Using the product environmental footprint for supply chain management : lessons learned from a case study on pork

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to test the chainorganization environmental footprint (chain-OEF) approach by applying it to part of a pork production chain in Belgium. The approach is supposed to provide insight into the environmental impact of a specific production chain in an efficient manner by applying pragmatic data collection throughout the chain. This is achieved by allocating the environmental impact of each of the production sites to the product of interest using straightforward allocation rules. Methods: The cradle-to-gate (up to retail) environmental impact of pork was determined by life cycle assessment (LCA), in line with the product and organisation environmental footprint guidelines (PEF and OEF; European Commission 2013b). Foreground data was gathered at a feed production site, two farmers, a slaughterhouse and a meat processing site. All foreground operations are part of the same pork production chain in Belgium. The chain was completed using background data from Ecoinvent v3.01 (Wernet et al. 2016), Agri-Footprint v1.0 (Blonk 2014), European Life Cycle Database v3.0, LCA Food Database (Nielsen et al. 2003) and OEF Sector Rules Retail (Humbert et al. 2015b). The impact was quantified using the international reference life cycle data system (ILCD) midpoint method for 14 impact categories, but focussing on climate change. Results and discussion: The total carbon footprint of the cradle-to-gate pork production system equals 0.46 kg CO2-eq. (100 g pork)−1. This result is quite similar to that of earlier studies analysing the pork production chain: 0.58 and 0.57 kg CO2-eq. (100 g pork)−1 (Bracquené et al. 2011, Agri-Footprint 2014). Most of the carbon footprint was caused by feed production and more specifically, by the feed ingredients and their transport. Grains, soy and palm oil have the largest impact contributions. The farms are responsible for most of the remaining impact. N2O and CH4 emissions are the largest cause of greenhouse gas emissions at the farms. Also, in the other 13 considered impact categories, feed production and farming are responsible for more than half of the total impact, mostly followed by meat processing. Conclusions: Applying the chain-OEF approach in this study has shown that a chain LCA can be performed successfully and pragmatic data collection allows obtaining LCA results relatively fast, especially for small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Whereas data availability was not such an issue, the main bottlenecks identified are data management and the link of LCA to other disciplines such as engineering, policy, etc. which could increase the added value of LCA studies

Development of a Cradle-to-Grave Approach for Acetylated Acidic Sophorolipid Biosurfactants

International audienceMicrobial production of biosurfactants represents one of the most interesting alternatives to classical petrol-based compounds due to their low toxicity, high biodegradability, and biological production processes from renewable bioresources. However, some of the main drawbacks generally encountered are the low productivities and the small number of chemical structures available, which limit widespread application of biosurfactants. Although chemical derivatization of (microbial) biosurfactants offers opportunities to broaden the panel of available molecules, direct microbial synthesis is still the preferred option and the use of engineered strains is becoming a valid alternative. In this multidisciplinary work we show the entire process of conception, upscaling of fermentation (150 L) and sustainable purification (filtration), application (foaming, solubilization, antibacterial), and life cycle analysis of acetylated acidic sophorolipids, directly produced by the Starmerella bombicola esterase knock out yeast strain, rather than purified using chromatography from the classical, but complex, mixture of acidic and lactonic sophorolipids

Recycling portable alkaline/ZnC batteries for a circular economy : an assessment of natural resource consumption from a life cycle and criticality perspective

It has been recognized that a proper and sustainable management strategy might help prevent the risks ofleaching from waste portable batteries (WPBs), which are an important waste stream, and aid the conservationof raw materials. Unlike existing studies on WPB management, which focus mainly on emissions, this case studyuses a resource-oriented approach to thoroughly analyze the performance of a WPB collection and recyclingscheme. This study focused on the WPB take-back and recycling system managed by Bebat in Belgium. Life cycleassessment was conducted using three different existing life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods re-presenting three different perspectives: Cumulative Exergy Extracted from the Natural Environment; AbioticDepletion Potential (ADP), split into impact categories called ADPelementsand ADPfossilfuels; and damage toResource Cost. A new LCIA method, the criticality-based impact assessment method, has also been introduced tocover the socioeconomic aspects of natural resource consumption. The performance of the mixed waste (i.e.,batteries, flashlights) collection and sorting system was assessed from 2011 to 2013. This analysis showed that in2012, the use of collection receptacles made of plastic bags with 30% recycled content, instead of non-recycledpaper or cardboard with 30% recycled content, was one of the main reasons for the low impact of the wholesystem from all assessment perspectives. The performance of entire take-back and recycling system for alkalineand zinc-carbon (ZnC) batteries, the two most popular portable batteries, was subsequently analyzed andbenchmarked against two incineration scenarios: with and without bottom ash recovery. The comparisons of thefour LCIA methods show differing results. The most prominent result is that the ADPelementsscore of the recyclingscenario is 7–9 times lower than that of the incineration scenario, mainly due to metals (i.e., iron and zinc)savings via recycling. The recycling system requires 17–52% less material criticality, but extracts 13–18% moreexergy from the natural environment and has a higher ADPfossilfuelsscore (about 14–16%) than the incinerationsystem. These comparisons indicate that although the alkaline/ZnC battery management system run by Bebatdoes not reduce consumption of all resources, especially fossil fuels and land, it is beneficial in terms of mineralsand metals savings. To further improve the efficiency and environmental performance of the collection system,different measures were implemented. A sensitivity analysis was performed to evaluate the impacts of thosemeasures on the mixed waste collection and sorting system and the alkaline/ZnC battery take-back and recyclingsystem. The results suggested that a combination of different measures, especially reducing the number of re-ceptacles used and enhancing their environmental performance, can considerably reduce the resource footprint