Agri-footprint® is developed by Blonk Consultants. The aim of the LCA database is to facilitate transparency and a more rapid transformation to sustainable food supply chains. The first version of the database has been released in 2014, followed by yearly updates.
Availability of the LCA food database
The database is currently available in LCA software SimaPro. From June 2017 Agri-footprint will also be available in openLCA.
The Agri-footprint LCA database will help you to:
- Perform food specific agri-food Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) & Carbon Footprints;
- Access agri-food building blocks not offered by current databases;
- Manage your own agri-food LCA data like other sectors (e.g. plastics industry, glass industry);
- Access high quality data.
Learn more about Agri-footprint®
A little bit of history
The early years of Agricultural Life Cycle Assessments
In the 1970s and 1980s, most LCAs concentrated on food packaging (e.g. beverage containers, milk packaging, one-way versus returnable). The first agricultural LCAs were performed in the early 1990s.Pioneering food LCA case studies include the following:
- Tomatoes, by Gysi and Reist (1990)
- Ice cream, by Bolliger and Zumbrunn (1991)
- Margarines, by Unilever (Vis, Krozer, van Duyse & Koudijs, 1992)
Learn more about the history of agricultural LCAs
Agri-footprint® timeline
Development of the LCA database
2015
Major update: Agri-footprint® 2.0Critical review by RIVM
(National Institute for Public Health and the Environment)
2017
Agri-footprint® 4.0(expected end of 2017)
Methodology
Methodology reports of Agri-footprint® 2.0
The methodology report of Agri-footprint® contains background information on the methodology, calculation rules and data that are used for the development of the data published in Agri-footprint® 2.0.
The background report is split in two documents.
- Part 1 describes the overall methodology and basic principles like allocation, system boundaries, reviews and limitations;
- Part 2 describes the data that is used to model the processes.
Download methodology reports
Products
Products included in Agri-footprint®
Agri-footprint® contains many inventories of food, feed and beverage related ingredients.
In total the LCA database contains approximately 3,500 products and processes. Some examples:
- Fertilizer industry: Calcium ammonium nitrate, Ureum, Di ammonium phosphate, NPK fertilizers
- Vegetable Oil and Protein meal industry: Soybean oil, coconut oil, sunflower oil, palm oil
- Sugar industry: Beet sugar, Cane sugar
- Starch industry: Maize starch, flour, potato starch, tapioca
- Dairy industry: Milk, cream, milk powder
- Meat industry: Beef, veal, broilers, pork
Overview of all products
Environmental impacts
For several products of Agri-footprint® various environmental impacts are released.
The following environmental impacts are included:
Climate
Change
Change
Climate Change from Land Use Change (LUC)*
Freshwater
eutrophication
eutrophication
Marine
eutrophication
eutrophication
Agricultural
land occupation
land occupation
Water scarcity index
(Pfister et al., 2009)
(Pfister et al., 2009)
* As there is yet no scientific consensus on suitable methods to address Land Use Change (LUC) it shall be reported separately
Pfister, S.; Koehler, A.; Hellweg, S. (2009) Assessing the environmental impacts of freshwater consumption in LCA. Environmental Science and Technology, 43(11), 4098–4104; DOI: 10.1021/es802423e
Pfister, S.; Koehler, A.; Hellweg, S. (2009) Assessing the environmental impacts of freshwater consumption in LCA. Environmental Science and Technology, 43(11), 4098–4104; DOI: 10.1021/es802423e
Land Use Change
Land Use Change is fully integrated
The impact of Land Use Change (LUC) on climate change is included in Agri-footprint® 2.0 as a separate flow. This allows you to choose to include LUC or not in your sensitivity analysis.
The comprehensive model used is the PAS 2050-1: Direct Land Use Change Assessment Tool. This direct land use change (dLUC) is based on country averages modelled in the tool.
Direct Land Use Change Assessment Tool
The ‘Direct Land Use Change Assessment Tool’ provides a predefined way of calculating greenhouse gas emissions from land use change. These emissions arise when land is transformed from one use to another. A well-known example is deforestation for the cultivation of crops such as soybean and oil palm. The tool gives insights in the emissions for a specific country and crop combination and attributes them to the cultivated crops. However, not in every case the previous land use is known. In this case the tool uses averages of land use change in the specific country, based on data from the database of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAOSTAT).More information about the Direct Land Use Change Assessment Tool
Webinars
Learn more about Agri-footprint®: watch our free webinars
Regularly we organise webinars to inform you about Agri-footprint® and introduce you to new developments and their implications for the agricultural sector and the LCA community.
2016: How to determine the footprint of agri- and food products?
Our colleague Elena Koukouna introduced how you can determine the footprint of agri- and food products.
2016: Agri-footprint® 2.0 and SimaPro: Towards Sustainable Food and LCA Development
On 14th and 19th of January 2016 Blonk Consultants (developer of Agri-footprint®) and PRé (developer of SimaPro) organised a webinar about the updated version of Agri-footprint®.
2014: Introduction Agri-footprint®
On the 18th of June 2014 a webinar was held about Agri-footprint®.
Agri-footprint Performance Reports
Visual presentation of environmental performance of your product(s)
Agri-footprint® Performance Report shows why a product is a front runner in the field of sustainability. The report illustrates the environmental performance of a specific product, based on the Agri-footprint® methodology and database. One of the features of the Performance Report is the clear and visual presentation of (complex) information, which makes the information for instance accessible for your customers. The report presents the highlights in a visual way. The full Life Cycle Inventory is published in the Agri-footprint® database and the Life Cycle Impact Assessment can be reproduced using SimaPro.