Development of an integrated strategy for reducing the carbon footprint in the food industry sector

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

BACKGROUND

Dealing with the impact of human activities on climate change is one of the biggest challenges and highest priorities of EU environmental policy. The food industry is one of the most dynamic sectors of the European economy, but also accounts for 15 to 20% of total EU greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – with 5-6% coming from transport, 8-10% from food processing and packaging, 1-2% from refrigeration and 1-2% from retail. A changing climate also adversely affects food production through, for example, drought or extreme weather events. The Greek food industry sector accounts for 25% of the country’s GDP, while the pastry and flour sub-sector accounts for around 60% of food and drink companies. This sub-sector is similarly important in Italy. Tackling the impact on climate change coming from this sub-sector can benefit not only strategic planning on GHG emission reductions at national and EU level, but it can also enhance competitiveness through increased efficiency in the use of energy, resources and applied logistics.

OBJECTIVES

The main objectives of the LIFE FOODPRINT project were to evaluate the carbon footprint (CF) of the pastry and flour food industry sector along the production and supply chain, and to increase competitiveness through the development of an innovative software tool.

Specifically, the project aimed to:

Develop a robust and easy-to-use software tool that would enable the reliable determination and evaluation of the CF of pastry and flour food products, considering direct and indirect activities (e.g. energy consumption, water and wastewater management);

Perform a large-scale demonstration of the CF tool in six pastry and flour food companies in Greece and Italy, in order to evaluate the CF of a number of products along the supply chain, to identify the most critical steps in the supply chain that raise a product’s CF and to develop mitigation programmes for each of the food companies and their products with suitable offsetting measures;

Implement in one major pastry and flour food company in Greece and in one in Italy the CF offsetting programme of measures, derived from the analysis of the demonstration data;

Introduce the first Greek and Italian companies to effectively lower the CF of their products and successfully label them for the Greek and Italian markets;

Develop a national strategy for the reduction of GHG emissions from the pastry and flour food industries in Greece and Italy, which would also enhance their competitiveness in the future; and

Engage key stakeholders to ensure verification and promotion of results such as the uptake and wider use of the software tool and the labelling of food products with their CF.

RESULTS

The LIFE FOODPRINT project developed a decision support tool, the FOODPRINT Tool, which allows carbon footprint “hot-spots” along the whole supply chain of a product to be identified. The tool helps prioritise carbon footprint offsetting measures, at the level of product or process, taking into consideration the cost, the environmental impact and the ease of implementation of each measure. The carbon footprints of more than 100 products were estimated. They were chosen based on which measures could have a significant impact (often at low cost).

The carbon footprint reduction potential was assessed in eight pilot facilities. These tests showed that a 15% reduction in carbon footprint is feasible without entailing excessive costs. The project estimated that a GHG reduction in the range of 14% could be achieved, if at least 50% of the industry were to implement carbon footprint offsetting measures. This reduction is the equivalent to an avoidance of 114,000 tonnes CO2eq GHG emissions per year. The economic cost of the adoption of measures was estimated to be around €1 200 per tonne of CO2eq, with corresponding cost savings of €250 per tonne of CO2eq.

For the first time in Greece, the project introduced life cycle thinking and labelling of food products. Specifically, more than 3 000 cereal-based baby food products were distributed to a large supermarket chain. These products were labelled by the project with a relevant consumer message.

A main outcome of the project was the drawing up of two national Recommendation Strategic Plans for reducing GHG emissions from the food and drink industry. These were developed by the Greek food industry Federation, SEVT, and its Italian counterpart, Federalimentare Servizi (FEDSERV), and were widely distributed to their members. They were also submitted to the Greek and the Italian ministries of Environment, leading to a series of meetings on their adoption at national level.

Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report and After-LIFE Communication Plan (see "Read more" section).