Life Cycle Assessment Based Evaluation of Regional Impacts from Agricultural Production at the Peruvian Coast

Bartl, Karin; Verones, Francesca; Hellweg, Stefanie

doi:10.1021/es301644y

Cited by 32 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…However, most of these have focused on the GHG emissions linked to the production of fishmeal and fish oil [ 29 ], agro-exports to other continents [ 30 – 31 ], or alcoholic beverages [ 32 ]. In fact, only a few studies have focused on the production of nationally-consumed food products, including dairy products [ 33 ] and fruits [ 34 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change mitigation opportunities based on carbon footprint estimates of dietary patterns in Peru

et al. 2017

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Food consumption accounts for an important proportion of the world GHG emissions per capita. Previous studies have delved into the nature of dietary patterns, showing that GHG reductions can be achieved in diets if certain foods are consumed rather than other, more GHG intensive products. For instance, vegetarian and low-meat diets have proved to be less carbon intensive than diets that are based on ruminant meat. These environmental patterns, increasingly analyzed in developed nations, are yet to be assessed in countries liked Peru where food purchase represents a relatively high percentage of the average household expenditure, ranging from 38% to 51% of the same. Therefore, food consumption can be identified as a potential way to reduce GHG emissions in Peru. However, the Peruvian government lacks a specific strategy to mitigate emissions in this sector, despite the recent ratification of the Paris Accord. In view of this, the main objective of this study is to analyze the environmental impacts of a set of 47 Peruvian food diet profiles, including geographical and socioeconomic scenarios. In order to do this, Life Cycle Assessment was used as the methodological framework to obtain the overall impacts of the components in the dietary patterns observed and primary data linked to the composition of diets were collected from the Peruvian National Institute for Statistics (INEI). Life cycle inventories for the different products that are part of the Peruvian diet were obtained from a set of previous scientific articles and reports regarding food production. Results were computed using the IPCC 2013 assessment method to estimate GHG emissions. Despite variations in GHG emissions from a geographical perspective, no significant differences were observed between cities located in the three Peruvian natural regions (i.e., coast, Andes and Amazon basin). In contrast, there appears to be a strong, positive correlation between GHG emissions and social expenditure or academic status. When compared to GHG emissions computed in the literature for developed nations, where the average caloric intake is substantially higher, diet-related emissions in Peru were in the low range. Our results could be used as a baseline for policy support to align nutritional and health policies in Peru with the need to reduce the environmental impacts linked to food production.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change mitigation opportunities based on carbon footprint estimates of dietary patterns in Peru

et al. 2017

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“…Accurate impact assessment is becoming more important as the role of LCA in environmental assessment of agricultural products increases, and the potential of LCA as a decision support tool for farmers has been highlighted (Bartl et al 2012;Fedele et al 2014). As demonstrated by the variability in CFs in Figs.…”

Section: Applications and Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatially differentiated midpoint indicator for marine eutrophication of waterborne emissions in Sweden

Henryson

Hansson

Sundberg

2017

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose In life cycle assessment (LCA), eutrophication is commonly assessed using site-generic characterisation factors, despite being a site-dependent environmental impact. The purpose of this study was to improve the environmental relevance of marine eutrophication impact assessment in LCA, particularly regarding the impact assessment of waterborne nutrient emissions from Swedish agriculture. Methods Characterisation factors were derived using sitedependent data on nutrient transport for all agricultural soils in Sweden, divided into 968 catchment areas, and considering the Baltic Sea, the receiving marine compartment, as both nitrogen-and phosphorus-limited. These new characterisation factors were then applied to waterborne nutrient emissions from typical grass ley and spring barley cultivation in all catchments.Results and discussion The site-dependent marine eutrophication characterisation factors obtained for nutrient leaching from soils varied between 0.056 and 0.986 kg N eq /kg N and between 0 and 7.23 kg N eq /kg P among sites in Sweden. On applying the new characterisation factors to spring barley and grass ley cultivation at different sites in Sweden, the total marine eutrophication impact from waterborne nutrient emissions for these crops varied by up to two orders of magnitude between sites. This variation shows that site plays an important role in determining the actual impact of an emission, which means that site-dependent impact assessment could provide valuable information to life cycle assessments and increase the relevance of LCA as a tool for assessment of product-related eutrophication impacts. Conclusions Characterisation factors for marine eutrophication impact assessment at high spatial resolution, considering both the site-dependent fate of eutrophying compounds and specific nutrient limitations in the recipient waterbody, were developed for waterborne nutrient emissions from agriculture in Sweden. Application of the characterisation factors revealed variations in calculated impacts between sites in Sweden, highlighting the importance of spatial differentiation of characterisation modelling within the scale of the impact.

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“…Regionalization is used as a solution to improve the accuracy of life cycle assessment (LCA) results and make it more relevant for decision makers. There has been a growing body of regionalized LCA research, and in particular many regionalized LCA models coupled with Geographical Information System (GIS) have been developed for agricultural products [10][11][12][13]. However, insufficient attention has been paid to industrial products, in terms of their regionalized life cycle inventory (LCI), the study of the related geographic location and status of environmental impacts before and after proposed design for each step of lifecycle.…”

Section: State Of the Art On Tools To Support Design For Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

GIS-Oriented Lifecycle Management for Sustainability

Vadoudi

Bratec

Troussier

2016

IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology

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Studying a product's environmental impact on an interacted territory's environmental status before and after design can increase decision makers' accuracy when considering design for sustainability. Spatial representation of environmental information using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is an approach to analyzing environmental status. This paper proposes a new data model to integrate geospatial data with product related data through environmental impacts over the whole lifecycle. This model uses coupling of GIS and PLM by ontology building. This new data model offers the possibility of enhancing sustainable products and obtaining more relevant results due to higher site specificity.

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Life Cycle Assessment Based Evaluation of Regional Impacts from Agricultural Production at the Peruvian Coast

Cited by 32 publications

References 36 publications

Climate change mitigation opportunities based on carbon footprint estimates of dietary patterns in Peru

Climate change mitigation opportunities based on carbon footprint estimates of dietary patterns in Peru

Spatially differentiated midpoint indicator for marine eutrophication of waterborne emissions in Sweden

GIS-Oriented Lifecycle Management for Sustainability

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