Development of environmental life cycle assessment of cattle-based products in Finland
NEKSU
The environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies for cattle products are generally variable, which challenges the reliability and comparability of environmental impact results. Additionally, LCAs typically focus only on carbon footprints, and the effect of soil carbon stock change is typically excluded from the analyses. In Finland, there is a need for national average data regarding the environmental impact of cattle production and also for more detailed, production chain-specific environmental impact data for improved planning and monitoring.
In this project, multiple LCA methods will be compared to distinguish their differences and needs for development. Based on the observations, an LCA method with two levels will be produced, after which the method will be specified and validated together with the experts in the field. The first level of LCA will be national average level LCA, which is relevant for example for international comparisons. The second one is production chain specific LCA, which has more details than national average level LCA and which enables monitoring of emissions reductions.
The LCA method developed will be extended to cover soil carbon stock changes and water scarcity effects of cattle production. The documentation of the method will be public to enable wide-scale use of the method to improve the environmental efficiency of cattle production, provide transparency and improve comparability. The method will harmonise the environmental impact assessment of the cattle sector, thus improving the efficiency of LCA and generally, the competitiveness and export potential of cattle production.
In future, the method will be utilised to provide reliable, public data about the national average environmental impacts of Finnish cattle products. The data may be further utilised for national monitoring and reporting, and for meal and nutritional level LCAs to further improve the environmental efficiency of the Finnish food sector.
