Author(s): Ian Vázquez Rowe y (Español) Sarah McLaren, Andrew Berardy, Andrew Henderson, Nicholas Holden, Thom Huppertz, Olivier Jolliet, Camillo De Camillis, Marguerite Renouf, Benedetto Rugani, Merja Saarinen, Jolieke van der Pols, Assumpció Antón Vallejo, Marta Bianchi, Abhishek Chaudhary, Canxi Chen, Margot Cooreman-Algoed, Hongmin Dong, Tim Grant, Ashley Green, Elinor Hallström, Hong Minh Hoang, Adrian Leip, John Lynch, Graham McAuliffe, Brad Ridoutt, Sophie Saget, Laura Scherer, Hanna Tuomisto, Peter Tyedmers, Hannah van Zanten.
(Español) Food systems have become increasingly efficient and technologically advanced in providing food products to meet the needs of the world’s growing population. However, providing healthy diets within environmental limits remains a key sustainability issue as food systems continue to over use increasingly scarce natural resources while making a major contribution to environmental impacts such as climate change, water scarcity and biodiversity loss. At the same time, hundreds of millions of people suffer from chronic hunger or adult obesity, and healthy diets continue to be more expensive than energy- and nutrient-sufficient diets. Many stakeholders are interested in the question of how to assess the environmental impacts of healthy diets, and in exploring solutions for minimizing trade-offs between nourishing populations and safeguarding the environment. Life cycle assessment (LCA) studies have an important role in contributing to solutions because they evaluate the environmental impacts of different practices, products and systems, and they facilitate the exploration of benefits and trade-offs across multiple types of impacts. LCA studies of food items increasingly address nutritional as well as environmental aspects, and this requires consideration of additional methodological aspects. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) initiated a project to identify opportunities for further developing environmental and nutritional LCA methodology and building consensus about best practice, and to propose future research needs. The project involved 30 environmental and nutritional LCA researchers from 18 countries and ran between May and November 2021. The project focused on assessing food items as opposed to raw materials, meals and/or diets, and it is a step towards more comprehensive meal and dietary LCA studies. A key issue concerns the intended purpose of an LCA study. This requires some consideration of the reason for the study, the intended application and the audience. Foods may be consumed for a variety of reasons including for their nutritional value, for enjoyment, and/or as a means of taking part in – or contributing to – socio-cultural functions. This report defines a nutritional LCA (nLCA) study as an LCA study where the provision of nutrient(s) is considered as either the main function or one of the main functions of a food item. nLCA studies should be undertaken by multidisciplinary teams involving nutritional and health scientists as well as environmental scientists. At the outset, the goal and scope of an nLCA study should be carefully defined following the recommendations in this report, including: • Undertake an nLCA when nutrients are and/or nutrition is relevant to the decision-maker and decision context (Chapter 3). • Clearly identify the target audience and the target population for a study because different populations have different nutritional requirements, and this may influence the assessment of nutritional value (Chapter 5). • Report the quantities of as many essential nutrients as possible (Chapters 5 and 6). • Aim to provide information on the nutritional quality and/or health impacts in addition to nutrient quantities (Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Section 7.5.4). • The system boundaries should include all stages of the product life cycle that affect nutritional value. The final processing, storage and/or preparation of food items may have a notable effect on their nutritional value, and this should be taken into consideration (including the potential fortification of foods) (Chapter 5). • Choose a modelling perspective (typically attributional or consequential) based on the relevance to the decision situation (Chapter 4).
Download publication (1.75 MB)Author(s): Marco Gusukuma Higa, Ramzy Kahhat Abedrabbo, Kathia Cáceres Huisacayna
(Español) Consumption of appliances in the residential sector in Peru has been growing continuously during the last 20 years. Although social benefits due to this growth are evident, there are also some related environmental impacts in the use and end-of-life (EoL) phases (e.g., inadequate handling or disposal at the EoL stage). Nevertheless, there is also a hidden potential in the growing stock of household appliances, such as their potential exploitation as resources of industrial materials found in urban areas. Thus, the aim of this research paper is to analyze the evolution of the adoption of electronics in Peruvian households and estimate the stock of electrical and electronic equipment and related materials in the residential sector from 2001 to 2019, and greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions due to its use. Material flow analysis is the main methodology used in this research and its application relies on different strategies and the integrated use of official sources. Moreover, a Peruvian input–output table and associated environmental matrices were used to calculate GHG emissions. Results indicate that, in 2019, an average household possessed between 86 and 121 kg of appliances, which means the total stock of household appliances in Peru was in the range of 805,000 to 1,134,000 metric tons, an increase in mass of 70–95% by 2019 compared to 2001. These results will be useful to estimate the urban stock of appliances in the residential sector to help policy-makers design and implement an adequate e-waste management system that comprehends the potential of secondary materials embedded in these products.
Open linkAuthor(s): Úrsula Cárdenas Mamani, Ramzy Kahhat Abedrabbo, Ian Vázquez Rowe
(Español) Given the significant contribution of households in terms of energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, in addition to the increasing rate of urbanization and growth in developing countries, urban dwellings need to be analyzed in greater depth in order to implement sound policy-making based on informed decisions. Thus, the aim of this study is to quantify the household-related energy use and associated GHG emissions in the city of Lima, Peru, between 2007 and 2015. In order to understand the emission patterns within the city, a further analysis on smaller spatial scales (i.e., districts) has been performed using multiple regression analyses. Results show that household-related energy consumption and emissions, excluding those related to private vehicles, ranged from 2.92 to 3.22 GJ/cap/year and 187 to 249 kg CO2eq/cap/year, respectively. Overall, there is a transition in the use of energy and emissions, sustained by an increase in population and a change in the economic status of part of the population. Moreover, liquefied petroleum gas, rather than electricity, was found to be the main energy source in lower-income households. This study aims to help integrate household energy behavior with strategies for sustainable cities and provide a starting point to connect with climate policies.
Open linkAuthor(s): Diana Ita Nagy, Eduardo Parodi Gonzales Prada, Ian Vázquez Rowe y (Español) Xavier Esteve-Llorens, Sara González-García, María Teresa Moreira, Gumersindo Feijoo
(Español) Peru has become one of the world's main agricultural hubs for a wide range of fruits and vegetables. Two of these products, avocado and green asparagus, have raised attention in recent years in the international scene from an environmental perspective due to the high amounts of water they require, as well as the long air and marine freighting distances to export these products to Europe, Asia or the US. Consequently, the aim of the current study was to perform an environmental assessment of these two products using two life-cycle methods: carbon and water footprint. For the latter, water scarcity, acidification, eco-toxicity and eutrophication impact categories have been selected for assessment. Inventory data were gathered from six different companies located in different regions of the hyper-arid Peruvian coast. The results report that the products are not carbon intensive and are in line with other similar plant-based products. Conversely, the hyper-arid conditions of the cultivation sites require a large volume of groundwater to fulfill the needs of the crops. Interestingly, even though this may lead to overexploitation of groundwater resources in the absence of appropriate management policies, the low mobility of pollutants, namely pesticides, constitutes a natural barrier to protect the degradation of natural water bodies. Similarly, highly technified irrigation systems have allowed minimizing the amounts of water used per hectare. In conclusion, results from this study may be useful in more concise environmental assessment studies on food products and diets, considering the consumption of these Peruvian products in many countries in the world. Furthermore, results are also important at regional level since they depict the carbon and water performance of these products and can also be accompanied by cross-cutting certification schemes, including Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules Guidance.
Open linkAuthor(s): Ian Vázquez Rowe y (Español) Anne-Marie Boulay, Francesca Verones
Open linkAuthor(s): Diana Ita Nagy, Ian Vázquez Rowe, Ramzy Kahhat Abedrabbo
(Español) The release of microplastics to the ocean is an increasing global environmental concern. The specific characteristics of the Global South (e.g., widespread mismanaged waste and wastewater) make this an even greater challenge. The current study performed a critical review related to the prevalence of microplastics in the ocean in Latin America and the Caribbean, analyzing also the possible sources of microplastics release to the marine environment. A majority of the studies assessed point towards mismanaged waste, inland or offshore, as well as mismanaged wastewater as critical sources of plastic pollution into the ocean. However, there is a need to delve into the effects that these microplastics are generating on local biota and human health.
Download publication (366.39 KB)Author(s): Gustavo Larrea Gallegos, Ian Vázquez Rowe
(Español) Land use changes (LUCs), which are defined as the modification in the use of land due to anthropogenic activities, are important sources of GHG emissions. In this context, understanding future trends of LUCs, such as deforestation, in a spatial manner is relevant. The main objective of this study is to generate a deforestation prediction model for a given period of time (i.e., 2002–2017 and 2010–2017) to estimate the potential carbon emissions associated with different anthropogenic variables in the Peruvian Amazon using machine learning (ML) algorithms. This study was motivated in the analysis of a road project previously studied using life cycle assessment (LCA). Models using neural networks and random forest algorithms were trained and evaluated in a fully cloud-based environment using Google Earth Engine. ML-related results demonstrated that random forest is a quicker and straightforward response to model the system under study, especially considering that data do not require additional processing during the modeling and prediction stages. Predicted results suggest that expected road expansion may be related to considerable carbon emissions in the future. Calculated values are relevant especially if the mitigation efforts that Peru has complied with in the Paris Agreement are considered. The increased complexity of the framework is justified since it allows identifying the location of hotspots and may potentially complement the utility of LCA in policy support in the areas of territorial planning and tropical road expansion.
Open linkAuthor(s): Karen Biberos Bendezú, Úrsula Cárdenas Mamani, Ramzy Kahhat Abedrabbo, Ian Vázquez Rowe
(Español) Governments in the Global South have recently started to align their public procurement regulations considering Green Public Procurement (GPP) guidelines to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 12. In this context, it is important to establish environmental criteria to help decision making after analyzing the variety of options available in the market. Thus, using as examples two of the most acquired products in public procurement in Peru: Medium-density particleboard melamine furniture and paper offset, the aim of this paper is to determine the main environmental hotspots and therefore show the path to foster GPP in Peru. To achieve this goal, a Life Cycle Assessment was carried out considering it is a suitable environmental management tool to quantify environmental impacts. For this, a set of scenarios were modeled and compared for each of the two products selected, covering different geographical and technological options that are currently purchased by the Peruvian government. Results demonstrated that it is possible to attain considerable reductions in the environmental impact of the products analyzed if the main critical stages throughout their life cycle are identified and adequate solutions are applied to avoid burden shifting. Moreover, we argue that it is important for developing countries to carry out case-specific life-cycle inventories as they provide higher-quality information based on the particular characteristics of regional or local industries, allowing the determination of more realistic environmental impact mitigation benchmarks. Nevertheless, the inclusion of lifecycle-based criteria in GPP must be performed cautiously, avoiding command and control regulations, as numerous challenges remain in terms of capacity building, environmental awareness, and environmental information, and transparency in emerging and developing economies. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2021;00:1–15. © 2021 SETAC
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