The World Food LCA Database to facilitate robust environmental assessments and communications

August 31, 2015 (MMD Newswire) — The World Food LCA Database, an international and multi-­stakeholder project lead by Agroscope and Quantis, has delivered 900 accurate and transparent food datasets for improved Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) and environmental communications.

The Swiss Federal Research Station Agroscope and the sustainability consulting firm Quantis, co-founders of the project, announce the completion of Phase One of the World Food LCA Database (WFLDB). The goal of the WFLDB project is to develop and maintain the first comprehensive and up-­to-date inventory of food datasets. The completion of Phase One delivered more than 900 datasets as well as the methodological guidelines that will guide organizations worldwide to produce more robust Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) and accurate environmental communications. Quantis and Agroscope will now launch Phase Two of the WFLDB project and will be open to new consortium partners.

Phase One, which lasted three years, has led to the development of numerous datasets (see box below) for a wide variety of agricultural and animal products, as well as food products and processing. In total, the WFLDB includes over 900 datasets covering more than eighty products and forty countries with a focus on main commodities of export markets. The database covers major import products such as cocoa, coffee or citrus fruits as well as animal feed and meat products. The data provided by WFLDB allows organizations to assess and compare the environmental impacts of different production countries and production systems and to assess the effect on global warming in addition to the negative impacts on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

This food-specific database will facilitate the processing of reliable and robust LCAs and will enable organizations to communicate accurate, fact-based information about their businesses and products. Additionally, the methodological guidelines, in line with international standards and reviewed by a panel of independent third-party experts, were made public and available to the LCA community. The entire list of WFLDB datasets including a data quality ranking as well as the methodological guidelines can now be obtained on the project web-site. In the future, the WFLDB datasets will be made progressively available to the public through ecoinvent, one of the most recognized databases for LCA data.

Phase Two will offer to current and new partners access to continually updated, reliable, transparent and comprehensive LCA data of high quality in the food and beverage sector, which will improve the efficiency and reliability of their environmental footprint. Partners are kept up-to-date with international initiatives in the sector and will benefit from the latest scientific developments.

WFLDB Founding Partners

Governmental institutions as well as private companies have funded Phase One of the project, addressing the most urgent needs of the food and beverage sector framed in a consensual process. The funding partners are the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME), Bayer CropScience AG, the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), General Mills, The Kraft Heinz Company, Mars, Mondelēz International, Monsanto, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Syngenta and Yara.

An advisory board comprised of international organizations and NGOs has accompanied the project providing valuable views from the civil society. With their participation to the WFLDB, the industry and public authorities successfully collaborated and have now the basis for the development of sustainable food production systems and ensuring better consumer information.

Further information

For further information about the WFLDB: http://www.quantis-intl.com/wfldb/

Why a food-specific database?

Reliable LCA data is in increasingly high demand in the food and beverage sector. This data is needed, in particular, for the quantification of environmental impacts, which serves as a benchmark for the optimization of food production systems.

One of the major limitations of LCA in the food and beverage sector was the lack of consistent, up-to-date, comprehensive and transparent inventory data for food products and processes. High quality data are essential to ensure well-­informed decision-­making both at the company and policy levels. Furthermore, such data is needed to properly communicate on the environmental impact of products as in the case of Environmental Product Declarations (EPD).

The need for better data was identified and recognized by many stakeholders worldwide, such as the European Commission, the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) and The Sustainability Consortium. The WFLDB offers a response to the increasing demand for such data in the food sector and creates a basis to assist companies and environmental authorities in their efforts to support and incentivize sustainable food production and consumption.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): LCA is a scientific method used to quantify environmental impacts throughout all activities occurring over the life cycle of a product or service, from extracting natural resources to managing generated waste.

Datasets: An LCA dataset consists of all inputs (e.g. fertilizer, pesticides, machinery, water, energy carriers, transport) used for production of a commodity and the resulting emission to air, water and soil from the production and use of the inputs.

About Agroscope

Agroscope is the Swiss center of excellence for agricultural research with a high competence in the field of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in the agricultural and food sector. The LCA research group at Agroscope is working since the year 2000 in the field of LCAs in the context of agriculture and food. Two main strands can be differentiated in the activities: on the one hand the methodological development of agricultural and food LCA and on the other hand the application of this methodology in national and international research projects as well as in political or business consulting processes. Focus of the research of the LCA group is eco-­design, environmental information for food products and resource efficiency in agricultural production systems.

About Quantis

Quantis is a global leader in sustainability and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) expertise, services, consulting and tools. Quantis is specialized in supporting companies as they measure, understand and manage the environmental impacts of their products, services and operations.

Fuelled by its close ties with the scientific community and its strong track record with clients in diverse industries and public organizations, Quantis applies the science of sustainability to operational and strategic action plans. More specifically, Quantis is a partner to some of the world’s leading food businesses such as Danone, Nestlé, Bayer CropScience, Unilever, The Kraft Heinz Company and Mondelēz International and more.

Quantis has offices in Switzerland, Germany, France, and the US and counts some internationally renowned LCA experts among its team members.

Contacts

Jens Lansche, Project Manager Agroscope, Institute for Sustainability Sciences ISS Reckenholzstrasse 191, CH-8046 Zurich, Switzerland jens.lansche@agroscope.admin.ch +41 (0)58 468 71 57

Laura Peano, Product Manager Quantis International EPFL Innovation Park Building D, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland laura.peano@quantis-intl.com +41 (0)21 693 91 94

Lori Gustavus, Director of Communications & Marketing Quantis International 42, boulevard de Sébastopol 75003 Paris, France lori.gustavus@quantis-­intl.com +33 09 63 23 04 67

www.quantis-­intl.com

Ania Biasio, Media Service Corporate Communication Agroscope Reckenholzstrasse 191, 8046 Zurich, Switzerland ania.biasio@agroscope.admin.ch +41 (0)58 468 72 74

www.agroscope.ch – gutes Essen, gesunde Umwelt