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Packaging is fundamental for food preservation and transportation but generates an environmental burden from its production and end-of-life management. This review evaluates packaging contribution to the environmental performance of seafood products. Life cycle assessment (LCA) studies were evaluated by both qualitative and quantitative analysis. The qualitative analysis assessed how direct (e.g., packaging material) and indirect impacts (e.g., influence on seafood loss and waste) have been considered, while the quantitative analysis evaluated packaging contribution to products’ weight and climate change impact. Qualitative analysis revealed that seafood LCAs focus mainly on direct environmental impacts arising from packaging materials, for which some articles conducted sensitivity analysis to assess materials substitution. Recycling was found to be the most common recommendation to diminish direct potential environmental impacts arising from packaging end-of-life. However, standardized recovery rates and other end-of-life options (e.g., reuse), should be considered. Quantitative analysis revealed that cans' production contributes significantly to the overall climate change impact for canned products. On average, it contributes to 42% of a product's climate change impact and 27% of a product's weight. Packaging has a lower contribution when considering freezing, chilling, and other post-harvesting processing. It represents on average less than 5% of a product's climate change impact (less than 1 kg CO2 eq/kg) and 6% of a product's weight. Packaging material production is more relevant to aluminum, tinplate, and glass than for plastic and paper. Therefore, it is essential to accurately include these materials and their associated processes in inventories to improve the environmental assessment of seafood products. This work was supported by the NEPTUNUS project (EAPA_576/2018). The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of Interreg Atlantic Area. Ana Cláudia Dias, Paula Quinteiro and Tamíris da Costa acknowledge FCT/MCTES for the financial support to CESAM (UIDB/50017/2020+UIDP/50017/2020), through national funds, and Ana Cláudia Dias and Paula Quinteiro to the research contracts CEECIND/02174/2017 and CEECIND/00143/2017, respectively. peer-reviewed 2022-08-24

The availability of freshwater is one of the biggest limitations and challenges of food production, as freshwater is an increasingly scarce and overexploited resource in many parts of the world. Therefore, the concept of water footprint (WF) has gained increasing interest, in the same way that the generation of food loss and waste (FLW) in food production and consumption has become a social and political concern. Along this line, the number of studies on the WF of the food production sector is currently increasing all over the world, analyzing water scarcity and water degradation as a single WF indicator or as a so-called WF profile. In Spain, there is no study assessing the influence of FLW generation along the whole food supply chain nor is there a study assessing the different FLW management options regarding the food supply chain’s WF. This study aimed to assess the spatially differentiated WF profile for 17 Spanish regions over time, analyzing the potential linkages of FLW management and water scarcity and water degradation. The assessment considered compliance and non-compliance with the Paris Agreement targets and was based on the life cycle assessment approach. Results are highlighted in a compliance framework, the scenarios found that anaerobic digestion and aerobic composting (to a lesser extent) had the lowest burdens, while scenarios with thermal treatment had the highest impact. Additionally, the regions in the north of Spain and the islands were less influenced by the type of FLW management and by compliance with the Paris Agreement targets.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been widely applied in many different sectors, but the marine products and seafood segment have received relatively little attention in the past. In recent decades, global fish production experienced sustained growth and peaked at about 179 million tonnes in 2018. Consequently, increased interest in the environmental implications of fishery products along the supply chain, namely from capture to end of life, was recently experienced by society, industry and policy-makers. This timely review aims to describe the current framework of LCA and its application to the seafood sector that mainly focused on fish extraction and processing, but it also encompassed the remaining stages. An excess of 60 studies conducted over the last decade, along with some additional publications, were comprehensively reviewed; these focused on the main LCA methodological choices, including but not limited to, functional unit, system boundaries allocation methods and environmental indicators. The review identifies key recommendations on the progression of LCA for this increasingly important sustaining seafood sector. Specifically, these recommendations include (i) the need for specific indicators for fish-related activities, (ii) the target species and their geographical origin, (iii) knowledge and technology transfer and, (iv) the application and implementation of key recommendations from LCA research that will improve the accuracy of LCA models in this sector. Furthermore, the review comprises a section addressing previous and current challenges of the seafood sector. Wastewater treatment, ghost fishing or climate change, are also the objects of discussion together with advocating support for the water-energy-food nexus as a valuable tool to minimize environmental negativities and to frame successful synergies. This work was supported by the EAPA_576/2018 NEPTUNUS project. The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of Interreg Atlantic Area. Ana Cláudia Dias and Paula Quinteiro acknowledge FCT/MCTES for the financial support to CESAM (UIDB/50017/2020+UIDP/50017/2020), through national funds, and to the research contracts CEECIND/02174/2017 and CEECIND/00143/2017, respectively. peer-reviewed 2022-12-14

There is a growing debate surrounding the contradiction between an unremitting increase in the use of resources and the search for environmental sustainability. Therefore, the concept of sustainable degrowth is emerging aiming to introduce in our societies new social values and new policies, capable of satisfying human requirements whilst reducing environmental impacts and consumption of resources. In this framework, circular economy strategies for food production and food loss and waste management systems, following the Sustainable Development Goals agenda, are being developed based on a search for circularity, but without setting limits to the continual increase in environmental impacts and resource use. This work presents a methodology for determining the percentage of degrowth needed in any food supply chain, by analyzing four scenarios in a life cycle assessment approach over time between 2020 and 2040. Results for the Spanish case study suggested a degrowth need of 26.8% in 2015 and 58.9% in 2040 in order to achieve compliance with the Paris Agreement targets, highlighting the reduction of meat and fish and seafood consumption as the most useful path. This research was funded by Spanish Ministry of Science and Competitiveness, grant number CERES‐PROCON Project CTM2016‐76176 (AEI/FEDER, UE) and KAIROS‐BIOCIR Project PID2019‐104925RB (AEO/FEDER, UE).

The generation of food loss and waste (FLW) is a global problem for worldwide politics. About one-third of the food produced ends up in the rubbish before it is consumed. For this reason, it is essential to design and implement new strategies along the food supply chain (FSC) with the aim of reducing this FLW at each stage. However, not only mass quantification should be considered, but also economic and nutritional performance. The novelty of this study is the definition of a methodology based on the &ldquo, distance to target&rdquo, approach by means of multi-objective optimization to evaluate the economic and nutritional cost produced by this FLW. This methodology was applied to the Spanish food basket in 2015. The results revealed that 80% of the total FLW generated in economic and nutritional terms is concentrated in the agricultural production (53.3%) and consumption (26.3%) stages. In the first stages of the FSC, fruits (Dn eq.= 0.7), cereals (Dn eq.= 0.61), and vegetables (Dn eq.= 0.57) were the furthest from the distance target due to the great amount of FLW generated. Moreover, according to the normalized weighted distances obtained from the minimization of economic and nutritional cost, pulses (Dn eq. = 0.05&ndash, 0.03) and eggs (Dn eq. = 0.02) were the more efficient food categories. The methodology described in this study proposes a single index to quantify the economic and nutritional cost of different food categories to facilitate the decision-making process. This index makes possible the definition of reduction strategies focused on specific food categories and depending on the FSC stage.

Cement production is one of the main drivers of the construction sector worldwide. While cement demand has plateaued in many developed nations recently, several emerging and developing economies have experienced important increases in demand. This is the case of Peru, a nation with a growing economy and a high demand for seismic-resistant infrastructures and housing. Recent estimates have shown that cement is responsible for approximately 5–10% of worldwide anthropogenic CO2 emissions, of which more than half are linked to the production of clinker, due to the use of fossil fuels and direct clinkering emissions. To face this concern in the Peruvian context, producing a more sustainable product with improved environmental performance, it is necessary to first understand the environmental profile of current production standards. Therefore, this study analyzed the environmental impacts, specifically climate change, of cement production in three relevant national cement plants to identify the main greenhouse gas mitigation strategies throughout the whole supply chain. Three different types of cement produced in the three different plants were analyzed: ordinary Portland cement, cement with added natural pozzolan and cement with added blast furnace slag. Life Cycle Assessment was used to quantify the GHG emissions linked to the production of one standard bag of cement. Although results were in the lower range as compared to the literature, these varied significantly across the cement plants, reaffirming that Portland cement tends to have higher global warming impacts than when blended cement is produced, although the energy carrier for the kiln or the import of clinker can have an influence on the final results.

The production of food that is environmentally friendly and presents a high economic return is one of the current concerns for the food industry. Eco-efficiency links the environmental performance of a product to its economic value. In this context, this study combines Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) to propose a two-step eco-efficiency methodology assessment for the fish canning industry. An eco-label rating system based on a descriptive weighting of environmental (Global Warming Potential, Acidification Potential, Eutrophication Potential and the ReCiPe Single Score Endpoint) and economic (Value Added) indicators was applied to the canned anchovy. Secondly, LCA-LCC results were coupled to linear programming (LP) tools in order to define a composite eco-efficiency index. This approach enables translation into economic terms of the environmental damage caused when a given alternative is chosen. In particular, different origins for anchovy species (South American vs. Cantabrian) and related waste management alternatives (landfill, incineration and valorization) were evaluated under this cradle to gate approach. Results indicated that substantial differences can be observed depending on the origin of the fish. Anchovies landed in Cantabria show a higher value added score at the expense of larger environmental impacts, mainly due to fuel use intensity. Moreover, its environmental scores are lowered when fish residues are valorized into marketable products, while increasing the value added. This study demonstrates the environmental and economic benefits of applying circular economy. According to this, it is possible to introduce the cradle-to-cradle concept in the fish canned industry. The methodology proposed is intended to be useful to decision-makers in the anchovy canning sector and can be applied to other regions and industrial sectors.

Greywater reuse is an attractive option for the sustainable management of water under water scarcity circumstances, within a water circular economy restorative thinking framework. Its successful deployment relies on the availability of low cost and environmentally friendly technologies. The life cycle assessment (LCA) approach provides the appropriate methodological tool for the evaluation of alternative treatments based on environmental decision criteria and, therefore, it is highly useful during the process conceptual design. This methodology should be employed in the early design phase to select those technologies with lower environmental impact. This work reports the comparative LCA of three scenarios for greywater reuse: photocatalysis, photovoltaic solar-driven photocatalysis and membrane biological reactor, in order to help the selection of the most environmentally friendly technology. The study has been focused on the removal of the surfactant sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate, which is used in the formulation of detergents and personal care products and, thus, widely present in greywater. LCA was applied using the Environmental Sustainability Assessment methodology to obtain two main environmental indicators in order to simplify the decision making process: natural resources and environmental burdens. Energy consumption is the main contributor to both indicators owing to the high energy consumption of the light source for the photocatalytic greywater treatment. In order to reduce its environmental burdens, the most desirable scenario would be the use of solar light for the photocatalytic transformation. However, while the technological challenge of direct use of solar light is approached, the environmental suitability of the photovoltaic solar energy driven photocatalysis technology to greywater reuse has been demonstrated, as it involves the smallest environmental impact among the three studied alternatives. Financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and from FEDER funds for projects CTM2013-43539-R, CTM2015-69845-R and CTQ2015-66078-R(MINECO/FEDER, UE) is gratefully acknowledged. Sara Dominguez and Jara Laso would also like to express their gratitude for the FPI postgraduate research grants (BES-2013-064055 and BES-2014-069368).

The energy-water nexus is a concept widely established but rarely applied to product and, in particular, to food and beverage products, which have a great influence on greenhouse gases emissions. The proposed method considers the main nexus aspects in addition to other relevant aspects such as climate change, which is deeply linked with energy and water systems, and assessing process as well as product. In this framework, this study develops an integrated index (IWECN) that combines life cycle assessment (LCA) and linear programming (LP) to assess energetic, water and climate systems, enabling the identification of those products with minors energetic and water intensity and climate change effects and helping to the decision-making process and to the development of eco-innovation measures. In this case, the product assessed was one bottle (70 cl) of gin and two main hotspots were identified: the production of the glass bottle and the energy requirements of the distillation stage. Based on that, several eco-innovation strategies were proposed: the use of photovoltaic solar energy as energy source and the substitution of the glass bottle by a plastic one and by a tetra brick. The nexus results indicated that the use of solar photovoltaic energy and plastic as bottle material was the best alternative decreasing 58% the IWECN value of the production of one bottle of gin. The sensitivity analysis presented a strong preference for photovoltaic solar energy in comparison with electric power and for the reduction of the glass bottle weight or its substitution by a plastic bottle. The use of the IWECN index is extendable to any product with the aim of facilitating the decision-making process in the development of more sustainable products to introduce them in new green markets. Rubén Leivas thanks the Industrial Doctorates Program of the Cantabria University, the Santander Bank and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport by means of the Campus of International Excellence Program for the financial support. Jara Laso thanks the University of Cantabria for its financial support via the postdoctoral grant “Augusto Gonzalez Linares”. The authors are grateful for the funding of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the Ceres-Procom: Food production and consumption strategies for climate change mitigation (CTM2016-76176-C2-1-R).

The aim of this paper is to analyse the environmental impacts of the Conector® Enciclopedia, and to recommend and apply improvement strategies based on eco-design principles. For this purpose, the work develops a methodology that integrates life cycle assessment (LCA) and eco-design. The LCA was performed using the GaBi 9.2 software and the CML 2002 method. To evaluate the influence of the operating hours of the toy two use scenarios were defined: 'minimum use' and 'continuous use'. The comparison was made on a common functional unit of 'hour of use'. Results showed that the environmental impact of the original toy was heavily dependent on the use phase, given the comparatively large impact caused by employed batteries. Beside the batteries, the electrical and electronic circuit and the game board were the components with the greatest environmental impact in the production stage. Based on the environmental profile of the toy, different strategies were identified, proposed to the company and developed in an eco-designed toy version. The new eco-designed version of the toy achieved approximately 50% impact reductions in all impact categories in the production stage, with very small investments. Despite the environmental benefits found in the eco-design product, the paper concludes that also the consumer acceptance and the technical and economic viability should be considered, trying to maximize the ecoefficiency of the solutions. The authors acknowledge the financial support given by the Generalitat de Catalunya and the EDUCA Borras Company, as well as the active involvement of their technicians in the ECOJOGUINA Project. The Unesco Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change-ESCI was awarded the 2008 Environment Prize by the Government of Catalonia (Premi Medi Ambient de la Generalitat de Catalunya) for the ECOJOGUINA Project under the category Universities.

Purpose: The main purpose of this article is to assess the nutritional and economic efficiency of food loss and waste (FLW) along the supply of 13 food categories included in the Spanish food basket by means of the definition of a new method which combines two indexes. Methods: The nutrient-rich foods index and the economic food loss and waste (EFLW) index were combined by means of linear programming to obtain the nutritional cost footprint (NCF) indicator under a life cycle perspective. The functional unit used was the daily supply of food for a Spanish citizen in year 2015. Results and discussion: Results showed that vegetables and cereals were the food categories most affected by the inefficiencies in the food supply chain under a nutritional perspective, being agricultural production and household consumption the main stages in which the nutritional content of food is lost or wasted. Moreover, according to the NCF index, vegetables represented 27% of total nutritional-economic wastage throughout the entire Spanish agri-food chain. They are followed by fruits, which add up to 19%. Hence, specific food waste management strategies should be established for these specific products and supply stages. Finally, the sensitivity analysis performed highlighted that results were mostly independent from the importance attributed to either nutritional or economic variables. Conclusions: The methodology described in this study proposes an indicator quantifying the nutritional-economic cost of different food categories in the Spanish food basket. This NCF indicator makes it possible to define reduction strategies to promote the use of food waste fractions for waste-to-energy valorization approaches or the extraction of different types of pharmacological, chemical, or cosmetic compounds. The authors are grateful for the funding of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the Ceres-Procom: Food production and consumption strategies for climate change mitigation (CTM2016-76176-C2-1-R) (AEI/FEDER, UE).

Food loss and waste (FLW) has become a central concern in the social and political debate. Simultaneously, using FLW as a bioenergy source could significantly contribute to closing the carbon cycle by reintroducing energy into the food supply chain. This study aims to identify best strategies for FLW management in each of the 17 regions in Spain, through the application of a Life Cycle Assessment. To this end, an evaluation of the environmental performance over time between 2015 and 2040 of five different FLW management scenarios implemented in a framework of (i) compliance and (ii) non-compliance with the targets of the Paris Agreement was performed. Results revealed savings in the consumption of abiotic resources in those regions in which thermal treatment has a strong presence, although their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in a scenario of compliance with climate change targets are higher. In contrast, scenarios that include anaerobic digestion and, to a lesser extent those applying aerobic composting, present lower impacts, including climate change, suggesting improvements of 20&ndash, 60% in non-compliance and 20&ndash, 80% in compliance with Paris Agreement targets, compared to the current scenarios.

The COVID lockdown has affected food purchases and eating habits. In this regard, this short communication assesses the nutritional and environmental impacts of these changes during the COVID lockdown in Spain, by applying Life Cycle Assessment and an energy- and nutrient-corrected functional unit. Three environmental impacts were studied (Global Warming Potential, Blue Water Footprint and Land Use) and a total of seven weekly diet scenarios were designed: two pre-COVID diets for March and April in 2019 (MAR19, APR19), one COVID diet (COVID) and two alternative diets, one based on the National Dietary Guidelines (NDG) and another one on the Planetary Health Diet (PHD). Results show that the COVID diet had larger energy intake and lower nutritional quality, as well as higher environmental impacts (between 30 and 36%) than the pre-COVID eating patterns. Further research is needed to account for food affordability within this assessment, as well as to analyze how eating patterns will evolve after the COVID lockdown. Finally, the definition of short guidelines for sustainable food behaviors for future possible lockdowns is suggested, as well as the introduction of sustainable indicators within NDGs., Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image, Highlights • An energy- and nutrient-based functional unit was applied to compare diets. • COVID diet with higher energy and lower nutritional quality than pre-COVID diets. • Larger environmental impacts of the COVID diet compared with Planetary Health Diet. • Need for short guidelines promoting sustainable food habits during lockdowns. • Environmental sustainability must be integrated in the National Dietary Guidelines.

Municipal solid waste (MSW) collection is an important issue in the development and management of smart cities, having a significant influence on environmental sustainability. Door-to-door and pneumatic collection are two systems that represent a way of arranging waste collection in city´s historic areas in Spain where conventional street-side container collection is not feasible. Since door-to-door collection generates significant direct greenhouse gas emissions from trucks, pneumatic collection emerges as an alternative to the trucking system. While this technology apparently reduces local direct air emissions, it suffers from a large energy demand derived from vacuum production for waste suction. The introduction of new normative frameworks regarding the selective collection of the biodegradable fraction makes necessary a comprehensive analysis to assess the influence of this fraction collection and its subsequent recycling by anaerobic digestion. As a novelty, this work compares both conventional door-to-door and pneumatic collection systems from a life cycle approach focusing on the biodegradable waste. Results indicate that, in spite of the fact electricity production and consumption have a significant influence on the results, the energy savings from the recycling of the organic fraction are higher than the energy requirements. Therefore, the pneumatic collection could be an environmentally-friendly option for MSW management under a circular economy approach in Spanish city´s historic areas, since wastes could be a material or energy source opportunity. This work has been made under the financial support of the Project Ceres-Procom: Food production and consumption strategies for climate change mitigation (CTM2016-76176-C2-1-R) (AEI/FEDER, UE) financed by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Government of Spain.

Graphical abstract, To be able to fulfil high market expectations for a number of practical applications, Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) have to meet and comply with specific and strict methodological prerequisites. These expectations include the possibility to add up Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)-based information in the supply chain and to compare different EPDs. To achieve this goal, common and harmonized calculation rules have to be established, the so-called Product Category Rules (PCRs), which set the overall LCA calculation rules to create EPDs. This document provides PCRs for the assessment of the environmental performance of canned anchovies in Cantabria Region based on an Environmental Sustainability Assessment (ESA) method. This method uses two main variables: the natural resources sustainability (NRS) and the environmental burdens sustainability (EBS). To reduce the complexity of ESA and facilitate the decision-making process, all variables are normalized and weighted to obtain two global dimensionless indexes: resource consumption (X1) and environmental burdens (X2). • This paper sets the PCRs adapted to the Cantabrian canned anchovies. • ESA method facilitates the product comparison and the decision-making process. • This paper stablishes all the steps that an EPD should include within the PCRs of Cantabrian canned anchovies.

Low carbon options for the chemical industry include switching from fossil to renewable energy, adopting new low-carbon production processes, along with retrofitting current plants with carbon capture for ulterior use (CCU technologies) or storage (CCS). In this paper, we combine a dynamic Life Cycle Assessment (d-LCA) with economic analysis to explore a potential transition to low-carbon manufacture of formic acid. We propose new methods to enable early technical, environmental and economic assessment of formic acid manufacture by electrochemical reduction of CO2 (CCU), and compare this production route to the conventional synthesis pathways and to storing CO2 in geological storage (CCS). Both CCU and CCS reduce carbon emissions in particular scenarios, although the uncertainty in results suggests that further research and scale-up validation are needed to clarify the relative emission reduction compared to conventional process pathways. There are trade-offs between resource security, cost and emissions between CCU and CCS systems. As expected, the CCS technology yields greater reductions in CO2 emissions than the CCU scenarios and the conventional processes. However, compared to CCS systems, CCU has better economic potential and lower fossil consumption, especially when powered by renewable electricity. The integration of renewable energy in the chemical industry has an important climate mitigation role, especially for processes with high electrical and thermal energy demands. The authors are grateful for the funding of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the Projects CTM2016-76176-C2-1-R (AEI/FEDER, UE) and CTQ2016-76231-C2-1-R (AEI/FEDER, UE). The UCL team would like to acknowledge funding from the UK Natural Environment Research Council through the project Comparative assessment and region-specific optimisation of GGR, NERC Reference: NE/P019900/1. Rubén Aldaco thanks the Ministry of Sciences, Innovation and Universities of Spanish Government for their financial support via the research fellowship Salvador de Madariaga Program (PRX18/00027).

Wastewater may contain a diverse group of unregulated pollutants known as emerging pollutants, such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs). Triclosan (TCS) is a personal care product widely used as an antiseptic or preservative in cosmetics, hand wash, toothpaste and deodorant soaps. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) have been used as effective and alternative treatments for complex wastewater. However, an important criterion for the assessment of AOPs and their operation conditions could be the potential formation of new toxic secondary products, such as polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and furans (PCDD/Fs), especially when emerging pollutants are present in the media. If these are omitted from environmental management studies, the real environmental impacts of a WWTPs (wastewater treatment plants) may be underestimated. Consequently, the current study aims to evaluate the environmental impacts derived from electrooxidation (EOX), one of the most effective oxidation technologies, of emerging pollutants using Life Cycle Assessment. The analyses were performed for the treatment of effluents containing TCS, firstly without considering the formation of PCDD/Fs and, thereafter, considering the effects of these compounds. Total toxicity, calculated through different methods and corresponding impact factors, were evaluated for each stage of the process when different electrolytes are used, including PCDD/Fs formation. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was carried out to study i) the effect of the TCS initial concentration on the environmental impacts associated to ecotoxicity for the different life cycle methods and ii) the influence of changing the organic pollutant on PCDD/Fs formation employing 2-chlorophenol (2-CP). As a result, LCIA methods demonstrate that they are not fully adapted to the computation of PCDD/Fs in the water compartment, since only 2,3,7,8-tetraclorodibenzo-p-dioxina (2,3,7,8-TCDD) is present as a substance in the impact categories assessed, ignoring the remaining list of PCDD/Fs. This research was developed in the framework of the project CTM2017-87740-R and CTM2016-76176-C2-1-R financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO). Claudia Solá-Gutiérrez and Sophie Schröder are also grateful for its correspondent FPI grant BES-2015-072920 and PRE2018-083526, respectively. Ian Vázquez-Rowe wishes to thank the Dirección General de Investigación (DGI), Project N°636, and the Dirección Académica de Relaciones Internacionales (DARI) from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) for financial support during his stay at the Universidad de Cantabria (Spain).

The great concern regarding food loss (FL) has been studied previously, but in an isolated way, disregarding interdependencies with other areas. This paper aims to go a step further by proposing a new procedure to assess different waste management alternatives based on the nexus approach by means of an integrated Water-Energy-Food-Climate Nexus Index (WEFCNI). The environmental profile of the waste management techniques is determined using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) which, in combination with Linear Programming (LP), explores the optimal aggregation of weighting factors that lead to an aggregated nexus index. The management of residues from the anchovy canning industry in Cantabria (Spain) has been used as a case study, considering the three current applied alternatives: (i) valorisation of FL as animal feed in aquaculture (food waste-to-food approach), (ii) incineration of FL with energy recovery, and (iii) landfilling with biogas recovery. The last two considered the use of energy recovered to produce a new aquaculture product (food waste-to-energy-to-food scenarios). The results indicate that incineration is the best performing scenario when the nutritional energy provided by the valorisation alternative is not high enough and the valorisation technology presents the highest water consumption. Therefore, a minimisation in the consumption of natural resources is suggested in order to improve the application of circular economy within the sector. The use of the nexus index as an environmental management tool is extendable to any food system with the aim of facilitating the decision-making process in the development of more sustainable products. The authors thank the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Spanish Government for its financial support via the project GeSAC-Conserva: Sustainable Management of the Cantabrian Anchovies (CTM2013-43539-R) and to Julia Celaya for her technical support. Jara Laso thanks the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spanish Government for its financial support via the research fellowship BES-2014-069368. Pere Fullana and Alba Bala thank the UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change. Ian Vázquez-Rowe thanks the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú for financing the Walaya Project.

Purpose: The main purpose of this article is to assess the environmental impacts associated with the fishing operations related to European anchovy fishing in Cantabria (northern Spain) under a life cycle approach. Methods: The life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology was applied for this case study including construction, maintenance, use, and end of life of the vessels. The functional unit used was 1 kg of landed round anchovy at port. Inventory data were collected for the main inputs and outputs of 32 vessels, representing a majority of vessels in the fleet. Results and discussion: Results indicated, in a similar line to what is reported in the literature, that the production, transportation, and use of diesel were the main environmental hot spots in conventional impact categories. Moreover, in this case, the production and transportation of seine nets was also relevant. Impacts linked to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions suggest that emissions were in the upper range for fishing species captured with seine nets and the value of global warming potential (GWP) was 1.44 kg CO2 eq per functional unit. The ecotoxicity impacts were mainly due to the emissions of antifouling substances to the ocean. Regarding fishery-specific categories, many were discarded given the lack of detailed stock assessments for this fishery. Hence, only the biotic resource use category was computed, demonstrating that the ecosystems' effort to sustain the fishery is relatively low. Conclusions: The use of the LCA methodology allowed identifying the main environmental hot spots of the purse seining fleet targeting European anchovy in Cantabria. Individualized results per port or per vessel suggested that there are significant differences in GHG emissions between groups. In addition, fuel use is high when compared to similar fisheries. Therefore, research needs to be undertaken to identify why fuel use is so high, particularly if it is related to biomass and fisheries management or if skipper decisions could play a role. The authors thank the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Spanish Government for their financial support via the project GeSAC-Conserva: Sustainable Management of the Cantabrian Anchovies (CTM2013-43539-R) and to Pedro Villanueva-Rey for valuable scientific exchange. Jara Laso thanks the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spanish Government for their financial support via the research fellowship BES-2014-069368 and to the Ministry of Rural Environment, Fisheries and Food of Cantabria for the data support. Dr. Ian Vázquez-Rowe thanks the Peruvian LCA Network for operational support. Reviewers are also thanked for the valuable and detailed suggestions. The work of Dr. Rosa M. Crujeiras has been funded by MTM2016-76969P (AEI/FEDER, UE).

Life Cycle Assessment and Data Envelopment Analysis have been repeatedly combined in the literature as LCA+DEA method with the aim of enhancing the utility of life-cycle based methods in order to account for eco-efficiency verification and environmental impactminimization. Despite its evolution through time, it lacks specific standards that norm the combination of the two methods. In this sense, this study noted that its development has evolved in the frame of mainstream cultural perspectives to measure environmental impacts (i.e., hierarchist approaches). Therefore, the main objective of the study is to compare the benchmarking results obtained through DEA computation using different Cultural Theoryapproaches to calculate environmental impacts. For this, a case study for the Cantabrian purse seining fishing fleet was chosen. Hence, three different DEA matrices were constructed attending to the three main human visions on environmental issues: hierarchist, individualist and egalitarian. All three matrices represented the same set of inputs to be optimized, but differed in the nature of the output flow, representing landed fish, energy content or biomass removal. Results suggest that optimization of environmental impacts is strongly influenced by the cultural perspective selected. In the particular case of fishing fleets, benchmarking environmental impacts based on anthropocentric views may be ignoring the health of fishing stocks and the trophic complexity of the ecosystems. Methodological conclusions are directed towards the need to define more flexible and holistic frameworks in LCA+DEA modelling with the aim of enrichening the set of predetermined assumptions, including the Cultural Theory, to avoid biased interpretations. The authors thank the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Spanish Government for their financial support via the project GeSAC-Conserva: Sustainable Management of the Cantabrian Anchovies (CTM2013-43539-R) and Yago Lorenzo-Toja, Sara González-García and Lucía Lijó for valuable scientific exchange. Jara Laso thanks the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spanish Government for their financial support through the research fellowship BES-2014-069368 and the Ministry of Rural Environment, Fisheries and Food of Cantabria for support with data collection. Reviewers are also thanked for the valuable and detailed suggestions.

In a global framework of growing concern for food security and environmental protection, the selection of food products with higher protein content and lower environmental impact is a challenge. To assess the reliability of different strategies along the food supply chain, a measure of food cost through the environmental impact-protein content binomial is necessary. This study proposes a standardized method to calculate the Green Protein Footprint (GPF) index, a method that assesses both the environmental impact of a food product and its protein content provided to consumers. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was used to calculate the environmental impact of the selected food products, and a Life Cycle Protein Assessment (LCPA) was performed by accounting for the protein content along the supply chain. Although the GPF can be applied to all food chain products, this paper is focused on European anchovy-based products for indirect human consumption (fishmeal) and for direct human consumption (fresh, salted and canned anchovies). Moreover, the circular economy concept was applied considering the valorization of the anchovy residues generated during the canning process. These residues were used to produce fishmeal, which was employed in bass aquaculture. Hence, humans are finally consuming fish protein from the residues, closing the loop of the original product life cycle. More elaborated, multi-ingredient food products (salted and canned anchovy products), presented higher GPF values due to higher environmental impacts. Furthermore, the increase of food loss throughout their life cycle caused a decrease in the protein content. Regarding salted and canned products, the packaging was the main hotspot. The influence of the packaging was evaluated using the GPF, reaffirming that plastic was the best alternative. These results highlighted the importance of improving packaging materials in food products. The authors thank the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Spanish Government for their financial support via the projects GeSAC-Conserva: Sustainable Management of the Cantabrian Anchovies (CTM2013-43539-R) and CERES_Project: Food Production strategies for climate change mitigation: towards a food circular economy (CTM 2016-76176-C2-1-R). Authors thank Julia Celaya for her technical support. Jara Laso thanks the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spanish Government for their financial support via the research fellowship BES-2014-069368.

Selection of high flux membrane for the effective removal of short-chain perfluorocarboxylic acids One-way packaging can represent up to half the environmental impacts of the food value chain and thus optimising its management is essential. Collective selective waste collection managed by authorised organisations (Extended Producer Responsibility, EPR), with or without Deposit-Refund Systems (DRS) are alternatives implemented at European level to handle this problem. Since there is no single simple formula that can be applied to every waste management system, this case study is focused on the entire Spanish model of one-way food packaging waste management, from collection of each fraction in specific containers to final treatment, considering eight different materials. For the analysis, six different impact categories were considered: abiotic depletion potential, global warming potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, ozone depletion potential and photochemical ozone formation. Results reveal that the recycling stage is the main stage contributing to the environmental impacts, but the environmental savings related to the recovery of materials in this stage compensates these loads and the system must be considered advantageous for the environment. By contrast, sorting plants present the lowest contributions and is the least significant stage. Significant environmental improvements (close to 10%) would be achieved by addressing the total bulk collection flow to mechanical-biological treatment and increasing the selective collection of light and glass packaging waste. This study can serve to identify common drivers that contribute significantly to the development of an integrated approach to waste packaging management and as baseline for comparison studies with alternative waste recovery technologies and systems. The authors are grateful for the funding of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the Project CTM2016-76176 (AEI/FEDER, UE). The UNESCO chair team would like to acknowledge funding from the ARIADNA Project.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a powerful tool to support environmental informed decisions among product and process alternatives. LCA results reflect the process stage contributions to several environmental impacts, which should be made mutually comparable to help in the decision-making process. Aggregated environmental indexes enable the translation of this set of metrics into a one final score, by defining the attached weights to impacts. Weighting values reflect the corresponding relevance assigned to each environmental impact. Current weighing schemes are based on pre-articulation of preferences, without considering the specific features of the system under study. This paper presents a methodology that combines LCA methodology and linear programming optimisation to determine the environmental improvement actions that conduct to a more sustainable production. LCA was applied using the environmental sustainability assessment methodology to obtain two main indexes: natural resources (NR) and environmental burdens (EB). Normalised indexes were optimised to determine the optimal joint of weighting factors that lead to an optimised global Environmental Sustainability Index. The proposed methodology was applied to a food sector, in particular, to the anchovy canning industry in Cantabria Region (Northern Spain). By maximising the objective function composed of NR and EB variables, it is possible to find the optimal joint of weights that identify the best environmental sustainable options. This study proves that LCA can be applied in combination with linear programing tools as a part of the decision-making process in the development of more sustainable processes and products. Authors thank to Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spanish Government for the financial support through the project GeSAC-Conserva (CTM2013-43539-R). Jara Laso also thanks to the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spanish Government for the financial support through the research fellowship BES-2014-069368.

This study presents a method based on life cycle assessment to reduce and simplify the decision-making process and to identify the best available techniques of a product. This procedure facilitates the selection of a technical alternative from an environmental point of view and the reduction of emission levels and the consumption of energy and primary resources. This method comprises the following four steps: (i) the identification of the current techniques of a specific product, (ii) the application of a life cycle assessment to determine the hot spots, (iii) the proposal of the best available techniques and (iv) the development of a best available techniques reference document (step not implemented in our case study). The Cantabrian anchovy canning industry is selected as a case study due to the importance of this sector from economic, social and touristic points of view. An entire life cycle assessment of one can of anchovies in extra virgin olive oil is conducted. The results indicated that the hot spots of the life cycle were the production of aluminium cans (for packaging) and extra virgin olive oil and the management of the packaging waste. According to these results, the study proposes several improvements, such as packaging recycling and several best available techniques for the canned anchovy product. The authors thank the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Spanish Government for their financial support via the project GeSAC-Conserva: Sustainable Management of the Cantabrian Anchovies (CTM2013-43539-R) and to Julia Celaya for her technical support. Jara Laso thanks the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spanish Government for their financial support via the research fellowship BES2014-069368. Pere Fullana y Alba Bala thanks the UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change.

The main objective of Life cycle assessment (LCA) studies is to support decision-making in environmental sustainable production and consumption. Nevertheless, stake-holders are often forced to choose among several environmental profiles, comprised by a wide range of environmental categories for each alternative. The variety of metrics may hinder the decision-making process, especially when there is no scenario scoring better than the rest in every metric simultaneously. Aggregated indexes can simplified this task by defining attached weights to impacts. Moreover, environmental decisions are usually subjected to economy costs, since production processes are embedded into the product system value. This work proposes a methodology that combines LCA and life cycle cost (LCC) to linear programming in order to define a composite eco-efficiency index. Our model is subjected to optimization to determine a valid range of weighting factors within which the solutions are potentially optimal. This approach is applied to the anchovy canning sector and allows the translation into economic terms of the environmental damage caused when a given alternative is chosen.

The anchovy canning industry is one of the most important economic resources of the Cantabria region in Spain. However, environmental, economic and social problems over the past years have forced companies to apply marketing strategies, develop product diversification, create new products and introduce them in new “green markets”. Launching Cantabrian canned anchovies into more sustainable markets requires measuring the environmental performance using Product Category Rules (PCRs) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). EPDs and PCRS include the environmental profile of a range of similar products, such as all of the available canned anchovy products. The great variety of anchovy canned products depends on three process variables: the origin of the anchovy (Cantabria, Argentina and Chile or Peru), the type of oil (refined olive oil, extra virgin olive oil and sunflower oil) and the packaging (aluminum, tinplate, glass and plastic). This work aims to assess the environmental impact from cradle to grave of canned anchovies in oil using the life cycle assessment methodology (LCA). Moreover, the paper evaluates the influence of the above-mentioned three product variables in the LCA results. The results show that out of all of the alternatives, Chilean and Peruvian anchovies have the highest environmental burdens due to the transportation by ship. The production of anchovies in sunflower oil is a less environmentally friendly oil process due to the low yield per hectare of sunflower cultivation. Finally, the use of aluminum as the packaging material has the largest environmental impact out of almost all of the impact categories. Moreover, because the LCA results can be significantly affected by the allocation procedure, a sensitivity analysis comparing system expansion, mass and economic allocation is performed. In this case, the system expansion approach presents the highest environmental impacts followed by the mass allocation. The authors thank the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Spanish Government for the financial support through the project called GeSAC-Conserva: Sustainable Management of the Cantabrian Anchovies (CTM2013-43539-R) and Julia Celaya for technical support. Jara Laso also thanks the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of the Spanish Government for the financial support through the research fellowship BES-2014-069368.

The anchovy canning industry has high importance in the Cantabria Region (North Spain) from economic, social and touristic points of view. The Cantabrian canned anchovy is world-renowned owing to its handmade and traditional manufacture. The canning process generates huge amounts of several food wastes, whose suitable management can contribute to benefits for both the environment and the economy, closing the loop of the product life cycle. Life cycle assessment methodology was used in this work to assess the environmental performance of two waste management alternatives: Head and spine valorisation to produce fishmeal and fish oil; and anchovy meat valorisation to produce anchovy paste. Fuel oil production has been a hotspot of the valorisation of heads and spines, so several improvements should be applied. With respect to anchovy meat valorisation, the production of polypropylene and glass for packaging was the least environmentally friendly aspect of the process. Furthermore, the environmental characterisation of anchovy waste valorisation was compared with incineration and landfilling alternatives. In both cases, the valorisation management options were the best owing to the avoided burdens associated with the processes. Therefore, it is possible to contribute to the circular economy in the Cantabrian canned anchovy industry. The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spanish Government through the project called GeSACConserva: Sustainable Management of the Cantabrian Anchovies [CTM2013-43539-R].

This paper presents a methodology which combines the life cycle assessment (LCA) and the mathematical programming and optimization. LCA was applied using the environmental sustainability assessment (ESA) methodology to obtain two main indicators: natural resources (NR) and environmental burdens (EB) that are further minimized. The optimization of these variables will allow to obtain the best environment performance of the system, since the methodology includes specific, local and global features of the process under study. This procedure was applied to a handicraft sector, in particular, to the anchovy canning industry in Cantabria (Northern Spain).