Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
4 Impact Assessment and Intensity Metrics
INTRODUCTION
The reduction of the environmental impact of products, processes, or services requires
evaluation of their environmental performance. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is the most
widely used tool to evaluate the environmental impact of any activity, including food
production systems. LCA evaluates the environmental impact at each stage of the production
of food—from the farm through processing, distribution, and consumption. LCAs for food
products usually include all the steps in the production chain until the product reaches the
consumer, but they can also include home preparation and final disposal of residues.
Even though LCA is a popular tool for environmental performance evaluation, it is not
the only one available.
ExternE
, for instance, evaluates the environmental and social impacts of
economic projects, or activities, by assigning a “monetary value” to the effect caused by the
activity, which is referred to as
externality
. One of the difficulties of this methodology is to
assign a monetary value to these externalities, which are relatively easily to identify but are dif-
ficult to quantify in economic terms (Belli et al., 1998).
Some companies have developed their own environmental assessment tools. For example,
BASF has created the
Eco-Efficiency Analysis
and SC Johnson the
GreenList
™
process. Eco-
Efficiency Analysis compares the environmental impact of a product or process and its
economical attractiveness. Environmental impacts are based on six main aspects: raw materials
and energy consumption, land use, air and water emissions, potential toxicity, and potential
risk (BASF, n.d.). More recently, BASF has developed another tool, SEEbalance
®
, which also
incorporates the social aspect of sustainability. SC Johnson owns the patented GreenList
™
system to classify their raw materials based on their impact on the environment and human
health. The system can be licensed royalty free through a third-party administrator. But
because most of the studies on environmental impacts of food products are based on LCAs,
this chapter will dedicate an important section to this type of analysis using the guidelines
established by the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 14040.
LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT
LCA evaluates the environmental impact associated with a product, process, or activity;
however, economic and social impacts are normally beyond the scope of LCAs. In essence, the
conduction of a LCA is the application of mass and energy balances on a particular process,
