Modeling carbon footprint of the Chilean apple production

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Modeling carbon footprint of the Chilean apple

production

Alfredo Iriarte, Pablo Villalobos, Pablo Yañez, Carlos Huenchuleo

To cite this version:

Alfredo Iriarte, Pablo Villalobos, Pablo Yañez, Carlos Huenchuleo. Modeling carbon footprint of the

Chilean apple production. 5th International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment (CILCA 2013), Mar

2013, Mendoza, Argentina. pp.50-53. �hal-01349570�

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4 Proceedings of the V International Conference on Life Cycle

Assessment - CILCA2013

CILCA 2013, Mendoza, Argentina

March 24th- 27 th, 2013

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Proceedings of the Vth International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment, CILCA2013

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Copyright @ Facultad Regional Mendoza, Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, 2013. Todos los derechos de este volumen están reservados. Sólo está permitida la reproducción parcial o total con fines Académicos siempre que se mencione el origen.

Primera edición: Marzo de 2013

Diseño de Tapa: Gabriela Barón (UTN)

Logotipo de Tapa: Mercedes Civit (Ludwig Morris)

ISBN 978-950-42-0146-5

Editores

Alejandro Pablo Arena

Bárbara Civit

Roxana Piastrellini

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Mendoza, Argentina

March 24-27

2013

from cradle to grave

sustainability metrics

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50

Modeling carbon footprint of the Chilean

apple production

Alfredo Iriarte1,2,*_{, Pablo Villalobos}3_{, Pablo Yañez}3_{, Carlos Huenchuleo}3 1

Department of Industrial Management and Modelling. Faculty of Engineering. Universidad de Talca. Casilla 747, Talca, Chile.

2

Chilean Food Processing Research Centre (Centro de Estudios en AlimentosProcesados CEAP). R09I2001. Av. San Miguel km 2. Talca, Chile.

3

Department of Agricultural Economics.Faculty of Agricultural Sciences. Universidad de Talca. Casilla 747, Talca, Chile.

*

Corresponding author. Tel.: ++56 75 2017 00; fax: þ56 75 32 59 58.E-mail: airiarte@utalca.cl http://ing.utalca.cl

Abstract

Purpose. The main objective of this study is to evaluate, using a life–cycle approach, the carbon footprint of the intensive apple orchard system in Chile. Additional objective is to identify the factors that contributed significantly to the greenhouse gas emissions of this agricultural system Methods. The method used in this study is according to the ISO 14040 framework and the main recommendations in the Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 2050. The system boundaries included all the life cycle stages from the cradle to the farm gate (harvested apples), consistent with the business-to-business approach indicated in PAS 2050. The apple production analyzed in this study corresponds to nationwide representative practices.

Results and Conclusions.The results indicate that carbon footprint of the Chilean apple orchard production, under typical agricultural conditions, is 0.045 kg CO2 equiv./kg apple. The mineral

fertilizers (which include their field emissions) is the agricultural factor that presents the highest contribution (49%) to carbon footprint of the apple production. In contrast, packaging waste has a minimum contribution; this factor contributes less than 5% to the greenhouse gas (GHG)

emissions. The application of the life–cycle approach helped to identify improvement measures to reduce GHG emissions of the orchard production system.

Key words: apple production, greenhouse gas emissions, mineral fertilizers carbon footprint, Chile

1 Introduction

Chile is a major off-season fruit supplier and covers a significant portion of fresh fruit imports made by the United States, the European Union and Japan. Chile is the largest southern

hemisphere producer and exporter of apple (Centro de Competividad del Maule 2000). Estimating carbon footprint of agricultural systems is becoming an important issue for country‘s horticulture

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sector. The term ―carbon footprint‖ stands for the total sum of all greenhouse gas emissions caused by a product‘s life cycle. Growers in Chile need to measure the carbon footprints of their products, allowing them to satisfy consumer demand for the information and improve their production processes.

This study presents the results of the estimation of the carbon footprint ofChilean apple under intensive orchard production.

2 Methodology

2.1 Goal, scope, and functional unit

The main objective of this study is to evaluate, using a life–cycle approach, the carbon footprint of the intensive apple orchard system in Chile. Additional objective is to identify the agricultural factors that contributed significantly to the greenhouse gas emissions of this system. The study area corresponds to the region of Maule; the main apple production zone of Chile. This region produces an average of 62% of the apple of the country. The study is according to the ISO 14040 framework (ISO 2006) and the main recommendations of the Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 2050 (BSI 2008). The functional unit is the production of 1 kg of apples under intensive practice in Chile.

2.2 System boundaries

The study is a cradle-to-farm gate LCA. The system includes all the agricultural stages up to obtaining the apples in the orchard. The agricultural factors evaluated in the system are: (1) fertilizers, (2) pesticides, (3) electricity consumption, (4) waste of apple production and (5) diesel consumption for agricultural operations and for application of agrochemicals.

2.3 Data on agricultural inputs

For foreground system, primary data are used to carry out this study. The primary data are collected directly from local grower though interviews, questionnaires and on-site measuring. The agricultural inputs collected in the study correspond to representative practices used in Chile. For background system, secondary data (e.g. manufacture of fertilizers and pesticides) are obtained from ecoinvent database (Frischknecht and Rebitzer 2005), with Chilean electricity production mix incorporated to reflect local conditions.

2.4 Emissions of nitrous oxidefrom application of fertilizers and evaluation of land use change

One of the major concerns in the net balance of greenhouse gas emissions of agricultural products is the nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions produced during and after growth of the crops. In this study,

the N2O emissions from the application of fertilizers are estimated based on default emission

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In relation to the land use change (LUC), according to the PAS 2050 (BSI 2008), LUC from less than 20 years are taken in to account. In our case, the orchard under study date back from more than 20 years.

2.5 Method for assessing GHG emissions

The CCaLC carbon footprinting software program (CCaLC 2012) has been used to model the apple orchard system and to evaluate the GHG emissions. For GHG emissions, this program uses the methodology defined by PAS 2050 (BSI 2008).

3 Results

The results indicate that carbon footprint of the Chilean apple orchard production, under typical agricultural conditions, is 0.045 kg CO2 equiv./kg apple. The results are in agreement with those

obtained in commercial orchards in New Zealand by Milài Canals et al. (2006). The mineral fertilizers (which include their field emissions of N2O) is the agricultural factor that presents the

highest contribution (49%) to carbon footprint of the apple production (see figure 2). The waste of apple production has a minimum contribution; this factor contributes less than 5% to the GHG emissions.

Figure 1 Contribution of the agricultural activities to GHG emissions of the apple orchard production in Chile

4 Conclusions

It was found that, in Chilean conditions, the carbon footprint of apple production is 0.045 kg CO2 equiv./kg apple. The mineral fertilizers contribute significantly to GHG emissions in the apple

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orchard system. In order to identify measures for reducing the carbon footprint for Chilean apple production, other sources of fertilizers should be environmentally evaluated, such as organic fertilizers (e.g. local livestock manure) and field emissions of N2O should be reduced.

Acknowledgements

The present study was supported by the Chilean Food Processing Research Center (Centro de Estudios en AlimentosProcesados CEAP), R09I2001 and by the Project I001952.

References

BSI (British Standards Institution) (2008) PAS 2050Specification for the assessment of thelife cycle greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services.London, UK.

Centro de Competividad del Maule (2000). Manzanos. Universidad de Talca. Talca, Chile CCaLC(2012) Carbon Calculations over the Life Cycle ofIndustrial Activities.The University of Manchester, UK http://www.ccalc.org.uk/software.php

Frischknecht R,Rebitzer G (2005) The ecoinvent database system: a comprehensive web-basedLCA database. J Clean Prod 13:1337-43

IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) (2006) N2O emissions frommanaged soils,

and CO2 emissions from lime and urea application[chapter 11].In:Eggleston HS, Buendia L, Miwa

K, Ngara T, Tanabe K, editors. IPCC guidelinesfor national greenhouse gas inventories, vol. 4. Hayama, Japan

ISO (International Organization of Standardization) (2006) ISO 14040Environmentalmanagement - Life cycle assessment - Principles and framework. Geneva, Switzerland