LCA Food 2012 in Saint Malo, France! - Manifestations et colloques ...

PARALLEL SESSION 2A: LAND USE 8 th Int. Conference on LCA in the
Agri-Food Sector, 1-4 Oct 2012
Table 1 – Land use midpoints (UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative) and spatial details.
Midpoint Author Spatial
resolution
Delineation main drivers Source
ERP
Saad (2010) 36 lifezones
Annual precipitation,
annual biotemperature 1 MWPP
PCWPP
FWRP
,
potential evapotranspiration
Holdridge
lifezones
(Holdridge, 1947)
BPP
Brandão and Mila iCanals
(2011)
13 climate
zones
Mean annual temperature
& precipitation, potential
evapotranspiration,
soil types
IPCC climate
zones
(IPCC, 2009)
CSP
Müller-Wenk and
Brandão (2010)
14 biomes or
867 ecozones
Several, including species
endemism & richness,
rarity of habitat type
WWF biomes
(Olson et al., 2001)
1 : in this classification, an adjusted temperature considering that temperatures below freezing or above 30°C do not contribute to life proliferation.
2.3. Case study: bio-based polymers
The converted characterisation factors CFs’ were applied on a case study: the comparison of different
production locations of bio-based polymers, namely polylactic acid (PLA), polyhydroxy-alkanoate (PHA),
thermoplastic starch (TPS) and green polyethylene. Scenarii were designed according different feedstocks
and production locations. Since the comparative LCA is not the purpose of the present paper, only the CFs’
associated with all those scenarii are presented.
3. Results
3.1. Monetary and characterisation factors
Monetary factors (Figure 1 for the BPP) were calculated according to economic data, mostly available at
the country level. Economic valuation assumptions will be discussed. The choice of compensation systems
depends indeed of the performances required (increasing with the severity of the impacts modelled in the
midpoint level) and their real availability (described with the adaptation capacity): a technology may not be
available or affordable in a given country.
Figure 1. Map of the monetary factors for the Biotic Production Potential (BPP) into monetary units representing
the loss of natural capital of ecosystem services (FAO data, country level).
Multiplied with the physical midpoints and the exposure factor (1–AC), they generate the converted characterisation
factors CFs’ for all the nine land covers developed in 2.2.b, at a global level. Biogeographic and
economic boundaries were combined together to draw new frontiers for the ecosystem services (2.2.c). For
instance, a map for an agricultural land use (or cover) is represented in Fig. 2.
Figure 2: Map of the Biotic Production Potential (BPP) endpoint indicators for the land cover “permanent
crops” (IPCC climate zones and FAO country frontiers intersected).
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