In search of the desired sustainable tourism: a review of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tourism studies

Sustainable tourism should be promoted as a new system for the sustainable management of resources from a socioeconomic and environmental point of view. For this purpose, it is necessary to develop a tool capable of assessing the impacts associated with each of the stages of the sector and to identify which actions are currently being addressed in the tourism sector in order to achieve the desired sustainability in the sector. This timely study aims to describe the current framework of life cycle assessment (LCA) and its application to the tourism sector. To address these questions, the geographical distribution, the temporal evolution of the publications, as well as the most relevant characteristics of the tourism industry articles were evaluated such as the functional unit and system boundaries considered. The study identifies key recommendations on the progression of LCA for this increasingly important sustaining tourism sector. As important results, it stands out that 94% of articles focused on LCA methodology were from the last decade and almost 26% of the articles reviewed cover sustainable tourism term, considering environmental, social and economic aspects. Specifically, LCA is a highly effective tool capable of assessing direct and indirect carbon emissions at all stages of the activity as well as the socioeconomic and environmental impacts generated in the tourism sector. This review showed that the most common environmental indicator in the LCA methodology is the carbon footprint. COVID-19 pandemic is also an object of discussion in the framework of the sustainable tourism together with advocating support for the eco-labelling and digitalisation of the tourism experiences as valuable tools to minimize environmental negativities, to promote mechanisms to access green markets and to frame successful synergies.This research was funded by the INTERREG SUDOE Programme, grant number GREENTOUR: Circular Economy and Sustainable Tourism in Destinations of the SUDOE space (SOE4/P5/E1089). Furthermore, the authors are grateful to the anonymous reviewers whose comments and corrections have significantly improved the quality of this contribution

The fishing and seafood sector in the time of COVID-19: Considerations for local and global opportunities and responses

This paper provides an overview of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the fishing sector over the world, including several economic, social, environmental, and health challenges that the fisheries have had to face during the early days of the health crisis and some of them still continue today. These problems, in short, are translated into a decrease in seafood demand, loss of jobs, changes in food consumption habits, economic losses or increased vulnerability of the industry. As consequence, governments have been forced to implement regulations and measures in support of this sector. However, a positive aspect of the pandemic also stands out; the opportunity to transform the food system to be greener, more inclusive, and resilient against future shocks.This work was supported by the EAPA_576/2018 NEPTUNUS project. The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of Interreg Atlantic Are

How to achieve the sustainability of the seafood sector in the European Atlantic Area?

Climate change, globalization or marine debris are on the spot of concerns for the most society. Particularly, fisheries are impacted by these and other issues. On the framework of the European Atlantic area, NEPTUNUS project (EAPA_576_2018) tries to provide opportunities for the transition to the circular economy of the seafood and aquaculture sectors by means of a consistent methodology for products eco-labelling and defining eco-innovation strategies. Furthermore, this project will provide key actions for resource efficiency based on life cycle thinking and the nexus water-energy-food, incorporating producers, policy makers and consumers in the decision-making process. This review addresses, therefore, the threats and challenges of the current Atlantic fisheries, the methodologies and actions to be face them and the expected results of the NEPTUNUS projectThis work was supported by the EAPA_576/2018 NEPTUNUS project. The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of Interreg Atlantic Are

From the sea to the table: the environmental impact assessment of fishing, processing, and end-of-life of albacore in Cantabria

Cantabria, a small coastal region of Northern Spain, is one of the biggest producers of gourmet tuna cans in Europe. The fish capture in the Cantabrian Sea and the subsequent transformation in a local processing plant give distinction to this product, which is widely marketed in cans of 105 g of net weight. This work evaluates for the first time the environmental profile of the whole supply chain of this product, from fishing, processing, and waste valorization to inter-stage transport and packaging management in the end-of-life. To this end, the life cycle assessment methodology was applied considering primary data from the stakeholders involved in the supply chain and analyzing the seven most studied categories in this sector. Results revealed that fishing and processing accounted for the majority of the environmental impacts, while valorization and end-of-life treatments only avoid less than 10% of the burdens. The most important findings are focused on the high dependence on fuel use, identified as a hotspot in most stages although low compared to other fisheries, and on the intensive use of resources, especially sunflower oil, which contributes more than 70% of the impact on the global warming potential of the processing. This current framework forces the enhancement of the efficiency of a sector that attempts to engage the challenge of societal sustainability, by identifying the critical points and guiding policy makers on the path to sustainable development.This work was supported by the EAPA_576/2018NEPTUNUS project. The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of Interreg Atlantic Area. The authors are grateful for the funding of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the KAIROS-BIOCIR project (PID2019-104925RB) (AEO/FEDER, UE). Ana Fernández thanks the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spanish Government for their financial support via the research fellowship RE2020-094029. We also want to thank the fishermen and those responsible for the processing plant for the provision of the data

Water footprint assessment of food loss and waste management strategies in Spanish regions

The availability of freshwater is one of the biggest limitations and challenges of food production, as freshwater is an increasingly scarce and overexploited resource in many parts of the world. Therefore, the concept of water footprint (WF) has gained increasing interest, in the same way that the generation of food loss and waste (FLW) in food production and consumption has become a social and political concern. Along this line, the number of studies on the WF of the food production sector is currently increasing all over the world, analyzing water scarcity and water degradation as a single WF indicator or as a so-called WF profile. In Spain, there is no study assessing the influence of FLW generation along the whole food supply chain nor is there a study assessing the different FLW management options regarding the food supply chain’s WF. This study aimed to assess the spatially differentiated WF profile for 17 Spanish regions over time, analyzing the potential linkages of FLW management and water scarcity and water degradation. The assessment considered compliance and non-compliance with the Paris Agreement targets and was based on the life cycle assessment approach. Results are highlighted in a compliance framework; the scenarios found that anaerobic digestion and aerobic composting (to a lesser extent) had the lowest burdens, while scenarios with thermal treatment had the highest impact. Additionally, the regions in the north of Spain and the islands were less influenced by the type of FLW management and by compliance with the Paris Agreement targets.This study has been conducted thanks to the financial support of the Project Ceres-Procom: Food production and consumption strategies for climate change mitigation (CTM2016-76176-C2-1-R) (AEI/FEDER, UE), financed by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Government of Spain. Daniel Hoehn thanks the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Spanish Government for their financial support via the research fellowship BES-2017-080296. Thanks are also due to the FCT/MCTES for the contracts granted to Paula Quinteiro (CEECIND/00143/2017) and for the financial support to CESAM (UIDB/50017/2020+UIDP/50017/2020) by means of national funds

New Tools for Embryo Selection: Comprehensive Chromosome Screening by Array Comparative Genomic Hybridization

The objective of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of comprehensive chromosome screening (CCS) using array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH). The study included 1420 CCS cycles for recurrent miscarriage (n = 203); repetitive implantation failure (n = 188); severe male factor (n = 116); previous trisomic pregnancy (n = 33); and advanced maternal age (n = 880). CCS was performed in cycles with fresh oocytes and embryos (n = 774); mixed cycles with fresh and vitrified oocytes (n = 320); mixed cycles with fresh and vitrified day-2 embryos (n = 235); and mixed cycles with fresh and vitrified day-3 embryos (n = 91). Day-3 embryo biopsy was performed and analyzed by aCGH followed by day-5 embryo transfer. Consistent implantation (range: 40.5–54.2%) and pregnancy rates per transfer (range: 46.0–62.9%) were obtained for all the indications and independently of the origin of the oocytes or embryos. However, a lower delivery rate per cycle was achieved in women aged over 40 years (18.1%) due to the higher percentage of aneuploid embryos (85.3%) and lower number of cycles with at least one euploid embryo available per transfer (40.3%). We concluded that aneuploidy is one of the major factors which affect embryo implantation

Towards a Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus index: A review of nutrient profile models as a fundamental pillar of food and nutrition security

The Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus approach should be promoted as a tool for sustainable management of resources through the interconnection of these three fundamental pillars. Particularly, food security must ensure healthy and balanced diets for everyone, but selecting individual indicators to assess all slants covered by this element is not an easy task. Hence, the objective of this paper is two-fold, to review nutrient profiling (NP) models that allow to categorize foods and evaluate diets based on their nutritional quality, and to choose the most appropriate model to be used within a WEF nexus index. To address this issue, a total of 159 documents were assessed, appraising the geographic distribution, and time evolution of the publications, as well as the characteristics and potential applications of the NP systems. The review concludes that the NRF9.3. model is the most liable option to be used in a WEF nexus index, presenting the best characteristics by means of the definition of scores and thresholds, and the use of an 'across-the-board' criteria and a reference quantity of 100 kcal, alongside offering higher ability to assess diets and foods than the other competitive model (HEI) through the evaluation of nutrients to encourage instead of foods. A secondary outcome of the review is the identification of the NP models as a useful tool to enable institutions with information to establish policies in the field of public health and facilitating the decision-making process according to the current healthy claimsThe authors are grateful for the funding of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the KAIROS-BIOCIR project (PID2019-104925RB) (AEO/FEDER, UE) and of the Interreg Atlantic Area through the NEPTUNUS project (EAPA_576/2018). Daniel Hoehn thanks the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spanish Government for their financial support via the research fellowship BES-2017-080296. Jorge Cristóbal acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities through the “Beatriz Galindo” grant BEAGAL18/00035

Looking for answers to food loss and waste management in Spain from a holistic nutritional and economic approach

The generation of food loss and waste (FLW) is a global problem for worldwide politics. About one-third of the food produced ends up in the rubbish before it is consumed. For this reason, it is essential to design and implement new strategies along the food supply chain (FSC) with the aim of reducing this FLW at each stage. However, not only mass quantification should be considered, but also economic and nutritional performance. The novelty of this study is the definition of a methodology based on the “distance to target” approach by means of multi-objective optimization to evaluate the economic and nutritional cost produced by this FLW. This methodology was applied to the Spanish food basket in 2015. The results revealed that 80% of the total FLW generated in economic and nutritional terms is concentrated in the agricultural production (53.3%) and consumption (26.3%) stages. In the first stages of the FSC, fruits (Dn eq.= 0.7), cereals (Dn eq.= 0.61), and vegetables (Dn eq.= 0.57) were the furthest from the distance target due to the great amount of FLW generated. Moreover, according to the normalized weighted distances obtained from the minimization of economic and nutritional cost, pulses (Dn eq. = 0.05–0.03) and eggs (Dn eq. = 0.02) were the more efficient food categories. The methodology described in this study proposes a single index to quantify the economic and nutritional cost of different food categories to facilitate the decision-making process. This index makes possible the definition of reduction strategies focused on specific food categories and depending on the FSC stage.This research was funded by Spanish Ministry of Science and Competitiveness, grant number CERES-PROCON Project CTM2016-76176 (AEI/FEDER, UE) and KAIROS-BIOCIR Project PID2019-104925RB (AEO/FEDER, UE)