IRSTEA, UMR ITAP, ELSA LCA research group and ELSA-PACT Industrial Chair for Environmental and Social Sustainability Assessment, 361 rue Jean-François Breton, BP 5095, Montpellier Cedex 5, France; Technical University of Denmark, Department of Management Engineering, Produktionstorvet 424, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark; IRTA, Ctra Cabrils km 2, Cabrils, Barcelona, Spain; Quantis, EPFL Innovation Park, Lausanne, Switzerland; Syngenta Crop Protection LLC, 410 Swing Rd., Greensboro, NC, United States; CIRAIG, Department of Chemical Engineering, École Polytechnique de Montréal (Qc), P.O. Box 6079, Montréal, Canada; Pesticides and Environment Management Centre, Tropical Pesticides Research Institute, P. O. Box 3024, Arusha, Tanzania; University of Otago, Department of Chemistry, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand; BASF SE, Agricultural Products Center, Limburgerhof, Germany; Environmental Resources Management Ltd, Eaton House Wallbrook Court North Hinksey Lane, Oxford, United Kingdom; University of Michigan, School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Ann Arbor, MI, United States; Group for Ecological Systems Design, Institute of Environmental Engineering, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Dr. Knoell Consult GmbH, Mannheim, Germany; Syngenta, Jealott’s Hill International Research Centre, Bracknell, Berkshire, United Kingdom; Agroscope, Institute for Sustainability Sciences, Zurich, Switzerland; Cycleco, 1011 Avenue Léon Blum, Ambérieu-en-Bugey, France; MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Jokioinen, Finland; European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Ispra, Italy; Veolia Environnement Recherche & Innovation, Centre de Recherche-Maisons-Laffitte, Chemin de la Digue, B.P. 76, Maisons-Laffitte Cedex, France; Radboud University Nijmegen, Department of Environmental Science, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Nijmegen, Netherlands; Bayer Technology Services GmbH, BTS-TD-TI-Sustainability Consulting, Leverkusen, Germany; SIK—Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology, Box 5401, Göteborg, Sweden
Rosenbaum, R.K., IRSTEA, UMR ITAP, ELSA LCA research group and ELSA-PACT Industrial Chair for Environmental and Social Sustainability Assessment, 361 rue Jean-François Breton, BP 5095, Montpellier Cedex 5, France, Technical University of Denmark, Department of Management Engineering, Produktionstorvet 424, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark; Anton, A., IRTA, Ctra Cabrils km 2, Cabrils, Barcelona, Spain; Bengoa, X., Quantis, EPFL Innovation Park, Lausanne, Switzerland; Bjørn, A., Technical University of Denmark, Department of Management Engineering, Produktionstorvet 424, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark; Brain, R., Syngenta Crop Protection LLC, 410 Swing Rd., Greensboro, NC, United States; Bulle, C., CIRAIG, Department of Chemical Engineering, École Polytechnique de Montréal (Qc), P.O. Box 6079, Montréal, Canada; Cosme, N., Technical University of Denmark, Department of Management Engineering, Produktionstorvet 424, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark; Dijkman, T.J., Technical University of Denmark, Department of Management Engineering, Produktionstorvet 424, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark; Fantke, P., Technical University of Denmark, Department of Management Engineering, Produktionstorvet 424, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark; Felix, M., Pesticides and Environment Management Centre, Tropical Pesticides Research Institute, P. O. Box 3024, Arusha, Tanzania; Geoghegan, T.S., University of Otago, Department of Chemistry, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand; Gottesbüren, B., BASF SE, Agricultural Products Center, Limburgerhof, Germany; Hammer, C., Environmental Resources Management Ltd, Eaton House Wallbrook Court North Hinksey Lane, Oxford, United Kingdom; Humbert, S., Quantis, EPFL Innovation Park, Lausanne, Switzerland; Jolliet, O., University of Michigan, School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Ann Arbor, MI, United States; Juraske, R., Group for Ecological Systems Design, Institute of Environmental Engineering, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, Dr. Knoell Consult GmbH, Mannheim, Germany; Lewis, F., Syngenta, Jealott’s Hill International Research Centre, Bracknell, Berkshire, United Kingdom; Maxime, D., CIRAIG, Department of Chemical Engineering, École Polytechnique de Montréal (Qc), P.O. Box 6079, Montréal, Canada; Nemecek, T., Agroscope, Institute for Sustainability Sciences, Zurich, Switzerland; Payet, J., Cycleco, 1011 Avenue Léon Blum, Ambérieu-en-Bugey, France; Räsänen, K., MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Jokioinen, Finland; Roux, P., IRSTEA, UMR ITAP, ELSA LCA research group and ELSA-PACT Industrial Chair for Environmental and Social Sustainability Assessment, 361 rue Jean-François Breton, BP 5095, Montpellier Cedex 5, France; Schau, E.M., European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Ispra, Italy; Sourisseau, S., Veolia Environnement Recherche & Innovation, Centre de Recherche-Maisons-Laffitte, Chemin de la Digue, B.P. 76, Maisons-Laffitte Cedex, France; van Zelm, R., Radboud University Nijmegen, Department of Environmental Science, Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Nijmegen, Netherlands; von Streit, B., Bayer Technology Services GmbH, BTS-TD-TI-Sustainability Consulting, Leverkusen, Germany; Wallman, M., SIK—Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology, Box 5401, Göteborg, Sweden
Purpose: Pesticides are applied to agricultural fields to optimise crop yield and their global use is substantial. Their consideration in life cycle assessment (LCA) is affected by important inconsistencies between the emission inventory and impact assessment phases of LCA. A clear definition of the delineation between the product system model (life cycle inventory—LCI, technosphere) and the natural environment (life cycle impact assessment—LCIA, ecosphere) is missing and could be established via consensus building. Methods: A workshop held in 2013 in Glasgow, UK, had the goal of establishing consensus and creating clear guidelines in the following topics: (1) boundary between emission inventory and impact characterisation model, (2) spatial dimensions and the time periods assumed for the application of substances to open agricultural fields or in greenhouses and (3) emissions to the natural environment and their potential impacts. More than 30 specialists in agrifood LCI, LCIA, risk assessment and ecotoxicology, representing industry, government and academia from 15 countries and four continents, met to discuss and reach consensus. The resulting guidelines target LCA practitioners, data (base) and characterisation method developers, and decision makers. Results and discussion: The focus was on defining a clear interface between LCI and LCIA, capable of supporting any goal and scope requirements while avoiding double counting or exclusion of important emission flows/impacts. Consensus was reached accordingly on distinct sets of recommendations for LCI and LCIA, respectively, recommending, for example, that buffer zones should be considered as part of the crop production system and the change in yield be considered. While the spatial dimensions of the field were not fixed, the temporal boundary between dynamic LCI fate modelling and steady-state LCIA fate modelling needs to be defined. Conclusions and recommendations: For pesticide application, the inventory should report pesticide identification, crop, mass applied per active ingredient, application method or formulation type, presence of buffer zones, location/country, application time before harvest and crop growth stage during application, adherence with Good Agricultural Practice, and whether the field is considered part of the technosphere or the ecosphere. Additionally, emission fractions to environmental media on-field and off-field should be reported. For LCIA, the directly concerned impact categories and a list of relevant fate and exposure processes were identified. Next steps were identified: (1) establishing default emission fractions to environmental media for integration into LCI databases and (2) interaction among impact model developers to extend current methods with new elements/processes mentioned in the recommendations. © 2015, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.