Author(s): Ian Vázquez Rowe y otros
(Español) Mauritania, one of the most dependent fish trade nations in the world, has an important octopus fishery within its EEZ. Fishing treaties between the EU and this Sub-Saharan nation have permitted 24 Spanish cephalopod trawling vessels to target this species for its export as a frozen product, mainly to Spain, Italy and Japan. This article presents Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology in order to assess and compare the environmental impacts related to the capture, processing and exportation of packed frozen octopus from this fishery to the main importing nations. Environmental results show that frozen common octopus presented a remarkable dominance of the fishing vessel activities, due to the high energy intensity of the fishery and to the fact that these activities include harvesting, processing and preliminary packaging. Post-harvesting activities presented low relative contributions in all impact categories, minimizing the food mile effect of exporting to Japan, thanks to the slow transportation through marine freight of frozen octopus. The results for fishery-specific indicators showed regular trends for trawling fleets, with high discard and seafloor impact rates. Therefore, improvement actions focused on the minimization of energy use and fishery-specific impacts and the shift to less ozone layer damaging cooling agents are the main targets in order to improve the sustainability of this product, as long as the slow freighting characteristics of the imported product are maintained.
Open linkAuthor(s): Ian Vázquez Rowe y otros
(Español) Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the environmental impacts linked to fish extraction on a temporal basis, in order to analyze the effect that stock abundance variations may have on reporting environmental burdens. Inventory data for the North-East Atlantic Mackerel (NEAM) fishing season were collected over an 8-year period and used to carry out a life cycle assessment (LCA). The selected fishery corresponds to the Basque coastal purse seining fleet. Materials and methods :The functional unit (FU) was set as 1 t of landed round fish in a Basque port during the NEAM fishing season for each of the selected years. The selected data for the life cycle inventory were gathered from personal communication from ship owners and from a fish first sale register in the Basque Country. A series of fishery-specific impact categories and indicators were included in the evaluation together with conventional impact categories. Results and discussion: Conventional LCA impact categories showed that the environmental impact is dominated by the energy use in the fishery, despite of the low fuel effort identified with respect to other purse-seining fisheries. Nevertheless, strong differences were identified between annual environmental impacts, attributed mainly to remarkable variations in NEAM stock abundance from 1 year to another, whereas the fishing effort remained relatively stable throughout the assessed years. Fishery-specific categories, such as the discard rate or seafloor impact showed reduced impacts of this fishery respect to other small pelagic fish fisheries. Finally, the fishery in balance (FiB) index identified the evolution of NEAM stock abundance for this particular fishery. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first fishery LCA study in which there is sufficient inventory data in order to conduct the methodology throughout a wide period of time. The outstanding variance in environmental impacts from one season to another evidences the need to expand fishery LCAs in time, in order to attain a more integrated perspective of the environmental performance of a certain fishery or species. The extension of LCA inventories in the timeline may be an important improvement for activities that rely entirely on the extraction of organisms from wild ecosystems. For instance, future research will have to determine the importance of increasing the timeline in fishery LCAs for species that do not show large stock abundance variations through time, unlike NEAM.
Open linkAuthor(s): Ramzy Kahhat Abedrabbo y otros
(Español) Institutions both public and private face a challenge to develop policies to manage purchase, use, and disposal of electronics. Environmental considerations play an increasing role in addition to traditional factors of cost, performance and security. Characterizing current disposition practices for end-of-life electronics is a key step in developing policies that prevent negative environmental and health impacts while maximizing potential for positive social and economic benefits though reuse. To provide a baseline, we develop the first characterization of quantity, value, disposition, and flows of end-of-life electronics at a major U.S. educational institution. Results of the empirical study indicate that most end-of-first-life electronics were resold through public auction to individuals and small companies who refurbish working equipment for resale or sell unusable products for reclamation of scrap metal. Desktop and laptop computers sold for refurbishing and resale averaged U.S. $20–100 per unit, with computers sold directly to individuals for reuse reaching $250–350 per unit. This detailed assessment was coupled with a benchmarking survey of end-of-life electronics management practices at other U.S. universities. Survey results indicate that while auctions are still commonplace, an increasing number of institutions are responding to environmental concerns by creating partnerships with local recycling and resale entities and mandating domestic recycling. We use the analyses of current disposition practices as input to discuss institutional strategies for managing electronics. One key issue is the tension between benefits of used equipment sales, in terms of income for the institution and increased reuse for society, and the environmental risks because of unknown downstream practices.
Open linkAuthor(s): Karin Bartl y otros
(Español) Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was applied to two smallholder milk production systems in Peru in order to evaluate the environmental burden of milk produced in each. An Andean highland milk production system where livestock feeding is restricted to permanent pastures supplemented with on farm grown ryegrass-clover was opposed to a coastal system with dairy cows fed a diet consisting of fodder maize and purchased concentrate. Milk production levels (kg/cow day) differed considerably with 2.57 for the highland and 19.54 for the coastal system. A Life Cycle Inventory was calculated for the functional unit of 1 kg energy corrected milk (ECM) and the environmental impacts global warming, acidification and eutrophication were estimated for 1 kg ECM, 1 ha and 1 animal, considering the multi-functionality of the system. The highland system was characterized by a high land use (23.1 m2a/kg ECM vs. 1.71 m2a/kg ECM at the coast). Irrigation water and energy were on the other hand used to a much higher amount at the coast (7291 l/kg ECM and 8791 MJ/kg ECM, respectively) than in the highlands (848 l/kg ECM and 0.20 MJ/kg ECM). Global warming potential, acidification and eutrophication were higher for 1 kg ECM produced in the highlands than at the coast by 10.6 kg CO2 equivalents, 6.58 g sulfur dioxide equivalents and 10.63 g phosphate equivalents, respectively. Nevertheless, 5220 kg CO2 equivalents more were emitted per animal at the coast than in the highlands. Also acidification and eutrophication were estimated to be on average 6 and 4 times higher at the coast compared to the highlands when expressed for the functional units of 1 ha and 1 animal. Results Whereas livestock is mainly responsible for impacts on the environment in the highlands, at the coast both livestock related emissions and forage cultivation play an important role. Furthermore CO2 releases from soybean cultivations heavily contribute to total emissions. Sensitivity analysis indicates that for dairy systems relying on crop by-products as feed the choice of the allocation method is a crucial point in a LCA study. Based on the results of this study, strategies in order to reduce the environmental burden of milk production should focus on an increase of production levels and a reduction of methane emissions from enteric fermentation in the highlands and a modification of the concentrate components replacing soya as the protein source at the coast.
Open linkAuthor(s): Ian Vázquez Rowe y otros
(Español) European hake (Merluccius merluccius L.), one of the main products in the Spanish diet, represents the highest economic income for Galician fishing fleets. In this study, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was used to assess the environmental impacts related to the extraction, processing and consumption of European hake captured by Galician trawlers and long liners in the Northern Stock. Furthermore, biological related impact categories, such as by-catch and discards were also considered in the analysis. Results show considerably lower environmental impacts for European hake fresh fillets arriving from long lining vessels, due mainly to the high energy demand of the analyzed trawlers. In this sense, the main part of the impact for hake arriving from both fishing fleets was attributable to marine diesel-linked activities. Post-fishing activities, such as land transport or electricity consumption, were also highlighted as important contributors within their subsystems. Global environmental performance of the system can only be reduced through fuel consumption minimization. However, impact minimization in the fresh hake post-harvesting activities may offer attractive cost reductions for retailers, wholesalers and consumers.
Open linkAuthor(s): Ian Vázquez Rowe y otros
(Español) Atlantic horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus) is one of the main target pelagic species of the coastal purse seining and bottom trawling Galician fleets. The goal of this LCA study was to assess and compare the environmental impacts associated with the fishing operations related to Atlantic horse mackerel extraction in these two Galician coastal fisheries. This analysis included the operation of the vessels, together with major inputs related to the production of diesel, fishing nets or anti-fouling paints. Data regarding vessel operation was obtained from the questionnaires filled out by a total of 54 skippers. Results showed that environmental burdens regarding horse mackerel landing are associated mainly with activities related to diesel production, transport and consumption of the fishing vessels. Furthermore, cooling agent leakage from the cooling chambers was identified as a major impact regarding ozone layer depletion and global warming potentials. Horse mackerel captured by purse seiners presented reduced environmental burdens for all impact categories respect to horse mackerel landings by bottom trawlers. The environmental reduction ranged from 49 to 89%, depending on the impact category analyzed. Discard rates for coastal trawlers were also identified as a major environmental impact in this fishery. Revision of fishing quotas and fishing strategies for the horse mackerel fishery and reduction of energy consumption, through the introduction of new alternative fuels or technological actions, are necessary in order to reduce the environmental impacts of a highly fuel-dependent activity.
Open linkAuthor(s): Ian Vázquez Rowe y otros
(Español) The combined application of Life Cycle Assessment and Data Envelopment Analysis has been recently proposed to provide a tool for the comprehensive assessment of the environmental and operational performance of multiple similar entities. Among the acknowledged advantages of LCA+DEA methodology, eco-efficiency verification and avoidance of average inventories are usually highlighted. However, given the novelty of LCA+DEA methods, a high number of additional potentials remain unexplored. In this sense, there are some features that are worth detailing given their wide interest to enhance LCA performance. Emphasis is laid on the improved interpretation of LCA results through the complementary use of DEA with respect to: (i) super-efficiency analysis to facilitate the selection of reference performers, (ii) inter- and intra-assessments of multiple data sets within any specific sector with benchmarking and trend analysis purposes, (iii) integration of an economic dimension in order to enrich sustainability assessments, and (iv) window analysis to evaluate environmental impact efficiency over a certain period of time. Furthermore, the capability of LCA+DEA methodology to be generally implemented in a wide range of scenarios is discussed. These further potentials are explained and demonstrated via the presentation of brief case studies based on real data sets.
Open linkAuthor(s): Isabel Quispe Trinidad y otros
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