Life cycle assessment of packaged organic dairy product: A comparison of different methods for the environmental assessment of alternative scenarios

Nowadays Life Cycle Assessment is usually adopted to evaluate the carbon footprint and water footprint of packaged foods considering the whole supply chain, but not many studies compare the results coming from the adoption of different Life Cycle Impact Assessment methodologies. Adopting the IPCC 2013, IPCC 2013 incl. CO2 uptake, ILCD 2011 Midpoint +, ReCiPe 2016 and AWARE methods, this study aims to investigate the environmental impact of an organic Parmigiano Reggiano cheese produced in Italy. We demonstrated that the application of different LCIA methods gives different impact results for the same product: for example, global warming was lower with ILCD 2011 and IPCC 2013 CO2 uptake methods than IPCC 2013 and ReCiPe 2016. Moreover, the water footprint resulted different using ILCD 2011 midpoint + method, since it considers a European consumption of water, the AWARE, based on global average consumption, and the ReCiPe that considers the regionalized impacts. Overall, agricultural and breeding phases had a relevant contribution because of the use of water and greenhouse gas emissions from livestock and their daily feed. However, using renewable energy, such as biogas plants or photovoltaic panels, the paper demonstrated that the water and carbon footprint can be reduced.

Automated summary

This study investigated the environmental impact of an organic Parmigiano Reggiano cheese produced in Italy using different Life Cycle Impact Assessment methodologies. The results showed that different LCIA methods led to different impact results for the same product. Agricultural and breeding phases had a significant contribution to water and greenhouse gas emissions, but using renewable energy can help reduce water and carbon footprint.