Felix Lücking presents results at the 14th International LCA Conference for Food in Barcelona

The International LCAFood 2024 Conference took place in Barcelona from 8 to 12 September. It was the 14th edition of the biennial conference. It is an important event for the international scientific community and stakeholders involved in the life cycle assessment (LCA) of food systems. Felix Lücking presented results from the corsus work on reducing the complexity of food assessment through a ‘single score’ in the session on ecolabelling.

LCAFOOD24
Felix Lücking &. Ulrike Eberleat LCA FOOD 2024 conference in Barcelona

When communicating environmental information to consumers, the respective information must be credible and easily understandable. The research question on which Felix Lücking’s work was based was therefore which environmental impacts must be included in an aggregated environmental assessment of food in order to be able to present a valid result. He analyzed various aggregation models that are based on different weighting factors for the environmental impacts and include different environmental impacts. The data basis for the analysis was the French life cycle assessment database for food Agribalyse, which contains well over 2,000 data records. The data basis was prepared for the statistical analysis by, for example, only including data records for which an assessment of biodiversity impacts was available. In addition, duplicates and outliers were sorted out so that a total of 1,500 data records could be included in the analysis. On this data basis, multiple linear regressions and an exhaustive search algorithm, which takes every possible combination of impact categories into account, were used to determine the impact categories with which the environmental footprint (EF) can be mapped in the best possible way. By combining this with other statistical methods, it was possible to work out that a (holistic) environmental score for food must include in particular climate and water and ideally be supplemented by eutrophication, ecotoxicity and the effects on terrestrial biodiversity. ‘It has been clearly shown that a climate label alone cannot provide sufficient information on the environmental impacts of food,’ emphasizes Felix Lücking, Consultant at corsus. ‘However, it is also not necessary to quantify all environmental impacts, as the majority of the variance can be explained with just a few impact categories.’

Ulrike Eberle, Managing Director of corsus, who chaired the session as an ecolabelling expert and member of the Scientific Committee of the LCA Food Conferences, emphasized that these are important results for the further development of ecolabels for food. However, she also emphasized that the results on ecolabelling presented at the conference clearly showed that further scientific work is needed, e.g. in relation to data bases, methods of impact assessment, the appropriate functional unit, reducing complexity, organic farming, but also aggregation and weighting or midpoint and endpoint indicators. The political framework is also still unclear in many countries and the interests of those involved are very different (politicians, food companies, retailers, organic and conventional producers). The EU and its member states also have different positions. Nevertheless, it is possible to start with LCA-based environmental labelling, as the example of France clearly shows.

The results presented were developed as part of the CLIF– Climate impacts of food project, which is funded by the BMUV as part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI).

Download presentation: https://www.corsus.de/wp-content/uploads/Felix_Luecking_FINAL.pdf

If you would like to find out more about the conference, you can find further information here. The abstracts of previous conferences can be found here.

We would like to thank the organizers of LCA Food 2024, especially IRTA and Montse Núñez, for the successful conference and the very good exchange, embedded in the lively culture and historic buildings of a city steeped in history.

corsus is a partner for sustainable food systems

Sustainable food systems are crucial for a healthy planet. The findings of the conference will feed directly into our further work on scientifically based and practical solutions. corsus will continue to actively shape the discourse on this topic and support political actors, municipalities, institutions and companies in implementing an environmentally friendly and health-promoting, ethically responsible diet that is appropriate for everyday life and enables socio-cultural diversity.

LCA FOOD 2024 Felix Lücking
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