Environmental Impacts of Food Products Investigated in Life Cycle Assessment

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1 Environmental Impacts of Food Products Investigated in Life Cycle Assessment Dr. Niels Jungbluth, Sybille Büsser ESU-services Ltd., Uster, Switzerland E S U Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich - ETH Seminar, 13. April, 2010 Food and Environmental Impacts? 37 MJ of Energy for 1 kg of Tomatoes 3500 Litre of Water for 1 kg of Chicken 7695 km for a Strawberry Yoghurt Page 2

2 Contents Research questions and goals The method of life cycle assessment (LCA) Environmental impacts of food consumption Conclusions concerning food purchases from the consumers point of view Public interest Collaboration possibilities with ESU-services Page 3 Consumer Choices in the Life Cycle of Food Products Production, Transport, etc. 100% Consumption phase: Direct influence of the Consumer Choice of Product 80% Mode of Transport 64% 60% Storage Household Preparation 40% 3% 13% Eating 20% 10% Recycling Waste Management 11% 0% Share of Energy Anteil Use am Energieverbrauch (Uitdenbogerd et al. 1998) Pre-consumption often dominates the environmental impacts Life cycle thinking necessary Page 4

3 Life Cycle Assessment of Products The Dairy chain Dairy farm Transport Dairy Transport Retail Transport Consumer Waste treatment Page 5 LCA network food, final document LCA looks from cradle to grave (to gate) It accounts for resources (energy, water, land) and emissions to air, soil and water Main stages to be distinguished: production distribution delivery -use phase -disposal Four stages of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) ISO-14040, 44 Standard Page 6

4 Research Questions and Goals What is a good environmental choice from the consumers' point of view when purchasing vegetables and meat? How can the environmental impacts be judged? Which characteristics of the products are important? Do single consumers differ with regard to the environmental impacts caused by their consumption patterns? Page 7 Which questions to be answered? Levels of Consumer Decision Making (DML) All need fields (mobility, nourishing) Need field nourishing: meat or vegetables? Product group: tomatoes or carrots? Variants of one product: organic or greenhouse tomatoes? One product: How is it packed? Processing: salad or cooked? Page It 8is possible to address different types of questions, but not with one analysis

5 Modular LCA to assess Food Products Purchase Product characteristics Agricultural practice Modular LCA Fodder Production Feed Production Animal Production Packaging Origin Packaging Production Slaughter-House Food Industry Distribution Transports Page 9 Conservation Consumption Waste Management Consumption Inventory for the modular LCA Balance of all emissions and resource uses Investigation of the most important product groups meat and vegetables Use of existing LCA studies as far as possible Agricultural inventory based on economic data Simplifications at all stages by modular approach Combination of module results for the full LCA Easy environmental assessment with a modular LCA for a range of food products Page 10

6 Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods environmental impacts carbon footprint (kg CO2-eq) ecological footprint (m2a) ecological scarcity 2006 (UBP) abiotic resources, incl. water nuclear energy fossil energy land occupation land transformation climate change ozone depletion toxicity summer smog a cidifica tion nutrifica tion endocrine disruptors noise, odour, litter ionising radiation waste (incl. radioactive waste) Ecological The Carbon BAFU Ecological Footprint: has scarcity: developed footprint: Comprehensive, Easy the to Swiss understand, easy ecological to reflects understand, Internationally scarcity Swiss 2006 low policy workload, for accepted, targets, assessing used Lower for Page environmental 11 globally impacts known, of products, only two services issues: and CO2 companies and land use emissions resources assessment of products, workload, companies Not comprehensive and for the whole economy Ecological Scarcity 2006 Result Weighting Characterisation Inventory Primary energy Biodiversity Climate change Crude oil Uranium Wood Land occupation Fresh water Carbon dioxide (CO Swiss 2 ) Ozone depletion HCFC eco environmental SO points 2 Acidification legal targets NMVOC I-129 Cancer and hereditary e. N total Estrogene potential Endocrine disruptors Heavy metals Effectiveness Pesticides Hazardous waste Nuclear waste Assessment of emissions to air, water and soil as well as resource uses Page Aggregation 12 of exchanges according to the environmental scarcity defined in Swiss politics

Impacts of vegetable purchases All characteristics are

7 Environmental impacts of meat purchases Agricultural production dominates total impacts of meat products Page 13 Impacts of vegetable purchases All characteristics are important Air transports and heated greenhouse cause highest burdens Page 14

8 Combination of Product Characteristics for Vegetables eco-points per kg purchased 4'000 3'500 3'000 2'500 2'000 1'500 1' Origin Consumption Packaging Conservation Agriculture 9'700 IP - Integrated Production GH - Greenhouse CH - Switzerland EU - Europe DF - Deep Frozen Org. - Organic past. - pasteurized - GH, Berne, fresh, plastic IP, Berne, fresh, paper IP, EU, DF, cardboard IP, world, fresh, cardboard Org., Berne, fresh, no packaging Easy evaluation of consumption patterns Page 15 Lasagne production and user behaviour 35'000 30'000 25'000 warm-up storage in the Household transport (supermarket to household) Eco-points 2006 per kg lasagne 20'000 15'000 10'000 5'000 distribution packaging lasagne production 0 beef, frozen, 400g beef, chilled, 400g vegetarian, frozen, 400g beef, chilled, 400g beef, frozen, 400g standard microwave long storage Differences in production less obvious if full life cycle is evaluated Important differences in the use phase need to be addressed Page 16

9 Importance of consumer decisions Coffee consumption % 90% Milk kg CO2-Equivalents % 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% Hot Water (Brewing) Transports (roastery to household) Retail Packaging Coffee Production % % 0.00 Espresso Black Coffee White Coffee Black Instant Coffee White Instant Coffee Espresso Black Coffee White Coffee Black Instant Coffee White Instant Coffee 0% Packages are often less relevant than other consumer decisions Page 17 Page 18 environmental scarcity 2006 points per litre of water Distribution of mineral water Swiss bottling European bottling Deposited waste Production Natural resources Energy resources Emission into top soil Emission into ground water Emission into surface water Emission into air Use phase Distribution Delivery glass bottle, one-way glass bottle, refill system PET-bottle, 1.5 l, one-way Transport, lorry, 100km water bottle, 18.9 l, refill system Transport, rail, 500km Transport, lorry >16t, 1000km super market Impacts of distribution vary considerably by point of sale Home transport, van Home transport, passenger car cooling, in refrigerator average mineral in CH cooling, in cold only bottled unit Not feasible to assist comparisons without considering difference

10 Page 19 Indicators of food purchases City of Zurich 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% weight value ecological scarcity GWP non-renewable energy cumulative energy demand snacks tea ice cream beverages coffee colonials frozen convenience poultry fish eggs dairy products bakery bread vegetables, prepared fresh vegetables meat Meat, milk and coffee are a hot spots for environmental impacts Canteen Meals: Meals at canteen kitchens: ecological scarcity 2006 comparison of vegetarian and meat based recipes ø 6622 Pts. starch side dish vegetable side dish main dish Ecopoints/Meal /3 for vegetarian ø 2085 Pts braised meat beef, french fries chicken drumstick, courgette, french fries chop of pork, carrots, roesti lambstew and vegetables, carrots, french fries veal sliced in cream, carrots, roesti mean meat meals curry with vegetables and rice risotto lasagne wit spaetzle with vegetables vegetables tofu in cream, carrots, roesti mean vegetarian meals Vegetarian meals have considerable lower impacts Page 20

11 Use of LCA for determining the embodied emissions of Switzerland Trade statistics combined with Indicator results for single products based on LCA studies Calculation of embodied emissions for all imports and exports to Switzerland Page 21 Balance of Swiss embodied emissions for food products 7 11, beverages Mio. tonnes of CO2-eq in , miscellaneous edible products 08, feeding stuff for animals 07, coffee, tea, cocoa, spices 06, sugars, sugar preparations and honey 05, vegetables and fruit 04, cereals and cereal preparations 03, fish, crustaceans, molluscs, etc. 02, dairy products and birds' eggs - Import Export 01, meat and meat preparations 00, live animals Page 22

12 Results for the nourishing sector Imports of embodied greenhouse gas emissions are much higher than exports and add 9% to total direct Swiss emissions Animal products and transports with the air plane are important Page 23 Page 24 Overall importance of nutrition in total consumption of households 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% energy demand climate change ecological scarcity services mobility health care housing, non-energy energy use in house clothing nutrition High environmental impacts compared to other consumption fields

13 Conclusions for Food Consumption All stages and environmental impacts of the life cycle should be considered for the assessment Eat vegetarian. Consumption of meat and animal products need to be reduced Air transported products should be avoided Buy seasonal. Less products from heated greenhouse should be bought Consider energy efficiency in the household Reduce wastage and overconsumption Page 25 Public interest on LCA studies of food High public interest allows to teach life cycle thinking Many people mix health aspects and environmental aspects when looking at food Sensations, even if wrong, are more interesting than confirmation of former research Detailed comparisons should be more interesting for producers and distributors than for consumers Page 26

14 Influencing consumers behaviour Knowledge is available for consumers LCA studies sometimes confusing if no clear result Lower options for reducing environmental impacts compared to other fields like mobility and housing People tend to follow the easy things and not the important things, e.g. recycling of packages instead reducing meat consumption Stress the points that are really important and not what is scientifically surprising Page 27 ESU-services LCA food database First work on cooking in India ( ) Further development with Ph.D. thesis of Niels Jungbluth on meat and vegetable consumption in CH ( ) Several projects of ESU-services for extension Today more than 700 datasets related to food Background data and methodology according to ecoinvent Data are sold for SimaPro or other software Page 28

15 Overview on contents Simplified agricultural production services: application of fertilizers Vegetables: spinach, salad, tomatoes, lettuce, potatoes, onions, asparagus, etc. Fruits: apples, strawberries, cherries, grapes, oranges, vine Animal products: pork, veal, beef, lamb, poultry, eggs Dairy products: butter, milk, milk powder, yoghurt, cheese Page 29 Contents (Part 2) Drinks: apple & orange juice, mineral water, tap water, beer, wine, milk, coffee Sweets: chocolate, ice cream Meals: roast, lasagne, goulash soup, comparison of domestic vs. imported or meat vs. vegetarian Household appliances: cooking stoves and ovens, microwaves, refrigerators, carbonisation devices, coffee machine Food consumption: packages, transports, cooking, consumption patterns Pet food: cat food Page 30

Cooperation possibilities Case studies on single food products Environmental management in food industry Evaluation of food consumption patterns Assessment of total

.. But, Your Californian asparagus needs also 5 liters per kg (in Switzerland)!

16 Cooperation possibilities Case studies on single food products Environmental management in food industry Evaluation of food consumption patterns Assessment of total environmental impacts in the food sector Review of LCA studies Page 31 Granted, my car consumes a lot... But, Your Californian asparagus needs also 5 liters per kg (in Switzerland)! Today I can enjoy the local asparagus, But it took me 950 liters of oil to travel 18'777 km to California! Keep the relevance of decisions in mind and do not get lost in details! Download of the Ph.d. thesis Page Calculate 32 the environmental impacts of Your food consumption

Environmentally friendly food consumption: What does this mean?

Environmentally friendly food consumption: What does this mean? Dr. Niels Jungbluth ESU-services Ltd., Uster, Switzerland ESU 17th SETAC Europe LCA Symposium Budapest, 28. February 2011 Page 2 Food and