LCA based circularity indices of systems at different scales: a holistic approach.

Many are the definitions of Circular Economy as well as the policies and strategies for its implementation. However, gaps still exist in quantifying the effects of circularity. The existing approaches are usually sector- or product-specific, limited to microscale systems, and/or fail to simultaneously assess the environmental impacts of the studied system. This paper introduces a generally applicable method in which a set of LCA-based indices of circularity are able to detect the effects of circularity/symbiosis strategies on the environmental performance of meso- and macro-systems. These indices quantify the overall system's circularity level by comparing the impacts of a system in which the components interact with each other (with a certain level of circularity) with an equivalent linear system (where no circularity takes place). The method works both on existing and projected systems, being able to track the effects of future circularity policies. This method obviates the limitations and the gaps mentioned above: it applies to meso- and macro-systems, it is not bound to a specific sector, it allows to capture the environmental impacts, and it is sensitive to the temporal dimension. This approach provides a tool to inform managers and policymakers for planning circularity actions and monitor their effectiveness while also capturing the temporal dimension.

Exploring the potential of circular solutions to replace inorganic fertilizers in the European Union.

The use of inorganic fertilizer in agriculture is linked to the consumption of finite mineral resources. The demand of inorganic fertilizer is unsustainable since the current practices mostly follow a linear economy pathway incurring in a significant loss of nutrients. Accordingly, circular solutions to close the nutrient loop should be implemented to increase the sustainability of agriculture. However, the implementation of circular solutions is neither straightforward nor always beneficial. The present analysis investigates the circular solutions to replace inorganic fertilizers currently available considering the type of feedstock required, the technology implied, and the specific crop response. A major element of novelty is that accounting for the specific crop response allows the present study to capture the actual potential of circular solutions revealing that unspecific law-enforced figures can remarkably underestimate such potential, likely inducing further loss of nutrients and environmental impact. This paper reveals a set of available solutions discussing their feasibility and limitations and analyzing their efficiencies compared to traditional fertilizers. The flaws affecting the current practices, which are hampering the exploitation of the full potential of such solutions are highlighted. By means of the illustrative example of the EU pork industry, a qualitative assessment of the potential to substitute the use of inorganic fertilizers with efficient and feasible solutions is provided. The example focuses on barley, maize, and wheat, as the main domestically sourced feed crops. The proposed novel, more comprehensive, approach to the problem of circular nutrients flows opens the pathway to future policy-oriented quantitative analyses.

The environmental footprints of the feeds used by the EU chicken meat industry.

Chicken meat production in the European Union (EU) causes environmental pressures within and beyond the EU, mostly due to feed consumption. The expected dietary shift from red to poultry meat will drive changes in the demand for chicken feeds and the associated environmental impacts, calling for a renewed attention on this supply chain. By performing a break-down analysis based on material flow accounting, this paper assesses the annual environmental burden caused within and outside of the EU by each single feed consumed by the EU chicken meat industry from 2007 to 2018. The increased feed demand required to support the growth of the EU chicken meat industry over the analyzed period caused a 17 % increase in cropland use - 6.7 million hectares in 2018. Instead, CO2 emissions linked to feed demand decreased by ~45 % over the same period. Despite an overall improvement in resource and impact intensity, chicken meat production was not decoupled from environmental burden. In 2018, 0.40 Mt. of nitrogen, 0.28 Mt. of phosphorous, and 0.28 Mt. of potassium inorganic fertilizers were implied. Our findings indicate that the sector is not yet compliant with the EU sustainability targets defined in the Farm To Fork Strategy, calling for an urgent need to fill existing policy implementation gaps. The EU chicken meat industry's environmental footprints were driven by endogenous factors such as the feed use efficiency at the chicken farming stage and the feed cultivation efficiency within the EU, as well as by exogenous factors such as the import of feed via international trade. Limitations on the use of alternative feed sources, as well as the exclusion of the imports from the EU legal framework constitute a crucial gap, which hamper fully leveraging existing solutions.

Estimating the impact on water scarcity due to coffee production, trade, and consumption worldwide and a focus on EU.

Coffee consumption is concentrated in the "Global North", while production is mainly located in the "Global South". This trade-driven dependency leads to the exploitation of natural resources. As an export-oriented cash crop, such dependency jeopardizes the existence of a fair distribution of the risks and revenues among all the actors taking part in its globalized supply chain. Coffee trees are mainly rain-fed and only partly irrigated. However, the increasing global coffee demand led to higher consumption of freshwater, which can exacerbate the stressed condition of already stressed water basins. This study quantifies the impact of global coffee consumption on water scarcity, considering the larger system made of producer and consumer countries. The global displacement of such impact is driven by consumer preferences. We found that the US, EU and Asian countries' coffee consumption create impact on water scarcity mostly in African and South American countries, which is also representative of the economic disparities existing behind the global trade flows. Climate change will likely affect the varieties currently preferred by global consumers. Therefore, immediate environmental sustainability actions including water resource preservation are necessary to face current and future challenges.

Effects of different Danish food consumption patterns on Water ScarcityFootprint.

Food production and consumption have been recognized as a major source of environmental impacts. To ensure food security and a sustainable food system, dietary changes have been identified as one of the valuable strategies to reduce impacts on the environment while promoting human health. The vast majority of scientific literature has been focused on the effects of food consumption on climate change while neglecting to assess the degree of water scarcity impacts due to water consumption embodied in food. The research paper investigates the nexus between food consumption and impacts on water consumption adding important findings to a more recent growing body of studies estimating the water footprint (WF) of different dietary scenarios. This study uses the Water Footprint Network methodology and the AWARE (Available Water REmaining) characterization model to assess both the WF and the blue WSF (water scarcity footprint), respectively, of four Danish diets: standard, carnivore, vegetarian and vegan. In order to make them comparable, a total intake of 2000 kcal person-1 day-1 was set as energetic reference for all the diet scenarios considered. Using detailed trade and production data of agri-foods, we were able to assess the location of primary production and consequently to reveal countries mainly affected by water scarcity associated with import to satisfy Danish diets consumption. We found that while the vegan scenario scored the best environmental profile requiring 1489 L/cap/day calculated with the volumetric WF approach, it has the largest potential impacts on blue WSF of 10,477 LH20-eq/cap/day. This study has shown that more than 90% of impacts on water consumption occur outside the national borders, as a consequence of large quantities of fruits and nuts imported by countries already threatened by high water scarcity conditions such as USA and Mediterranean regions. This methodological approach may be used to compare environmental performances of recommended dietary guidelines and to assess impact scenarios of new trade policies, protecting local water scarcity levels.

Assessing the multiple resource use associated with pig feed consumption in the European Union.

Feed consumption is responsible for the largest shares of resource use required for producing pork. In the European Union (EU), a meat consumption decrease is expected in combination with a growth of meat production driven by foreign demand. This paper presents a multiple environmental assessment of the resource use linked to EU pig feed by performing a material flow analysis of each single feed item constituting the EU pig diet. The global relevance and the trade-driven interlinkages are disclosed by considering the country-specific resource efficiencies of 254 territories. Our analysis reveals that in 2017 a total resource use of 14.5 Mha of land, 51.9 Gm3 of green water, 3.9 Gm3 of blue water, 1.23 Mtonnes of nitrogen, 0.35 Mtonnes of phosphorous, and 0.34 Mtonnes of potassium was required to satisfy the EU demand of pig feed. Wheat-based products accounted for the largest share of land use (32%), green water (35%), nitrogen and phosphorous from fertilizer use (44% and 28%, respectively). Also soybean accounted for a significant share of land use (15%), green water (20%) and phosphorous from fertilizer use (25%). Moreover, soybean-related feed items contributed the most to the potassium use (24%). While the domestic production of cereals satisfied the demand, protein-based ingredients such as soybean were largely imported, mainly from South America, outsourcing the related environmental burden. Moreover, most of the feed from extra-EU countries resulted with higher resource use intensities than EU implying a potential resource saving if feed was domestically produced. Results obtained are discussed in relation to the many constraints that limit the possibility of increasing the EU feed production and promising alternative solutions. In particular, while some solutions seem promising in terms of savings, the current EU regulation needs to be redesigned to allow their implementation and the achievement of ambitious EU targets.