The food industry and ecological products in particular is facing major challenges in the coming years, such as consumer demands, scale of food systems, reduction of waste and climate change. Life cycle assessment (LCA) has emerged as a key method for environmental assessment of products, processes and technologies, and all material flows through society. Recently also an Actor Based LCA methodology with focus on actors and actions has been developed.
The purpose of the research is to further develop and test an actor based LCA methodology for the food industry, and perform three case study comparisons on ecological and conventional food chains: small/large-scale chains, retailers handling of food, as well as efficient production, so called “green lean” in the whole food chain. Environmental improvements can be reached by changes in storage, transport or waste behaviour throughout the whole chain.
This project is path-breaking due to its interdisciplinary character, and show relationships between the actors of the life cycle, and how these may enable, or hinder, environmental improvement towards green food chains as a whole.
Dr. Johanna Berlin, systems analysis, SP
Michaela Raab, University of Linz/Austria
Organic food, LCA, product chains, SCM, actors
Interview with Michaela Raab, University of Linz/Austria:
The cucumbers actors and carbon footprint in focus