Economic and Environmental Analysis - Greenhouse Technology and Management - page 253

Photo 14.6. The collection of plant waste is common in the Spanish greenhouse industry.

Other residues, such as the obsolete
elements of greenhouse structures, are of a
much less frequent and relevant nature.

impact of the manufacture of the green-
house structure or impact of the waste
greenhouse).
The European Union published, in reg-
ulation ISO-14040, the LCA methodology,
which besides defining its objective and
scope, provides an inventory of inputs-
outputs, the analysis of the impact linked to
these inputs-outputs and the interpretation
of the results. The LCA is, summarizing,
an eco-balance that quantifies the environ-
mental impact in categories such as: energy
demand, water use, land use, climate
change, ozone layer depletion (Schnitzler,
2003; Antón and Montero, 2003).
Methodologies such as LCA have
allowed the improvement of the existing
'quality systems' incorporating advice to
the growers (see Chapter 16) on good agri-
cultural practices (GAP) to be refined in
order

14.2.3 Environmental impact

assessment

Proper assessment of the environmental
impact of greenhouse cultivation requires
methods that integrate its different aspects
from a global perspective (Van Uffelen et al .,
2000). One of the most widespread methods
of environmental impact assessment, in dif-
ferent sectors of economic activity, is life
cycle assessment also known as life cycle
analysis (LCA) (Antón and Montero, 2003).
LCA is a methodology that allows the
environmental damage attributable to a
certain product or activity throughout its
life cycle to be assessed, that is, from its
origin as raw matter until its end as a resi-
due (waste) (Antón and Montero, 2003).
The LCA methodology considers not only
the environmental effects derived from the
productive process (for instance, under-
ground water contamination) in the case of
greenhouse cultivation, but also takes into
account all the other aspects with a poten-
tial to impact on the environment through-
out its life cycle (e.g. environmental

to minimize the environmental

impact.
There are only a limited number of
existing LCA studies on Mediterranean
greenhouses but these highlight the interest
of reusing the drainage waters in soilless
cultivation, and underline the low impact
of Mediterranean greenhouses, in terms of
energy use, compared with greenhouses in
Northern Europe (Ammerlaan et al ., 2000;
Antón et al ., 2003).