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

GROUP 2, SESSION A: CARBON OR WATER FOOTPRINTS, SOIL, BIODIVERSITY 8 th Int. Conference on LCA in the
Agri-Food Sector, 1-4 Oct 2012
50. Carbon footprint of Flemish livestock products
Ellen Bracquené * , Valerie Vandermeulen, Marianne Fernagut
Environment Resources Management, Brussels, Belgium,
ellen.bracquene@erm.com
Corresponding author. E-mail:
The purpose of this study is to develop a monitoring tool for the carbon footprint of the Flemish livestock
farming produce. A carbon footprint quantifies the climate change impact of an activity, product or service.
Considering the current interest to mitigate the consequences of climate change, it is important to have a
clear understanding of this impact. When developing a monitoring tool related to the impact of food production
systems, horticulture and fishery products should also be taken into account, however this is not covered
by the scope of this study. Currently there are several international carbon footprint calculation initiatives
being developed. However, there is no one unambiguous international standard or specific rules for
agricultural products.
Using the available international standards, a functional and transparent monitoring tool has been developed
to determine the carbon footprint of the Flemish livestock farming products. This study focuses on the livestock
industry and more specifically on the supply chain of beef, pork and milk. A method was formulated
and applied to these product groups, revealing the influencing parameters and ‘hotspots’ within the parts of
the food chain this study focused on.
Where the results show the most potential for reducing the emissions, the ‘hotspots’ identified will have recommendations
on how these can be implemented. This can help the Flemish government or the stakeholders
involved to develop a strategy for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. In this way, a carbon footprint
may contribute to make the agro food chain in Flanders as well as the livestock industry in particular more
sustainable.
For this the general standards about carbon footprinting such as the PAS2050 and the ISO14067 have been
used. For milk, there was the additional use of the guidelines of the International Dairy Federation (IDF).
Critical points of the methodology that have an influence on the carbon footprint are the choice of functional
unit, the system boundaries and the allocation method (how to allocate the emission of greenhouse gases
among the various co-products emerging from a single process). All these were addressed during the study.
Data and knowledge has been collected from the faculty of bioscience engineering of Ghent University, data
of Bemefa, the farmers union (Boerenbond) and the ILVO. The data regarding other levels in the supply
chain (mainly the processing industry) have been primarily collected through in-depth interviews and primary
activity data. Within the current scope of the study, no primary data were collected at the farm level.
In general it can be stated that the data used are of good quality and represent livestock farming within Flanders.
The principal part of the activity data originate from reliable sources, however there is always some
natural variability. This is dependent of external factors (e.g. differences in breeds, farming yields will differ
yearly, the composition of feed concentrates can vary depending on the available commodities and market
prices). Furthermore a number of data points cannot be easily measured under real life conditions (e.g. the
consumption of feed mixtures per animal and the number of days on the pasture), and estimation is necessary
based on expert opinion. The data used were also verified and validated by the members of the steering
committee. The emission factors originate from acknowledged life cycle inventory databases and literature
sources, and can be considered as representative for Flanders. Other available sources were used to crosscheck
the values and are reported in a transparent way.
The carbon footprint results depend on the data quality of both the collected activity data and the available
emission factors. The data and calculations in the developed carbon footprint models of the current project
are highly detailed. In some cases however, reference values and standard formulas from relevant literature
or other existing models were applied. In future, the current carbon footprint models could be refined and
improved if additional data is collected. The shortcomings and restrictions of the current dataset are reviewed
below. Recommendations are made to solve the identified knowledge gaps in Flanders.
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