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
178. Food and climate change: FOODprint as a tool to support GHG
reduction in the Thai agri-food sector
Shabbir H. Gheewala 1,2,* , Rattanawan Mungkung 3
1 The Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment (JGSEE), King Mongkut’s University of Technology
Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand, 2 Center for Energy Technology and Environment, Ministry of Education,
Thailand, 3 Centre of Excellence on enVironmental strategy for GREEN business (VGREEN) and Department
of Environmental Science, Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University (KU), Bangkok, Thailand, Corresponding
author. E-mail: shabbir_g@jgsee.kmutt.ac.th
As a leading food producer and a major exporter, Carbon Footprinting (CF) and Labelling are seen as useful
tools in Thailand to quantify GHG emissions and identify the priority areas for GHG reduction for climate
change mitigation and to stimulate the development of innovative technology/management to produce lowercarbon
food products. CF was initiated through academic-industrial collaborative projects and national pilot
projects leading to the development of the national CF guideline as well as carbon footprint labelling
scheme. Though it has been well taken by the Thai agri-food industry for a few years already, it is still very
difficult for them to identify the required data, data sources and collection methods particularly for background
and secondary data. More importantly, they echoed the need for quick CF calculation for effective
business decisions which was limited by their lack of understanding of the underlying scientific background
and methodological issues (Mungkung et al., 2010). These issues are critical especially for small and medium
enterprises (SMEs) who do not always have the necessary competence. This has led to the initiative in
developing a carbon footprint calculation tool so called “FOODprint”, for the Thai agri-food industry, which
will serve as a means for capacity building. The development of FOODprint is being carried out by
VGREEN-KU, JGSEE and the Federation of Thai Industries together with 40 Thai food companies; the studied
products covering different sectors: agriculture, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture. FOODprint is based
on spreadsheets, with the flexibility to add on new sets of databases specific to a supply chain. The data requirements
and calculation methods are based on PAS 2050: 2011 (BSI, 2011). Specific templates for data
input and for CF calculation for plant/animal-based production systems, processing, packaging, transport of
inputs/distribution, sales, pre-consumption, and post-consumption waste management are included. A user
guideline of FOODprint provides the principles, methodology and practical approach for data collection,
transformation and input. The CF results are illustrated in tables and graphs showing contribution analysis,
including comparison with similar products from previous studies for benchmarking. Possible strategies to
reduce GHG emissions are suggested for further analysis and the high-level analysis of each option is calculated
and compared for management decisions. This also fits well for developing Nationally Appropriate
Mitigation Actions (NAMA), supporting wider application of carbon footprinting and labelling, as well as to
anticipate the market requirement of carbon labelling both for domestic and export products, which will contribute
to climate change mitigation and promote low-carbon trade between Thailand and EU. This will also
lead to a synergistic effect of this project with the EU's existing Integrated Product Policy (IPP) which aims
to improve the environmental performance of products along their life cycle. As Thailand is the very first
country in ASEAN taking initiative on carbon footprinting and labelling, the knowledge and experiences
gained from this project can be shared with other ASEAN countries through the collaborative framework of
“ASEAN Climate Change Initiative: ACCI” for joint response and efforts to combat climate change.
References
Mungkung R., Gheewala, S., Bonnet, S., Hospido, A., Kanyarushoki, C., van der Werf, H. and Poovarodom,
N. 2010. Carbon Footprinting and Labelling: Experiences from the Thai food industry Available online:
http://www.thaicarbonlabel.sci.ku.ac.th/
BSI, 2011. PAS 2050:2011. Specification for the assessment of the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of
goods and services. British Standards Institution
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