The Olive-Oil Chain of Salerno Province (Southern Italy): A Life Cycle Sustainability Framework

Abstract

Agriculture, and the related food systems, represents one of the sectors that use most of the available water resources and is responsible for a large part of the greenhouse gases increase in Earth’s atmosphere. The aim of the present research was to estimate the three dimensions of sustainability—identified by the 2030 Agenda—of the olive oil supply chain in a typical production area within Campania Region (South Italy), through the analysis of seven different olive oil systems: four certified as organic, two of which irrigated (BIO1, BIO2, BIO-IRR1, BIO-IRR2); two integrated (INT1, INT2); and one hobbyist (HOBB). The novelty of the research was the broad-spectrum sustainability evaluation of these systems, through the estimation of their water and carbon footprints, and some economic and social aspects, to classify them in sustainability classes. So, the Life Cycle Thinking approach was used to quantify the environmental impacts and the social issues, as well as the costs of production of 1 litre of packed oil produced. Environmental impacts were assessed thought the life cycle assessment methodology, with a focus on the global warming and the water footprint, using the SimaPro 9.0 software and Hoekstra methodology, respectively. The cost production evaluation was performed by the life cycle costing methodology, while a primordial approach of social sustainability estimation was built identifying the stakeholders involved and suitable impact categories. Results showed that, per litre of oil, HOBB and BIO2 were the systems that emitted less CO2 eq (0.73 and 1.50 kg, respectively); BIO-IRR1 and BIO1 were the systems with the smallest water footprint (2.97 and 3.65 m3, respectively); HOBB and BIO1 were the systems with the lowest production costs (3.11 and 3.87 €, respectively). From a social point of view, INT1 and INT2 were the most pro-social systems. Overall, BIO1 was in absolute the most sustainable system under the various aspects considered. Hence the need to spread more and more (a) organic production methods, characterized by the use of self-produced fertilizers (on-farm compost); (b) more efficient machines use, for saving fuel; (c) balanced nitrogen fertilization to lower the water footprint.

Comparative Study of Fertilizers in Tomato-Grown Soils: Soil Quality, Sustainability, and Carbon/Water Footprints

“…The LCA approach, according to the ISO 14040:2006 [43], was used to estimate environmental impacts with a focus on Global Warming (GWP 100a) for the CF. This methodology contains four stages: goal and scope definition, life cycle inventory, life cycle impact assessment, and interpretation [44]. The system boundaries, as shown in Figure 1, start with the planting of tomato plants and end with harvesting.…”

Evaluation of the Economic and Environmental Sustainability of Livestock Farms in Inland Areas

“…Depending on the analyzed farm, the following farming operations were considered: forage, durum wheat and hay production (soil tillage, other crop-specific operations, harvesting, transport and storage), animal feed, livestock and manure management. The use of primary data (material input types and the amounts used), as in previous studies [31][32][33], was given priority. Additionally, as a standard practice in LCAs, the active ingredient of each product as well as the amounts of fuel, water and feed consumed were considered for calculation and used in the analysis for each operation to estimate direct and indirect emissions.…”