Lessons learned from the application of different water footprint approaches to compare different food packaging alternatives

Manzardo, Alessandro; Mazzi, Anna; Loss, Andrea; Butler, Michelle; Williamson, Anahita; Scipioni, Antonio

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.08.019

Cited by 45 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Future research efforts may upgrade the developed model by adding the assessment of the water use impact on water stress, scarcity, and/or degradation, as a part of a broader water-based life cycle analysis [20,39]. To this end, potential environmental regulations should incorporate the local aspect of water scarcity, further taking into consideration the global nature of modern supply networks.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Blue Water Footprint Management in a UK Poultry Supply Chain under Environmental Regulatory Constraints

2018

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Abstract:Chicken is the most consumed meat in the UK, accounting for 40% of meat consumption, while national production sufficiency reaches about 80%. As a farmed animal product, chicken meat is responsible for significant freshwater appropriation volumes during its production cycle. In this context, this research aims at exploring freshwater dynamics in the UK processed poultry industry. Specifically, we develop a System Dynamics model to capture the blue water footprint, as a key sustainability performance indicator of a poultry supply chain, in the case that relevant environmental and regulatory constraints are applied. The model contributes towards investigating the impact of two potential policy-making scenarios, namely, the "water penalty" and the "water tax", on the nexus between profitability and water usage across the poultry supply chain. Responding to the regulatory constraints, the food processor either reconfigures the supply chain through rethinking desired inventory levels or implements a water management intervention. The results indicate that investing in water-friendly production technologies could offer a greater advantage to sustainable supply chains in terms of blue water efficiency and profitability, compared to employing inventory management strategies. Overall, our analysis highlights that effective policy-making and technology-driven interventions could provide potential towards ensuring economic growth and environmental sustainability of the UK poultry sector.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Blue Water Footprint Management in a UK Poultry Supply Chain under Environmental Regulatory Constraints

2018

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“…There are mainly two approaches in WF research [35]. One is the WF Network (WFN) approach, which is primarily put forward to improve water use and allocation management [36].…”

Section: Water Footprintmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decoupling Water Consumption and Environmental Impact on Textile Industry by Using Water Footprint Method: A Case Study in China

Tan

et al. 2017

Water

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Abstract:The rapid development of China's textile industry has led to consumption and pollution of large volumes of water. Therefore, the textile industry has been the focus of water conservation and waste reduction in China's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020. The premise of sustainable development is to achieve decoupling of economic growth from water consumption and wastewater discharge. In this work, changes in the blue water footprint, grey water footprint, and the total water footprint of the textile industry from 2001 to 2014 were calculated. The relationship between water footprint and economic growth was then examined using the Tapio decoupling model. Furthermore, factors influencing water footprint were determined through logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method. Results show that the water footprint of China's textile industry has strongly decoupled for five years (2003, 2006, 2008, 2011, and 2013) and weakly decoupled for four years (2005, 2007, 2009, and 2010). A decoupling trend occurred during 2001-2014, but a steady stage of decoupling had not been achieved yet. Based on the decomposition analysis, the total water footprint mainly increased along with the production scale. On the contrary, technical level is the most important factor in inhibiting the water footprint. In addition, the effect of industrial structure adjustment is relatively weak.

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“…Several authors have compared both methodologies [16,23], and applied them to different food products, such as tomato sauce [24], tea and margarine [25], biomass production from energy crops [26], or broccoli [27] to assess the advantages and disadvantages of each one.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the Water Footprint of the Mediterranean and American Diets

Blas

Garrido

Willaarts

2016

Water

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Global food demand is increasing rapidly as a result of multiple drivers including population growth, dietary shifts and economic development. Meeting the rising global food demand will require expanding agricultural production and promoting healthier and more sustainable diets. The goal of this paper is to assess and compare the water footprint (WF) of two recommended diets (Mediterranean and American), and evaluate the water savings of possible dietary shifts in two countries: Spain and the United States (US). Our results show that the American diet has a 29% higher WF in comparison with the Mediterranean, regardless of products' origin. In the US, a shift to a Mediterranean diet would decrease the WF by 1629 L/person/day. Meanwhile, a shift towards an American diet in Spain will increase the WF by 1504 L/person/day. The largest share of the WF of both diets is always linked to green water (62%-75%). Grey water in the US is 67% higher in comparison with Spain. Only five products account for 36%-46% of the total WF of the two dietary options in both countries, being meat, oil and dairy products the food items with the largest WFs. Our study demonstrates that adopting diets based on a greater consumption of vegetables, fruits and fish, like the Mediterranean one, leads to major water savings.

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Lessons learned from the application of different water footprint approaches to compare different food packaging alternatives

Cited by 45 publications

References 34 publications

Blue Water Footprint Management in a UK Poultry Supply Chain under Environmental Regulatory Constraints

Blue Water Footprint Management in a UK Poultry Supply Chain under Environmental Regulatory Constraints

Decoupling Water Consumption and Environmental Impact on Textile Industry by Using Water Footprint Method: A Case Study in China

Evaluating the Water Footprint of the Mediterranean and American Diets

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