Coupled life cycle assessment and data envelopment analysis for mitigation of environmental impacts and enhancement of energy efficiency in grape production

Mohseni, Payam; Borghei, Ali Mohammad; Khanali, Majid

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.06.243

Cited by 87 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Moreover, it was also used with economic and social variables [3]. The combination of LCA and DEA for the identification and quantification of potential environmental consequences of operational inefficiencies experienced a pronounced increase, and enriched the interpretation of results [39,40]. Several previous studies used the joint LCA/DEA method in different agricultural production systems: fisheries [41,42], grapes for winemaking [39], wheat [43], rice [44], and dairy farms [45,46].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Energy and Environmental Efficiency of the Spanish Agri-Food System Using the LCA/DEA Methodology

et al. 2018

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Feeding the world’s population sustainably is a major challenge of our society, and was stated as one of the key priorities for development cooperation by the European Union (EU) policy framework on food security. However, with the current trend of natural resource exploitation, food systems consume around 30% of final energy use, generating up to 30% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Given the expected increase of global population (nine billion people by 2050) and the amount of food losses and waste generated (one-third of global food production), improving the efficiency of food systems along the supply chain is essential to ensure food security. This study combines life-cycle assessment (LCA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) to assess the efficiency of Spanish agri-food system and to propose improvement actions in order to reduce energy usage and GHG emissions. An average energy saving of approximately 70% is estimated for the Spanish agri-food system in order to be efficient. This study highlights the importance of the DEA method as a tool for energy optimization, identifying efficient and inefficient food systems. This approach could be adopted by administrations, policy-makers, and producers as a helpful instrument to support decision-making and improve the sustainability of agri-food systems.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Energy and Environmental Efficiency of the Spanish Agri-Food System Using the LCA/DEA Methodology

et al. 2018

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“…Finally, for relatively small-scale studies, Poggi et al [28] explored how to improve the energy consumption efficiency of Portuguese cities at the municipal level. Mohseni et al [29] studied the energy flow patterns and environmental impacts of the grape production systems for 58 vineyards in Arak County, Iran. Raheli et al [30] assessed the sustainability and energy consumption efficiency of tomato production industries in the Malan region of East Azerbaijan, Iran.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Economic-Environmental Efficiency of Energy Consumption and Spatial Patterns in China

Peng

Zhao

et al. 2019

Sustainability

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The improvement of energy consumption efficiency represents a significant task and a critical step toward sustainable energy transformations. This study uses a data envelopment analysis (DEA) and spatial autocorrelation method to conduct comprehensive measurement and assessment research on the economic-environmental efficiency of energy consumption in 31 Chinese provinces. It then carries out a synthetic study on energy consumption efficiency in the context of temporal and spatial dimensions, analyzes the characteristics and patterns related to temporal and spatial evolution, and systematically summarizes the temporal and spatial evolution processes associated with China’s economic-environmental efficiency in energy consumption. The results show that economic efficiency and environmental efficiency, both directly related to energy consumption, are positively correlated and display a parallel and synchronizing relationship. China’s energy consumption efficiency displays an upward trend in general, although differences exist between economic efficiency and environmental efficiency about the growth rate and overall development level. In other words, economic efficiency is generally higher than environmental efficiency. A positive spatial correlation occurs between economic and environmental efficiency in energy consumption across all the Chinese provinces studied. Furthermore, some cluster characteristic can be identified. Accurately, the eastern coastal area of China with a higher efficiency represents a spatial cluster of high values, whereas the midwestern inland area of China with a lower efficiency represents a spatial cluster of low values. Therefore, a descending pattern is displayed from the east to the west. As time goes by, the extent of clustering could become more prominent, accompanied by an increasing spatial cluster of high values and a decreasing spatial cluster of low values. Accordingly, China needs to improve its energy consumption efficiency further and promote sustainable energy transformations.

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“…To deal with cases where the inputs and outputs do not vary proportionally, [69] developed the variable return to scale (VRS) model, requiring alteration of the mathematical formulation of the CRS model to include a variable representing the convexity of the production frontier, according to Equations (3) and (4) [63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70].…”

Section: Data Envelopment Analysis (Dea)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This can make it complicated to identify the most efficient DMU. Due to this, we considered the inverted frontier because this enables evaluating the DMUs from the standpoint of the worst management practices, which are calculated by the inverse of the standard efficiency index [70].…”

Section: Data Envelopment Analysis (Dea)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The combination of the standard and inverted efficiency indexes allows for obtaining better discrimination of the sample, because besides being in the production frontier (best management practices), the DMU must be as far as possible from the inverted frontier (worst management practices). The aggregated analysis of these two indexes results in the composite efficiency index, according to Equation 5, and the normalized composite efficiency index (Composite*), according to Equation (6) [70].…”

Section: Data Envelopment Analysis (Dea)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Analysis of the Performance of Transporting Soybeans from Mato Grosso for Export: A Case Study of the Tapajós-Teles Pires Waterway

et al. 2019

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The inefficiency of Brazil’s logistics system to handle the outflow of farm products impairs the sector’s performance. From the economic perspective, the high freight rates put the country’s agricultural sector at a competitive disadvantage in the global market. Besides this, the reliance on highway transport causes problems of an environmental (high CO 2 emissions) and social nature (large occurrence of accidents). As an alternative to this dependence, Brazil has an extensive network of actually and potentially navigable rivers that could serve as a key element to improve the performance of the agricultural sector. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyze the possible influence of the Tapajós-Teles Pires Waterway on the sustainable performance of 19 Brazilian soybean export routes, using data envelopment analysis (DEA). Of these, only three would use the Tapajós-Teles Pires Waterway, which is not yet in operation. The origins of the routes are four soybean-producing centers located in Mato Grosso, the Brazilian state that produces the most soybeans, destined for 12 seaports. The inputs considered are Accident Cost and CO2 Emissions, while the output is Cargo Carried per US$. For this, we use the DEA-VRS (Variable Return Scale) input-oriented model. The results obtained from the DEA model revealed satisfactory performance of the routes using the Tapajós-Teles Pires Waterway from three of the four production centers. In Campo Novo do Parecis, some 16% (471 km) of the route is composed of highways and the rest of the waterway (84%, 1576 km). In Sorriso, only 3% (85 km) of the route consists of highways, while waterway transport is responsible for 97% (2388 km), and in Querência, 24.55% of the route to the Port of Barcarena consists of highways. The use of these routes and the combination of the two transport modes presented the best efficiency indexes, making development of the waterway a key element to improve the outflow of soybeans for export. The results of this study may help Brazilian authorities to define public policies and apply resources to improve the deficiencies of the transportation system, which can lead to a better balance of the Brazilian transportation matrix.

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Coupled life cycle assessment and data envelopment analysis for mitigation of environmental impacts and enhancement of energy efficiency in grape production

Cited by 87 publications

References 42 publications

Assessing Energy and Environmental Efficiency of the Spanish Agri-Food System Using the LCA/DEA Methodology

Assessing Energy and Environmental Efficiency of the Spanish Agri-Food System Using the LCA/DEA Methodology

Assessing the Economic-Environmental Efficiency of Energy Consumption and Spatial Patterns in China

Analysis of the Performance of Transporting Soybeans from Mato Grosso for Export: A Case Study of the Tapajós-Teles Pires Waterway

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