Life Cycle Assessment of a Prospective Technology for Building-Integrated Production of Broccoli Microgreens

Abstract

Indoor Vertical Farms (IVF) can contribute to urban circular food systems by reducing food waste and increasing resource use efficiency. They are also known for high energy consumption but could potentially be improved by integration with buildings. Here, we aim to quantify the environmental performance of a prospective building-integrated urban farm. We performed a Life Cycle Assessment for a unit installed in a university campus in Portugal, producing broccoli microgreens for salads. This technology integrates IVF, product processing and Internet of Things with unused space. Its environmental performance was analyzed using two supply scenarios and a renewable energy variation was applied to each scenario. Results show that the IVF system produces 7.5 kg of microgreens daily with a global warming potential of 18.6 kg CO2e/kg in the case of supply direct on campus, or 22.2 kg CO2e/kg in the case of supply off campus to retailers within a 10-km radius. Consistently in both scenarios, electricity contributed the highest emission, with 10.03 kg CO2e/kg, followed by seeds, with 4.04 kg CO2e/kg. The additional use of photovoltaic electricity yields a reduction of emissions by 32%; an improvement of approximately 16% was found for most environmental categories. A shortened supply chain, coupled with renewable electricity production, can contribute significantly to the environmental performance of building-integrated IVF.