jungbluth 2010 lcafood eth

Environmental Impacts of Food Products Investigated in Life Cycle Assessment

Dr. Niels Jungbluth, Sybille BüsserESU-services Ltd., Uster, Switzerland

USE USEInstitute of Food, Nutrition and Health

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich - ETHSeminar , 13. April, 2010

www.esu-services.chPage 2

Food and Environmental Impacts

3500 Litre of Water for 1 kg

of Chicken

37 MJ of Energy for 1 kg of Tomatoes

?

7695 km fo

r a

Strawberry

Yoghurt


Contents

• Research questions and goals

• The method of life cycle assessment (LCA)

• Environmental impacts of food consumption

• Conclusions concerning food purchases from the consumers point of view

• Public interest

• Collaboration possibilities with ESU-services


Pre-consumption often dominates the environmental impacts

Life cycle thinking necessary

Consumer Choices in the Life Cycle of Food Products

Choice of Product

Mode of Transport

Storage

Preparation

Eating

Household

Consumption phase: Direct influence of the Consumer

Recycling Waste Management(Uitdenbogerd et al. 1998)

11%

10%

13%

3%

64%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Anteil amEnergieverbrauch

Production, Transport, etc.

Share of Energy Use


Life Cycle Assessment of Products

Dairy farm Transport Dairy Transport Retail Transport Consumer Waste treatment

The Dairy chain

© LCA network food, final document

LCA looks from cradle to grave (to gate)

It accounts for resources (energy, water, land) and emissions to air,

soil and water

Main stages to be distinguished:

production – distribution – delivery - use phase - disposal


Four stages of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)ISO-14040, 44 Standard


Research Questions and Goals

• What is a good environmental choice from the

consumers' point of view when purchasing vegetables

and meat?

• How can the environmental impacts be judged?

• Which characteristics of the products are important?

• Do single consumers differ with regard to the

environmental impacts caused by their consumption

patterns?

www.esu-services.chPage 8It is possible to address different types of questions, but not with one analysis

Which questions to be answered?Levels of Consumer Decision Making (DML)

Processing: salad or cooked?

One product: How is it packed?

Variants of one product:organic or greenhouse tomatoes?

Product group: tomatoes or carrots?

Need field nourishing:meat or vegetables?

All need fields (mobility, nourishing)


Modular LCAModular LCAPurchasePurchase

Conservation

Consumption

Product Product characteristicscharacteristics

Agricultural

practice

Origin

Packaging

Modular LCA to assess Food Products

Transports

Animal Production

Food Industry

Distribution

Packaging Production

Waste Management

Feed Production

Fodder Production

Consumption

Slaughter-House


Inventory for the modular LCA

• Balance of all emissions and resource uses

• Investigation of the most important product groups meat and vegetables

• Use of existing LCA studies as far as possible

• Agricultural inventory based on economic data

• Simplifications at all stages by modular approach

• Combination of module results for the full LCA

Easy environmental assessment with a modular LCA for a range of

food products


environmental impacts carbon footprint (kg CO2-eq)

ecological footprint (m2a)

ecological scarcity

2006 (UBP)abiotic resources , incl. water ∅ ∅ √nuclear energy ∅ ∅ √foss il energy ∅ ∅ √land occupation ∅ √ √land trans formation ∅ ∅ ∅climate change √ √ √ozone depletion ∅ ∅ √toxicity ∅ ∅ √summer smog ∅ ∅ √acidification ∅ ∅ √nutrification ∅ ∅ √endocrine dis ruptors ∅ ∅ √noise, odour, litter ∅ ∅ ∅ionis ing radiation ∅ ∅ √was te (incl. radioactive was te) ∅ ∅ √

emis

sion

sre

sour

ces

Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods

Carbon Footprint: Easy to understand, Internationally accepted, Lower workload, Not comprehensive

Ecological footprint: easy to understand, low workload, globally known, only two issues: CO2 and land use

Ecological scarcity: Comprehensive, reflects Swiss policy targets, used for assessment of products, companies and for the whole economy

The BAFU has developed the Swiss ecological scarcity 2006 for assessing

environmental impacts of products, services and companies


Ecological Scarcity 2006Result Weighting Characterisation Inventory

Swiss environmental

legal targets

ecopoints

Primary energy

Ozone depletion

Climate change

Biodiversity

Effectiveness

Estrogene potential

Cancer and hereditary e.

Acidification

Crude oilUraniumWoodLand occupationFresh water

Hazardous waste Nuclear waste

Carbon dioxide (CO2)HCFCSO2NMVOCI-129N totalEndocrine disruptorsHeavy metalsPesticides

Assessment of emissions to air, water and soil as well as resource uses

Aggregation of exchanges according to the environmental scarcity defined in Swiss politics


Environmental impacts of meat purchases

Agricultural production dominates total impacts of meat products


Impacts of vegetable purchases

All characteristics are important

Air transports and heated greenhouse cause highest burdens


Combination of Product Characteristicsfor Vegetables

Easy evaluation of consumption patterns

-

500

1'000

1'500

2'000

2'500

3'000

3'500

4'000

GH, Berne, fresh,plastic

IP, Berne, fresh,paper

IP, EU, DF,cardboard

IP, world, fresh,cardboard

Org., Berne, fresh,no packaging

eco-

poin

ts p

er k

g pu

rcha

sed

Origin

Consumption

Packaging

Conservation

Agriculture

IP - Integrated ProductionGH - GreenhouseCH - SwitzerlandEU - EuropeDF - Deep FrozenOrg. - Organicpast. - pasteurized

9'700


0

5'000

10'000

15'000

20'000

25'000

30'000

35'000

beef, frozen, 400g beef, chilled, 400g vegetarian, frozen, 400g beef, chilled, 400g beef, frozen, 400g

standard microwave long storage

Eco

-poi

nts

2006

per

kg

lasa

gne

warm-up

storage in the Household

transport (supermarket to household)

distribution

packaging

lasagne production

Lasagne production and user behaviour

Important differences in the use phase need to be addressed

Differences in production less obvious if full life cycle is evaluated


Importance of consumer decisions

0.00

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.10

0.12

0.14

0.16

0.18

0.20

Espresso Black Coffee White Coffee Black Instant Coffee White Instant Coffee

kg C

O2-E

quiv

alen

ts

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Espresso Black Coffee White Coffee Black Instant Coffee White Instant Coffee

Milk

Hot Water(Brewing)

Transports(roasteryto household)

Retail Packaging

CoffeeProduction

Coffee consumption

Packages are often less relevant than other consumer decisions


Distribution of mineral water

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

Swiss bo

ttling

Europe

an bo

ttling

glass

bottle

, refill

syste

m

glass

bottle

, one

-way

PET-bottle

, 1.5

l, one

-way

water b

ottle,

18.9

l, refi

ll sys

tem

Transp

ort, lo

rry, 1

00km

Transp

ort, lo

rry >1

6t, 10

00km

Transp

ort, ra

il, 50

0km

supe

r mark

et

Home t

ransp

ort, p

asse

nger

car

Home t

ransp

ort, v

an

cooli

ng, in

refrig

erator

cooli

ng, in

cold

only

bottle

d unit

avera

ge m

ineral

in C

H

envi

ronm

enta

l sca

rcity

200

6 po

ints

per

litre

of w

ater

Deposited waste

Natural resources

Energy resources

Emission into top soil

Emission into ground water

Emission into surface water

Emission into air

Production

Distribution DeliveryUse phase

Impacts of distribution vary considerably by point of sale

Not feasible to assist comparisons without considering difference


Indicators of food purchases City of Zurich

Meat, milk and coffee are a hot spots for environmental impacts

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

weight

value

ecolo

gical

scarc

ityGWP

non-r

enew

able

energ

y

cumula

tive e

nergy

deman

d

snacksteaice creambeveragescoffeecolonialsfrozenconveniencepoultryfisheggsdairy productsbakerybreadvegetables, preparedfresh vegetablesmeat


Meals at canteen kitchens: ecological scarcity 2006

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

braised meatbeef, french

fries

chickendrumstick,courgette,french fries

chop of pork,carrots,roesti

lambstewand

vegetables,carrots,

french fries

veal sliced incream,carrots,roesti

mean meatmeals

curry withvegetables

and rice

risotto lasagne witvegetables

spaetzle withvegetables

tofu incream,carrots,roesti

meanvegetarian

meals

Ecop

oint

s/M

eal

starch side dish

vegetable side dish

main dishø 6622 Pts.

ø 2085 Pts.

Canteen Meals: comparison of vegetarian and meat based recipes

Vegetarian meals have considerable lower impacts

1/3for

vegetarian


Use of LCA for determining the embodied emissions of Switzerland

• Trade statistics combined with

• Indicator results for single products based on

LCA studies

Calculation of embodied emissions for all imports and

exports to Switzerland


Balance of Swiss embodied emissions for food products

-

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Import Export

Mio

. ton

nes

of C

O2-

eq in

200

5

11, beverages

09, miscellaneous edible products

08, feeding stuff for animals

07, coffee, tea, cocoa, spices

06, sugars, sugar preparations and honey

05, vegetables and fruit

04, cereals and cereal preparations

03, fish, crustaceans, molluscs, etc.

02, dairy products and birds' eggs

01, meat and meat preparations

00, live animals


Results for the nourishing sector

• Imports of embodied greenhouse gas emissions

are much higher than exports and add 9% to total

direct Swiss emissions

• Animal products and transports with the air

plane are important


Overall importance of nutrition in total consumption of households

High environmental impacts compared to other consumption fields

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

energy demand climate change ecologicalscarcity

services

mobility

health care

housing, non-energy

energy use in house

clothing

nutrition


Conclusions for Food Consumption

All stages and environmental impacts of the life cycle should be considered for the assessment

Eat vegetarian. Consumption of meat and animal products need to be reduced

Air transported products should be avoided

Buy seasonal. Less products from heated greenhouse should be bought

Consider energy efficiency in the household

Reduce wastage and overconsumption


Public interest on LCA studies of food

• High public interest allows to teach life cycle thinking

• Many people mix health aspects and environmental

aspects when looking at food

• Sensations, even if wrong, are more interesting than

confirmation of former research

• Detailed comparisons should be more interesting for

producers and distributors than for consumers


Influencing consumers behaviour

• Knowledge is available for consumers

• LCA studies sometimes confusing if no clear result

• Lower options for reducing environmental impacts

compared to other fields like mobility and housing

• People tend to follow the easy things and not the

important things, e.g. recycling of packages instead

reducing meat consumption

Stress the points that are really important and not what is

scientifically surprising


ESU-services LCA food database

• First work on cooking in India (1994-1995)

• Further development with Ph.D. thesis of Niels Jungbluth

on meat and vegetable consumption in CH (1996-2000)

• Several projects of ESU-services for extension

• Today more than 700 datasets related to food

• Background data and methodology according to

ecoinvent

• Data are sold for SimaPro or other software


Overview on contents

• Simplified agricultural production services: application of fertilizers

• Vegetables: spinach, salad, tomatoes, lettuce, potatoes, onions, asparagus, etc.

• Fruits: apples, strawberries, cherries, grapes, oranges, vine

• Animal products: pork, veal, beef, lamb, poultry, eggs

• Dairy products: butter, milk, milk powder, yoghurt, cheese


Contents (Part 2)

• Drinks: apple & orange juice, mineral water, tap water, beer, wine, milk, coffee

• Sweets: chocolate, ice cream

• Meals: roast, lasagne, goulash soup, comparison of domestic vs. imported or meat vs. vegetarian

• Household appliances: cooking stoves and ovens, microwaves, refrigerators, carbonisation devices, coffee machine

• Food consumption: packages, transports, cooking, consumption patterns

• Pet food: cat food


Cooperation possibilities

• Case studies on single food products

• Environmental management in food industry

• Evaluation of food consumption patterns

• Assessment of total environmental impacts in

the food sector

• Review of LCA studies


Today I can enjoy the local asparagus,But it took me 950

liters of oil to travel 18'777 km to California!

Keep the relevance of decisions in mind and do not get lost in details!Download of the Ph.d. thesis www.jungbluth.de.vu

Calculate the environmental impacts of Your food consumption www.ulme.ethz.ch

Granted,my car consumes a lot ...

But, Your Californian asparagus needs also 5

liters per kg (in Switzerland)!

jungbluth 2010 lcafood eth

Documents

life cycle assessment

life cycle

modular lca

environmental impacts

lca studies

consumption patterns

vegetarian meals

heated greenhouse