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
60. Hands-on water footprinting: putting the assessment of
agricultural fresh water use into practice
Daniel Thylmann * , Annette Köhler, Sabine Deimling
PE INTERNATIONAL AG, Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany, Corresponding author. E-mail:
d.thylmann@pe-international.com
Freshwater scarcity is now recognised to become one of the main environmental issues in the future. However,
the consideration of fresh water consumption in life cycle modelling is still very young. The fact that
no standardised method has evolved so far has led to a hesitant reaction of stakeholders towards the generally
rising interest in the subject.
Agriculture contributes 80% to worldwide freshwater use (WWAP 2009), thus its key importance in sustainable
water management practices is undoubted. But agricultural systems are particularly difficult to assess in
an LCA framework, water use being no exception. PE INTERNATIONAL has implemented the latest methods
developed by Pfister et al. (2009, 2011) in their balancing approaches and is now conducting complete
water footprint assessments with consideration of regional water availability. The LCA software and database
GaBi was updated (GaBi 2012) and contains complete and consistent water inventory data now, allowing
assessment of fresh water use and consumption in an LCA framework using software solutions.
This paper describes how assessments of fresh water use in agricultural products can be put into practice
using the latest software solutions. More than 100 agricultural products contained in the GaBi 5 database
were updated to contain data on water use and consumption. Important lessons learned from this update
process are presented. Results from a case study on cotton cultivation in the US are shown, including differentiation
of water availability in four different cultivation regions in the US (Fig. 1). These results are considered
to be a representative example for a variety of other agricultural products as well.
The experiences gained underline the relevance of agricultural processes, especially of irrigation, for the
water footprint results of the complete value chain. It can also be seen that regional water availability needs
to be considered in order to derive meaningful conclusions from water use assessments. Another important
aspect is the necessity of consistent inventory data on water use and the difficulties to obtain these.
Water is an important aspect when considering the environmental impact of a product and should not be
ignored any longer in LCAs. With the methods on hand, it is now possible to account for fresh water consumption
in a LCA framework, also for agricultural products. However, large challenges lay ahead. Further
advancements are needed in the development of a harmonised and standardised method, especially for the
impact assessment phase. Finally, LCA is not meant to be a self-contained art. Not until companies, policy
makers, civil society and private people understand the necessity of a responsible use of fresh water resources,
the final goal of water footprinting will be reached.
References
GaBi, 2012. GaBi 5 - Software and Databases for Life-Cycle-Engineering, PE INTERNATIONAL AG,
Copyright, TM. Stuttgart, Echterdingen. 1992 - 2012.
Pfister, S.; Koehler, A.; Hellweg, S., 2009. Assessing the environmental impact of freshwater consumption
in LCA. Environ Sci Technol 43(11), 4098-4104.
Pfister, S; Bayer, P; Koehler, A; Hellweg, S, 2011. Environmental impacts of water use in global crop production:
hotspots and trade-offs with land use. Environmental Science & Technology 45, 5761-5768.
WWAP, World Water Assessment Programme, 2009. The United Nations World Water Development Report
3: Water in a Changing World, UNESCO, Paris and Earthscan, London.
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