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

GROUP 6, SESSION B: METHODS, TOOLS, DATABASES 8 th Int. Conference on LCA in the
Agri-Food Sector, 1-4 Oct 2012
170. Guidelines for addressing environmental and social LCA within
Quebec’s food processing industry – Part 1: environmental aspects
Julie-Anne Chayer 1,* , Rosie Saad 1 , Catherine Brodeur 2 , Jean-Pierre Revérêt 2
1 Quantis, 395 Laurier Ouest, Montreal, QC, H2V 2K3, Canada, 2 Groupe AGéco, Corresponding author.
E-mail: julie-anne.chayer@quantis-intl.com
Many food industries are now developing responsible purchasing policies and challenging their suppliers by
asking for guarantees with regards to their environmental and social practices. In response to such product
and company-specific needs, life cycle assessment (LCA) is becoming a fundamental method widely used to
support informed decisions within a broader sustainable management. Based on a holistic approach, LCA is
a decision-support tool used for the assessment of potential environmental impacts of a product over its entire
life cycle. Such a meaningful assessment helps to identify environmental hotspots where actions can be
taken to reduce inefficiencies and energy cost while developing greener and socially acceptable products.
In an effort to provide a beneficial and competitive advantage for the food processing sector industries located
in Québec (Canada), a framework is being developed addressing both environmental and social aspects.
On one level, the outcome of this project encourages and facilitates the implementation and the
achievement of a company and/or product LCAs from SME’s to larger companies. Additionally, it can help
position both product and company in a green market influenced by the increasing demands of consumers.
However, since LCA results are conditioned by several choices to be taken from the very beginning of a
project, it is necessary to refine the scope and boundaries. This aspect is quite unique in this approach as only
few studies have considered both aspects of sustainable development, up until now. In addition, the framework
provided establishes a series of guidelines and rules that are built according to the ISO standards
(14040-14044), the guidelines for social life cycle assessment of products (UNEP, 2009) and Product Category
Rules (PCRs) development.
Such guidelines allow for an integrated and standardised approach for implementing a comprehensive LCA,
in order to ensure quality, consistency and comparability among studies for various food processing sectors.
In addition to providing information on how to define the functional unit, data quality requirements and other
requirements of the LCA, the guidelines help to find the best data available for a specific sector in a specific
region. The latter include sectors such as dairy products, poultry, juice and drinks, food packaging and many
others.
The process of developing such an initiative for the sector as well as the guidelines' environmental requirements
will be presented. This includes a list of stakeholders who participated in the guidelines' development
and the integration process of the socio-economic and environmental issues. Gains made by food processors
will also be shared.
References
UNEP/SETAC (2009). Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products. United Nations Environment
Programme. Paris.
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