presentation at the European Roundtable for Sustainable Consumption and Production 2012 Bregenz, Austria (http://www.erscp2012.eu/)

1. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
Measuring sustainability,
setting incentives and
involving actors
the GLOBAL 2000 adaptive labeling approach for
agricultural products
Martin Wildenberg, Tanja Altaparmakova, Kewin Comploi, Dominik Frieling, Lydia Matiasch
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2. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
Introduction
The Pro-Planet Label
The GLOBAL 2000 Sustainable Agricultural Practice Framework
Results
Conclusions
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3. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
We wanted a label that:
- Focuses on conventional food
- Can make the environmental impact of a product visible
- Induces a process with the participants to increase the sustainability of
their products step by step
- Rests on measurable indicators -> you can only manage what you know
- Creates a Win – Win situation for producers – retailer – customer and
environment
- Focuses on whole production chain
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4. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
The Label
In Germany & Austria
- Identify & resolve social and ecological
hot-spots in the production chain
In Austria:
For fruits, vegetables and eggs:
Cooperation between Caritas, REWE &
GLOBAL 2000
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5. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
GLOBAL 2000 Sustainable Agricultural Practice Framework
Aim:
• set incentives for farmers, distributors and retailers to adopt
a more sustainable production mode
• inform consumers about environmental impacts of their
choices.
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6. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
The building blocks of the program
Ecological Sustainability
Stakeholder process
Rules and regulations
Indicator set Pesticide Monitoring
Consumer Safety
Good Agricultural
GRASP & Caritas
Social Practice
Global Gap
Practice
SA 8000
PRP
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7. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
The focus of our indicator system
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8. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
Farm based indicators
N-balance
P-balance Calculated by INL
Humus-balance using the model
REPRO (Hülsbergen
Pesticide use et al 2003)
Energy intensity
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9. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
Farm based indicators
N-balance Data needed:
-Field records (machine use etc.)
P-balance -Pesticide use
Humus-balance -Yields
Pesticide use In case of fruit rotation the data
Energy intensity should cover at least three years
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10. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
Per service unit indicators:
Carbon-footprint
Biotic Material Input
A-biotic Material Input
Water input
Area used
Field to shelf
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11. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
Per service unit indicators:
Carbon-footprint Data collection via
standardized
Biotic Material Input formula
A-biotic Material Input
Calculated by using
Water input factors from the
Area used EcoInvent Database
Field to shelf
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12. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
Setting benchmarks to the indicators
All indicators are transformed into values between 0 – 1 using a weighing function
To comply with the Label
- all indicator values have to be above the critical-value
- the average over all indicator values has to equal or exceed 0.75
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13. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
For a product-group zero-
tolerance thresholds were
defined. If crossed the
product cannot be labeled.
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14. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
Results
After starting with the labeling of Austrian open-land
strawberries in June 2010 by now
• Over 400 farms have submitted data
• 25 product groups have been screened from which
• 17 products labeled.
• 21 stakeholder workshops were conducted
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15. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
Nitrogen balance
120
99
100 90
80 62
60 47 49 50
kg N / ( ha * year)
35
40 25 28
19
20
1
0
-20
-20
-40
-60
-80
-80
-100
Pro-Planet-Products
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16. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
Humus balance
250 207
200
kg C / (ha* year)
150
83 87
100
50 11
0
-50 -35
-100
-150 -128
-137
-200 -166
-195
-250
-247
-300
Pro-Planet-Products
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17. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
Pesticide use index
18 16
16 15 15
14
12
10 9
7
8
5 5
6 5 5
4
4 2
1 2
2
0
Pro-Planet product
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18. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
Comparing production systems
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19. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
3.5
3
2.5 Tomato Greenhouse AUT
2 (Gas-heating)
1.5 Tomato Greenhouse AUT
(comunity heating)
1
Cocktail Tomato ESP
0.5
(tunnel)
0 Tomato ESP (tunnel)
Tomato AUT (tunnel)
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20. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
CO2 eq. kg per kg product 7.0
5.79
1.6
1.4
6.0
1.4
5.0
kg CO₂ eq / kg product
1.2
1.0
1.0 4.0
0.8
0.6 3.0
0.6 0.5
0.4
0.2 0.3 0.3
2.0 1.2
0.2 0.2
0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2
0.2 0.1
1.0 0.3
0.0
0.0
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21. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
Contribution to CO2 in egg production
emissions with 100% soya from Brasil
Soya feed
17%
Farming
24% 59%
Rest of production
chain
Conclusion: switch to European soya
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22. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
CO2 eq. Kg / 100 eggs
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
100% Soya from Brasil 50% Soya Brasil 50% 100% Soya EU 100% Soya Aut 100% organic soya Aut
Soya EU
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23. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
CO2 eq. Emissions for sweet corn
0.45
0.4 Humus, Lachgas, Diesel
kg CO2 / kg Produkt
0.35 verbrauch
0.3
Transport
0.25
Lager & Verpackung
0.2
0.15 Produktion
0.1
0.05
0
Produzent 1 Produzent 2 Produzent 3 Produzent 4 Produzent 5 Produzent 6 Produzent 7 Mittelwert
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24. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
Reduced CO2 emissions through Pro Planet
Through change in packaging (strawberries & grapes):
Saves 10000 kg CO2 / year
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25. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
Reduced CO2 emissions through Pro Planet
Change to reusable transport packaging
Saves: 340 000 kg / year
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26. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
Reduced CO2 emissions through Pro Planet
Change to European soya (100%)
Saves: 750 000 kg CO2
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27. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
Reduced CO2 emissions through Pro Planet
Community heating compared to gas combustion:
1500 000 kg CO2
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28. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
Reduced CO2 emissions through Pro Planet
That is 2600 tons less CO2eq.!
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29. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
Possibility to achieve improvements over whole production
chain e.g.:
• Changed packaging e.g. Strawberries
• Increased share of reusable transport-packaging
• Commitments to change fruit rotation
• Commitment to change water use (Spain)
• Replacing synthetic with organic-fungicide
• Replacing South American soya with European
• Biodiversity projects
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30. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
Success factors
• Largely relying on data that is available and recorded anyway
• Indicators point at hotspots
• Indicators cover resource use, emissions & health
• Improvements can be quantified & communicated
• Indicators are relevant for producers
• Life cycle approach
• Third party assessments
• Stakeholder involvement
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31. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
Thank You!
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32. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
A-Biotic resource input Biotic resource input
0.9 0.85 2.500
0.80
0.8 2.05
0.7 2.000
kg / kg product
0.6
kg / kg product
1.500
0.5
0.4
1.000
0.3 0.27
0.2
0.500
0.1
0.046 0.05
0.0
0.000
Vegetable Eggs Greenhouse Vegetable Greenhouse Eggs
average vegetable average Vegetables
(community (community
heating) heating)
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33. Sustainability
Assessment , Solutions and Applied Research
Area input of vegetables, eggs and
Water input (l/kg) heated greenhouse vegetables
(community heating)
18
1.40
16 15.46
1.20 1.17
14
1.00
12
l / kg product
m² / kg products
10 9.4473 0.80
9
0.62
8
0.60
6
0.40
4
0.20 0.14
2
0 0.00
Greenhouse Vegetable Eggs Greenhouse Vegetable Eggs
vegetable average vegetable average
(community (community
heating) heating)
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