Nadia Palmieri

Life Cycle Assessment in the Agri-food Sector

The current emphasis on sustainable development warrants the development and adoption of innovations to render industrial production more efficient in the use of natural resources and less polluting. In order to develop innovations for sustainability, management models and evaluation tools must integrate objective environmental considerations. One such tool is the Ambitec-Agro System, a set of integrated indicators specifically proposed to assess environmental impacts of agro-industrial innovations. This System compares an innovation’s environmental performance against the preexisting technology, focusing the analysis on the innovation-adopting establishment scale. This study presents a conceptual method that expands the scope of Ambitec-Agro by including life cycle thinking and watershed vulnerability analysis to the environmental performance evaluation of agro-industrial innovations. In order to develop this approach, the steps inherent to a multi-criteria decision support system were followed. The proposed method includes four life cycle phases to evaluate the environmental performance of an agro-industrial innovation: (i) raw material production used by innovation, (ii) innovation production, (iii) innovation use and (iv) its final disposal. The method also includes a vulnerability analysis of the watersheds where each life cycle phase takes place. The proposed integrated method provides decision makers a broadened view of an agro-industrial innovation environmental performance, shedding light on technological improvements throughout its entire life cycle.

Life Cycle Assessment in the Livestock and Derived Edible Products Sector

The livestock production sector represents more than 40 % of the economic value of EU primary productions. This sector consists of a huge diversity of processes and techniques depending on the animal species and the final products. Because of these differences, livestock productions are associated with several adverse effects on the environment, especially in the breeding phases and feeding composition and management; moreover, in terms of raising awareness of the environmental implications of livestock productions, LCA applications are of increasing importance for systematic assessment of the environmental burdens connected with this sector. After an overview of the structural and economic characteristics of the most significant livestock supply chain and its main environmental problems, we provide a description of the international state of the art of LCA implementations for livestock. Methodological problems connected with the application of LCA are investigated, starting with the critical analysis of international papers and the few Italian papers in the scientific literature. Finally, the best practices regarding LCA methodology implementation are proposed, in order to improve results and manage the methodological problems identified.

Socio-Economic Drivers, Land Cover Changes and the Dynamics of Rural Settlements: Mt. Matese Area (Italy)

Abstract The paper elaborates on the relationship between land cover changes and transformation drivers, by analysing the dynamics that took place between 1990 and 2010 in Mt. Matese area (Italy). Mt. Matese is an interesting case study which was included as a pilot area in the Italian Strategy for Inner Areas. Drivers related to land cover changes include population characteristics, the agricultural and production system, tourist offer, location and settlements dynamics. Land cover changes and the dynamics of studied drivers are analysed in-depth, through a descriptive and multivariate analysis. Results highlight the difficult situation of the study area for many drivers. However, the slow changes in land cover and the potentialities offered by the natural environment, as well as by the agriculture and tourism sectors, outline some development prospects. The paper outlines the current scenario in the area and provides useful references for future policies aimed at setting up this area as National Park and at implementing the Strategy for Inner Areas.

THE ECO-EFFICIENCY OF THE DAIRY CHEESE CHAIN: AN ITALIAN CASE STUDY

The eco-efficiency of mozzarella cheese production was investigated in two dairy chains that differ in liquid whey recycling, with whey recycling (B) and without whey recycling (A), in cow diets. The total eco-efficiency (total GVA/total GWP) for 1 kg of mozzarella cheese ranged from € 0.19 (B) to € 0.16 per kg CO2-eq (A). The cheese-making phase of each diet accounted for about 3% of GWP total emissions. The mozzarella cheese making phase had the highest eco-efficiency ratio, while the milk production phase showed the lowest economic value and the highest impact. Findings suggest improvements in reducing the environmental burden of the primary phase while increasing its economic value.

University value for sustainability: What do stakeholders perceive? An Italian case study

The study focuses on stakeholders’ perception about the university role in pro-moting a regional development along a sustainable path. The opinions of the University of Molise (IT) teaching staff together with external stakeholders were jointly investigated. Both believed that the University should strengthen its role, but their opinions differed about which activities should to be prioritised - education for external stakeholders, research for teachers -. The importance of the third mission did not emerge. The University role for enhancing the environmental dimension of sustainability was perceived better than that for the social dimension. The diverging views of stakeholders highlight the need for a more systematic and integrated involvement of all relevant actors before starting a formal process toward sustainability. Il lavoro indaga la percezione del valore e del ruolo delle Universita nella promozione di uno sviluppo regionale sostenibile, muovendo dal caso di studio dell’Universita del Molise. Le opinioni del personale docente e degli stakeholder esterni sono congiuntamente rilevate. Entrambi i gruppi ritengono che l’Universita potrebbe intensificare il suo ruolo, ma le opinioni differiscono circa le attivita istituzionali prioritarie - la formazione per gli stakeholder esterni, la ricerca per il personale docente -. La percezione del ruolo dell’Universita a sostegno della dimensione ambientale prevale su quella a favore della dimensione sociale della sosteni-bilita. Modesta e l’attenzione verso la terza missione. Le divergenti opinioni sotto-lineano la necessita di un coinvolgimento sistematico di tutti gli stakeholder rile-vanti prima di avviare processi formali di sostenibilita.