Energy sustainability of Ecuadorian cacao export and its contribution to climate change. A case study through product life cycle assessment

Molecular cell biology. 2nd edition: J. Darnell, H. Lodish and D. Baltimore. 1105 pp. 1990. Scientific American/ W. H. Freeman, New York

Addressing the social life cycle inventory analysis data gap: Insights from a case study of cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Feeding a growing, increasingly affluent population while limiting environmental pressures of food production is a central challenge for society. Understanding the location and magnitude of food production is key to addressing this challenge because pressures vary substantially across food production types. Applying data and models from life cycle assessment with the methodologies for mapping cumulative environmental impacts of human activities (hereafter cumulative impact mapping) provides a powerful approach to spatially map the cumulative environmental pressure of food production in a way that is consistent and comprehensive across food types. However, these methodologies have yet to be combined. By synthesizing life cycle assessment and cumulative impact mapping methodologies, we provide guidance for comprehensively and cumulatively mapping the environmental pressures (e.g., greenhouse gas emissions, spatial occupancy, and freshwater use) associated with food production systems. This spatial approach enables quantification of current and potential future environmental pressures, which is needed for decision makers to create more sustainable food policies and practices.

Reply to L Aleksandrowicz et al.

Life Cycle Assessment and sustainability methodologies for assessing industrial crops, processes and end products

The body of life cycle assessment (LCA) literature is vast and has grown over the last decade at a dauntingly rapid rate. Many LCAs have been published on the same or very similar technologies or products, in some cases leading to hundreds of publications. One result is the impression among decision makers that LCAs are inconclusive, owing to perceived and real variability in published estimates of life cycle impacts. Despite the extensive available literature and policy need formore conclusive assessments, only modest attempts have been made to synthesize previous research. A significant challenge to doing so are differences in characteristics of the considered technologies and inconsistencies in methodological choices (e.g., system boundaries, coproduct allocation, and impact assessment methods) among the studies that hamper easy comparisons and related decision support. An emerging trend is meta-analysis of a set of results from LCAs, which has the potential to clarify the impacts of a particular technology, process, product, or material and produce more robust and policy-relevant results. Meta-analysis in this context is defined here as an analysis of a set of published LCA results to estimate a single or multiple impacts for a single technology or a technology category, either in a statisticalmore » sense (e.g., following the practice in the biomedical sciences) or by quantitative adjustment of the underlying studies to make them more methodologically consistent. One example of the latter approach was published in Science by Farrell and colleagues (2006) clarifying the net energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of ethanol, in which adjustments included the addition of coproduct credit, the addition and subtraction of processes within the system boundary, and a reconciliation of differences in the definition of net energy metrics. Such adjustments therefore provide an even playing field on which all studies can be considered and at the same time specify the conditions of the playing field itself. Understanding the conditions under which a meta-analysis was conducted is important for proper interpretation of both the magnitude and variability in results. This special supplemental issue of the Journal of Industrial Ecology includes 12 high-quality metaanalyses and critical reviews of LCAs that advance understanding of the life cycle environmental impacts of different technologies, processes, products, and materials. Also published are three contributions on methodology and related discussions of the role of meta-analysis in LCA. The goal of this special supplemental issue is to contribute to the state of the science in LCA beyond the core practice of producing independent studies on specific products or technologies by highlighting the ability of meta-analysis of LCAs to advance understanding in areas of extensive existing literature. The inspiration for the issue came from a series of meta-analyses of life cycle GHG emissions from electricity generation technologies based on research from the LCA Harmonization Project of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), a laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, which also provided financial support for this special supplemental issue. (See the editorial from this special supplemental issue [Lifset 2012], which introduces this supplemental issue and discusses the origins, funding, peer review, and other aspects.) The first article on reporting considerations for meta-analyses/critical reviews for LCA is from Heath and Mann (2012), who describe the methods used and experience gained in NREL's LCA Harmonization Project, which produced six of the studies in this special supplemental issue. Their harmonization approach adapts key features of systematic review to identify and screen published LCAs followed by a meta-analytical procedure to adjust published estimates to ones based on a consistent set of methods and assumptions to allow interstudy comparisons and conclusions to be made. In a second study on methods, Zumsteg and colleagues (2012) propose a checklist for a standardized technique to assist in conducting and reporting systematic reviews of LCAs, including meta-analysis, that is based on a framework used in evidence-based medicine. Widespread use of such a checklist would facilitate planning successful reviews, improve the ability to identify systematic reviews in literature searches, ease the ability to update content in future reviews, and allow more transparency of methods to ease peer review and more appropriately generalize findings. Finally, Zamagni and colleagues (2012) propose an approach, inspired by a meta-analysis, for categorizing main methodological topics, reconciling diverging methodological developments, and identifying future research directions in LCA. Their procedure involves the carrying out of a literature review on articles selected according to predefined criteria.« less

Quantification of GHG emissions from sucker-beef production in Ireland

Progress in working towards a more sustainable agri-food industry

Quantifying GHG emissions savings potential in magazine paper production: a case study on supercalendered and light-weight coated papers

Life cycle study of coal-based dimethyl ether as vehicle fuel for urban bus in China

The electricity in Côte d’Ivoire is mainly produced from fossil energy sources. This causes damages on environment due to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). The aim of this paper is to calculate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of jatropha oil and jatropha biodiesel as alternative fuels for electricity production in Côte d’Ivoire by using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. The functional unit in this LCA is defined as 1 kWh of electricity produced by the combustion of jatropha oil or jatropha biodiesel in the engine of a generator. Two scenarios, called short chain and long chain, were examined in this LCA. The results show that 0.132 kg CO2 equivalent is emitted for the scenario 1 with jatropha oil as an alternative fuel against 0.6376 kg CO2 equivalent for the scenario 2 with jatropha biodiesel as an alternative fuel. An 87 % reduction of kg CO2 equivalent is observed in scenario 1 and a 37 % reduction of kg CO2 equivalent is observed in the scenario 2, when compared with a Diesel fuel.

The objective of this study was to estimate the effects of dairy diets, manure-handling methods, and interactions with the bio-fuels industry on the net energy intensity, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and land use for milk production in Wisconsin. Five dairy diets supplemented with varying amounts of co-products from corn ethanol and soybean biodiesel production were modeled in two manure management scenarios: with and without on-farm biogas generation. The diets were characterized by different inclusion of soybean meal (SBM) and dry distillers grains with solubles (DDGS), balanced with different types forages. A partial life cycle assessment (LCA) of milk production from cradle to farm gate was performed. Milk production was used as the primary output for this analysis, since the dairy industry will remain the primary agricultural enterprise in Wisconsin for the foreseeable future. The boundaries of the milk production system were expanded to include bio-fuels production. The production of bio-fuels (corn ethanol and biodiesel) was scaled to meet the dietary requirements of each selected dairy ration. The choice of dairy ration had a substantial effect on GHG emissions and net energy intensity per energy corrected milk (ECM) produced. Land use for the integrated dairy and bio-fuels production systems ranged from 1.68 m2/kg ECM to 2.01 m2/kg ECM. Accounting for bio-fuels credits but without biogas generation, net energy intensity ranged from 0.83 MJ/kg ECM to 1.34 MJ/kg ECM, and GHG emissions ranged from 0.69 kg CO2-eq/kg ECM to 0.80 kg CO2-eq/kg ECM, depending on the diet. The average effects of including anaerobic digesters for on-farm biogas generation were reductions in GHG emissions by 0.24 kg CO2-eq/kg ECM, and in net energy intensity by 2.84 MJ/kg ECM.

Summary Vertical farms have expanded rapidly in recent years as an approach to secure more sustainable and resilient food provisioning worldwide. However, few sustainability assessments of vertical farms are available to validate such claims. This study aims to provide an environmental life cycle assessment of a container vertical farm employed by IKEA in Sweden to provide the store cafeteria with fresh lettuce. To assess the environmental performance of this system, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted to assess the overall impact of producing 1 kg of lettuce supplied to the cafeteria. The LCA also highlighted key processes for improvement and compared conventional sourcing. The vertical farm had greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of roughly 1.24 kg CO 2 -eq. kg -1 lettuce. The largest impacting processes were the energy demand for light-emitting diodes and the ventilation system, which contributed largely to all impact categories assessed. The results were also found to be sensitive to the choice of life cycle inventory data, e.g., the electricity mix. For example, employing the Nordic electricity mix could increase GHG emissions by 18%. A future scenario for using farm and cafeteria wastes for circular nutrient solutions was reviewed, but no significant benefit was found. Assessments and comparisons to conventionally imported lettuce were also conducted, illustrating that the vertically farmed lettuce had similar, or lower, GHG emissions compared to imported lettuce in most months. However, domestic production had lower impact, but was only available in the summer months, suggesting sourcing should be considered seasonally. In conclusion, despite its high energy demand, the vertical farm can supply lettuce with comparable emissions to imported lettuce. The findings shed light on the sustainability and viability of local food provisioning for the life cycle assessment and controlled environment agriculture fields.

The main purpose of this article is to assess the environmental impacts associated with the fishing operations related to European anchovy fishing in Cantabria (northern Spain) under a life cycle approach. The life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was applied for this case study including construction, maintenance, use, and end of life of the vessels. The functional unit used was 1 kg of landed round anchovy at port. Inventory data were collected for the main inputs and outputs of 32 vessels, representing a majority of vessels in the fleet. Results indicated, in a similar line to what is reported in the literature, that the production, transportation, and use of diesel were the main environmental hot spots in conventional impact categories. Moreover, in this case, the production and transportation of seine nets was also relevant. Impacts linked to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions suggest that emissions were in the upper range for fishing species captured with seine nets and the value of global warming potential (GWP) was 1.44 kg CO2 eq per functional unit. The ecotoxicity impacts were mainly due to the emissions of antifouling substances to the ocean. Regarding fishery-specific categories, many were discarded given the lack of detailed stock assessments for this fishery. Hence, only the biotic resource use category was computed, demonstrating that the ecosystems’ effort to sustain the fishery is relatively low. The use of the LCA methodology allowed identifying the main environmental hot spots of the purse seining fleet targeting European anchovy in Cantabria. Individualized results per port or per vessel suggested that there are significant differences in GHG emissions between groups. In addition, fuel use is high when compared to similar fisheries. Therefore, research needs to be undertaken to identify why fuel use is so high, particularly if it is related to biomass and fisheries management or if skipper decisions could play a role.

Crop production induces emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) and other harmful substances to the environment. In view of the environmental protection, it is essential to find solutions for reducing the negative impacts of crop cultivation. Currently, no-tillage systems are becoming more and more popular in grain maize production due to their economic and environmental benefits. The aim of the study was to assess the environmental impact of grain maize production in different soil tillage systems. The study was conducted in 20 farms, located in the Wielkopolska voivodship (Poland), during the period 2015-2017. The cultivation of grain maize in three soil tillage systems: traditional tillage, reduced tillage and direct sowing was analyzed. Data included field characteristics, type and duration of technological operations and agricultural production inputs: seeds, fertilizers, plant protection products, fuel, engine fuel, lubricants, agricultural machinery. Assessment was performed according to the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. LCA was carried out from cradle-to farm gate, i.e. from the manufacturing of means of production through to the process of crop cultivation and harvesting. Results analysis have been referenced to functional unit of 1 ha of grain maize cultivation. The following impact category indicators have been calculated: the global warming potential, the eutrophication potential, the acidification potential, the photochemical ozone creation potential and the abiotic resources depletion potential. The carbon sequestration potential associated with maize cultivation in each tillage system was estimated. The values of impact category indicators, especially in the case of global warming potential, acidification potential and eutrophication potential depended mainly on fertilization. GHG emissions from processes of soil cultivation and sowing of grain maize were largest in traditional tillage mainly due to larger fuel consumption and use of agricultural machinery in comparison to reduced tillage and direct sowing. In grain maize cultivation, carbon inputs to soil from the applied natural fertilizers and plant residues ploughed in lead to increased soil carbon sequestration and contribute to reductions in GHG emissions.The study was carried out in the frame of the research project funded by the National Science Centre, Poland. Project No. 2015/19/N/HS4/03031. Project tittle: Environmental life cycle assessment and life cycle costing of grain crop production in different soil tillage systems.