Applying Life Cycle Assessment for the mitigation of environmental impacts South African agrifood products
At a glance
- Project leader : Deborah Scharfy, Matthias Stucki
- Project team : Regula Keller, Karen Muir, Sarah Wettstein
- Project status : completed
- Funding partner : SNSF (Swiss-South Africa Joint Research Programme)
- Project partner : University of Cape Town
- Contact person : Matthias Stucki
Description
The project contributed to the important global question of how to reduce environmental impacts from food production, with a focus on South African food value chains. The Swiss and South African project team joined forces to ensure basic data collection for South African maize, dairy and fruit production, life cycle inventory generation and subsequently environmental hotspot analyses. The main results gained were the following:
1. Electricity consumption used for irrigation in maize production causes higher greenhouse gas emissions than dryland maize, due to the high percentage of coal-generated, fossil electricity. Using PV electricity for irrigation reduces the carbon footprint of the maize by 33%, making it comparable to the carbon footprint of dryland maize.
2. Direct emissions from enteric fermentation of dairy cows make up about 70% of the greenhouse gas emissions of South African raw milk. For other environmental impacts, such as non-renewable energy demand and eutrophication, the production of concentrated feed and the associated land use are more important. Using feed additives as methane inhibitors potentially reduces the carbon footprint by 18%. Differences between breeds were assessed for Holstein and Ayrshire cows, but due to inconsistent results, no sustainability recommendation could be developed thereto.
3. Electricity consumption for irrigation in fruit production and for the cold storage rooms and packhouses make up the highest share of greenhouse gas emissions, acidification, eutrophication and ecotoxicity. Accordingly, renewable energy use, from e.g. PV electricity, can effectively reduce the environmental impacts from South African fruits.
In 2016-2017, we presented results at several conferences. Prof. Harro von Blottnitz organised a workshop in Stellenbosch, South Africa, on January 26th of 2017 where the research team from UCT and ZHAW presented project results to South African stakeholders. In the following period, two scientific publications were submitted to the open access journal Sustainability.
Further information
Publications
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Keller, Regula; Eymann, Lea; Wettstein, Sarah; Scharfy, Deborah; Stucki, Matthias,
2018.
Assessment of cleantech options to mitigate the environmental impact of South African dairy farming
.
In:
Benetto, Enrico; Gericke, Kilian; Guiton, Mélanie, eds.,
Designing sustainable technologies, products and policies : from science to innovation.
Springer.
Life Cycle Management Conference Book.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-3712
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Stucki, Matthias; Blignaut, Anél,
2018.
Greening agri-food value chains in emerging economies
.
In:
Benetto, Enrico; Gericke, Kilian; Guiton, Mélanie, eds.,
Designing sustainable technologies, products and policies : from science to innovation.
Springer.
pp. 109-114.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66981-6_13
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Keller, Regula; Eymann, Lea; Wettstein, Sarah; Steinegger, Tobias; von Blottnitz, Harro; Scharfy, Deborah; Stucki, Matthias,
2017.
In:
Life Cycle Management (LCM) 2017, Luxembourg, 3.-6. September 2017.
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Stucki, Matthias; Wettstein, Sarah; Scharfy, Deborah,
2017.
In:
6th World Sustainability Forum (WSF2017), Cape Town, South Africa, 27-28 January 2017.
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Scharfy, Deborah; Boccali, Norman; Stucki, Matthias,
2017.
Clean technologies in agriculture : how to prioritise measures?.
Sustainability.
9(8).
Available from: https://doi.org/10.3390/su9081303
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Wettstein, Sarah; Scharfy, Deborah; von Blottnitz, Harro; Berli, Cédric; Stucki, Matthias,
2016.
In:
5th International EcoSummit Congress, EcoSummit 2016, Montpellier, France, 29. August - 1. September 2016.
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Wettstein, Sarah; Scharfy, Deborah; Berli, Cédric; von Blottnitz, Harro; Stucki, Matthias,
2016.
South African maize production : mitigating environmental impacts through solar powered irrigation [paper].
In:
Proceedings of LCA Food 2016.
LCA Food 2016 - 10th International conference on Life Cycle Assessment of Food, Dublin, Ireland, 19-21 October 2016.
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Eymann, Lea; Stucki, Matthias; König, Alex; Scharfy, Deborah; von Blottnitz, Harro,
2015.
LCA of clean technologies in food value chains of emerging economies [paper].
In:
Conference Proceedings : International conference on Life Cycle Assessment as reference methodology for assessing supply chains and supporting global sustainability challenges: LCA for "Feeding the Planet and Energy for Life".
International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment as Reference Methodology for Assessing Supply Chains and Supporting Global Sustainability Challenges, LCA for «Feeding the Planet and Energy for Life», Stresa and Milano, Italy, 6-8 October 2015.
ENEA.
pp. 167-170.