TY - JOUR
T1 - Combining LCA and circularity assessments in complex production systems
T2 - the case of urban agriculture
AU - Rufí-Salís, Martí
AU - Petit-Boix, Anna
AU - Villalba, Gara
AU - Gabarrell, Xavier
AU - Leipold, Sina
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are grateful to Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona for awarding research scholarships PIF-UAB 2017 and ESTADES-PIF 2020 to M. Rufí-Salís. This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (AEU/FEDER) [CTM2016-75772-C3-1-R] and the “María de Maeztu” programme for Units of Excellence in R&D [CEX2019-000940-M]. A. Petit-Boix and S. Leipold thank the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research for the financial support of the research group “Circulus - Opportunities and challenges of transition to a sustainable circular bio-economy”, grant number 031B0018.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/3/1
Y1 - 2021/3/1
N2 - Local food production through urban agriculture (UA) is promoted as a means to make cities more sustainable. However, UA does not come free of environmental impacts. In this sense, optimizing urban resources through circular economy principles offers the opportunity to close loops and improve production systems, but an assessment of these systems through a combination of circularity and environmental tools is missing from the literature. The goal of our study is to analyse the environmental and circularity performance of applying circular strategies in UA systems. We use Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the Material Circularity Indicator (MCI) to assess the baseline scenario of a Mediterranean rooftop greenhouse and the application of 13 circular strategies. The results show that the MCI score for all strategies was biased by overweighting of the water subsystem in the mass balance. Based on this finding, we propose a series of modifications to the circularity assessment, calculating specific MCI scores for every subsystem before coupling them with environmental life cycle indicators. The outcome is a set of indicators that use the Linear Flow Index (LFI), where decreasing the values as much as possible will correspond to a decrease both in environmental impact and linearity of the system (the inverse of circularity). The use of these indicators provides a simple understanding of the circular and environmental performance of these systems while being fully adaptable. With these indicators, the uses of nutrient recirculation, struvite fertilizer or recycled materials were the best strategies to improve urban agriculture.
AB - Local food production through urban agriculture (UA) is promoted as a means to make cities more sustainable. However, UA does not come free of environmental impacts. In this sense, optimizing urban resources through circular economy principles offers the opportunity to close loops and improve production systems, but an assessment of these systems through a combination of circularity and environmental tools is missing from the literature. The goal of our study is to analyse the environmental and circularity performance of applying circular strategies in UA systems. We use Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the Material Circularity Indicator (MCI) to assess the baseline scenario of a Mediterranean rooftop greenhouse and the application of 13 circular strategies. The results show that the MCI score for all strategies was biased by overweighting of the water subsystem in the mass balance. Based on this finding, we propose a series of modifications to the circularity assessment, calculating specific MCI scores for every subsystem before coupling them with environmental life cycle indicators. The outcome is a set of indicators that use the Linear Flow Index (LFI), where decreasing the values as much as possible will correspond to a decrease both in environmental impact and linearity of the system (the inverse of circularity). The use of these indicators provides a simple understanding of the circular and environmental performance of these systems while being fully adaptable. With these indicators, the uses of nutrient recirculation, struvite fertilizer or recycled materials were the best strategies to improve urban agriculture.
KW - Circular economy
KW - Circularity Indicators
KW - Industrial ecology
KW - Life Cycle Assessment
KW - Urban agriculture
KW - Urban metabolism
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85098069990&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.105359
DO - 10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.105359
M3 - Artículo
AN - SCOPUS:85098069990
VL - 166
JO - Resources, Conservation and Recycling
JF - Resources, Conservation and Recycling
SN - 0921-3449
M1 - 105359
ER -