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Greenhouse gas emissions from a Western Australian finfish supply chain
Abstract
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the form of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2 – eq) from two Western Australian finfish supply chains, from harvest to retail outlet, were measured using streamlined life cycle assessment methodology. The identification of interventions to potentially reduce the GHG emissions was determined from the results obtained. Electricity consumption contributed to the highest GHG emissions within the supply chains measured, followed by refrigeration gas leakage and disposal of unused fish portions. Potential cleaner production strategies (CPS) to reduce these impacts included installing solar panels, recycling the waste, good housekeeping in refrigeration equipment maintenance, and input substitution of refrigeration gas. The results show a combination of these strategies have the potential to reduce up to 35% of the total GHG emissions from fillet harvest, processing and retail.
... For example, Barros et al. (2009) analysed the operation of a mussel processing plant for one year, while Bello Bugallo et al. (2013) sought to characterise the operation of different seafood processing plants by the degree of implementation of BATs and an output-based FU was used. A similar case was analysed in Denham et al. (2016), where 1 t of processed fish sold at retail was used as the FU. Mass of packaged product ready for dispatch was a FU used by several authors. ...
... Vázquez-Rowe et al. (2011a) analysed the life cycle of fresh hake including the household consumption. Denham et al. (2016) included the transportation of all consumable items to city and regional retailer and waste disposal to landfill. In summary, the majority of studies were cradle-to-grave analysis, with some studies adopting either gate-togate or gate-to-cradle type approaches. ...
... Mass allocation was used for processed finfish (Denham et al., 2016), tuna (Avadí et al., 2014a), frozen prawn (Farmery et al., 2015), frozen common octopus (Vázquez-Rowe et al., 2012a), and frozen hake sticks (Vázquez-Rowe et al., 2013a;Vázquez-Rowe et al., 2013b). The use of mass or economic allocation was analysed for the Galician fishing activity (Iribarren et al., 2010e;Iribarren et al., 2011) providing changes in the carbon footprint from 0.3% to 57%, denoting the importance of the allocation method. ...
This paper provides an overview of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the fishing sector over the world, including several economic, social, environmental, and health challenges that the fisheries have had to face during the early days of the health crisis and some of them still continue today. These problems, in short, are translated into a decrease in seafood demand, loss of jobs, changes in food consumption habits, economic losses or increased vulnerability of the industry. As consequence, governments have been forced to implement regulations and measures in support of this sector. However, a positive aspect of the pandemic also stands out; the opportunity to transform the food system to be greener, more inclusive, and resilient against future shocks.
... For example, Barros et al. (2009) analysed the operation of a mussel processing plant for one year, while Bello Bugallo et al. (2013) sought to characterise the operation of different seafood processing plants by the degree of implementation of BATs and an output-based FU was used. A similar case was analysed in Denham et al. (2016), where 1 t of processed fish sold at retail was used as the FU. Mass of packaged product ready for dispatch was a FU used by several authors. ...
... Vázquez-Rowe et al. (2011a) analysed the life cycle of fresh hake including the household consumption. Denham et al. (2016) included the transportation of all consumable items to city and regional retailer and waste disposal to landfill. In summary, the majority of studies were cradle-to-grave analysis, with some studies adopting either gate-togate or gate-to-cradle type approaches. ...
... Mass allocation was used for processed finfish (Denham et al., 2016), tuna (Avadí et al., 2014a), frozen prawn (Farmery et al., 2015), frozen common octopus (Vázquez-Rowe et al., 2012a), and frozen hake sticks (Vázquez-Rowe et al., 2013a;Vázquez-Rowe et al., 2013b). The use of mass or economic allocation was analysed for the Galician fishing activity (Iribarren et al., 2010e;Iribarren et al., 2011) providing changes in the carbon footprint from 0.3% to 57%, denoting the importance of the allocation method. ...
Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been widely applied in many different sectors, but the marine products and seafood segment have received relatively little attention in the past. In recent decades, global fish production experienced sustained growth and peaked at about 179 million tonnes in 2018. Consequently, increased interest in the environmental implications of fishery products along the supply chain, namely from capture to end of life, was recently experienced by society, industry and policy-makers.
This timely review aims to describe the current framework of LCA and it’s application to the seafood sector that mainly focused on fish extraction and processing, but it also encompassed the remaining stages. An excess of 60 studies conducted over the last decade, along with some additional publications, were comprehensively reviewed; these focused on the main LCA methodological choices, including but not limited to, functional unit, system boundaries allocation methods and environmental indicators.
The review identifies key recommendations on the progression of LCA for this increasingly important sustaining seafood sector. Specifically, these recommendations include (i) the need for specific indicators for fish-related activities, (ii) the target species and their geographical origin, (iii) knowledge and technology transfer and, (iv) the application and implementation of key recommendations from LCA research that will improve the accuracy of LCA models in this sector. Furthermore, the review comprises a section addressing previous and current challenges of the seafood sector. Wastewater treatment, ghost fishing or climate change, are also the objects of discussion together with advocating support for the water-energy-food nexus as a valuable tool to minimize environmental negativities and to frame successful synergies.
... Recycling of waste from food processing industries can also be in the form of livestock feed or by producing value-added products from the waste, as food wastes contain organic materials that are biodegradable and can be converted to bio-based materials (Tesfaye et al., 2020). Denham et al. (2016) analyzed the environmental impacts of the fish fillet sector and reported that electricity consumption, leakage of refrigeration gas, and disposal of unused fish portions contributed to the higher greenhouse gas emissions in supply chains. Potential strategies of CP to reduce these impacts included installing solar panels, recycling fish fillet residues through the production of biogas, fertilizers, and hydrolysates, maintaining refrigeration equipment, and replacing gas. ...
... This process generated environmental and social gains, with new jobs in a region lacking opportunities. Adazabra et al. (2016), Denham et al. (2016), Sette et al. (2020), and Zhang et al. (2020) created new activities with the use and processing of waste. This study innovates the state of the art because the adoption of CP practices solved a large amount of waste (in the form of barks) discarded in the environment, generating significant environmental impacts and fines by regulatory agencies. ...
The pupunha (peach palm) palm heart production in the Vale do Ribeira (southern region of the State of São Paulo-Brazil) brings economic benefits to the region, and environmental risks with the generation of a large amount of waste. The Cleaner Production adoption in the pupunha palm heart factories is a strategy for reducing environmental impacts and generating profit, with consequent rational use of raw material, reuse of waste, and new equipment installation. This research aims to evaluate the Cleaner Production adoption’s environmental and economic benefits in the reuse of waste generated in pupunha palm heart processing. The case study was carried out in a factory, using direct observation, interviews, and documentary data. The calculation of ROI was an adequate tool for economic evaluation, and the adoption of gondolas in the stages of material separation and waste treatment provided improvements in the production processes. The Cleaner Production application increased the theoretical knowledge about the treatment and use of the waste, reduced the environmental impact, allowed the development of a new business, and generated economic gains through the creation of employment and increase of income.
... The fishing industry uses 1.2% of global oil consumption, resulting in 130 million tonnes of CO 2 emissions (Tyedmers et al. 2005), however in comparison with agriculture and livestock the emission rate from fish production is quite low (Parker et al. 2018). Other significant GHG drivers in the capture industry are electricity and refrigerator gas leakage from the cooling chamber on boats (Denham et al. 2016). As demand for fish increases it will be accompanied by an increasing demand for energy in the fishing industries (IPCC 2018), especially if species shift or extend their range and fisherman have to travel further to find them (Hobday and Pecl 2014). ...
... In 2018 the IMO adopted under Annex VI of MARPOL mandatory measures to reduce GHG emissions from international shipping and make them more energy efficient (IMO 2018b, d). Simple methods, such as maintenance of refrigerators, a hotspot source of GHG, or technological modification and input substitutions can reduce emissions by almost 11% (Denham et al. 2016). The fishing company Maruha Nichiro addressed this problem by changing all their non-CFC freezers to freezers which use natural coolants and have a lower global warming potential (Maruha Nichiro 2018). ...
United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 ‘life below water’, is directed to the sustainable use and conservation of the oceans and marine resources. However, there is very limited information available on how the large-scale commercial fishing industry might contribute to the achievement of SDG 14. This paper shows engagement opportunities for the fishing industry, with a focus on fish harvesting, for the different targets of SDG 14. We find that the fish harvesting sector can contribute to almost all SDG 14 targets, except in the prohibition of certain forms of fishing subsidies. The fishing industry has the opportunity to implement practices that, for example, can help to reduce marine pollution or bycatch. More work is needed to provide specific reporting mechanisms for fisheries companies to assess their progress against the other SDGs.
... It is in line with the practice of green supply chain management, a product of increasing awareness in environmental considerations [5]. LCA is used in the study of [6] for the assessment of pork supply chain, by [7] for the wood pellet to electricity supply chain, of [8] for bread supply chain, of [9] for finfish supply chain, and of [10] for the natural gas supply chain. ...
... The prorated distance is a modified distance between regions based on the distance of countries and the traffic of the product flow. It is obtained through the use of (6) to (9). Equation (6) calculates the product flows between regions, termed rf(rs,rd), by summing up the product flow of all the countries bounded by the regions rs and rd. ...
... On the other hand, as the global population continues to grow and food demand diversi es, the pressure of food demand and transportation on environment is projected to increase [49][50][51][52] . It's reported that food systems are responsible for a third of global anthropogenic GHG emissions 23 , with food transportation accounting for 19% 24 . ...
In the years 2021 and 2022, trade flows have changed dramatically due to regional conflicts, thereby affecting food sufficiency and the sustainability of agriculture worldwide. Here we assess the impacts of those conflicts on the trade and consumption of food and phosphorous (P) fertilizers, and the associated impacts on food sufficiency, P use efficiency and GHG emissions from commodity transport. The study covers a total of 203 countries worldwide. During the two years the global net fertilizer P trade reduced by 35% and of agricultural products by 9%, strongly deviating from the historical trends of increasing trade volumes, and exacerbating the unequal regional distribution of global P consumption and food supply. Route blockages affecting P trade increased the global GHG emissions per unit P by 20% on average, indicating increased environmental costs of P use. Continuing these regional conflicts triples the number of countries facing insufficient dietary P consumption (from 13 to 58) as well as the number of countries facing food insecurity (rising from 124 to 149). The reversed globalization indirectly led to lower P fertilizer use, thereby increasing its use efficiency by 6% on average, with an increase up to 15% in Western Europe. Strong regional differences occur in both P use efficiency and environmental costs. Our analysis highlights the necessity of international targeted cooperation to avoid negative impacts of these regional conflicts and trade policies on global food sufficiency and environmental quality. Using an optimal linear programming model, we showed that via target policy and market innovations it is possible to avoid food crises worldwide while increase P use efficiency and minimizing GHG emissions from P trade by 31%.
... The supply chain decarbonization reduces scope 3 emissions and carbon footprints to improve carbon credits of the industry, besides minimizing polluting gases and release of other hazardous agents. A lowcarbon, resource-efficient transition allows a cleaner, quieter, more secure, and productive economy [29,114]. Reducing the waste by cleaner production strategies helped to lower up to 35% of the total GHG emissions from two Western Australian finfish supply chains. ...
The seafood industry discharges voluminous amounts of discards, consisting of fishery by-catch, process discards, and effluents. Traditional disposals of these side stream materials by landfill, ocean dumping, and incineration are responsible for serious environmental pollution. Emission of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide from the discards significantly contributes to global warming, while hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, methane, nitrous oxide, and other gases have detrimental effects on the health of living systems. These environmental hazards can be abated by eco-friendly remedial solutions. Green chemistry-based valorization of seafood side streams has potentials to lower environmental hazards simultaneously minimizing volume of the discards. These operations transform the discards to interesting products. Integration of the green methods within the framework of a biorefinery within a circular economy protocol allows a zero-waste strategy for the mitigation of environmental pollution by seafood discards. Possible industrial applications of the recovered ingredients such as proteins, peptides, polyunsaturated fatty acids rich lipids, chitin, chitosan, and others make the fishery discards a valuable resource. The green chemistry approach allows optimal mitigation of seafood-related environmental hazards paving the way for responsible and economically viable conservation of resources for a resilient, sustainable, low-carbon seafood industry. Received: 21 May 2024 | Revised: 22 November 2024 | Accepted: 20 January 2025 Conflicts of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work. Data Availability Statement The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations data that support the findings of this study are openly available at https://doi.org/10.4060/cc0461en. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations data that support the findings of this study are openly available at www.fao.org/flw-in-fish-value-chains/overview/objective/en/. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change data that support the findings of this study are openly available at https://doi.org/10.59327/IPCC/AR6-9789291691647.001. The United Nations data that support the findings of this study are openly available at https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld/publication. The United Nations Environment Programme data that support the findings of this study are openly available at https://www.unep.org/resources/toolkits-manuals-and-guides/green-and-sustainable-chemistry-framework-manual. The World Economic Forum data that support the findings of this study are openly available at https://www.weforum.org/stories/2021/12/green-chemistry-manufacturing-climate-change/. Author Contribution Statement Vazhiyil Venugopal: Conceptualization, Methodology, Resources, Writing - original draft, Visualization. Se-Kwon Kim: Writing - review & editing, Project administration.
... Denham et al. [6] studied GHG emissions in Western Australian finfish supply chains from harvest to retail using a streamlined LCA. Electricity was the major emissions source, potentially mitigated through clean solar energy production, assessed through Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) and emission factors. ...
... In the present study, based on the research data of the target park and validity tests used in related studies, the historical test method was selected to validate the model, using historical data of 2013-2019. The model was considered valid if the relative error was within 15% [10]. Based on the above validity test, the relative error between the simulated and actual values of the five selected variables was within 10%. ...
The “double carbon” target is a medium-to-long-term national strategy proposed by China to combat climate change. The industrial sector is one of the key areas for the implementation of the “double carbon” target. Therefore, studying the association between carbon emission factors and carbon emissions is crucial to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industrial activities. In the present study, the association between factors affecting carbon emissions and carbon emissions in a circular economy were investigated for an industrial park in Northwest China. A carbon emission system dynamics model for this circular economy industrial park was constructed, in reference to the relevant national policies and the current condition of the park. Five different scenarios were utilized to dynamically simulate the impact of rapid economic development, energy restructuring, industrial restructuring, and technological development, and carbon emission reduction paths for industrial parks were explored. The results showed that, the park would peak at 1134.67 thousand tons of CO 2 in 2032, according to the baseline scenario, with industrial energy consumption accounting for over 80% of the total emissions. A combined regulation scenario, with increased investment in research and development and environmental management, would achieve a peak in 2030, with a relatively lower peak of 1062.88 thousand tons of CO 2 . Our findings provides new insights into the paths of carbon emission reduction in recycling industrial parks.
... In the context of sustainability within seafood supply chains, there are some advantages to utilising fish waste (Murali et al. 2021). GHG emissions (carbon dioxide equivalent (CO 2 eq) from two Western Australian finfish supply chains, G from harvest to retail outlet, were assessed using streamlined life-cycle methodology and cleaner production strategies (Denham et al. 2016). Electricity consumption contributed to the highest GHG emissions within the supply chains, followed by leakage of refrigeration gas and landfill disposal of unused fish portions (calculated as 62.5% wastage by weight). ...
With the increase in worldwide demand for seafood, the current plateau in production from wild-harvest fisheries has resulted in the rapid growth of the aquaculture sector. Aquaculture relies on quality ingredients such as fishmeal, but cost concerns have led to the investigation of a variety of alternate plant and animal by-products and microbial sources as aquafeed ingredients. Evaluation of alternative aquafeed has traditionally focused on their effects on the growth and immune status of the fish and not always on market-driven assessments of the final edible product. One of the commonly researched groups of alternative ingredients is seafood waste, which, after transformation, has potentially beneficial nutritional characteristics. Transformation, which includes rendering, enzyme hydrolysis and use as a feed source for insects and microbial species, is intended to provide stability and enhance the logistical feasibility of the waste as an aquafeed ingredient. This review discusses transformed fish waste in aquafeeds and describes some of the market and end-user implications (composition, edible safety and quality, sustainability metrics and consumer perceptions) of this approach.
... According to ISO 14040 LCA approach, LCA addresses quantitative assessment methods for assessing the environmental aspects of a product or service throughout its entire life cycle stages, which defines four conceptual steps, including goal and scope definition, life cycle inventory (LCI), life cycle impact assessment, and interpreting results [25,68]. The LCA approach was applied to estimate the global warming impact (GWI) in terms of total GHG emissions of agricultural products, as reported by the recent literature [2,22,68]. Then, the net life cycle GHG emissions were determined after subtracting SOC accumulation from overall GHG emissions. ...
The agricultural sector in Bangladesh is an ongoing societal expectation of reducing environmental impacts and increasing crop productivity to provide food security for its growing population. Introducing life cycle assessment is a systematic approach for establishing how sustainable a crop may become and the potential impacts of complete life cycle wheat farming on the environment and input resource conservation. This innovative field study focuses on conservation agriculture wheat farming to increase energy use efficiency (EUE) and environmental sustainability by decreasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through comparing different conservation tillage practices to conventional tillage. Furthermore, the study estimated the net carbon footprint (CF) of wheat farming, taking into account the additional contribution of soil carbon sequestration and offered a model of the environmental sustainability for wheat farming. The FEAT tool was used to assess energy use analysis, life cycle GHG emissions, and CF during the life cycle (CF) wheat farming. The introduced strip tillage (ST), minimum tillage (MT), and conventional tillage (CT) were predicted by utilizing input enegy of 18,764.29, 18,728.78, and 20,564.32 MJ ha−1 in wheat farming, respectively, with the EUE of 8.46, 8.65, and 6.25%. Among the tillage practices, MT is the most effective practice option in the wheat farming production process. The net life cycle GHG emissions were observed to be 1.968, 1.977, and 2.023 kgCO2eq ha−1 for ST, MT and CT, respectively, where the CF was estimated to be 0.013, 0.012, and 0.014 kgCO2 MJ−1. As a result, CA-based ST and MT practices to be the most effective life cycle GHG mitigation options for wheat farming in Bangladesh.
... One of the ways to measure BH is from the CO2 emissions that are derived from fossil fuel consumption, which is linked directly to the GDP, where a higher GDP achievement is always associated with developing countries but is also extended across developed countries (Denham et al. 2016;Cortes-Borda et al. 2015). For example, the cement industries in developing countries like Thailand, have been trying to minimize emissions and reduce fossil fuel consumption through the use of solid biomass and waste heat recovery in the manufacturing processes. ...
At present, many economies are suffering from environmental problems that have significant effects on the climate and life of human beings, thus, the governments and institutions work to reduce the industrial negative effects on the environment. Past studies focus on the nexus of sustainable economic development (SED) and environmental performance (EP) at the company or institution level. This study focused on the country level, and also further examined the outcome in developing and developed countries. This study examines the nexus between sustainable economic development and environmental performance of both developed and developing countries. The data of SED obtained from World Bank and Environmental Performance Index (EPI) for the period 2006-2016. This study also takes into consideration the control variable (CV) of primary school enrolment (SCH) and country population (POP), which may potentially influence the outcome of this study. For the analysis, the study employs panel regression model. The findings revealed that most of the proxies of SED have significant relationship with EPI.
... Like Finkbeiner et al. (2011), this study can also be considered a limited focus LCA that considered one impact category only, i.e. global warming impact (GWI). The LCA method and principles can be applied to estimate GWI in terms of GHG emissions, as evidenced by other recent literature that estimated the GHG emissions of agricultural products (Biswas et al., 2008;Alam et al., 2016;Denham et al., 2016). ...
Emerging conservation agriculture (CA) technologies are being applied in rice-upland cropping systems and their potential to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions of the whole rice-based cropping systems could be significant in South Asia especially if they increase soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. A streamlined life cycle assessment was conducted in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (Bangladesh) to determine greenhouse gas emissions from successive crops of monsoon rice (Oryza sativa), mustard (Brassica juncea) and irrigated rice under CA practices in contrast with the conventional crop establishment practice while accounting for changes in SOC. The life cycle greenhouse gas tonne ⁻¹ rice equivalent yield was assessed for four cropping practices: a) traditional crop establishment practices with farmers’ practice of minimal residue return, or b) CT with return of increased residues; c) strip planting (for mustard)/transplanting on non-puddled soils (for rice) with farmers’ practice of minimal residue return or; d) strip planting/non-puddled transplanting with increased residue return. The global warming potential values for the 100-year timescale were used to calculate CO 2 eq emissions within the system boundary. The net life cycle greenhouse gas emissions after allowing for changes in SOC sequestration varied from 0.73 to 1.12 tonne CO 2 eq tonne ⁻¹ rice equivalent yield. In the annual cropping system, methane (CH 4 ) released from on-farm stage of the life cycle assessment, particularly from the rice crops, represented the dominant contributor to life cycle greenhouse gas emissions. The greenhouse gas emitted by machinery usage during the on-farm stage (irrigated rice), CO 2 emission from soil respiration (monsoon rice), and greenhouse gas related to manufacture of inputs (mustard) were secondary sources of emission, in that order of priority. The non-puddlled transplanting of soil with low and increased residue retention were the most effective greenhouse gas mitigation options when sequestered SOC was taken into account (they avoided 35% of the net life cycle footprints compared with current farmers’ practice) in footprints of component crops of the rice-upland cropping system. The CA approaches being developed for the Eastern Gangetic Plains involving strip planting or non-puddled transplanting of rice have potential to mitigate global warming potential of intensive rice-based triple cropping systems but the life cycle assessment approach needs to be applied to a more diverse range of rice-based cropping systems.
... It applies the Leontief model whilst factoring in environmental data for economic sectors (Hendrickson et al., 1998;Xue et al., 2007;Deng et al., 2011;Pacual-Gonz alez et al., 2015). Environmental impact also can be assessed from CO 2 emissions derived from fossil fuel consumption in industrial production and social activities (Denham et al., 2016;Cort es-Borda et al., 2015). ...
... From the results, it was observed that if inputs (i.e., ethylene oxide, water, electricity) were optimized, the use of reprocessed devices offers global warming, human health, and economic benefits over the same devices used as disposables. Denham et al. (2016) measured the Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from two Western Australian finfish supply chains using streamlined life cycle assessment methodology. Also, the various cleaner production strategies to reduce these GHG impacts were discussed and the findings revealed that the combination of these strategies led to a reduction of up to 35% of the total GHG emissions from fillet harvest, processing and retail. ...
... The streamlined LCA approach was adopted; LCA analysis only considered cradle-to-farm gate GHG emissions (Todd and Curran, 1999;Denham et al., 2014). In addition, this research considered GHG emissions only for estimating GWP, which is categorized as a limited impact, focused LCA analysis (Finkbeiner et al., 2011;Barton et al., 2014). ...
Wetland rice (Oryza sativa L.) production contributes 55% of agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the world. Hence any new technology with the potential to reduce the GHG emissions of wetland rice could make a significant contribution to total global warming mitigation by agriculture. We applied a streamlined life cycle assessment to the effect of a novel unpuddled transplanting of rice and of increased crop residue retention on GHG emissions from rice fields in the Eastern Gangetic Plains. We compared them with the conventional puddling of soils and current residue retention for transplanting. The GHG emissions from one tonne of rice production for the following four cropping practices were studied: a) conventional puddled transplanting with low residue retention (CTLR); b) conventional puddled transplanting with high residue retention (CTHR); c) unpuddled transplanting following strip tillage with low residue retention (UTLR) and; d) unpuddled transplanting with high residue retention (UTHR). The emissions recorded on–farm and emissions related to pre–farm activities were converted to CO2–eq using Global Warming Potential (GWP) values of GHGs for 20-, 100- and 500-year time horizons. The GHG emissions of 1 tonne of rice varied from 1.11 to 1.57 tonne CO2–eq in the 100-year horizon. For all four treatments, soil methane (CH4) was the predominant GHG emitted (comprising 60–67% of the total) followed by emission from on–farm machinery use. The UTLR was the most effective GHG mitigation option (it avoided 29%, 16% and 6% of the total GHG emissions in comparison with CTHR, CTLR and UTHR, respectively) in wetland rice production. The novel minimum tillage establishment approach for rice involving strip tillage followed by UT has potential to increase global warming mitigation of wetland rice in the Eastern Gangetic Plains, but further research is needed to assess the role of increased residue retention.
In order to mitigate human-induced climate change, UK Government has committed to reaching ‘Net Zero’ carbon emissions by 2050, and to have reduced emissions by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990 levels (timelines for emission targets differ in detail between Devolved Administrations). Fisheries, however, typically use fossil fuels for propulsion, and for many other activities, so the question may be asked: How could UK fisheries move towards Net Zero by 2050?
Here we show that currently, total emissions by the UK fishing fleet are still substantial, estimated as 802 and 702 kt CO2e in 2019 and 2020, respectively (in 2019, equivalent to 0.18% of UK total territorial emissions, or 0.66% of UK domestic transport emissions).
However, there have also been significant reductions in total emission levels: by –32% over a period of 15 years (from 1150 and 1065 kt CO2e in 2004 and 2005, respectively). Over the same period, total fisheries landings showed some fluctuations but generally remained stable.
While recent trends in emission reductions do indicate that significant progression can be achieved, major change will still be needed to fully reach Net Zero.
A ‘roadmap’ of pathways for reducing emissions in fisheries, should incorporate:
(1) technological changes (e.g. in propulsion methods, fuel types, electrification, hybridisation, port facilities);
(2) operational changes (e.g. fishing methods, gear design, trip planning); and
(3) policy changes (e.g. management of fisheries, ports and the maritime sector generally, consideration of an ‘ecolabel’, participatory approach).
Only in combination, and through partnership between industry, science and policy, could these ultimately lead to carbon neutrality, while maintaining both sustainable living resources and prosperity in the fishing fleet and its dependent communities.
This specific contract focused on providing a synopsis of fisheries and aquaculture postharvest (PH) value chains within the European Union. The study describes the issues associated to these kinds of value chains in terms of the markets they provide to, the processing undertaken within the value chain and how climate change may impact their activities. Within this, a descriptive summary of the different sectors (segments) that comprise PH value chains is presented. These descriptions highlight the diversity of pathways undertaken between PH value chains and the strong coupling between the processor, retailer or foodservice and customer. The factors that enhance or reduce these value chains’ financial and physical resilience in relation to climate change is provided. This project then investigates how the structure of PH value chains impacts GHG emissions across the sector role and includes a description of the potential hotspots of GHG emission development. To aid in reducing these hotspots and GHG emissions overall, structural improvements made within PH value chains within the EU – and globally (detailed in peer review literature) – are summarised. This project also reviews trends in technological evolutions and industrial strategies implemented since 2002 aimed at improving energy efficiency and reducing GHG emissions within PH value chains. These evolutions and strategies were identified due to their effects in reducing GHG emissions, and a synopsis of these technologies is provided. Lastly, this work identifies emerging technologies aimed at providing further gains in reducing GHG emissions within PH value chains, including discussing how best to future-proof PH value chains within the EU.
The economic growth of marine fishery in China is overall stable, with output of mariculture, marine fishing, and carbon emission of marine fishery is increasing. To integrate the concept of low-carbon and green development into the whole process of marine fishery development, it is necessary to comprehend the status quo and development trend of marine fishery carbon emission. This study measures the carbon emissions of marine fisheries in the Northern Marine Economic Circle, a development region representing China’s marine fisheries, from 2006 to 2019. We employed a system dynamics approach to establish a marine fisheries carbon emission dynamic model. In our model, five scenarios are set up to dynamically simulate the development and evolution trend of future marine fisheries carbon emissions, under the impact of rapid economic development, energy structure adjustment, and industrial structure adjustment. The results are as follows. (i) Total carbon emissions from marine fisheries in the northern marine economic zone show a year-on-year increase from 2006 to 2019. (ii) Simulations from the five scenarios indicate that rapid economic development significantly impact the increase of carbon emissions from marine fisheries, while adjustment of the energy and industrial structures helped control carbon emissions from marine fisheries. This study provides relevant information to control carbon emissions at the marine level, and predicts the development trend of carbon emissions from marine fisheries, which can provide a reference for fisheries to seek an effective path of energy conservation and emission reduction, and improve their high-quality development level.
Food trade plays a key role in achieving global food security. With a growing consumer demand for diverse food products, transportation has emerged as a key link in food supply chains. We estimate the carbon footprint of food-miles by using a global multi-region accounting framework. We calculate food-miles based on the countries and sectors of origin and the destination countries, and distinguish the relevant international and domestic transport distances and commodity masses. When the entire upstream food supply chain is considered, global food-miles correspond to about 3.0 GtCO2e (3.5–7.5 times higher than previously estimated), indicating that transport accounts for about 19% of total food-system emissions (stemming from transport, production and land-use change). Global freight transport associated with vegetable and fruit consumption contributes 36% of food-miles emissions—almost twice the amount of greenhouse gases released during their production. To mitigate the environmental impact of food, a shift towards plant-based foods must be coupled with more locally produced items, mainly in affluent countries.
This chapter deals with the life cycle impact of industrial aquaculture systems. The capture fishery production has overexploited the wild-fish stocks, and the global demand for aquatic products is still increasing. Industrial aquaculture systems, such as marine net-pen, have a life cycle impact, most of which is due to the energy needed to produce feed and to the marine biotic resource overexploitation. In this regard, it should be worth estimating the impacts using a life cycle assessment. This method, which is often referred to as “cradle to grave” analysis, was already used to evaluate many aquaculture systems. Several studies reported that improving feeding practices may mitigate the environmental footprint of animal production. In this context, improving the precision in nutrition and feeding is a highly promising avenue for increasing the resource-use efficiency (e.g., nutrients) compared to conventional feeding programs.
This study examined the relationship between energy consumption and life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emission of wheat cultivation in Jamalpur region of Bangladesh. Standard energy equivalents megajoules (MJ) were used to measure energy from different inputs and output, similarly, the global warming potential values for the 100-year timescale and a standard unit kilogram of carbon dioxide equivalent (kgCO2eq) was used to estimate direct and indirect GHG emissions from the use of on-farm and off-farm inputs. Farm efficiency analysis tool (FEAT) was used to analysis GHG emission and its intensity or carbon footprint (CF). A non-parametric data envelopment (DEA) analysis was used to estimate the optimum energy requirement of wheat production. The results showed that the treatment combination having MT with optimum energy inputs is the best suits for cost-effective sustainable CA practice in wheat cultivation without compromising with the yield at the dry season. A total of 19468.24, 19432.73 and 20564.32 MJha-1 input energy for the practice of ST, MT and CT was used in wheat production, and output energy was calculated as 158657.40, 162070.55 and 149501.58 MJha-1, respectively; where energy use efficiency/net energy ratio was found to be 8.15, 8.34 and 7.27. Among these, MT is the most effective practice option taken into account in wheat production process. Optimum energy requirement was found to be 18236.71 MJ ha-1 demonstrating for the practice of MT that if recommendations are followed 18.7% of input energy can be saved. The life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emission was calculated to be 1987, 1992 and 2028 kgCO2eqha-1, where CF is the ratio of kgCO2eq emission per MJ of output energy produced was estimated to be 0.013, 0.012 and 0.014 kg CO2eq/MJ in wheat production.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the significant supply chain issues in the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) food industry. The objectives are to identify the major themes and the dynamic evolution of SME food supply chain (FSC) issues, the current research trends, the different modelling approaches used in SME FSC, and the most addressed SME food sector.
Design/methodology/approach
In all, 3,733 published articles from 2002 to 2018 in the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science database were collected, from which 1,091 articles were shortlisted for the review. The authors used bibliographic coupling combined with co-word analysis to identify the historical relations of the research themes that emerged during the periods 2002–2014 and 2002–2018.
Findings
This research identified five major research themes such as production and distribution in alternative food networks, relationship, safety and standards in the FSC, greenhouse gas (GHG) emission impact of the farm food system, traceability and product quality in FSC and asymmetric price transmission in the FSC. Among the identified themes, GHG emission impact of the farm food system and traceability and product quality in the FSC have received increasing attention in recent years. The dairy sector is the most addressed sector (36 per cent), followed by fruits and vegetables (27 per cent), meat and poultry (18 per cent), seafood (10 per cent) and grains and oilseed (8 per cent). It is also identified that the dairy sector has received significant attention in the “GHG Emission impact of farm food system” theme. Similarly, meat and poultry sectors have received much attention in the “Traceability and product quality in the food supply chain” theme. Also, the authors identified that the empirical modelling approaches are the most commonly used solution methodology, followed by the conceptual/qualitative methods in the SME FSC.
Originality/value
This study maps and summarizes the existing knowledge base of supply chain issues in the SME food sector. The results of this review provide the major research areas, most commonly used approaches and food sectors addressed. This study also highlights the research gaps and potential future research direction.
The Publisher regrets that this article is an accidental duplication of an article that has already been published, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.11.084. The duplicate article has therefore been withdrawn.
The full Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal can be found at: https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal.
Wetland rice (Oryza sativa L.) production contributes 55% of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions globally. Any new technology with the potential to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from wetland rice could therefore make a significant contribution to total global warming mitigation by agriculture.
Nowadays products, services, or technologies are proactively evaluated toward environmental performance byusing the life cycle assessment (LCA). The assessment cover the whole life cycle from cradle to grave hence theproduct performance can be analyzed or compared with others for product development or for making adecision. The University of Melbourne currently installed towel dispenser by means of hand drying method inthe entire campus. As some has suggested that electric dryer will provide more sustainable service than papertowel, a LCA study will be a good approach for comparing both methods. The study utilizes SimaPro softwareto generated database for impact assessment. The assessment method used in this study is Eco-Indicator 99.From the LCA study, electric hand dryer performed better in most of indicators. Electric hand dryer istherefore recommended to be used in the entire campus of the University of Melbourne
This paper reviewed past LCA studies of Australian agriculture-based processes, products and supply chains to determine what has been achieved over the past decade and to identify the gaps and opportunities for future investment.
Around 75 published LCA studies undertaken between 2003 and 2013 were identified, and 63 underwent a structured review to identify the coverage and comprehensiveness (system boundaries, impact categories) of past assessments.
The review found that around 80% of Australia’s key agricultural commodities have received some level of LCA investigation, with the most coverage being achieved for livestock sector (beef, dairy, sheep, and poultry), wheat and sugarcane. For many other commodities, there have been case studies or regional assessments that provide some insights to these production processes. Some gaps in coverage were identified (cereal crops other than wheat, pasture, legumes and oilseed crops, orchard fruits and nuts, and horticulture crops).
It is expected that insights gained about Australian agricultural processes to date mostly relate to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy use, as these were the environmental aspect considered most commonly. However there have been recent efforts to also examine water use impacts particularly in livestock systems. Other important impact categories (eutrophication, eco-toxicity and land use) have generally been under-reported. Most (70%) of agri-food studies focused on primary production or extended into primary processing or up to a bulk distribution point, and only 30% considered the full supply chain.
The review concluded that considerable advancements have been made in understanding ‘cradle to farm gate’ GHG hotspots across a wide range of agricultural commodities and in establishing a framework for making high-quality life cycle inventory datasets available. However we may still only have a partial picture of the full environmental profile of Australian agricultural commodities, in the context of their supply chains. Opportunities for extending our understanding of Australia agriculture-based supply chains are proposed.
A listing of the studies reviewed is provided in the appendix as a resource for practitioners.
The fishing sector produces large amounts of waste in fish markets and processing industries. These by-products are mainly used in the manufacture of fish meal. However, there are other potentially valuable uses. One low-investment possibility is the elaboration of agricultural products by composting the fish remains with other marine materials such as seaweed. The main purpose of this work was to obtain a fertilizer suitable for use in organic agriculture, by composting a mix of seaweed and fish waste.
Greenhouse gas emissions caused by food production are receiving increased attention worldwide. A problem with many studies is that they only consider one product; methodological differences also make it difficult to compare results across studies. Using a consistent methodology to ensure comparability, we quantified the carbon footprint of more than 20 Norwegian seafood products, including fresh and frozen, processed and unprocessed cod, haddock, saithe, herring, mackerel, farmed salmon, and farmed blue mussels. The previous finding that fuel use in fishing and feed production in aquaculture are key inputs was confirmed. Additional key aspects identified were refrigerants used on fishing vessels, product yield, and by‐product use. Results also include that product form (fresh or frozen) only matters when freezing makes slower transportation possible. Processing before export was favorable due to the greater potential to use by‐products and the reduced need for transportation. The most efficient seafood product was herring shipped frozen in bulk to Moscow at 0.7 kilograms CO equivalents per kilogram (kg CO‐eq/kg) edible product. At the other end we found fresh gutted salmon airfreighted to Tokyo at 14 kg CO‐eq/kg edible product. This wide range points to major differences between seafood products and room for considerable improvement within supply chains and in product choices. In fisheries, we found considerable variability between fishing methods used to land the same species, which indicates the importance of fisheries management favoring the most resource‐efficient ways of fishing. Both production and consumption patterns matter, and a range of improvements could benefit the carbon performance of Norwegian seafood products.
Anthropogenic emissions likely pose serious threat to the stability of our environment; immediate actions are required to change the way the earth’s resources are consumed. Among the many approaches to mitigation of environmental deterioration being considered, the processes for designing, sourcing, producing and distributing products in global markets play a central role. Considerable research effort is being devoted to understanding how organisational initiatives and government policies can be structured to facilitate incorporation of sustainability into design and management of entire supply chain. In this paper, we review the current state of academic research in sustainable supply chain management, and provide a discussion of future direction and research opportunities in this field. We develop an integrative framework summarising the existing literature under four broad categories: (i) strategic considerations; (ii) decisions at functional interfaces; (iii) regulation and government policies; and (iv) integrative models and decision support tools. We aim to provide managers and industry practitioners with a nuanced understanding of issues and trade-offs involved in making decisions related to sustainable supply chain management. We conclude the paper by discussing environmental initiatives in India and the relevance of sustainability discussions in the context of the Indian economy.
Ingeo ® polylactides are biopolymers with varied applications made entirely from annually renewable resources and produced since 2001 by NatureWorks LLC at a 140 000 tonne/yr facility in Blair, Nebraska, USA. NatureWorks' objectives include eliminating nonrenewable energy use and the emissions of greenhouse gases, as well as minimizing nonvaluable co-products and reducing water use. These objectives are being accomplished through continual improvement of the Ingeo production technology. Since 1998, NatureWorks and Cargill Inc. have worked to develop technology improvements, especially in the area of lactic acid production. In December 2008, new lactic acid production technology was implemented that resulted in a reduced environmental footprint. This paper provides the latest cradle-to-polymer-factory-gate life cycle inventory data (also referred to as an eco-profile) for Ingeo as being produced starting in 2009. It also provides a description of the 2009 Ingeo production system and compares the current energy requirements and greenhouse gas emissions with previous and future Ingeo production systems. Finally, this study benchmarks the results for these two paramaters, with data valid for a selection of fossil-based polymers.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test the efficacy of the concept of food miles that has proved so popular with the public as a means of assessing the sustainability of produce.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses data from a UK major food importer and retailer to correlate carbon emissions from transport, and transport‐related storage, with food miles by creating farm‐specific mode‐weighted emission factors.
Findings
The correlation is found to be poor for a wide range of products and locations and it is clear that the mode of transport is as important as the distance, with sourcing from parts of the Mediterranean resulting in emissions greater than those from the Americas.
Practical implications
It is concluded that it is difficult to justify the use of food miles when attempting to influence purchasing behaviour. Because of this result, processes and tools have been developed that relay information on true transport‐related carbon emissions to customers and bulk purchasers that allow them to make informed decisions.
Originality/value
This paper questions the value of using the concept of food miles as a driving force for changing purchasing behaviour by either the customer or the purchasing department of a retailer.
Background, aim and scopeThe evaluation of packaging’s environmental performance usually concentrates on a comparison of different packaging materials
or designs. Another important aspect in life cycle assessment (LCA) studies on packaging is the recycling or treatment of
packaging wastes. LCA studies of packed food include the packaging with specific focus on the contribution of the packaging
to the total results. The consumption behaviour is often assessed only roughly. Packaging is facilitating the distribution
of goods to the society. Broader approaches, which focus on the life cycle of packed goods, including the entire supply system
and the consumption of goods, are necessary to get an environmental footprint of the system with respect to sustainable production
and consumption.
Materials and methodsA full LCA study has been conducted for two food products: coffee and butter packed in flexible packaging systems. The aim
was to investigate the environmental performance of packaging with respect to its function within the life cycle of goods.
The study looks at the environmental relevance of stages and interdependencies within the life cycle of goods whilst taking
consumers’ behaviour and portion sizes into consideration. The impact assessment is based on the following impact categories:
non-renewable cumulative energy demand (CED), climate change, ozone layer depletion (ODP), acidification, and eutrophication.
ResultsThe study shows that the most relevant environmental aspects for a cup of coffee are brewing (i.e. the heating of water) and
coffee production. Transport and retail packaging are of minor importance. Brewing and coffee production have an impact share
between 40% (ODP, white instant coffee) and 99% (eutrophication, black coffee). Milk added for white coffee is relevant for
this type of preparation. The instant coffee in the one-portion stick-pack needs more packaging material per cup of coffee
and is prepared by a kettle with lower energy demand, such as a coffee machine, thus leading to higher shares of the retail
packaging in all indicators. A one-portion stick-pack can prevent wastage and resources related to coffee production can be
saved. The most relevant aspect regarding the life cycle of butter is butter production, dominated by the provision of milk.
Over 80% of the burdens in butter production stem from the provision of milk for all indicators discussed. Regarding climate
change, methane and dinitrogen monoxide, emissions of milk cows and fodder production are most relevant. Fertilisation during
livestock husbandry is responsible for most burdens regarding acidification and eutrophication. The distribution and selling
stage influences the indicators CED and ODP distinctly. The reasons are, on the one hand, the relatively energy-intensive
storage in supermarkets and, on the other hand, the use of refrigerants for chilled storage and transportation. The storage
of butter in a refrigerator for 30days is responsible for about 10% of the CED.
DiscussionSeveral aspects have been modelled in a sensitivity analysis. The influence of coffee packaging disposal is very small due
to the general low influence of packaging. In contrast, the brewing behaviour is highly relevant for the environmental impact
of a cup of coffee. That applies similarly to the type of heating device—i.e. using a kettle or an automatic coffee machine.
Wastage leads to a significant increase of all indicators. Under the wastage scenario, the coffee from one-portion stick-packs
has a considerable better environmental performance concerning all indicators because, in case of instant coffee wastage of
hot water and in case of ground coffee wastage of prepared coffee, has been predicted. Regardless of urban or countryside
distances, grocery shopping has a low impact. The storage time of butter is relevant for the results in the indicator non-renewable
CED. This is mainly the case when butter is stored as stock in the freezer. The end of life treatment of the packaging system
has practically no influence on the results. Grocery shopping is of limited importance no matter which means of transport
are used or which distances are regarded. Spoilage or wastage is of great importance: a spoilage/wastage of one third results
in about 49% increased impacts compared to the standard case for all indicators calculated.
ConclusionsThe most important factors concerning the environmental impact from the whole supply chain of a cup of coffee are the brewing
of coffee, its cultivation and production and the milk production in case of white coffee. The study highlights consumer behaviour-
and packaging-related measures to reduce the environmental impact of a cup of coffee. The most relevant measures reducing
the environmental impacts of butter consumption are the optimisation of the milk and butter production. Another important
factor is the consumers’ behaviour, i.e. the reduction of leftovers. The consumer can influence impacts of domestic storage
using efficient and size-adequate appliances. The impacts of packaging in the life cycle of butter are not of primary importance.
Recommendations and perspectivesThis study shows that, in the case of packaging industry, a reduction of relevant environmental impacts can only be achieved
if aspects indirectly influenced by the packaging are also taken into account. Thus, the packaging industry should not only
aim to improve the production process of their packages, but also provide packages whose functionality helps to reduce other
more relevant environmental impacts in the life cycle such as, for example, losses. Depending on the product, tailor-made
packaging may also help to increase overall resource efficiency.
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the environmental impacts linked to fish extraction on a temporal basis, in order to analyze the effect that stock abundance variations may have on reporting environmental burdens. Inventory data for the North-East Atlantic Mackerel (NEAM) fishing season were collected over an 8-year period and used to carry out a life cycle assessment (LCA). The selected fishery corresponds to the Basque coastal purse seining fleet.
Materials and methods
The functional unit (FU) was set as 1 t of landed round fish in a Basque port during the NEAM fishing season for each of the selected years. The selected data for the life cycle inventory were gathered from personal communication from ship owners and from a fish first sale register in the Basque Country. A series of fishery-specific impact categories and indicators were included in the evaluation together with conventional impact categories.
Results and discussion
Conventional LCA impact categories showed that the environmental impact is dominated by the energy use in the fishery, despite of the low fuel effort identified with respect to other purse-seining fisheries. Nevertheless, strong differences were identified between annual environmental impacts, attributed mainly to remarkable variations in NEAM stock abundance from 1 year to another, whereas the fishing effort remained relatively stable throughout the assessed years. Fishery-specific categories, such as the discard rate or seafloor impact showed reduced impacts of this fishery respect to other small pelagic fish fisheries. Finally, the fishery in balance (FiB) index identified the evolution of NEAM stock abundance for this particular fishery.
Conclusion
To our knowledge, this is the first fishery LCA study in which there is sufficient inventory data in order to conduct the methodology throughout a wide period of time. The outstanding variance in environmental impacts from one season to another evidences the need to expand fishery LCAs in time, in order to attain a more integrated perspective of the environmental performance of a certain fishery or species.
The extension of LCA inventories in the timeline may be an important improvement for activities that rely entirely on the extraction of organisms from wild ecosystems. For instance, future research will have to determine the importance of increasing the timeline in fishery LCAs for species that do not show large stock abundance variations through time, unlike NEAM.
Background, aim, and scopeThe synergistic use of life cycle assessment (LCA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) is proposed as a new methodological
approach to link environmental and socioeconomic assessments of fisheries. Therefore, the goal is to combine LCA and DEA in
order to increase the assessment ability of both tools when applied to these fisheries. Specifically, the joint inclusion
of economic aspects and the consideration of currently underrepresented environmental impact categories are tackled.
Materials and methodsA five-step method is presented to combine LCA and DEA so that operational benchmarking and eco-efficiency verification are
included together with the assessment of the environmental performance of fishing vessels. Some guidelines are also provided
to orientate methodological choices in DEA. Furthermore, the applicability of the method for fisheries is discussed using
a Spanish coastal trawl fishery as an example.
ResultsThe use of the five-step LCA+DEA method for fisheries demonstrated the dependence of environmental impacts on the operational
performance of the vessels. Operational inefficiencies were detected and target performance improvement values were consequently
defined for the inefficient vessels. The combined method favored quantification of potential eco-efficiency gains. Optional
features of DEA models allowed the inclusion of controversial impact issues such as by-catch discarding.
DiscussionAs demonstrated by the application of the method to the trawling case study, this methodology facilitates joint consideration
of the environmental impacts of the fleet together with economic issues such as operational efficiency. Moreover, the potential
inclusion of “bad outputs” in DEA models makes the proposed method suitable for quantifying the potential improvements in
currently underrepresented issue areas such as discarding by-catch.
ConclusionsThe proposed methodological approach was found as an adequate alternative to complement the mere use of LCA for fisheries.
Its use avoids problems with standard deviations which usually arise when LCA practitioners work with average inventories.
Moreover, the new approach facilitates the interpretation of the results for practitioners who deal with multiple individual
LCAs for the same fishery. Furthermore, the joint application of LCA and DEA carry synergistic effects related to the link
between operational efficiency and environmental impacts.
Recommendations and perspectivesThe proposed LCA+DEA approach for fisheries is recommended for its regular use. The need of multiple input/output data for
multiple vessels is not seen as a limitation in the case of fisheries research.
KeywordsData envelopment analysis-Discard-Eco-efficiency-Fisheries-Operational efficiency-Seafood-Trawling
Goal, Scope and BackgroundThe purpose of the present study was to perform an environmental assessment for the entire life cycle of a seafood product
and to include fishery-specific types of environmental impact in inventory and assessment. Environmental data for a frozen
block of cod fillets was collected and used for a Life Cycle Assessment, including the fishery-specific environmental aspects
seafloor use and biological extraction of target, by-catch and discard species. The fishery takes place in the Baltic Sea
where cod is mainly fished by benthic trawls and gillnets.
MethodsThe functional unit was a consumer package of frozen cod fillets (400 g) reaching the household. Data was gathered from fishermen,
fishery statistics, databases, companies and literature. Fishery-specific issues like the impact on stocks of the target and
by-catch species, seafloor impact and discarding were quantified in relation to the functional unit and qualitative impact
assessment of these aspects was included.
ResultsFindings include the fact that all environmental impact categories assessed (Global Warming Potential, Eutrophication Potential,
Acidification Potential, Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential and Aquatic Ecotoxiciy) are dominated by the fishery. Around
700 m2 of seafloor are swept by trawls and around 50 g of under-sized cod and other marine species are discarded per functional
unit. The phases contributing most to total environmental impact following fishery were transports and preparation in the
household. The process industry and municipal sewage treatment cause considerable amounts of eutrophying emissions.
ConclusionsConclusions are that there are considerable options for improvement of the environmental performance of the seafood production
chain. In the fishery, the most important environmental measure is to fish sustainably managed stocks. Speed optimisation,
increased use of less energy-intensive fishing gear and improved engine and fuel technology are technical measures that would
considerably decrease resource use and environmental impact caused by fishery. Due to the importance of fishery for the overall
results, the most important environmental improvement option after landing is to maintain high quality and minimise product
losses.
Recommendations and OutlookThe need for good baseline data concerning resource use and marine environmental impact of fisheries in order to perform environmental
assessment of seafood products was demonstrated. LCA was shown to be a valuable tool for such assessments, which in the future
could be used to improve the environmental performance of the seafood production chain or in the development of criteria of
eco-label-ling of seafood products originating in capture fisheries.
NatureWorks™ polylactide (PLA)1 is a versatile polymer produced by Cargill Dow LLC. Cargill Dow is building a global platform of sustainable polymers and chemicals entirely made from renewable resources. Cargill Dow's business philosophy is explained including the role of life cycle assessment (LCA), a tool used for measuring environmental sustainability and identifying environmental performance-improvement objectives. The paper gives an overview of applications of LCA to PLA production and provides insight into how they are utilized. The first application reviews the contributions to the gross fossil energy requirement for PLA (54 MJ/kg). In the second one PLA is compared with petrochemical-based polymers using fossil energy use, global warming and water use as the three impact indicators. The last application gives more details about the potential reductions in energy use and greenhouse gasses. Cargill Dow's 5–8 year objective is to decrease the fossil energy use from 54 MJ/kg PLA down to about 7 MJ/kg PLA. The objective for greenhouse gasses is a reduction from +1.8 down to −1.7 kg CO2 equivalents/kg PLA.
The modern supermarket depends on electricity for lighting, ventilation and, above all, refrigeration to protect a vast selection of meats, dairy products, fruits, and vegetables. Supermarkets are among the greatest single end-users of electricity with typical annual electrical energy consumption in the region of 1000 kWh/m² sales area. The refrigeration systems account for between 40 and 50 % of the electricity used, whereas lighting accounts for between 15 and 25 % with the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) equipment and other utilities, such as bakery making up the remainder. All refrigeration systems have the potential to leak because pressures in the system are usually many times higher than atmospheric. It is estimated that between 10 and 30 % of the refrigerant charge in large systems is released to the atmosphere each year, contributing to the depletion of the ozone layer and to global warming. Refrigerant loss also contributes to the reduction of the operating efficiency of the system, leading to increased power consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, higher maintenance costs, and eventual system failure. This chapter discusses the types of refrigeration systems used in supermarkets and their environmental impacts due to energy consumption and refrigerant leakage and identifies the ways in which these impacts can be reduced.
This review discusses and analyses previous results in identification, development and implementation of cleaner production strategies within the seafood industry. The relevant peer reviewed articles were identified from a structured keyword search and analysed by both supply chain stage (capture and aquaculture, transport, processing, storage and retail), and examination of the cleaner production strategies implemented. Results found entities along the seafood supply chain generally worked separately to improve cleaner production processes and outputs to grow their own businesses. Whilst this approach can be beneficial, it ignores the broader cleaner production potential benefits gained when applied across multiple supply chain entities. The most effective cleaner production strategies for improved environmental performance in each sector of the supply chain were identified with the potential to reduce unnecessary handling, energy usage, storage costs and waste production. To ensure the greatest reduction in environmental impact, a whole of supply chain management system that incorporates life cycle assessment modelling is recommended.
Food is one of the most energy and CO2-intensive consumer goods. While environmental data on primary agricultural products are increasingly becoming available, there are large data gaps concerning food processing. Abridging these gaps is important, e.g. the food industry can use such data to optimize processes from an environmental perspective, and retailers may use this information for purchasing decisions. Producers and retailers, can then market sustainable products and deliver the information demanded by governments and consumers. Finally, consumers are increasingly interested in the environmental information of foods in order to lower their consumption impacts. This study aims to provide estimation tools for the energy demand of a representative set of food process unit operations such as dehydration, evaporation, or pasteurization. These operations are used to manufacture a variety of foods and can be combined, according to the product, to quantify the heat and electricity demand during processing. In combination with inventory data on the production of the primary ingredients, this toolbox will be a basis to perform Life Cycle Assessment studies of a large number of processed food products and to provide decision support to the stakeholders. Furthermore, a case study is performed to illustrate the application of the tools.
Costa Rica is the largest exporter of fresh pineapple to US and European markets and production area has tripled since 2002 with associated economic benefits and environmental concerns. A detailed life cycle assessment of fresh pineapple from the farm to retail shelf in the US was performed to characterize the range of environmental performance and identify important sources of environmental impact and opportunities for improvement. Participating producers representing three major production regions and a range of field conditions and management practices provided data to support the assessment. Impacts estimated included energy demand, carbon footprint, stress-weighted water footprint, soil erosion, emergy, human and ecosystem toxicity, and others from TRACI with models customized for Costa Rican conditions. Using the functional unit of 1 serving of fruit for comparative purposes, pineapple likely has a higher energy demand and carbon footprint than common tree fruits such as apples and oranges because it is more input intensive but causes less water stress because of ideal climatic conditions in Costa Rica. The farming stage was the most important source of impacts and thus provides the most opportunities for improvements; packaging was significant due to the packing material, and refrigeration is the primarily contributor to impact during distribution, although it is a small contribution to overall impact. Selecting flat terrain, maximizing the yield:input ratio, packing in reusable cartons without crowns, and using energy-efficient refrigeration can provide significant reduction of measureable impacts, but these need to be considered alongside other impacts such as worker health and site-specific ecological and human risks that are not typically part of LCA. This approach and selected impact indicators provide a model for characterizing environmental performance of other fruits, especially in the humid tropics.
A life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) assessment of 1 kJ of strawberries, button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus), and romaine/cos lettuces (Lactuca sativa) transported to retail outlets in Western Australia (WA) was examined and compared. The study included pre-farm, on-farm, and post-farm emissions. The pre-farm stage included GHG emissions from agricultural machinery and chemical production, and transport of raw materials (spawn, peat, and compost) in mushrooms. The on-farm stage included GHG emissions from agricultural machinery operation, chemical use, water for irrigation, waste generated, as well as electricity and energy consumption. The post-farm stage included transport of produce to Distribution Center (DC), storage in DC, and transport to retail outlets. The ‘hotspots’ or the stages that emit the highest GHG were determined for strawberries, button mushrooms and romaine/cos lettuces. The results have shown that the life cycle GHG emissions of strawberries and lettuces were higher than mushrooms due to intensive agricultural machinery operations during the on-farm stage. Mushrooms, however have significantly higher GHG emissions during pre-farm stage due to transport of peat, spawn, and compost.
The six biggest frozen fish processing companies in Chile signed a Cleaner Production Agreement with the Regional Cleaner Production Secretary, supported by several public institutions related to health, labor risk, and environment. The overall objective of the Agreement was the incorporation of cleaner production measures for frozen fish installations in order to increase production efficiency, to reduce pollution at source, to improve the management of industrial liquid and solid waste, as well as to incorporate upgrading and recycling measures. The implementation phase took two years, in which three audits were carried out, whose results are analyzed in this work. The most important achievements of the implemented measures were the reduction of water consumption (28%), solid waste generation (40%) and energy consumption (24%). Especially important was the implementation of sound management systems that encouraged employee participation, which had a strong effect on diminishing the accident rates of all partner companies (18%) during the study period. Finally, after establishing the basis of quality standards in the processing facilities, it is suggested that the forthcoming renewal Agreements should include further improvements such as incorporating more steps of the products value chain, following a lifecycle approach (e.g. fishing, packaging, transport), into the sectorial evaluation.
Anaerobic digestion applied to the organic waste produced in urban environments could provide a critical solution to growing garbage problems while simultaneously reducing external energy requirements. As landfills across Canada and the rest of the world are filled to their limits, a carbon-neutral process which can locally generate electricity and heat while providing up to 50% volatile solid reduction is something to be seriously considered. This paper investigates the feasibility of urban anaerobic digestion, presents four techniques for biogas estimation – ultimate analysis, yield from molecular formula analysis, a novel computer simulation technique using Anaerobic Digestion Model #1 (ADM1), and a literature review of experimentally determined biogas yields. In addition, a case study for small-scale anaerobic digestion system design is presented for an urban building.
The environmental concern and development issues regarding packaging has for 20 years to a high extent been on packaging when it has become waste. To reduce the environmental impact from the whole food packaging system it is also important to develop the packaging’s ability to reduce food waste. In some cases it may be necessary to increase the environmental impact of packaging in order to reduce food waste. In this paper, the environmental impact of packaging and food losses and the balance between the two has been examined for five different food items. The results show that packaging’s that reduce food waste can be an important tool to reduce the total environmental impact, even if there is an increase in impact from the packaging itself. This is especially true for food items where the environmental impact of the food is high relative the packaging, for example cheese, and for food items with high losses, for example bread. It is important to analyse the risk of increasing food losses when packaging design changes, for example, when the aim is less packaging material, which is the main intention of the packaging and packaging waste directive of the European Union.
European hake (Merluccius merluccius L.), one of the main products in the Spanish diet, represents the highest economic income for Galician fishing fleets. In this study, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was used to assess the environmental impacts related to the extraction, processing and consumption of European hake captured by Galician trawlers and long liners in the Northern Stock. Furthermore, biological related impact categories, such as by-catch and discards were also considered in the analysis. Results show considerably lower environmental impacts for European hake fresh fillets arriving from long lining vessels, due mainly to the high energy demand of the analyzed trawlers. In this sense, the main part of the impact for hake arriving from both fishing fleets was attributable to marine diesel-linked activities. Post-fishing activities, such as land transport or electricity consumption, were also highlighted as important contributors within their subsystems. Global environmental performance of the system can only be reduced through fuel consumption minimization. However, impact minimization in the fresh hake post-harvesting activities may offer attractive cost reductions for retailers, wholesalers and consumers.
At the beginning of the 21st century imports of agricultural and food commodities have become a major part of many nations' food baskets. Indeed the global food system has several merits for nations, businesses and individual consumers well-being. However, as increasing evidence suggests that we are approaching an era of climate change and scarcity of cheap energy sources the sustainability of that system must be examined. One part of any food commodity chain is its 'food miles' - the distance the commodity travels from point of production to point of consumption, the required energy and resulting emissions. This paper presents a 1 year 'snapshot' of Canada's total import related food miles. It presents an analysis of the distance imported foods traveled from around the world to major points of consumption in Canada and documents the equivalent carbon dioxide emissions related to those imports. It presents both a macro scale picture of the equivalent emissions related to transportation of imported food and a micro scale picture which focuses on specific commodities consumed in various parts of the country. It then discusses policy implications for food sustainability. Overall the research highlights that about 30% of the agricultural and food commodities consumed in Canada are imported, resulting in 'food miles' of over 61 billion tonnes km, leading to annual emissions of 3.3 million metric tonnes of CO2. Of the various agriculture and food commodities studied, fruits and vegetables had the highest food miles related ;emissions.
This review covers recent development of PVC production technologies of the suspension polymerization process, the bulk (mass) polymerization process and the emulsion polymerization process with some historical background. The development of process for the vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) production is also explained briefly. Since the suspension process is regarded to be the most important process with its 80% share of the world total production, this review follows mainly the technology development of the suspension polymerization process. Because of the importance of hygienic problems caused by VCM, the technology development in the field of emission control is also covered.
The objective of the present investigation deals with optimization of l-lactic acid production from Zizyphus oenophlia, a potential low cost substrate. Central composite design (CCD) based on response surface methodology (RSM) was employed as a statistical tool to investigate the effect of substrate: media ratio, temperature, pH and inoculum volume on lactic acid production. Under optimum condition, the experimental yield was 95.09%, which matched well with the predictive yield of 95.45%. HPLC and circular dichroism (CD) analysis of the fermented product was carried out to confirm the presence of lactic acid in its L (+) seriospecificity respectively. For application of lactic acid in biotechnological sector polymerization studies were carried out. The PLA upon recovery through direct polycondensation reaction resulted in the yield of 85%.
Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) can be used to improve the environmental performance of products throughout their life cycle. With ongoing discussions about system boundaries, appropriate data, and model limitations, LCA methods are in a constant state of evolution. This paper presents the use of a hybrid LCA approach to product environmental assessment in which two methods of analysis are combined to present the total environmental impact for two battery systems. A quantitative model for product assessment has been developed at Carnegie Mellon. The model is based on economic input−output life-cycle analysis (EIO-LCA) and has been explained in previous works. The EIO-LCA tool allows a user to quantify the direct and indirect relationships among industry sectors and the associated environmental burdens through the materials extraction and manufacturing phases. However, to study environmental effects over a product's entire life, use and end-of-life impacts must also be quantified. This is accomplished using the LCA approach in which an emissions and energy inventory is compiled and the environmental impacts are quantified. In this paper, the above hybrid LCA approach is applied to comparing the total environmental impacts of primary and rechargeable batteries. The primary (non-rechargeable) batteries mainly used in electronic products are zinc−alkaline batteries, and the most widely used consumer rechargeable batteries are nickel−cadmium. It is generally accepted that rechargeable batteries offer environmental advantages over primary batteries. We find that materials use, energy use, and emissions can be quantified over the entire product life cycle to quantitatively show that resource use and emissions are substantially lower if a rechargeable battery can be substituted for a primary battery. However, consumer use patterns will affect the relative environmental benefits of rechargeable batteries. Noting the effect of consumer behavior also determines where uncertainties in the analysis may lie, since behavior is difficult to predict. Recycling batteries will also have associated emissions and energy use. Even accounting for the additional resource consumption and emissions for rechargeable batteries in the use and recycling phases of life, rechargeable batteries will still consume less resources over the entire life cycle when used in applications as a substitute for primary batteries. The assessment methods can also be applied to electronic products in addition to components such as batteries.
The cumulative energy and global warming impacts associated with producing corn, soybeans, alfalfa, and switchgrass and transporting these crops to a central crop processing facility (called a “biorefinery”) are estimated. The agricultural inputs for each crop are collected from seven states in the United States: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The cumulative energy requirement for producing and transporting these crops is 1.99 to 2.66 megajoules/kilo-gram (MJ/kg) for corn, 1.98 to 2.04 MJ/kg for soybeans, 1.24 MJ/kg for alfalfa, and 0.97 to 1.34 MJ/kg for switchgrass. The global warming impact associated with producing biomass is 246 to 286 grams (g) CO2 equivalent/kg for corn, 159 to 163gCO2 equivalent/kg for soybeans, 89 g CO2 equivalent/ kg for alfalfa, and 124 to 147 g CO2 equivalent/kg for switch-grass. The detailed agricultural data are used to assess previous controversies over the energy balance of bioethanol and, in light of the ongoing debates on this topic, provide a needed foundation for future life-cycle assessments.
In this article, industrial ecology is used as a framework for analysing transport energy and its implication for products. The importance of the energy use for transport in a natural resource production system is analysed. By using fish as a case study, it is shown that the amount of energy for transport is highly dependent on the transport mode used. When applying industrial ecology principles for making assessments of the environmental impacts of products, the whole product chain is examined. This is an extended life-cycle approach, which also includes the transport of the finished products from the exporter to the importing country. This last part of the transport chain can be extremely energy demanding, as is shown for the case of fish transport. This finding has implications for the products, and for the form in which the products should be transported. Increasing the energy efficiency of production systems is an important industrial ecology principle, and must be taken into consideration when analysing product chains. A revision of today's practice of transporting large quantities of fresh whole fish by transcontinental airliners is bound to be necessary. This is a consequence of the demands for increased energy efficiency of tomorrow's industrial production systems.
a b s t r a c t This paper compares the life cycle global warming potential of three of Australia's important agricultural production activities e the production of wheat, meat and wool in grazed subterranean clover (sub-clover) dominant pasture and mixed pasture (perennial ryegrass/phalaris/sub-clover/grass and cape weed) systems. Two major stages are presented in this life cycle assessment (LCA) analysis: pre-farm, and on-farm. The pre-farm stage includes greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agricultural machinery, fertilizer, and pesticide production and the emissions from the transportation of these inputs to paddock. The on-farm stage includes GHG emissions due to diesel use in on-farm transport and processing (e.g. seeding, spraying, harvesting, topdressing, sheep shearing), and non-CO 2 (nitrous oxide (N 2 O), and methane (CH 4)) emissions from pastures and crop grazing of lambs. The functional unit of this life cycle analysis is the GHG emissions (carbon dioxide equivalents e CO 2 -e) from 1 kg of wheat, sheep meat and wool produced from sub-clover, wheat and mixed pasture plots. The GHG emissions (e.g. CO 2 , N 2 O and CH 4 emission) from the production, transportation and use of inputs (e. g. fertilizer, pesticide, farm machinery operation) during pre-farm and on-farm stages are also included. The life cycle GHG emissions of 1 kg of wool is significantly higher than that of wheat and sheep meat. The LCA analysis identified that the on-farm stage contributed the most significant portion of total GHG emissions from the production of wheat, sheep meat and wool. This LCA analysis also identified that CH 4 emissions from enteric methane production and from the decomposition of manure accounted for a significant portion of the total emissions from sub-clover and mixed pasture production, whilst N 2 O emissions from the soil have been found to be the major source of GHG emissions from wheat production.
Southern pink shrimp (Penaeus notialis) are an important Senegalese export commodity. Artisanal fisheries in rivers produce 60%. Forty percent are landed in trawl fisheries at sea. The shrimp from both fisheries result in a frozen, consumer-packed product that is exported to Europe. We applied attributional life cycle assessment (LCA) to compare the environmental impact of the two supply chains and identify improvement options. In addition to standard LCA impact categories, biological impacts of each fishery were quantified with regard to landed by-catch, discard, seafloor impact, and size of target catch. Results for typical LCA categories include that artisanal fisheries have much lower inputs and emissions in the fishing phase than does the industrial fishery. For the product from artisanal fisheries, the main part of the impact in the standard LCA categories occurs during processing on land, mainly due to the use of heavy fuel oil and refrigerants with high global warming and ozone depletion potentials. From a biological point of view, each fishery has advantages and drawbacks, and a number of improvement options were identified. If developing countries can ensure biological sustainability of their fisheries and design the chain on land in a resource-efficient way, long distance to markets is not an obstacle to sustainable trading of seafood products originating in artisanal fisheries.
Increasing the eco-efficiency of fishing fleets is currently a major target issue in the seafood sector. This objective has been influenced in recent years by soaring fuel prices, a fact particularly relevant to a sector whose vessels present high energy consumption rates. Efforts to minimize fuel consumption in fishing fleets result in economic benefits and also in important reductions regarding environmental impacts. In this article, we combine life cycle assessment (LCA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) to jointly discuss the operational and environmental performances of a set of multiple, similar entities.
We applied the “five-step LCA + DEA method” to a wide range of vessels for selected Galician fisheries, including deep-sea, offshore, and coastal fleets. The environmental consequences of operational inefficiencies were quantified and target performance values benchmarked for inefficient vessels. We assessed the potential environmental performance of target vessels to verify eco-efficiency criteria (lower input consumption levels, lower environmental impacts).
Results revealed the strong dependence of environmental impacts on one major operational input: fuel consumption. The most intensive fuel-consuming fleets, such as deep sea trawling, were found to entail the diesel consumption levels nearest to the efficiency values. Despite the reduced environmental contributions linked to other operational inputs, such as hull material, antifouling paint, or nets, these may contribute to substantial economic savings when minimized. Finally, given that Galicia is a major fishing region, many of the conclusions and perspectives obtained in this study may be extrapolated to other fishing fleets at the international level.
Previous studies based on life-cycle assessment (LCA) in Denmark and Sweden have shown that the fishery is the environmental “hot spot” in the life cycle of certain fish products. Within the fishery, fuel consumption is one of the most important factors addressed by LCA. The present study reveals that there are great differences in fuel consumption between fisheries targeting groundfish or shellfish and those targeting pelagic fish or industrial fish. Here, I show that fuel consumption per kilogram of caught fish varies considerably as a function of fishing gear and vessel size, even considering the same target species. I argue that these differences need to be addressed in the search for a fuel-efficient fishery. Improvements in fuel efficiency may be consistent with other objectives, such as reduced impacts on seafloor habitats and reduced discard.
Goal, Scope and Background
This article presents the main results from a PhD dissertation about environmental impacts from Danish fish products. The focus is on LCA results for flatfish, but the article also gives an overview of screenings of other fish species. Furthermore, it includes an analysis of the energy consumption in the fishing stage – as a function of fish species and fishing methods. Alternative impact categories that have not been included in the quantitative LCA and policy perspectives are elaborated in the discussion part of the paper.
Methods
The study represents a consequential LCA approach (opposed to attributional) and the functional unit is one kg consumed flatfish filet in units of 300 gram (cardboard boxes). Data are obtained from statistics, interviews, literature, and databases – mainly ETH-ESU 96 and the Danish LCA food database. The EDIP 97 method has been applied for life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) and the results have been verified by Ecoindicator 99.
Results
The results of the flatfish LCA show that the fishing stage has the largest impact potential for the investigated impact categories. This is mainly due to a relatively high fuel consumption and significant emissions of biocides from anti-fouling agents (contributing to ecological toxicity). But large reductions in fuel intensity (fuel consumption per kg caught fish) can be obtained by changing the type of fishing gear – particularly in flatfish fisheries. The consumption and retail stages represent significant impact potentials as well, while processing is insignificant. LCA screenings of other fish species show the same picture, but there are cases (herring, mackerel and mussels) where the fishing stage is less important, while the opposite is the case for processing – mainly due to energy intensive packaging materials.
Discussion
A limited number of impact categories have been investigated, but a 'qualitative' LCA, focusing on other fishery specific impacts, emphasises that the fishing stage is indeed the overall most important. In this regard, it is argued that fuel requirements in many cases are proportional to environmental impacts related to 'discard' and 'seafloor damage'. Hence, it is worth focusing on energy for many reasons. In a policy context, it is a paradox that mainly the fish processing industry has been subjected to environmental regulations.
Recommendation and Perspective
Future scenarios indicate that energy consumption will remain one of the most important environmental aspects in the fishing stage – partly due to regulations of anti-fouling biocides (e.g. TBT) and partly because of the continued depletion of fish stocks. From an environmental policy perspective, it is therefore recommended to broaden the perspective of existing fishery regulations and increase the focus on fishing gear and energy in the primary production (fishing stage).
Purpose
The purpose of this study has been to investigate the effect of different allocation methods on life cycle assessment (LCA) results of products derived from line-caught cod and the consequences of applying these methods considering the main aims of this case study. These aims were for internal improvement work and communication of results to the market.
Methods
Standard LCA methodology was applied. Mass allocation, economic allocation, a novel hybrid allocation and gross energy content allocation have been tested on a case study, and the results are discussed. In the case study, allocation problems in the studied case arose in the fishing and processing stages. Avoidance of allocation by splitting of processes, biological causality and system expansion or the avoided product approach was deemed to be not feasible.
Results and discussion
Economic allocation gave a much larger spread of impacts between the different products than mass allocation, especially for processing residue, due to large price differences. Hybrid allocation gave impacts in between mass and economic allocation because the set factors give a higher value for products that are for human consumption. Energy allocation gave results close to mass allocation because the energy content is quite similar in different species and products. Economic allocation is sensitive to price changes, the others are not. When used for evaluating environmental performance improvement measures that change the relative yields for human consumption and other purposes, the different methods used reflected very different results. When used in communication to the market, the different allocation methods yield results that could lead to different behaviours by market actors.
Conclusions
The different allocation methods gave very different results for the studied products; hence in order to achieve comparability between products, the same method must be used in all the cases. Different allocation methods might be appropriate for different purposes. For external communication to the market, mass allocation might be the preferred method in most cases. For internal improvement work, both economic and mass allocation could be used, but economic allocation might be the best alternative. The comparability of LCA results of products from wild-caught fish is limited, due to the lack of an agreed standard method. It is recommended to consider the different applications of the results when developing such a method. Different purposes might require different methodological choices, e.g. allocation methodology.
PurposeThe main purpose of this study has been to document the environmental performance of products based on autoline-caught cod
and the distribution of environmental impacts in the value chain from fishing to retail. Another aim has been to document
the performed environmental improvement analyses.
MethodsStandard life cycle assessment methodology has been employed and the following impact categories studied: global warming potential
(GWP), acidification, eutrophication, photochemical oxidant formation, ozone layer depletion and cumulative energy demand.
Results and discussionProducts derived from autoline-caught cod have a GWP in the range of 0.16–7.6/1.7–4.4kg CO2-eq/kg product delivered to consumer,
using economic and mass allocation, respectively. The main impacts come from fuel consumption and release of refrigerants
in the fishery. The products studied represent each of the four major processing outputs. The differences between the products
can partly be attributed to differences in methodology (system borders, allocation), partly to actual physical differences.
A comparison with published results from other studies indicates that seafood products sourced from Northeast Arctic cod fished
with the autoline method has a relatively good environmental performance. A number of possible options for improving the environmental
performance of the products were identified. The most internal improvement action was stopping leakages in fish freezers.
ConclusionsThis study has given a detailed overview of the environmental performance of seafood products sourced from Northeast Arctic
cod from autoline fisheries in Norwegian territorial waters. This study has demonstrated the usefulness of such results in
improving the environmental performance of the products. However, the usefulness of the results in communication to external
actors is limited because few data exists on other products fulfilling the same functions and using the exact same methodology
and assumptions. In order to achieve comparability between results from competing products, it is necessary to use a standardised
and detailed calculation method. At the moment, no such method seems to be available. The literature study indicated that
the environmental impact of Northeast Arctic cod products sourced from autoline fisheries compares well with other cod products
on the market. Some cod stocks are sustainably managed, others not. Hence, it is recommended to break down results not only
to species level but also fish stock level when the aim is to guide seafood customers towards making informed purchasing decisions.
KeywordsAutoline–Cod–Comparing environmental performance–Fish
Goal, Scope and Background
The objective of this study was to assess environmental impacts of Norwegian cod fishing and salmon farming and compare these with chicken farming in order to find reference levels for environmental performance and identify problem areas and potentials for improvements.
Methods
A Life Cycle Screening following the production of 0.2 kg fillets as a functional unit through the respective food chains is performed for all 3 products. The analysis is partly quantitative and qualitative focusing on energy use, antifouling and land use impacts. Case studies are performed to investigate potentials for improvements within the fisheries and aquaculture industry.
Results and Conclusions
It can be concluded that the fishing phase for the cod and the feeding phase for both salmon and chicken dominate for all environmental impacts considered. Chicken is most energy effective followed by salmon and cod, which are almost on the same level. The area of sea floor affected by bottom trawling is around 100 times larger than the land area needed to produce the chicken feed for production of the 0.2 kg fillet.
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The case studies show potentials for improvement of environmental performance, both for salmon farming and cod fishing, especially when it comes to energy use. The environmental impacts on the sea floor imposed by bottom trawling are not fully explored, but based on the precautionary principle a reasonable conclusion is that bottom trawls with less impact on the sea floor should be developed.
Recommendation and Perspective
LCA methods have initially been developed for land based industrial applications. More effort should be given to adapt these to fishing applications in order to obtain more accurate assessment of environmental impacts from seafood products. It is recommended to put more emphasis in finding improved indicators for impacts imposed by over-fishing, fuel emission from combustion at sea, use of antifouling and seafloor ecosystem disturbance.
Concern has been voiced in recent years regarding the environmental implications of the Antarctic krill fishery. Attention has focused primarily on ecological concerns, whereas other environmental aspects, including potentially globally problematic emissions and material and energy demands, have not been examined in detail. Here we apply life cycle assessment to measure the contributions of krill meal, oil, and omega-3 capsules to global warming, ozone depletion, acidification, eutrophication, energy use, and biotic resource use. Supply chains of one krill fishing and processing company, Aker BioMarine of Norway, were assessed. Impacts of krill products were found to be driven primarily by the combustion of fossil fuels onboard the fishing vessel and a transport/resupply vessel. Approximately 190 L of fuel are burned per tonne of raw krill landed, markedly higher than fuel inputs to reduction fisheries targeting other species. In contrast, the biotic resource use associated with extracting krill is relatively low compared to that of other reduction fisheries. Results of this study provide insight into the broader environmental implications of the krill fishery, comparisons between products derived from krill and other species targeted for reduction, opportunities for improving the fishery's performance, and a baseline against which to measure future performance.
This paper summarises developments in the promotion and implementation of cleaner production (CP) and eco-efficiency (EE) in Western Australia (WA), in four stages: groundwork (1996–1999), experimentation (1999–2002), roll out (2002–2004) and reorientation (2004 onward). The remoteness of WA and the dominance of the minerals, energy and agribusiness industries, contributed to the late interest in CP and relatively slow start. Pioneers in government, industry and academia started to come together in 1998–1999. Subsequent clarification of concepts and design of programs resulted in a two-pronged strategy to create both a supply and demand for CP services. This enabled a rapid increase in interest in CP, which started to level in 2004. Although this is partially due to external circumstances, it also appears that the limits of current CP and EE theory and practice have been reached. These limits appear to be at least two fold. First, current policies and program designs appear not yet able to achieve a step-increase in the number of businesses involved in CP. Insights from innovation and social marketing theory and practice are now being incorporated in the design and delivery of the next generation of CP programs. Second, it appears that mainstream CP tools are insufficiently catered to the technological and organisational complexity of many industries. Greater engineering and management depth in CP tools might be required to mainstream CP in routine process design, continuous improvement and change management practices.
This study presents emission data (CO2, NOx, CO, HC and SOx) for fishing vessels, calculated per kg of cod landed by Swedish fishermen. Three scenarios are included; one reflecting the fishery and fleet of 1999, one assuming modern engine technology and, finally, a future scenario assuming a slight increase in the use of passive gear (seines and long-lines) and pair trawls instead of single trawls, lower fishing effort and lower emission levels. The effects on the results of different allocation strategies for landed by-catches are evaluated. Data was gathered from official fishery statistics and engine emission data from one of the major manufacturers of marine diesels. Fuel consumption data for otter trawling and gillnet fishing was obtained by having fishermen fill out a questionnaire. The results include emission calculations for gillnet fishing and trawling, and indicate lower emissions per kg of cod caught for gillnet fishing, due to lower fuel consumption. Considerable options for decreasing fuel consumption and emissions produced in cod fisheries through changes in technology and fisheries policy were concluded from this work. Choosing allocation method was shown to be important for the final results, especially in mixed, high-value target fisheries.
This article addresses the present status of seafood-oriented environmental methods and analyses, and pinpoints areas for further development. A recent study of the CO2 emissions associated with the production of farmed salmon in Norway, following the life cycle from hatching to consumption, is presented. The study was initiated due to the increased focus on environmental impacts from food production among consumer organizations, retailers, and authorities. In general, several methods are being currently applied to measure environmental performance. Unfortunately, different methods provide quite different results. An additional challenge is that most of these methods were originally developed for land-based production. If assumptions about the performance of the seafood industry are established on the basis of incorrect information, consequences for both the management and the market level may not be desirable.
The environmental impacts of fishing go well beyond their direct effect on targeted stocks and associated ecosystem components and functions. Here we employ life cycle assessment (LCA) to quantify the scale and importance of emissions that result from the range of industrial activities associated with contemporary Spanish purse seine fisheries for Skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis) and Yellowfin (Thunnus albacares) tunas. Our analysis encompassed operational inputs to fishing activities along with major inputs to vessel construction and maintenance and post-harvest transport of carcasses to ports in Galicia, Spain. Data were acquired from fishing operations based in each of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, permitting the characterization of both average and basin of origin-specific environmental impacts. Our results indicate that the production and use of diesel fuel while fishing accounts for more than half of the total impacts in six of the seven impact categories analyzed. After fuel inputs, post-harvest transport of carcasses made substantial contributions to each of the environmental dimensions evaluated. In contrast, the use of anti-fouling paint only made a substantial contribution to marine eco-toxicity potential. Comparing the performance of fisheries in the three oceans, Pacific-based operations resulted in the highest emissions across all impact categories modelled. This was largely the result of markedly higher fuel consumption rates together with relatively long post-harvest transport distances. Finally, we modelled two scenarios to quantify the environmental benefits associated with improving tuna abundance and availability. In doing so, we found that efforts to rebuild stocks, particularly in the Atlantic Ocean would not only help reverse the decline of aquatic ecosystems but could result in improvements in the environmental performance of the Spanish tuna fishery.
Growing awareness of environmental problems during recent years has led to increased demand for environmental information about seafood products. In particular, this report is an attempt to evaluate the manufacturing process of canned-tuna products. Bearing in mind the lifestyles of people in the 21st century, canned products are one of the commonest ways in which seafood products are presented. Spain is the second largest exporter of processed tuna in the world, behind Thailand. The fish and shellfish canning industry is mainly grouped in Galicia where 65% of the total production takes place.To this aim, the method used to study the environmental impact of these products is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which follows a product through its entire life cycle. The system under study includes landing at harbour, transport to the factory, processing inside the factory, final product distribution to markets and use in households. The results show that processing accounted for the greatest percentage in all the impact categories, except human toxicity potential.Inside the factory, the production and transportation of tinplate was identified as the most significant contributor and, consequently, improvement actions were proposed and evaluated, such as an increase in the percentage of the recycled tinplate used and the substitution of tinplate by another packaging material. Both proposals would diminish the adverse environmental effects of this process; however they imply a change in the final appearance of the product to be consumed and, therefore, acceptance by consumers is a fundamental factor in their success.