Abstract
The low resilience of ecosystems imposes a sustainable management of natural resources through more rational uses, land protection, energy saving and low carbon production technologies. Agriculture has a great responsibility in managing these resources that are the principal inputs of its processes. Production systems must pay attention, at the same time, to economic viability and environmental protection. Since decades, the international scientific community is facing the great challenge of assessing the sustainability of agricultural engineering techniques, in order to help both private and public decision making, but also to meet consumer’s requirements for high quality and low impact products. To achieve that, widely accepted assessment instruments, whose results have to be clear and understandable to a broad public, and that are necessary. In this direction, Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) is gaining consensus as conceptual model, considering goods and services production and consumption all along the whole life cycle, from planning to disposal. Its methodological frame- work, the Life Cycle Management (LCM), offers many standardised tools to assess impacts of products and processes: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), to evaluate environmental impacts and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) for economic ones. Among many impacts categories LCA also allows to identify the carbon footprint, that can be quantified in terms of Global Warming Potential (GWP). This research has analyzed and compared different scenarios of wine grapes production in Ciro, an important viticultural area located in Calabria region (Southern Italy). LCA and LCC methodologies have been useful to assess them from an environmental and economic standpoint. Results have allowed the authors to rank training and farming systems performances.
Highlights
Anthropic activities are the principal responsible for the depletion of natural resources, because exploitations are carried out faster than the ability of ecosystems to regenerate themselves
Findings of this study highlighted the possible effectiveness of the joint use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC), and that they can be a useful decision making instrument for both public and private deciders
The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) defined LCA as “an objective process to evaluate the environmental burdens associated to a product, a process, or an activity by identifying energy and materials usage and environmental releases, and to evaluate opportunities to achieve environmental improvements” [9]
Summary
Anthropic activities are the principal responsible for the depletion of natural resources, because exploitations are carried out faster than the ability of ecosystems to regenerate themselves. New methodological approaches are required for management and decision making to meet consumers’ needs for high quality and healthy products, and entrepreneurs’ necessity of economic viability, using natural resources rationally. In this way, Life Cycle Management (LCM) is gaining great consensus as methodological framework helpful to decrease footprints, add value to products (i.e. goods or services) or supply chains and improve the sustainability performance of a business or organization. Findings of this study highlighted the possible effectiveness of the joint use of LCA and LCC, and that they can be a useful decision making instrument for both public and private deciders
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