Use of territorial LCA framework for local food systems assessment: Methodological developments and application

• Published in: The international journal of life cycle assessment 2024-05, Vol.29 (5), p.912-928
• Main Authors: Lulovicova, Andrea, Bouissou, Stephane
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agribusiness; Agricultural production; Animal husbandry; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecological footprint; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Economics; Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology; Environmental impact; Food; Food processing; Hot spots; Land use; Life cycle assessment; Life cycles; Livestock; Livestock production; Local food systems; Parameter uncertainty; Regional development; Regional Topics from Europe; Sensitivity analysis; Statistical analysis
• ISSN: 0948-3349; 1614-7502
• DOI: 10.1007/s11367-024-02289-8

Purpose Reducing the environmental impacts of food systems has become a growing concern for public authorities. This study aims to adapt the territorial LCA framework (T-LCA) to local food system assessment to identify territorial hotspots of a food system in relation to its land use functions. To achieve this goal, the T-LCA must be enhanced by overcoming previously exposed limitations. Methods Deriving from the T-LCA framework, the methodology used in this paper assesses all territorial food-producing, processing, and consuming activities. The methodological developments suggest addressing its three principal methodological limitations by (i) using agricultural statistics to estimate the local consumption and thus account for intra-territorial flows, (ii) proposing novel agri-food land use functions related to a local food system, and (iii) developing a simplified framework for sensitivity analysis (SA) through detection of the most uncertain and influential data followed by a once-at-a-time (OAT) approach to improve the uncertainty related to the substantial number of data involved in meso-level LCAs. The methodology is applied to a case study in France using the Environmental Footprint (EF) 3.0 method. Results and discussion The results indicate that intra-territorial flow analysis effectively distinguishes between local and imported flows, identifying their primary environmental hotspots. Despite the significant impact of imported flows, export-oriented livestock production emerges as the principal hotspot of the studied food system. Integrating agri-food land use functions into LCA is crucial for linking the activities with higher environmental impact contributions and their territorial functions. This is the case of animal husbandry which is the main environmental hotspot and one of the principal local economic activities. Finally, the sensitivity analysis reveals a low sensitivity of the overall results to the most influential and uncertain parameters. Conclusions These findings confirm the interest in further developing territorial LCA methodologies and adapting them to various contexts to determine the principal environmental burdens of local systems and improve territorial land planning. This study also proposes various research perspectives to confirm and enhance the robustness of T-LCA frameworks, including the development of regional life cycle inventories.