Non-renewable Energy Use Research Articles

Integration of LCA in R&D by applying the concept of payback period: case study of a modified multilayer wood parquet

PurposeImproving technical properties and the durability of wood-based products by modification in various processing technologies is subject to recent research and development activities. This study aimed at integrating environmental considerations during the research and development phase of a novel modification process for a multilayer wood parquet. Due to expected challenges when applying Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in this phase, the eco-profile of the modified multilayer wood parquet was referred to the original multilayer parquet by estimating payback period and identifying other payback options.MethodsAn LCA was conducted during the research and development phase of the modification process at laboratory scale and is characterized as ex ante environmental screening of a newly developed technology. The environmental assessment of new products and manufacturing processes during the research and development phase, however, faces multifarious challenges, such as the definition of a functional unit and the service life length. In order to overcome these challenges, the idea was to answer the question under which circumstances the modification process pays back from the perspective of non-renewable energy use and global-warming potential. Aside from investigation of payback period, the feasibility of other payback options was systematically searched.Results and discussionThe extra resource input and the resulting increase in environmental burden of the modification of the multilayer parquet can be justified with the extension of service life length by 10 to 20 %, referring to global warming potential and non-renewable energy use, respectively. Other payback options found were adjusting chemical loading during modification, making renovations superfluous, or reducing transport effort. Other than transportation and renovation, which are user-dependent, only the modification lies within the scope of the parquet producer.ConclusionsThe payback concept is found suitable for comparative estimations on the magnitude of change in environmental performance of product variants during research and development. By investigating on multiple payback options, it was enabled to frame the change in environmental performance, which is essential in order to define the scope of further research and development in a target-oriented way. The possibility of using LCA for an environmental technology valuation at an early stage in product and process development is demonstrated in this study.

Solar greenhouse dryer system for wood chips improvement as biofuel

The development of cleaner and renewable energy sources are needed in order to reduce fossil fuel dependence and mitigate global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Solar dryers are considered as clean technologies and optimal use of these can minimize the use of non-renewable energy, and can play an important role in the world's future. Drying for forest products is one of the most attractive and cost effective application of solar energy because it may be possible to improve forest residues in profitable biomass as biofuel. In this study, a solar greenhouse dryer was used in drying experiments of wood chips of Pinus pinaster in the south of Spain. The environmental conditions were under autumn season with an average daily solar radiation of 13.74 MJ/(m2 d) during the 15 days of the experiment. The experiment analyzed the drying process under indoor conditions of several piles of wood chips which was compared to the same shaped piles under open sun drying. The results were mathematically modelled to show the advantages of the Solar Greenhouse Dryer for both, to reach the 10% of relative humidity and fewer days were dedicated for this. Thus, these analyses reveal that the Solar Greenhouse Dryer is a useful and vital technology for the improvement of wood chips as biofuel, it reduces moisture, and it can be applied in many countries because of the fact that it only uses solar energy; it is a renewable energy resource which is both free and clean.

Carbon balance implications of land use change from pasture to managed eucalyptus forest in Hawaii

ABSTRACTMitigation of climate change via increased plant productivity and soil carbon (C) sequestration during land use change can be a powerful driver of the net greenhouse gas emissions of a sustainable production system. Yet the net climate change mitigation of managed forests is affected by both tradeoffs between C sequestration and non-renewable C emissions and assessment methodology. As a case study, we measured ecosystem stocks to determine the potential C implications of converting pasture to managed eucalyptus forest and compared them with the eucalyptus production system's non-renewable C emissions. The forest border was chosen as the system boundary and operations spanned from forest establishment activities to harvested wood placed at the forest perimeter. Eucalyptus biomass C was 57.2 ± 4.2 Mg C ha−1 and soil C stock (to ∼1 m depth) was approximately an order of magnitude greater. By the prevalent method for bulk density-based determination of C stock, conversion of pasture to eucalyptus forest significantly increased soil C stock by 17.5 ± 8.0%. However, no significant change was detected by the equivalent soil mass method, a less prevalent but more accurate approach to detecting differences in soil C stock due to land use or management changes. A 7-year eucalyptus production cycle generated 1.0 Mg C ha−1 in non-renewable emissions, which was far exceeded by the tree biomass C. Thus, even without significant soil C sequestration, this system provided a substantial climate change mitigation service by offsetting non-renewable energy use and C emissions associated with wood production, and providing opportunities for biofuel and bioenergy products to displace fossil fuel products.

Europe’s Path Towards the Socio-Ecological Transition

Beset by an unprecedented combination of challenges including globalisation, demographic shifts, high unemployment and climate change, Europe is in dire need of a new kind of growth and development strategy. The authors of this Forum make compelling arguments for a socioecological transition, in which traditional measures of progress like GDP growth are downplayed in favour of factors such as social inclusion, environmental welfare, high levels of employment and the well-being of European citizens. This Forum explores some of the issues that must be resolved in order to fully achieve the socio-ecological transition, including the necessary decoupling of non-renewable energy use from GDP growth, the reduction of income and wealth inequalities, and the encouragement of innovation that is not based on fossil fuel technology. The Forum presents an optimistic path forward for the continent, with practical policy solutions that do not ignore the many obstacles facing a successful transition.

FIRST STEPS TOWARDS AN INTEGRATED CITYGML-BASED 3D MODEL OF VIENNA

This paper presents and discusses the results regarding the initial steps (selection, analysis, preparation and eventual integration of a number of datasets) for the creation of an integrated, semantic, three-dimensional, and CityGML-based virtual model of the city of Vienna. CityGML is an international standard conceived specifically as information and data model for semantic city models at urban and territorial scale. It is being adopted by more and more cities all over the world. <br><br> The work described in this paper is embedded within the European Marie-Curie ITN project “Ci-nergy, Smart cities with sustainable energy systems”, which aims, among the rest, at developing urban decision making and operational optimisation software tools to minimise non-renewable energy use in cities. Given the scope and scale of the project, it is therefore vital to set up a common, unique and spatio-semantically coherent urban model to be used as information hub for all applications being developed. This paper reports about the experiences done so far, it describes the test area and the available data sources, it shows and exemplifies the data integration issues, the strategies developed to solve them in order to obtain the integrated 3D city model. The first results as well as some comments about their quality and limitations are presented, together with the discussion regarding the next steps and some planned improvements.

FIRST STEPS TOWARDS AN INTEGRATED CITYGML-BASED 3D MODEL OF VIENNA

Abstract. This paper presents and discusses the results regarding the initial steps (selection, analysis, preparation and eventual integration of a number of datasets) for the creation of an integrated, semantic, three-dimensional, and CityGML-based virtual model of the city of Vienna. CityGML is an international standard conceived specifically as information and data model for semantic city models at urban and territorial scale. It is being adopted by more and more cities all over the world. The work described in this paper is embedded within the European Marie-Curie ITN project “Ci-nergy, Smart cities with sustainable energy systems”, which aims, among the rest, at developing urban decision making and operational optimisation software tools to minimise non-renewable energy use in cities. Given the scope and scale of the project, it is therefore vital to set up a common, unique and spatio-semantically coherent urban model to be used as information hub for all applications being developed. This paper reports about the experiences done so far, it describes the test area and the available data sources, it shows and exemplifies the data integration issues, the strategies developed to solve them in order to obtain the integrated 3D city model. The first results as well as some comments about their quality and limitations are presented, together with the discussion regarding the next steps and some planned improvements.

Evaluación de temperaturas en México para analizar el ahorro y eficiencia de energía

Natural gas and coal have caused serious damage to human health and the environment over the last 100 years, its emissions. In the last 10 years, it has increased the use of non-renewable energy, but even so, they are still used fossil fuels such as oil and nuclear energy, which generate significant concentrations of air pollution, being mainly the pollutants derived from the carbon. This has caused problems for the environment and health in populations of large cities. This has led to generate extreme climates, where the climate in indoors of buildings, is responsible for the increased energy consumption in areas of extreme weather such as the city of Mexicali and many other urban areas of our country. Because of this, there are a lot studies of temperature levels, where is carried out in different regions, with thermal simulators that are based on scientific principles and operated from computing platforms to evaluate the thermal performance of buildings indoors. With mathematical simulations of heat transfer levels of outdoors to indoors of buildings, it can be known the process of climate in indoors, and thus able to recommend and evaluate some energy saving measures. This can minimize the consumption of electrical energy and support to not affect the environmental and with this the climatic factors and the human health. This work aims to collect data on time in some regions of our country, from specialized data systems for thermal simulation as residential housing, office buildings, or any construction in Mexico. The study was conducted in the period of 2010-2012.

Early-stage sustainability assessment to assist with material selection: a case study for biobased printer panels

This paper aims to incorporate sustainability assessment into the material selection processes during early-stage product (re)design, when time and data availability for such assessments are usually limited. A material selection framework is presented and illustrated step-by-step with a case study aiming to identify biobased alternatives for petrochemical plastics used for (flame retardant) panels. After an initial screening step, the technical performance of selected materials is measured. A cradle-to-grave screening life cycle assessment compares the environmental performance of the candidate and reference materials on greenhouse gas emissions, non-renewable energy use and agricultural land use per kilogram. A simplified cost analysis is performed. The environmental and economic indicators are corrected for each candidate's technical performance by estimating expected weight changes in the final product based on material indices. In this case study, two biobased plastics are found to offer equal or improved environmental/economic performance compared to reference materials. Furthermore, the case study shows that additive production can significantly contribute to the plastics' environmental impacts, e.g. accounting for 5–40% of their cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions. The case study demonstrated that the proposed materials selection framework is a useful tool for early-stage product design.

Environmental impact of beef sourced from different production systems - focus on the slaughtering stage: input and output

The aim of the present study was to examine the environmental performance of ten Danish beef production systems covering the entire chain from the farm until the edible products and side streams leave the slaughterhouse and to explore the potential of mitigation related to the slaughtering process. The functional unit was ‘kg edible product’ including meat products and edible by-products that are used in human nutrition. Primary production accounts for a major share of the impact, leaving only a minor share to the slaughtering, where savings due to slaughterhouse by-product recovery are more than enough to offset the impact of the slaughtering process. The carbon footprint was 10–13 kg CO2-eq/kg edible product from dairy based calves and cows of all types and 30–45 kg CO2-eq/kg edible product from young animals of specialized beef breed systems. The use of non-renewable energy per kg edible product shows a relatively small variation among systems. Improving the utilization of the carcass by producing new edible products not conventionally produced represents an opportunity for reducing the environmental impact per kg edible product.

Life cycle assessment for highlighting environmental hotspots in the Sicilian traditional ceramic sector: the case of ornamental ceramic plates

An environmental assessment of Sicilian traditional ceramics was developed. The study was conducted in accordance with the ISO standards ISO 14040:2006 and 14044:2006 choosing, as the functional unit, 1 kg of ornamental ceramic plates and, as the impact assessment method, Impact 2002+. The system boundaries included the phases of plates' production, all the way to disposal. All primary data needed for the assessment was collected on site in collaboration with a firm involved in the production of ceramic plates. The study showed that the highest environmental impact is due to the consumption of electricity linked to heat treatment during the production phase. Most of the environmental impact damages can be attributed to the damage category Climate Change, whilst the most significant impact categories are Global Warming; Respiratory Inorganics and Non-Renewable Energy use. All that considered efforts for reducing the environmental impacts and, consequently, for improving environmental performance should concentrate on reduction of energy consumption or on the use of renewable energy. This life cycle assessment study represents a building block for a possible future proposal of using environmental labels, for example Environmental Product Declarations, as a tool for exploiting, promoting, and differentiating Sicilian traditional ceramic products in the national and international market.

Conceptual design of sustainable integrated microalgae biorefineries: Parametric analysis of energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and techno-economics

This study covers four main aspects of the conceptual design of sustainable integrated microalgae-based biorefineries using flue gas from CO2-intensive industries (i.e. 100% CO2): i) screening of technologies (4 options for cultivation, 3 for culture dewatering, 3 for cell disruption, 4 for lipids extraction & purification, and 4 for fractions upgrading); ii) analysis of processing variables (parametric study of the main cultivation conditions affecting the global performance of the biorefinery systems); iii) combination of final products (10 biorefinery configurations are generated from the combination of 9 final products); and iv) assessment of sustainability criteria (i.e., non-renewable energy use (NREU), greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and economics). The used approach compares processing options and operation conditions to identify those combinations of production processes that minimize NREU and GHG emissions. In a second step, 10 integrated biorefinery concepts are selected and compared with respect to their environmental and economic performances. The impacts of choosing different microalgae species, locations, and nutrient sources were also studied as part of the scenario analysis. The results showed that the biorefinery systems with the best economic and environmental performances are those where microalgae oil-free cake is used as nutrient for substitution of animal feed and where lipids are used for substitution of vegetable oils. The worst economic and environmental performances of biorefineries were obtained when microalgae oil-free cake is anaerobically digested to biogas and lipids are converted to either biodiesel or green diesel. Regarding the cultivation technologies for the biorefinery systems with the best performance, favorable environmental results were obtained for flat panel photobioreactors (FPPBRs), followed by open ponds (OPs), vertical photobioreactors (VPBRs) and horizontal photobioreactors (HPBRs). In contrast, the best economic results were found for FPPBRs followed by VPBRs, HPBRs and OPs.

Risk perception and worry in environmental decision-making – a case study within the Swedish steel industry

Sustainable development is an important issue for the industry in order to fulfil legislation requirements and to be able to use green marketing as a competitive advantage. The Swedish steel industry has implemented a large number of environmental improvements, for example, within energy efficiency, raw materials and recyclability. Technical improvements can help the industry decrease its environmental impact; however, in order to reach sustainable development, more factors need to be considered: an effective environmental decision-making process, for example. This process may be influenced by personal factors such as risk perception and worry, which are factors that will not contribute to an effective decision-making process. The aim of this study was to investigate if personal worry and risk perception influenced environmental decision-making within the Swedish steel industry. Thirty-eight interviews were performed at 10 Swedish steelworks using the Q-methodology. The major perceived environmental risks with the facility and personal worry were assessed, compared to the day-to-day work. It was concluded that the major perceived risks were emissions of carbon dioxide, use of non-renewable energy and emissions of particulate matter. The decision-makers were mainly worried about emissions of carbon dioxide, emissions of dioxin and use of non-renewable energy. The environmental issues that were prioritised in practice (day-to-day work) were emissions of carbon dioxide, emissions of particulate matter and emissions of metals. Even though emissions of carbon dioxide were given the highest priority in the Q-sorts, there was in general no clear relationship between risk perception and personal worry with the prioritised environmental issues at the steelworks. The quantitative analysis of the Q-sorts and the qualitative interviews both showed that the day-to-day work was unaffected by personal worry and risk.

Study of the Parameters of Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) Method for Enhanced Oil Recovery in a Heavy Oil Fractured Carbonate Reservoir

By increasing in the use of nonrenewable energy and decreasing in discovering hydrocarbonic reservoirs, in near future the world will encounter with a new challenge in the field of energy, so increase in recovery factor of the existing oil reservoirs is necessary after the primary production. In one hand the existence of untouched heavy oil reservoirs in Iran and lack of producing from them and maturity of light oil reservoirs to 2nd and 3rd stage of their production age in other hand make the development and production of these heavy oil reservoirs necessary in Iran. The goal of this study is to survey common methods of producing oil reservoirs and appliance in heavy oil reservoirs of Iran especially in Kuh-e-Mond. For choosing the best EOR method we should consider factors such as the reservoir fluid and rock characteristics, availability of injection material, available equipments and other items. One way to choose an optimized method is the comparison of reservoirs’ parameters in successful EOR projects with the considered reservoir. However, it should be consider that each reservoir has its especial characteristics and we can not give certain idea about it. Thermal methods have the most useage in the recovery of the world’s heavy oil and between these methods; steam injection with the most amount of oil production has terrific importance. The gained results show that the best way for recovery heavy oil of Sarvak reservoir of Kuh-e-Mond is thermal way and especially steam injection Steam modeling by activating gravity drainage drive process by using steam injection (SAGD) which is designed in a reservoir model in Sarvak reservoir of Kuh-e-Mond has been successful.

Assessment of Diurnal Wind Turbine Collision Risk for Grassland Birds on the Southern Great Plains

AbstractWind energy is one of the fastest growing renewable energy sources in the United States and has the potential to reduce the use of traditional nonrenewable energy. However, there is concern for potential short- and long-term influences on wildlife populations, such as bird collisions with turbine blades, habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, and habitat avoidance. Bird flight heights are indicative of collision risks, but knowledge of their distributions is limited. Our goal was to examine the diurnal flight heights of bird species to assess which are at greatest risk of collision with wind turbine blades. During October 2008–August 2009, we estimated the flight heights of 66 bird species at a planned wind energy facility on the southern Great Plains. Flight heights were estimated by measuring angle of incline with a clinometer and ground distance with a laser rangefinder. Previous work has been limited to flight height measurements categorized to site-specific rotor swept zone (RSZ) specifications that has resulted in limited applicability to other wind turbine RSZ specifications. Our research is distinctive because it provides more resolution in flight height estimates than those categorized into bins and allows application to wind turbines with different RSZs. We found that the flight heights of six bird species varied among seasons, indicating their risk of collision changed throughout the year. Observations indicated that the average flight heights of 28 bird species were within the potential RSZ (32–124 m above ground level) at our study site and that two species exhibited mean flight heights above the RSZ. Fifteen of those species were wetland-associated species, 7 were raptor or vulture species, and 6 were listed as species of greatest conservation need by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. We observed 14 bird species (1 vulture, 2 raptors, 7 wetland-associated species, and 4 passerines or other species) with greater than 25% of their observed flight heights within the RSZ. Our results indicate that raptors and wetland-associated species are the avian groups at greatest risk of collision with wind turbines due to their diurnal flight heights. However, the resolution of our data will allow assessment of which bird species are at greatest risk of collision for various wind turbine specifications. This information can help guide site assessment and placement for wind energy facilities across the southern Great Plains and help mitigate potential collision impacts on bird species.

Comparing biobased products from oil crops versus sugar crops with regard to non-renewable energy use, GHG emissions and land use

Non-renewable energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and land use of two biobased products and biofuel from oil crops is investigated and compared with products from sugar crops. In a bio-based economy chemicals, materials and energy carriers will be produced from biomass. Next to side streams, also vegetable oils and sugars are expected to become important resources for these products. Application of these resources calls for effective resource use, with minimal environmental impacts. In this paper we study a number of available options and their trade-offs. Use of vegetable oils in a chemical and a resin results in a higher reduction of non- renewable energy use and greenhouse gas emissions than their use as biodiesel. Furthermore, similar savings in environmental impact per unit of land can be reached by products from either oil or sugar crops as transportation fuel, but the sugar crops, applied in chemicals or bioplastics outcompete the oil crops.

Biogas from Agricultural Residues as Energy Source in Hybrid Concentrated Solar Power

This paper explores the possibilities of sustainable biogas use for hybridisation of Concentrated Solar Power (HCSP) in Europe. The optimal system for the use of biogas from agricultural residues (manure and crop residues) in HCSP involves anaerobic digestion with upgrading of biogas to biomethane and injection into the gas grid for transport and storage. Using biogas from agricultural residues results in efficient reduction of non-renewable energy use and especially GHG emission, due to the avoidance of methane emission from manure storage. The net biomethane production from agricultural residues in EU-27 can potentially reach approximately 29,000 Mm3, sufficient to supply 320 CSP plants with a capacity of 100 MWe with HYSOL technology, producing 55% of the electricity from gas. The uncertainties concerning the production potential are large.

Can the environmental impact of pig systems be reduced by utilising co-products as feed?

The implications of using co-products from the supply chains of human food and biofuels in pig diets for the environmental impacts of Canadian pig systems were examined using Life Cycle Assessment. The functional unit was 1 kg expected carcass weight (ECW) and environmental impacts were calculated as: Acidification Potential (AP), Eutrophication Potential (EP), Global Warming Potential (GWP), Nonrenewable Energy Use (NRE) and Nonrenewable Resource Use (NRRU). Maximum inclusion limits which would not negatively affect animal performance were defined for: meat meal (55), bakery meal (87), corn DDGS (261) and wheat shorts (291) (numbers in brackets represent average across all feeding phases in g/kg as fed). Nutritionally equivalent grower/finisher (G/F) diets containing maximum inclusions of these co-products were formulated individually. These diets were compared to a simple control diet based on corn and soya meal using 1000 parallel Monte-Carlo simulations. The maximum inclusion of meat meal reduced NRRU and NRE per kg ECW by 9% and 8% compared to the control (P < 0.001), EP and AP increased by 10% and 7% (P < 0.001), with no significant change in GWP. Maximum inclusion of bakery meal was found to reduce all environmental impacts for all categories modelled by <5% (P < 0.001). Maximum inclusion of corn DDGS in the G/F diets resulted in relatively large increases in NRRU (56%), NRE (48%) and GWP (16%) (all P < 0.001). The maximum corn DDGS diet caused a mean reduction of <1% in AP (P = 0.01) and did not significantly alter EP. Maximum inclusion of wheat shorts reduced GWP, NRE and NRRE by >10% (P < 0.001) but did not significantly alter EP or AP. The environmental impact implications for pig farming systems of high inclusion levels of co-products in G/F diets formulated for economic goals (i.e. least cost per kg live weight gain), were also modelled for the first time. Four further G/F diets were formulated on a least cost basis at 100%, 97.5%, 95% and 92.5% of the energy density required for maximum feed efficiency. Minimum nutrient to net energy ratios were defined in the formulation rules to ensure the first limiting resource of all diets for growth was energy. The least energy dense diet contained the highest level of co-products (294 g/kg as fed) and the most energy dense diet contained the least (108 g/kg as fed). The least energy dense diet reduced NRE and NRRU by 9% (P < 0.001) and GWP by 4% (P = 0.018) when compared to the diet designed for maximum feed efficiency, but increased AP and EP by <1% (P < 0.001). The other two intermediate levels of energy density followed the same pattern but the effects were not linear. The increased inclusion of co-products in G/F diets formulated for economic goals can produce environmental impact reductions for some environmental impact categories in pig farming systems.

PROTOTIPE BATERAI DARI BUAH BELIMBING SAYUR SEBAGAI ENERGI ALTERNATIF

This research aims to make prototype battery from star fruit as alternative energy. In everyday life electrical energy used comes from fossils that will be used up in a period of time. Therefore, it takes an alternative energy that can reduce the use of non-renewable energy. We utilize star fruit vegetable as an alternative energy used as a replacement battery, where the battery can be used as energy. Battery of star fruit has a power of 1 Volt and almost equivalent to the battery in the market that is 1.5 V voltages.

Impacts of feeding less food-competing feedstuffs to livestock on global food system sustainability.

Increasing efficiency in livestock production and reducing the share of animal products in human consumption are two strategies to curb the adverse environmental impacts of the livestock sector. Here, we explore the room for sustainable livestock production by modelling the impacts and constraints of a third strategy in which livestock feed components that compete with direct human food crop production are reduced. Thus, in the outmost scenario, animals are fed only from grassland and by-products from food production. We show that this strategy could provide sufficient food (equal amounts of human-digestible energy and a similar protein/calorie ratio as in the reference scenario for 2050) and reduce environmental impacts compared with the reference scenario (in the most extreme case of zero human-edible concentrate feed: greenhouse gas emissions −18%; arable land occupation −26%, N-surplus −46%; P-surplus −40%; non-renewable energy use −36%, pesticide use intensity −22%, freshwater use −21%, soil erosion potential −12%). These results occur despite the fact that environmental efficiency of livestock production is reduced compared with the reference scenario, which is the consequence of the grassland-based feed for ruminants and the less optimal feeding rations based on by-products for non-ruminants. This apparent contradiction results from considerable reductions of animal products in human diets (protein intake per capita from livestock products reduced by 71%). We show that such a strategy focusing on feed components which do not compete with direct human food consumption offers a viable complement to strategies focusing on increased efficiency in production or reduced shares of animal products in consumption.

Environmental impacts of different dairy farming systems in the Po Valley

An environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was performed to compare four typical milk production systems of the Po Valley: drinking milk (A); Parmigiano-Reggiano more intensive (B); Parmigiano-Reggiano less intensive (C) and Grana Padano (D). The input and output data were collected directly from the farmers by way of questionnaires.The results indicated that the total GHG emissions from the analysed farms, with biological allocation, were: 1.47, 1.35, 1.49 and 1.50 kg CO2 eq. kg−1 FPCM (Fat Protein Corrected Milk) for farm A, B, C and D respectively. Excluding Land Use Change (LUC) emissions and Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) sequestration, total GHG emissions were reduced to 1.02, 1.11, 1.26 and 1.20 kg CO2 eq. kg−1 FPCM for farm A, B, C and D respectively. These reductions were mostly due to the GHG emissions associated to the LUC from imported soybean meal, while the contribution of SOC sequestration to the total GHG emissions was found to be negligible.When LUC emissions from imported soybean meal were not included in the analysis, lower GHG emissions were associated to higher milk yield, feed self-sufficiency and feed efficiency. However, when LUC emissions were included in the analysis, the highest level of these parameters did not always lead to a reduction of the total GHG emissions because the higher use of maize silage was associated with an increase in the use of imported soymeal.The results of this LCA also indicated that marine eutrophication, freshwater eutrophication, non-renewable energy use, land occupation and total biodiversity loss decreased as the level of intensification of the production system increased. Conversely, local biodiversity loss, instead, increased if the milk yield per cow increased. We can conclude that, in the specific context analysed, the increase in productivity may lead to a trade-off between global impacts (such as GHG emissions) and local impacts (e.g. local biodiversity and eutrophication).