near-comprehensive investigation of the LCA literature is undertaken by applying a text mining technique known as topic modeling to over 8200 environment-related LCA journal article titles and abstracts published between 1995 and 2014.

Results and discussion

Topic modeling using MALLET software and manual validation shows that over time, the LCA literature reflects a dramatic proportional increase in attention to climate change and a corresponding decline in attention to human and ecosystem health impacts, accentuated by rapid growth of the LCA literature. This result indicates an implicit prioritization of climate over other impact categories, a field-scale trend that appears to originate mostly in the broader environmental community rather than the LCA methodological community. Reasons for proportionally increasing publication of climate-related LCA might include the relative robustness of greenhouse gas emissions as an environmental impact indicator, a correlation with funding priorities, researcher interest in supporting active policy debates, or a revealed priority on climate versus other environmental impacts in the scholarly community.

Conclusions

As LCA becomes more widespread, recognizing and addressing the fact that analyses are not objective becomes correspondingly more important. Given the emergence of implicit prioritizations in the LCA literature, such as the impact prioritization of climate identified here with the use of computational tools, this work recommends the development and use of techniques that make impact prioritization explicit and enable consistent analysis of result sensitivity to value judgments. Explicit prioritization can improve transparency while enabling more systematic investigation of the effects of value choices on how LCA results are used.

     

System expansion and allocation in life cycle assessment of milk and beef production

Background, Goal and Scope  System expansion is a method used to avoid co-product allocation. Up to this point in time it has seldom been used in LCA studies of food products, although food production systems often are characterised by closely interlinked sub-systems. One of the most important allocation problems that occurs in LCAs of agricultural products is the question of how to handle the co-product beef from milk production since almost half of the beef production in the EU is derived from co-products from the dairy sector. The purpose of this paper is to compare different methods of handling co-products when dividing the environmental burden of the milk production system between milk and the co-products meat and surplus calves. Main Features  This article presents results from an LCA of organic milk production in which different methods of handling the co-products are examined. The comparison of different methods of co-product handling is based on a Swedish LCA case study of milk production where economic allocation between milk and meat was initially used. Allocation of the co-products meat and surplus calves was avoided by expanding the milk system. LCA data were collected from another case study where the alternative way of producing meat was analysed, i.e. using a beef cow that produces one calf per annum to be raised for one and a half year. The LCA of beef production was included in the milk system. A discussion is conducted focussing on the importance of modelling and analysing milk and beef production in an integrated way when foreseeing and planning the environmental consequences of manipulating milk and beef production systems. Results  This study shows that economic allocation between milk and beef favours the product beef. When system expansion is performed, the environmental benefits of milk production due to its co-products of surplus calves and meat become obvious. This is especially connected to the impact categories that describe the potential environmental burden of biogenic emissions such as methane and ammonia and nitrogen losses due to land use and its fertilising. The reason for this is that beef production in combination with milk can be carried out with fewer animals than in sole beef production systems. Conclusion, Recommendation and Perspective  Milk and beef production systems are closely connected. Changes in milk production systems will cause alterations in beef production systems. It is concluded that in prospective LCA studies, system expansion should be performed to obtain adequate information of the environmental consequences of manipulating production systems that are interlinked to each other.     

Life cycle assessment framework in agriculture on the farm level

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a method that can be used to assess the environmental impact of agriculture, but impact categories and the functional unit of classical LCA’s must be adapted to the specific agricultural production process. Serving as an example, the framework of a LCA of 18 grassland dairy farms covering three farming intensity levels and carried out in the Allgäu region in southern Germany is presented. By focussing on the chosen impact categories and the respective, suitable functional units, the specific needs and backgrounds of conducting an agricultural LCA are discussed in general.     

A review of environmental life cycle assessment studies examining cheese production

Purpose

Cheese is one of the world’s most widely consumed dairy products and its popularity is ever growing. However, as concerns for the environmental impact of industries increase, products like cheese, which have a significant environmental impact, may lose their popularity. A commonly used technique to assess the environmental impact of a product is life cycle assessment (LCA). In this paper, a state-of-the-art review of LCA studies on the environmental impact of cheese production is presented.

Methods

Sixteen LCA studies, which explored the impact from the production of a variety of cheese types (fresh, mature and semi-hard) were examined and discussed. The four stages of the LCA were examined and the range of results of selected environmental impact categories (global warming potential, acidification potential and eutrophication potential) were detailed and discussed.

Results and discussion

For each of these environmental impact categories, raw milk production was consistently found to be the most significant contributor to the total impact, which was followed by processing. It was found that allocation between cheese and its by-products was crucial in determining the impact of cheese production and standardisation or guidelines may be needed. Very little information relating to wastewater treatment system and processes were reported and this leads to inaccurate environmental impact modelling relating to these aspects of the manufacture of cheese. Very few studies included the design of packaging in terms of reducing food waste, which may significantly contribute to the overall environmental impact.

Conclusions

As raw milk production was found to have the greatest contribution to environmental impact, mitigation strategies at farm-level, particularly in relation to enteric fermentation and manure management, need to be implemented. Additionally, based on the literature, there is a suggestion that fresh cheese has less of an environmental impact than semi-hard cheeses, particularly when examining direct energy consumption. However, there needs to be more case studies investigated to justify this statement.

     

Life cycle assessment of bioenergy systems: State of the art and future challenges

The use of different input data, functional units, allocation methods, reference systems and other assumptions complicates comparisons of LCA bioenergy studies. In addition, uncertainties and use of specific local factors for indirect effects (like land-use change and N-based soil emissions) may give rise to wide ranges of final results. In order to investigate how these key issues have been addressed so far, this work performs a review of the recent bioenergy LCA literature. The abundance of studies dealing with the different biomass resources, conversion technologies, products and environmental impact categories is summarized and discussed. Afterwards, a qualitative interpretation of the LCA results is depicted, focusing on energy balance, GHG balance and other impact categories. With the exception of a few studies, most LCAs found a significant net reduction in GHG emissions and fossil energy consumption when bioenergy replaces fossil energy.