Environmental Analysis of Sustainable Production Practices Applied to Cyclamen and Zonal Geranium

Abstract

Italian floriculture is facing structural changes. Possible options to maintain competitiveness of the involved companies include promotion of added values, from local production to environmental sustainability. To quantify value and benefits of cleaner production processes and choices, a holistic view is necessary and could be provided by life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. Previous studies on ornamental products generally focused on data from one company or a small sample. The aim of this study was a gate-to-gate life cycle assessment of two ornamental species, cyclamen (Cyclamen persicum Mill.) and zonal geranium (Pelargonium × hortorum Bailey), using data from a sample of 20 companies belonging to a floriculture district in the Treviso, Veneto region. We also assessed the potential benefits of the environmental impact of alternative management choices regarding plant protection and reuse of composted waste biomass. Life cycle impact assessment showed higher impact scores for the zonal geranium, mainly as a consequence of greenhouse heating with fossil fuels. This factor, along with higher uniformity of production practices and technological levels of equipment, translated to a lower variability in comparison with cyclamen production, which showed a wider results range, in particular for eutrophication, acidification and human toxicity potential. The application of integrated pest management with cyclamen had significant benefits by reducing acidification and human toxicity, while reducing use of mineral nutrients through amending growing media with compost resulted in a reduction in eutrophication potential. Similar achievable benefits for zonal geranium were not observed because of the dominant contribution of energy inputs.

Life-Cycle Assessment in Hydrangea Cultivation in Colombia and Their Cleaner Production Strategies

“…The results obtained with the incorporation of compost are similar to those reported by Bonaguro et al, (2021) [5] and Boldrin et al, (2010) [50], who evaluated the use of compost on crops of different species, achieving lower impact values for different categories, including climate change, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, and photochemical ozone formation. Environmental impact reduction occurs at the cultivation and end-of-cycle stages, achieving further reductions in the impact categories of terrestrial ecotoxicity (impact reduction of 0.57% due to 1% composting increase), freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity (impact reduction of 0.55% due to a 1% composting increase), and human toxicity (reduction of 0.39% due to a 1% composting increase), as the plant wastes would no longer decompose on the cultivation soil.…”

“…Even in a program developed by FAO to implement IPM on crops in Southeast Asia, an average reduction in pesticide use of 70-75% was achieved (with reductions of up to 99% in some districts in Indonesia) [60]. Similarly, in the floriculture life-cycle assessment developed by Aguirre et al (2017) [3] and Bonaguro et al (2021) [5], the implementation of biological control replaced 50% and 40% of pesticide use, respectively, and with the implementation of these measures, an improvement of 39% of the total environmental load of the crop was achieved in the case of Aguirre et al, and an overall reduction in impacts, especially in the categories of human toxicity (−25%) and acidification potential (−16.3%) for cyclamen in the case of Bonaguro et al (2021) [5]. Therefore, based on this information, two scenarios were evaluated:…”

“…Therefore, studies have been conducted worldwide to evaluate the environmental impacts of floriculture using lifecycle approaches with different functional units. These studies focused on chrysanthemum, with 1 kg of flower stems for export [4]; cyclamen and geranium, with 1 marketable plant in a 14 cm pot [5]; and roses, with a number of rose stems produced per square meter of soil per year (100 stems/m 2 × year) [6], bouquets of roses consisting of 20 stems [7] and 100 stems [8], and one package with 25 bouquets of 20 stems each [9].…”

Effects of Substitute Substrate, Water, and Fertilizer Management on the Growth of Potted Chrysanthemums

“…Simplified cultivation in ornamental plants, including Pelargonium hortorum, Cyclamen persicum [34], Euphorbia pulcherrima [35], etc., has been reported in the literature.…”

“…Simplified cultivation in ornamental plants, including Pelargonium hortorum, Cyclamen persicum [34], Euphorbia pulcherrima [35], etc., has been reported in the literature. Chrysanthemum morifolium, one of the top ten cut flowers and one of the most popular potted flowers in the international market, is widely used in landscaping [21].…”