Allocation factors and issues in agricultural carbon footprint: a case study of the Canadian pork industry
Allocation factors and issues in agricultural carbon footprint: a case study of the Canadian pork industry
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DOI：
10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.11.046
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发表时间：
2016-02
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
X. Vergé;D. Maxime;R. Desjardins;A. VanderZaag
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
X. Vergé;D. Maxime;R. Desjardins;A. VanderZaag
选择用来估计人类活动的环境影响的计算途径是很重要的，因为它可以修改这类研究的结果。这就是生命周期分析（LCA）的情况，它现在通常用于进行环境评估：所使用的分配方法对计算有重要影响，并可能影响最终结果。就采用和对结果的信任而言，这可能对LCA产生非常负面的影响。在目前的研究中，加拿大养猪部门被用作案例研究，并对2006年猪肉生产的碳足迹进行了区域估计。在本研究中，使用不同的分配方法进行这些计算，以研究每种方法的影响和有用性。采用了不分配、经济分配和大规模分配方法。由于气候和生产类型的特殊性，除全国估计数外，还对加拿大东部和西部进行了计算。东部地区的温室气体排放总量（350万吨二氧化碳当量）高于西部地区（310万吨二氧化碳当量）。然而，碳足迹却呈现出相反的趋势。考虑原始切割产品，再考虑质量分配、经济分配和不分配，东部的碳当量为每公斤产品2.6、3.8和4.0公斤co2e，西部为每公斤产品3.2、4.7和5.0公斤co2e。目前的研究表明，事实上，分配方法是不可互换的，应根据每项研究的特殊性来选择：不分配方法可用于分析农场生产，经济分配面向市场研究，大规模分配非常适合环境可持续性评估。
The choice of the calculation pathways used to estimate the environmental impact of human activities is of importance since it could modify the results of such studies. This is the case for the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) which is now commonly used to perform environmental assessments: the allocation methods used have an important impact on calculations and can potentially affect the final results. This could have a very negative impact on the LCA in terms of adoption and trust in the results. In the current study, the Canadian swine sector has been used as a case study and the carbon footprint of pork production has been estimated regionally for the year 2006. In this study, these calculations were performed using different allocation approaches to study the impact and usefulness of each method. No-allocation, economic-allocation, and mass-allocation approaches were used. Owing to climate and production-type specificities, calculations were done for eastern and western Canada in addition to the national estimates. Total greenhouse gas emissions were higher in the east (3.5 Mt CO2e) than in the west (3.1 Mt CO2e). However, the carbon footprint followed an opposite trend. Considering the primal cut products and, in turn, the mass allocation, the economic allocation and no allocations, the CFs were 2.6 kgCO2e, 3.8 kgCO2e and 4.0 kgCO2e per kg of product for the east and 3.2 kgCO2e, 4.7 kgCO2e and 5.0 kgCO2e per kg of product for the west. The current study shows that, in fact, allocation methods are not interchangeable and should be selected based on the specificity of each study: the no-allocation approach can be used to analyze on-farm production, economic allocation is oriented to market studies, and mass allocation is well suited to environmental sustainability assessments.