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Sustainability is at the center stage of the media and professional gatherings worldwide. Several companies in the poultry allied industry have launched services to assess the sustainability of their clients’ production systems. They can also estimate how their products and services might improve sustainability.
However, due to the novelty of sustainability analysis, its terminologies and methodologies are not widely known by the poultry industry. There are several techniques to evaluate sustainability, such as life-cycle assessment.
LIFE-CYCLE ASSESSMENT
Often known as LCA or Life Cycle Analysis, is an analytical approach to assess the environmental burdens of products or services over their life cycle.
LCA compiles all inputs and outputs (materials and energy) from lifecycle phases included in the system boundary to assess sustainability metrics of interest.
The cradle-to-grave LCA includes analyzing the entire process from resource extraction to manufacturing, consumption, and end-of-life treatment, such as disposal.
This means from feedstuff and feed additive production to meat or eggs and disposal of mortality, litter, offal, and other byproducts. This methodology is described in the ISO 14040/14044 standard.
LCA Objectives
An LCA can be used for various objectives:
Acquire environmental information and integrate the ecological knowledge.
Identify potentials for optimization of the environmental performance.
Explore strategies to reduce the environmental impacts.
Provide early-stage environmental impact results of novel products.
Combine with economic analysis such as life-cycle costing to provide both environmental and economic sustainability.
Life-cycle phases
A holistic LCA approach, also called cradle-to-grave LCA, considers the entire life cycle of a product in five main phases or stages:
Raw materials extraction.
Product manufacturing.
Distribution.
Consumption.
End-of-life treatment.
This means the system boundary of such LCA includes upstream, the production system, and downstream processing.
HOW IS THE LCA CONDUCTED?
A standard LCA follows the ISO 14040/14044 in four steps:
Goal and Scope de finition: Establishing objectives, system parameters, and scopes; What goods are analyzed and contrasted under what circumstances?
Life Cycle Inventory analysis: Which resources are used? How much energy is consumed, and what emi...
