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The European Green Deal and the German Resource Efficiency Programme both aim at decoupling resource consumption and associated environmental burdens from economic growth. Monitoring the progress of such policies requires robust estimates of environmental pressures and impacts, both from a domestic and a footprint perspective. Building on the life cycle assessment‐based consumption footprint (CoF) indicator, developed by the European Commission Joint Research Centre, we assess the environmental impacts of Germany's consumption in the areas of food, mobility, housing, household goods, and appliances during the period 2010–2018. A comparison between European and national consumption statistics revealed some differences in terms of data composition, granularity, consumption intensities, and calculated environmental impacts. Using national data sources results in slightly lower environmental impacts (e.g., due to differences in the assessment scope of national statistics) and requires some data preparation to match the CoF indicator. Emerging consumption trends can be highlighted using national data. Both data sources converge on main trends: Germany transgresses the safe operating space for several impact categories, with consumption of food, household goods, and mobility being the main drivers. Domestic impacts have decreased over time at the expense of outsourcing environmental pressures and impacts to other countries. The CoF indicator could complement resource monitoring frameworks and might be further aligned to the national context using country‐level consumption statistics and life cycle inventory data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental sustainability boundaries can be used as references in evaluations of the absolute sustainability of activities and for developing policy targets and strategies. Recent literature has applied boundaries for climate change in different ways in life cycle assessment and there is a need for a systematic overview of these approaches, their compatibility with different types of assessments, and their effects on assessment results. This paper addresses that need by identifying and contrasting five approaches to operationalizing the climate change boundary and applying these approaches to a common case of the EU27 + UK consumption footprint in 2019. The identified operationalization approaches are found to be either static or dynamic. Static approaches enable comparison with a boundary which is constant through time, while dynamic approaches interpret the environmental sustainability boundary as a trajectory toward reaching net‐zero emissions at the right time. When applying the five operationalization approaches to the 2019 consumption footprint of the EU27 + UK, we find that emissions reduction should be more ambitious than the current European Green Deal targets. For policymaking, the static approaches can offer a highly ambitious ideal reference aiding immediate action but can lack adaptability to evolving conditions. Dynamic approaches better address long‐term goals and evolving knowledge but are more complex. This study contributes to the literature on absolute sustainability assessment by unravelling model choices and their implications for assessment results and policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban agriculture has become a common form of urban land use in European cities linked to multiple environmental, social and economic benefits, as well as to diversified forms (from self-production allotments to high-tech companies). Social acceptance will determine the development of urban agriculture and specific knowledge on citizens’ perception is required in order to set the basis for policy-making and planning. The ecosystem services provided by urban agriculture can be determinant in this process. The goal of this paper is to evaluate the social acceptance and the perceived ecosystem services of urban agriculture in the city of Bologna (Italy), as an example of a Southern European city. In particular, we evaluated the preferences for urban land uses, for different typologies of urban agriculture and for the resulting products, the perceived provision of ecosystem services and the willingness to engage in new initiatives. A survey that investigated these topics (including open questions, closed questions and Likert-scale evaluation) was performed on the citizens of Bologna (n = 380) between October and November 2016. Results showed that urban agriculture is widely accepted by the inhabitants of Bologna, particularly regarding vegetable production. Although intensive farming systems were the least preferred forms to be implemented in Bologna, citizens highly accepted a large variety of urban agriculture goods, with preference for those obtained from plants as compared to animal products. The willingness-to-pay for urban food products was mostly the same as for conventional ones, although the participants recognised the social values, proximity and quality of the former. Socio-cultural ecosystem services were perceived as more valuable than environmental ones. Policy-making recommendations can be extracted from the results to facilitate the development of urban agriculture plans and policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper performs a multi-national assessment to provide a more comprehensive vision of the potential implementation of Rooftop Greenhouses in retail parks from a theoretical perspective. A geographic information system – life cycle assessment method is used to quantify both the potential and the expected benefits of implementing rooftop greenhouses. We evaluate eight case studies in Europe and South America, paying attention to geographical constrasts (e.g., climate). We also focus on comparing the differences between isolated rooftop greenhouses and integrated rooftop greenhouses by evaluating the implications of a symbiotic metabolism. Results showed that retail parks have a large potential for the implementation of rooftop greenhouses in the short-term (53–98% of the rooftops are technically and economically feasible), being architecture one of the main constraints (i.e., roof material limited the potential to 11% for the Colombian case). Retail parks performed better than industrial parks as urban locations for such projects. The employment of isolated rooftop greenhouses in these areas obtained large values of production (31–234 tonnes of tomato per ha), CO 2 savings (16–112 tonnes of CO 2 eq per ha) and food self-supply (380–21,500 people per ha; 3.5–60% of local tomato demand). When considering an industrial symbiosis approach, integrated rooftop greenhouses (with exchange of energy and CO 2 ) could boost food production and self-supply values (up to 1.8 times) as well as the environmental benefits from local production (up to 2.5 times higher). Integrating the water flow from rainwater harvesting on the building into the crop production would ensure crop's water self-sufficiency, apart from one case (69% of self-sufficiency). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban rooftop farming favours local food production. Although rooftop farming is perceived as a sustainable system, there is a lack of quantitative studies. There, we set up experiments in the community rooftop garden of a public housing building in Bologna, Italy, between 2012 and 2014. We grew lettuce, a leafy vegetable, using three techniques: nutrient film, floating hydroponic and soil cultivation. We also grew tomato, chilli pepper, eggplant, melon, watermelon on soils. Data was analysed by life cycle assessment for environmental and economic performance. Results reveal that the best techniques of lettuce cultivation to address global warming were floating in the summer, with 65-85 % less environmental impact per kilogran than nutrient film; and soil production in the winter, with 85-95 % less environmental impact. Furthermore, floating production was 25 % cheaper in summer, and soil was 65 % cheaper in winter, compared to the nutrient film technique. For soil production, eggplants and tomatoes showed the best environmental performances of about 74 g CO per kg. Eggplant production in soil was cheapest at 0.13 € per kg. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the application of rooftop greenhouses (RTGs) to integrate agriculture into cities has increased, although the area where they can be potentially implemented has not been quantified yet. Consequently, this paper aims to design a guide to evaluate the potential implementation of RTGs in industrial and logistics parks and to apply the guide to the case study of Zona Franca Park (Barcelona, Spain). Eight percent of the rooftops were identified as feasible for a short-term implementation of RTG, according to the defined technical, economic, legal, and agricultural criteria. Estimations indicated that the annual tomato production in this area could account for almost 2,000 tons, which is equivalent to the yearly tomato demand of 150,000 people. Besides, this production could substitute imported tomatoes, and avoiding their distribution would represent savings of 65.25 t of CO2eq·m−2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable manufacturing has increasingly included design for environment methodologies with the objective of improving the environmental performance of products over their entire life cycles. Current European Union (EU) directives on eco-design focus on the use phase of energy-related products (ErPs). However, the maintenance of various household non-ErPs is performed with ErPs; therefore, the environmental impacts of product maintenance have an important role in the life cycle of non-ErPs. This article presents two eco-design studies where the implementation of improvement strategies of the use and maintenance phase of products had relevant results. Furthermore, environmental communication-to-user strategies were important to ensure the commitment of users toward eco-efficient behaviors. First, a knife was eco-designed according to strategies which focused on materials, processing, maintenance, and communication to user. By applying eco-design in a cradle-to-consumer scope, improvements decreased the environmental impact of the eco-designed product by 30%. However, when considering the entire life cycle of the eco-designed product, environmental impacts could be reduced by up to 40% and even up to ≈93% (depending on the cleaning procedure) as a result of large improvements in the maintenance stage. Second, a woman's jacket was eco-designed following multifunctionality, recycled materials, and efficient maintenance strategies. The new Livingstone jacket reached environmental improvements between 32% and 52% in the indicators analyzed. In this case, maintenance contributed between 40% and 87% of the reduction. As shown in this study, maintenance behavior and communication-to-user strategies are crucial to the eco-design of different household products (traditional vs. flexible design) and their consideration in the design process can reduce their environmental impact by between 40% and 80%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In developing countries, particularly in Latin America, the rapid growth of urban areas has led to complex problems, including the exploitation of natural resources, environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Massive structures are being built to meet the housing demand. Moreover, there is excessive use of energy through appliances, interior lightning and air conditioning which generate GHG. This paper aims to propose green sustainable strategies to reduce GHG emissions associated with energy consumption in a social neighbourhood in Merida, Mexico. The strategies were eco-technology (efficient equipment) and green spaces (sedum + food production). Once the context is set, the study collected data about energy habits and consumption. The global warming potential (GWP) was calculated through a life cycle assessment (LCA) to assess the level of GHG emissions associated with household energy consumption. The CO2eq emissions avoided by the transport of the food (tomatoes) from the production site to the consumer were calculated. Distribution, packaging and retail were included. All strategies combined can prevent up 1.06 tons CO2eq/year; this represents 67% of the emissions originating from a reference household (34% avoided by eco-technology, 24.5% fixed by green spaces and 8.4% avoided by food logistics). At city scale (112,000 houses) this represents 100,352 tons/CO2eq/year. This study supports the importance of integrating environmental quantitative tools in planning cities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: BACKGROUND: As urban populations increase so does the amount of food transported to cities worldwide, and innovative agro‐urban systems are being developed to integrate agricultural production into buildings; for example, by using roof top greenhouses (RTGs). This paper aims to quantify and compare, through a life cycle assessment, the environmental impact of the current linear supply system with a RTG system by using a case study for the production of tomatoes. RESULTS: The main results indicate that a change from the current linear system to the RTG system could result in a reduction, per kilogram of tomatoes (the functional unit), in the range of 44.4–75.5% for the different impact categories analysed, and savings of up to 73.5% in energy requirements. These savings are associated with re‐utilisation of packaging systems (55.4–85.2%), minimisation of transport requirements (7.6–15.6%) and reduction of the loss of product during transportation and retail stages (7.3–37%). CONCLUSIONS: The RTG may become a strategic factor in the design of low‐carbon cities in Mediterranean areas. Short‐term implementation in the city of Barcelona could result in savings of 66.1 tonnes of CO2 eq. ha−1 when considering the global warming potential, and of 71.03 t ha−1 when considering that the transformation from woodland to agricultural land is avoided. Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today 50 percent of the world's population lives in cities. This entails an excessive exploitation of natural resources, an increase in pollution, and an increase in the demand for food. One way of reducing the ecological footprint of cities is to introduce agricultural activities to them. In the current food and agriculture model, the fragmentation of the city and the countryside means energy use, CO2 emissions from transport, and large-scale marketing requirements. Rooftop Eco.Greenhouses (RTEG) consist of a greenhouse connected to a building in terms of energy, water, and CO2 flows; it is a new model for a sustainable production, an eco-innovative concept for producing high quality vegetables and improving the sustainability of buildings in cities. The main objective of this study is to examine the barriers and opportunities regarding the implementation of RTEG in Mediterranean cities in Europe. The work method consisted of discussion seminars involving an interdisciplinary group of experts in the area of agronomy, architecture, engineering, environmental sciences, industrial ecology, and other related disciplines. The barriers and opportunities of RTEG take into account social, economic, environmental, and technological aspects and were determined and analyzed according to three scenarios of implementation: residential buildings, educational or cultural buildings, and industrial buildings. We would highlight the interconnection of the building and the greenhouse as an opportunity of RTEG, making use of water, energy, and CO2 flows between both, as well as the decrease in food transportation requirements. The methodology applied to the study was positive due to the interdisciplinary participation of experts which facilitated a global vision of the implementation of the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food consumption is responsible for most global water consumption and associated environmental consequences. Therefore, quantifying and monitoring the water footprint (WF) of food consumption patterns is relevant to support policymaking toward sustainable diets. Although multiple WF approaches are available, such as Water Footprint Assessment (WFA) and the model AWARE (Available Water Remaining) for supply chains analysis, the latest is considered the reference after following an international consultation process. This research aims to develop a comparative methodological approach between the volumetric blue water footprint assessment (WFA), a pressure method, and the scarcity-weighted WF AWARE model as an impact method to evaluate the WF of EU27 food consumption. Due to limited blue WFA data availability, two scopes were considered: an "aligned scope" (cradle to farm gate) comparing both methods and a "full supply chain scope" (cradle to grave) only possible with AWARE. In the aligned scope, almonds and cashew have the largest pressure and impact in both methods (per kg of product). EU food consumption has a WF pressure under an "aligned scope" of ≈54 m3/capita/year and an impact of ≈3525 m3 eq/capita/year. When considering the "full supply chain", WF impact due to EU food consumption increases by 30% (compared with the "aligned scope"), with wine and chocolate at the top of the ranking. Integration of WFA data within the LCA inventory could be explored when WFA data also covers indirect WF of background processes and other supply chain stages. • Blue water footprint and AWARE are applied to calculate the water footprint of the EU food consumption. • Methods differ in terms of data coverage and inventory showing different results. • The ranking of food products is different between the methods. • Almonds and cashew are the products with the largest pressure and impact in both methods. • A full supply chain approach is needed to address systematically water related impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Defining sustainable cities is not straightforward. The main issues involved in urban sustainability are buildings, energy, food, green areas and landscape, mobility, urban planning, water and waste; and their improvement is promoted through different strategies. However, a quantitative method, such as life cycle thinking (LCT), is essential to evaluating these strategies. This paper reviews LCT studies related to urban issues to identify the main research gaps in the evaluation of these improvement strategies. The review identifies the main sustainability strategies associated with each urban issue and compiles articles that deal with these strategies through LCT, including environmental life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle costing (LCC), social LCA (S-LCA) and life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA), as well as integrated analyses with combined tools. Water, waste and buildings are the urban issues that accounted for a larger amount of studies. In contrast, a limited number of papers assessed urban planning and energy (excluding energy in buildings). Strong interrelations among urban issues were identified, most of them including water. In terms of methods, 79% of the studies exclusively applied life cycle tools (i.e., LCA, LCC, S-LCA or LCSA). Within this group, the environmental dimension was the focus of 84% of the papers. Single environmental indicators (e.g., global warming) were common in 20% of the analyses, highlighting the need to integrate more impact categories to prevent trade-offs. In the field of social and sustainability assessment, there is a need for methodological advances that foster their application in urban areas. Further research should cover the thematic and methodological gaps identified in this paper, such as developing models that assess complex urban issues, generating comprehensive LCT studies and promoting multi-indicators. Life cycle tools might benefit from revising the methodology with stakeholders to optimize the understanding and communication of life cycle results for policy- and decision-making processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rooftop agriculture (RA) is a building-based form of urban agriculture that includes both protected and nonprotected farming practices, such as rooftop greenhouses as well as open-air rooftop gardens and farms. The use of underexploited urban spaces on buildings for farming purposes is considered a useful strategy for targeting global concerns (e.g., the limitations in food security and land access, impacts of climate change or social exclusion). While previous studies have addressed selected RA cases and the general worldwide dissemination of RA, a systematic evaluation integrating the constantly evolving sector and its diversity (both commercial and noncommercial) is currently lacking. Here, we provide an overview of the current status of RA based on a metadata analysis of 185 publicly accessible cases. This paper summarizes the global trends and spatial distribution of RA cases and presents their main features. The results present the global distribution of different RA types over time, their diverging farming purposes and further characteristics (such as farm sizes, building typologies, growing systems, products and reported yields, activities, implementation of resource-efficient practices, or economic and social activities). The results indicate an emphasis on RA cases in North America (44% of the analyzed cases) and show that RA practices are mainly represented by open-air farms and gardens (84%), as the growing sector of rooftop greenhouses is still relatively small. Similarly, commercial cases are scarce, with the majority of RA cases targeting social-educational goals or the improvement of urban living quality. This tendency suggests a range of currently untapped business opportunities that, if developed, may contribute to the evolution of more sustainable and resilient city food systems providing fresh crops from the inner urban fabric. In conclusion, the research showed a rising global interest in RA, although stronger policy intervention is crucial to upscale RA practices to reach decisive environmental, economic and social benefits at the city level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Planetary Boundaries help quantify the environmental sustainability of consumption. • We developed LCIA-based planetary boundaries for evaluating the EU consumption. • EU consumption occupies a high share of the safe operating space globally available. • Planetary boundaries are fundamental to support policy making towards sustainability. • LCA-based planetary boundaries show intrinsic uncertainties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The planetary boundaries (PBs) represent a well-known concept, which helps identify whether production and consumption systems are environmentally sustainable in absolute terms, namely compared to the Earth's ecological limits and carrying capacity. In this study, the impacts of production and consumption of the European Union in 2010 were assessed by means of life cycle assessment (LCA)-based indicators and compared with the PBs. Five different perspectives were adopted for assessing the impacts: a production perspective (EU Domestic Footprint) and four distinct consumption perspectives, resulting from alternative modelling approaches including both top-down (input-output LCA) and bottom-up (process-based LCA). Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) results were assessed against LCIA-based PBs, which adapted the PBs framework to the LCIA indicators and metrics of the Environmental Footprint method (EF). Global environmental impacts transgressed several LCIA-based PBs. When assessing the overall environmental impacts of EU consumption compared to the global LCIA-based PBs, impacts of EU consumption related to climate change, particulate matter, land use and mineral resources were close or already transgressed the global boundaries. The EU, with less than 10% of the world population, was close to transgress the global ecological limits. Moreover, when downscaling the global PBs and comparing the impacts per capita for an average EU citizen and a global one, the LCIA-PBs were significantly transgressed in many impact categories. The results are affected by uncertainty mainly due to: (a) the intrinsic uncertainties of the different LCA modelling approaches and indicators; (b) the uncertainties in estimating LCIA-based PBs, due to the difficulties in identifying limits for the Earth's processes and referring them to LCIA metrics. The results may anyway be used to define benchmarks and policy targets to ensure that consumption and production in Europe remains within safe ecological boundaries, as well as to understand the magnitude of the effort needed to reduce the impacts. Image 1 • Planetary Boundaries help quantify the environmental sustainability of consumption. • We developed LCIA-based planetary boundaries for evaluating the EU consumption. • EU consumption occupies a high share of the safe operating space globally available. • Planetary boundaries are fundamental to support policy making towards sustainability. • LCA-based planetary boundaries show intrinsic uncertainties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]