Crop-livestock-forest (CLFi) and crop-livestock (CLi) systems are among the most recent agricultural developments in Brazil, and aligned with the principles of cleaner production. Such integrated systems can provide at least three types of product from the same land area over a defined period. This paper presents a holistic sustainability evaluation using life cycle assessment to compare combinations of integrated and conventional systems in the Brazilian Cerrado region. The study assesses a comprehensive set of indicators in the three sustainability dimensions: environmental, economic, and social (socio-ecoefficiency). By prioritizing CLFi, the production area to meet the demand of grains, meat and energy for 500 Brazilians, from 2007 to 2014, reached 70 ha, while the conventional systems would need 420 ha to meet the same demand. This result shows that it is possible to increase production to meet the growing food global demand without the need of expanding the agricultural frontier, preserving the remaining forestland. CLFi combinations systems decreased 55% in climate change potential (2389 t of CO 2 equivalent), when compared to the conventional systems. It was also observed that the more integrated systems improved the quality of employment, promoted future generation investments in society, and decreased the total production costs in 54%, when compared to conventional systems. Therefore, intensification achieved through good practices such as association, rotation, and succession by an agroforestry system, optimization of inputs (including water, energy, fertilizers, and crop protection agents), land use, soil quality, biodiversity and social aspects.

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Under a wide view, the challenge associated to the search of sustainable development can be interpreted as the challenge to make decisions based on some concise information. Much information are published using techniques for measuring environmental performance, such as sustainable indicators, in a way for understand "what is happening" and complement decision making. The objective of this work is to evaluate the hypothesis that an environmental sustainability indicator should be calculated using Life Cycle Thinking. On this context, a definition of sustainability is to assure that natural resources' consumption do not run out of its availability. Since human needs (maintenance of human well-being) are met through products, it is understood that all natural resources' consumption occurs throughout products' life cycle (good or service). This research defines (environmental) sustainability indicator like the gathering of parameters that represents the information on natural resources' consume due the anthropic interaction with the environment. Quantitative tools are needed to help decision makers understand natural resources' consumption thru all anthropic activities. The Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) offers an image that is different and complete about the removal of resources on nature, environment physical modification and deposition and stabilization of rejects due its systemic resolution on responsible causes for impacts associate to all human action to the study object or analysis in check. Therefore literature's good practice principles, classification and selection criteria of environmental sustainability indicator are offered on the decisionmaking context. The application of these criteria make possible to observe the role of LCT as a structure to decision making in the discussion of sustainability.