Collecting complex comprehensive farm level data through a collaborative approach: A framework developed for a life cycle assessment of fluid milk production in the US

Popp, Jennie; Mulhern, J.; Jaeger, Annekathrin; Lefranc, Luc Maille; Kemper, Nathan

doi:10.1016/j.idairyj.2012.04.001

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…One way to avoid making these assumptions is to keep detailed national records of the specific feed combinations each livestock category consumes. While recent efforts (Popp et al 2013; Thoma et al 2013) significantly remove some of the uncertainty, they typically address a single livestock category. There is a need to extend those efforts to all five livestock categories, and to unify them into a complete national picture.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Partitioning United States' feed consumption among livestock categories for improved environmental cost assessments

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

SUMMARYThe high environmental costs of raising livestock are now widely appreciated, yet consumption of animal-based food items continues and is expanding throughout the world. Consumers' ability to distinguish among, and rank, various interchangeable animal-based items is crucial to reducing environmental costs of diets. However, the individual environmental burdens exerted by the five dominant livestock categories -beef, dairy, poultry, pork and eggs -are not fully known. Quantifying those burdens requires splitting livestock's relatively well-known total environmental costs (e.g. land and fertilizer use for feed production) into partial categorical costs. Because such partitioning quantifies the relative environmental desirability of various animal-based food items, it is essential for environmental impact minimization efforts to be made. Yet to date, no such partitioning method exists. The present paper presents such a partitioning method for feed production-related environmental burdens. This approach treated each of the main feed classes individually -concentrates (grain, soy, by-products; supporting production of all livestock), processed roughage (mostly hay and silage) and pasture -which is key given these classes' widely disparate environmental costs. It was found that for the current US food system and national diet, concentrates are partitioned as follows: beef 0·21 ± 0·112, poultry 0·27 ± 0·046, dairy 0·24 ± 0·041, pork 0·23 ± 0·093 and eggs 0·04 ± 0·018. Pasture and processed roughage, consumed only by cattle, are 0·92 ± 0·034 and 0·87 ± 0·031 due to beef, with the remainder due to dairy. In a follow-up paper, the devised methodology will be employed to partition total land, irrigated water, greenhouse gases and reactive nitrogen burdens incurred by feed production among the five edible livestock categories.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Partitioning United States' feed consumption among livestock categories for improved environmental cost assessments

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, the involvement of more than 50 different people across many divisions within the company was engaged to identify actors across the supply chain and to facilitate data exchange. In comparison to existing approaches (Ramos et al 2016 ; Jungbluth et al 2016 ; Recchioni et al 2015 ; Mistry et al 2016 ; Bellon-Maurel et al 2014 ; Popp et al 2013 ; Finkbeiner et al 2003 ; Pomper 1998 ), the collection of data has been primarily on a voluntary basis where the implementation process is managed by a third party to drive the collection of data from different actors across the supply chain.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, with a projected timeframe of 3 months, this could result in 400 LCI datasets per year. Therefore, in addition to existing routes of data collection (Ramos et al 2016 ; Mistry et al 2016 ; Popp et al 2013 ; Finkbeiner et al 2003 ; Ecodesk 2015 ), the role of companies can significantly create more LCI data which can benefit both companies, supply chain actors and wider industry.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Due to the involvement of different actors, a range of different strategies have been developed to facilitate and collect LCI. For example, web-based systems (Ramos et al 2016 ; BONSAI 2016 ; Recchioni et al 2015 ; Mistry et al 2016 ; Bellon-Maurel et al 2014 ), trade bodies/industry associations (Jungbluth et al 2016 ; Popp et al 2013 ; Finkbeiner et al 2003 ; Pomper 1998 ) and consultants (Credit 360 2015 ; Ecodesk 2015 ). However, the collection of data by these routes requires the strong involvement of actors across the whole supply chain where the main strategy and implementation process in terms of collecting data and data quality checks has been on a voluntary basis, promoted and instigated at a top level by a third party, e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A framework for increasing the availability of life cycle inventory data based on the role of multinational companies

Miah

Griffiths

McNeill

et al. 2017

Int J Life Cycle Assess

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose The aim of the paper is to assess the role and effectiveness of a proposed novel strategy for Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data collection in the food sector and associated supply chains. The study represents one of the first of its type and provides answers to some of the key questions regarding the data collection process developed, managed and implemented by a multinational food company across the supply chain. Methods An integrated LCI data collection process for confectionery products was developed and implemented by Nestlé, a multinational food company. Some of the key features includes (1) management and implementation by a multinational food company; (2) types of roles to manage, provide and facilitate data exchange; (3) procedures to identify key products, suppliers and customers; (4) LCI questionnaire and cover letter and (5) data quality management based on the pedigree matrix. Overall, the combined features in an integrated framework provide a new way of thinking about the collection of LCI data from the perspective of a multinational food company. Results and discussion The integrated LCI collection framework spanned across 5 months and resulted in 87 new LCI datasets for confectionery products from raw material, primary resource use, emission and waste release data collected from suppliers across 19 countries. The data collected was found to be of medium to high quality compared with secondary data. However, for retailers and waste service companies, only partially completed questionnaires were returned. Some of the key challenges encountered during the collection and creation of data included lack of experience, identifying key actors, communication and technical language, commercial compromise, confidentiality protection and complexity of multi-tiered supplier systems. A range of recommendations are proposed to reconcile these challenges which include standardisation of environmental data from suppliers, concise and targeted LCI questionnaires and visualising complexity through drawings. Conclusions The integrated LCI data collection process and strategy has demonstrated the potential role of a multinational company to quickly engage and act as a strong enabler to unlock latent data for various aspects of the confectionery supply chain. Overall, it is recommended that the research findings serve as the foundations to transition towards a standardised procedure which can practically guide other multinational companies to considerably increase the availability of LCI data.

show abstract

A biophysical approach to allocation of life cycle environmental burdens for fluid milk supply chain analysis

Thoma

Jolliet

Wang

2013

International Dairy Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Collecting complex comprehensive farm level data through a collaborative approach: A framework developed for a life cycle assessment of fluid milk production in the US

Cited by 4 publications

References 15 publications

Partitioning United States' feed consumption among livestock categories for improved environmental cost assessments

Partitioning United States' feed consumption among livestock categories for improved environmental cost assessments

A framework for increasing the availability of life cycle inventory data based on the role of multinational companies

A biophysical approach to allocation of life cycle environmental burdens for fluid milk supply chain analysis

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About