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Purpose Recent developments in life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) target at better addressing biodiversity impacts, including the extended modeling of drivers of biodiversity loss. This led to the development of multiple LCIA methods addressing the area of protection of ecosystem quality (i.e, biodiversity loss) over time. This paper aims at systematically comparing available operational LCIA methods and models for assessing the main drivers of biodiversity impacts of EU consumption and unveiling similarities and differences among current methods. Methods This paper compares the biodiversity impacts of EU consumption by implementing eight LCIA methods and models: five full LCIA methods (namely, LC-IMPACT, Impact World + , Ecological Scarcity 2013, ReCiPe 2016, and Stepwise), a land-use intensity-specific LCIA model, and two approaches based on the GLOBIO model. The EU Consumption Footprint model is adopted as case study. The comparative analysis between the assessed methods aimed at identifying convergent and divergent results regarding the drivers of biodiversity impacts of EU consumption. The analysis focused on four different levels: impact category, representative product (modeled consumed products), inventory process, and elementary flow. The agreement among the methods in defining an element as relevant was evaluated. Finally, gaps among methods were assessed in terms of coverage of impact categories and elementary flows. Results and discussion The analysis unveiled that there is a certain level of agreement among available LCIA methods and models regarding the most contributing impact categories and products to the overall biodiversity footprint due to EU consumption. Land use, climate change, and ecotoxicity had a major contribution to overall impacts, thereby highlighting their role as drivers of biodiversity loss. Biodiversity impacts were due to a limited number of consumed products, where food (meat), mobility, and household goods were identified as top contributors. Most contributing inventory processes and elementary flows were associated to most contributing representative products (e.g, animal feed). The relevance and presence of elementary flows in LCIA methods and models were heterogeneous for most of the impact categories. Conclusions The results of this study highlight the importance of impact category coverage in the assessment of biodiversity impacts. Limited coverage of impact categories (e.g, methods limited to assess land use) might underestimate the impacts of other drivers of biodiversity loss, especially climate change and ecotoxicity. Further efforts are required to assess the effects of spatial regionalization and the inclusion of missing drivers, recently developed in LCIA., The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, ISSN:0948-3349, ISSN:1614-7502

Purpose Current patterns of household goods consumption generate relevant environmental pressures and impacts. Environmental impacts are not only limited to the European territory but also to third countries from where products are imported. Assessing the entire life cycle of products enables considering trade-related transboundary effects along supply chains. The goal of this paper is to illustrate the assessment of the environmental impacts of household goods consumption in Europe, modelled through the consumption footprint indicator. Methods The consumption footprint indicator was designed to assess the environmental impact of household consumption by covering five areas of consumption (food, mobility, housing, household goods and appliances), each of them modelled as a basket of products (BoP) representing the most consumed products by EU citizens. This paper focuses on the BoP household goods, entailing a large variety of products from clothes to personal care products. Consumption intensity was obtained from consumption statistical data for years 2010 and 2015. Life cycle inventory data for 30 representative products were obtained from EU Ecolabel background reports, screening reports of the Product Environmental Footprint pilots and literature. The 16 impact categories of the Environmental Footprint 3.0 method were employed for the impact assessment. Results and discussion Main impacts generated by household goods in EU (calculated after normalization and weighting) were on climate change, fossil resource use and water use. Components’ manufacture was the most impacting stage for several impact categories. Paper products, detergents, furniture and clothes were the product groups contributing the most due to a combination of consumption intensity and environmental profile of products. Environmental impacts due to household goods consumption were higher in 2015 than in 2010. Conclusions The impacts of EU household goods consumption are driven by both consumption intensity and the environmental impact profile of products. Therefore, sustainable actions should focus not only on the environmental profile of products, but also on consumer choices and behaviours. Recommendations The BoP household goods model can be used as a baseline to assess the effect of consumer choices, by creating and comparing consumers’ profiles that differ in the composition of the BoP and in the apparent consumption (defined as Production—Exports + Imports). The availability of detailed inventories for all the life cycle phases allows for modelling scenarios to assess the potential effect of innovations in the production phase and of the choice of alternative raw materials and ingredients.

Purpose An adequate matching between the nomenclature of elementary flows in life cycle inventory (LCI) databases and life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods is key for ensuring the proper application of life cycle assessment (LCA). However, the nomenclature of elementary flows lacks harmonization among the LCA community. This paper aims at defining mapping rules and discussing main challenges related to the process of systematically mapping LCI nomenclatures to LCIA methods and models addressing biodiversity impacts. Methods Eight LCIA methods and models addressing biodiversity loss are analyzed: five comprehensive LCIA methods (i.e., LC-IMPACT, Impact World + , Ecological Scarcity 2013, ReCiPe 2016, and Stepwise), one land use intensity-specific LCIA model; and two approaches adapting the GLOBIO model to LCIA. These models and methods are mapped to two LCI nomenclatures (ecoinvent v3.6 as implemented in Simapro and Environmental Footprint (EF) 3.0). A mapping tool was developed to support the process of (a) mapping elementary flows by name, Chemical Abstract Service number or available synonyms; (b) implementing specific mapping rules regarding compartment/sub-compartment, and substance name; (c) mapping elementary flows to manually defined proxies (e.g., synonyms, spelling corrections and similar substances); and (d) assigning characterization factors (CFs). The process entails analyzing a case study to identify uncharacterized elementary flows. Results and discussion We present a mapping of LCIA methods and models addressing impacts on biodiversity loss with specific LCI nomenclatures. Mapping rules are proposed for elementary flows regarding chemicals, carbon emissions, land use, water use, and particulate matter. Specific aspects to be considered in mapping elementary flows in LCIA and LCI nomenclatures are discussed. Main gaps in LCI nomenclatures are associated to toxicity and climate change impacts. The EF 3.0 was more aligned than ecoinvent 3.6 with the LCIA methods and models regarding elementary flows coverage and regionalization level. Analyzing uncharacterized flows revealed further coverage needs for “Chemical, organic” (between 19 and 20% uncharacterized flows), “Chemical, inorganic” (between 9 and 18% uncharacterized flows) and “Chemical, radioactive” (between 9 and 14% uncharacterized flows). Conclusions This paper contributes to the operationalization of LCIA methods and models addressing biodiversity impacts by proposing a systematic mapping process and rules for a better LCIA-LCI connection. Different development pathways of LCI (e.g., focused on substance name detail) and LCIA (e.g., towards improved regionalization level) have stretched the gap between both nomenclatures. Recommendations are provided identifying further efforts towards the harmonization of the nomenclature of elementary flows in the LCA community.

The European Green Deal and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ask for a more holistic approach to production and consumption along value chains. The role of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in supporting policy design and monitoring is then pivotal to achieving policy ambitions. This paper explores the potential support of LCA to EU (European Union) policies and the SDGs, considering also the Planetary Boundaries (PBs) framework. The assessment focuses on (a) the relationship between LCA, the SDGs, and the European Green Deal; (b) the potential use of LCA in support of the monitoring of SDG12 and the environmental impacts of production and consumption; and (c) the relevance of an absolute sustainability dimension, including the integration of the PBs framework in EU policy and the SDGs. Results highlight that the interlinkages between LCA, EU policy, SDGs, and the PBs can be classified as existing, missing, or existing depending on the LCA framework. In general, LCA was identified to strengthen and further enable EU policies toward achieving the SDGs while remaining within the physical limits of the planet. This is because LCA can be a pivotal method to quantify and assess environmental impacts of value chains and consumption patterns, enabling the evaluation of their implication on environment-related SDGs and assessing them against the PBs. The example of the Consumption Footprint highlights that the concept and Life Cycle Impact Assessment method of an LCA framework can determine the linkage among EU policy, SDGs, and the PBs. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:1221-1232. © 2022 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental ToxicologyChemistry (SETAC).

In the context of climate change and population growth, aquaculture plays an important role for food security, employment and economic development. Intensive recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) allow to treat and recycle fish effluents to reduce waste concentration in outflow water thereby reducing environmental contamination. RAS sustainability may be further improved using aquaponics, a circular productive system in which RAS wastewater is recovered for crop cultivation and recycled back to the fish tanks. In this study, water metabolism of a catfish RAS was assessed and the opportunity to produce lettuce with the RAS effluent was tested. Crop growth and water consumption in aquaponics were compared to those experienced in hydroponics at three nutrient solution concentration (EC of 1.6, 2.0 and 3.0 dS∙m−1), also considering water- (WUE) and nitrogen- use efficiency (NUE). A scenario for converting the RAS in a catfish-lettuce aquaponic system was, then, proposed. The RAS water balance included an input of 555 L∙day−1, out of which 32 L∙day−1 were lost by evaporation from the tubs whereas 460 L∙day−1 were discarded. The lettuce yield, NUE and WUE in aquaponics were respectively 20.3%, 22.3% and 20.6% lower than those obtained in hydroponics. Best performances in hydroponics were achieved with EC of 2.0 dS m−1. No difference in term of water consumption arose between the treatments, with average water use of 46 mL∙plant−1∙day−1. Considering the current RAS productivity of 329 kg year−1, a 10 m2 raft system hosting 160 lettuces would satisfy the nitrogen filtration demand. Once closed the water loop between the two productive sub-units, the current water input of 532 L∙day−1 could be reduced to the amount needed to replace the water lost by evaporation (50 L∙day−1) and the RAS water output would decrease from 555 to 103 L∙day−1.

Urban rooftop farming favours local food production. Although rooftop farming is perceived as 33 a sustainable system, there is a lack of quantitative studies on rooftop farming. There we set up 34 experiments in the community rooftop garden of a public housing building in Bologna, Italy, 35 between 2012 and 2014. We grew lettuce, a leafy vegetable, using three techniques: nutrient 36 film, floating hydroponic and soil cultivation. We also grew tomato, chilli pepper, eggplant, 37 melon, watermelon on soils. Data was analysed by life cycle assessment for environmental and 38 economic performance. Results reveal that the best techniques of lettuce cultivation to address 39 global warming were floating in the summer, with 65-85% less environmental impact per kg 40 than nutrient film; and soil production in the winter, with 85-95% less environmental impact. 41 Furthermore, floating production was 25% cheaper in summer and soil was 65% cheaper in 42 winter, compared to the nutrient film technique. For soil production, eggplants and tomatoes 43 showed the best environmental performances of about 74 g CO2 per kg. Eggplant production in 44 soil gave in the cheapest crop of 0.13 € per kg.

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., Graphical abstract Image 1, Highlights • 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.

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552 Soilless crops are commonly used in rooftop agriculture (RA) because they easily adapt to building constraints. However, acceptance of the produce derived from this system may be controversial. This paper evaluates consumers' acceptance of food from RA in Mediterranean cities, focusing on the quality of the product, production system, and consumers' motivations. We surveyed 238 respondents on the UAB university campus as potential consumers. The survey was distributed via an Internet-link that was provided along with a sample of tomatoes from RA. The results showed that most people approved the quality of RA products and perceived them to be local and fresh (94%). The respondents exhibited acceptance of soilless-produced tomatoes and considered them to be environmentally better than conventionally produced ones (69%). Cluster analysis revealed that consumers with high income levels and a university education had a better perception of the quality and proposed a higher price for RA products, but no difference was found regarding their environmental perception of this products. Moreover, people who possessed more information about the product also had a higher perception of the quality and production system (it was perceived to be environmentally friendly) and would pay more for them. The main concerns of consumers were related to food safety and the social impact of RA. Additional research is needed to improve the sustainability of RA, and the applied measures should be communicated to potential consumers to enhance their acceptance and success.

Purpose: rooftop greenhouses (RTGs) are increasing as a new form of urban agriculture. Several environmental, economic, and social benefits have been attributed to the implementation of RTGs. However, the environmental burdens and economic costs of adapting greenhouse structures to the current building legislation were pointed out as a limitation of these systems in the literature. In this sense, this paper aims to analyse the environmental and economic performance of RTGs in Barcelona. - Methods: a real RTG project is here analysed and compared to an industrial greenhouse system (i.e. multi-tunnel), from a life cycle perspective. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) methods are followed in the assessment. The analysis is divided into three parts that progressively expand the system boundaries: greenhouse structure (cradle-to-grave), at the production point (cradle-to-farm gate), and at the consumption point (cradle-to-consumer). The applied LCIA methods are the ReCiPe (hierarchical, midpoint) and the cumulative energy demand. A cost-benefit analysis (CBA) approach is considered in the LCC. For the horticultural activity, a crop yield of 25 kg · m−2 is assumed for the RTG reference scenario. However, sensitivity analyses regarding the crop yield are performed during the whole assessment. - Results and discussion: the greenhouse structure of an RTG has an environmental impact between 17 and 75 % higher and an economic cost 2.8 times higher than a multi-tunnel greenhouse. For the reference scenario (yield 25 kg · m¯²), 1 kg of tomato produced in an RTG at the production point has a lower environmental impact (10-19 %) but a higher economic cost (24 %) than in a multi-tunnel system. At the consumption point, environmental savings are up to 42 % for local RTGs tomatoes, which are also 21 % cheaper than conventional tomatoes from multi-tunnel greenhouses in Almeria. However, the sensitivity assessment shows that the crop efficiency is determinant. Low yields can produce impacting and expensive vegetables, although integrated RTGs, which can take advantage from the residual energy from the building, can lead to low impacting and cheap local food products. -Conclusions: RTGs face law limitations that make the greenhouse structure less environmentally friendly and less economically competitive than current industrial greenhouses. However, as horticultural systems and local production systems, RTGs can become an environmentally friendly option to further develop urban agriculture. Besides, attention is paid to the crop yield and, thus, further developments on integrated RTGs and their potential increase in crop yields (i.e. exchange of heat and CO2 with the building) are of great interest.

Within the scholarly debate, Urban Agriculture (UA) has been widely acknowledged to provide diverse environmental and socio-cultural ecosystem services (ESs) for cities. However, the question of whether these potential benefits are also recognized as such by the involved societal groups on the ground has not yet been investigated. This paper aims at (1) assessing the perceived ESs of UA, comparing the views of different societal groups in the city of Bologna, Italy (namely: UA project leaders, stakeholders and the general public) and (2) to identify differences in the evaluation of specific UA types (indoor farming, high-tech greenhouses, peri-urban farms, community-supported agriculture, community rooftop garden and urban co-op). In total, 406 individuals evaluated 25 ESs via a standardized Likert-scale survey. The study unveiled similarities and divergences of perceptions among the different societal groups. The statistical analysis indicated that the general public and UA stakeholders agree on the high relevance of socio-cultural ESs, while provisioning ESs was considered as less significant. UA types focusing on social innovation were expected to provide higher socio-cultural ESs whereas peri-urban activities were more closely linked to habitat ESs. We assume that involvement and knowledge of UA are determining factors for valuing the provision of ESs through UA, which needs to be considered for ES valuation, particularly in a policymaking context. Horizon 2020 Framework Programme Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

Background: The number of urban community gardens, including those on rooftops, is increasing. However, few studies have explored the benefits of these gardens for people with intellectual disabilities or mental health disorders. We evaluated the association between urban rooftop gardening and quality of life of individuals with moderate to very marked disability. Methods: We collected quality of life information with a preliminary version of the INTEGRAL Scale questionnaire from all gardeners (n = 54) and among a comparison group of nongardeners (n = 43). We also conducted semi-structured interviews with participants and technicians, and made field observations. Results: Our results indicated that urban rooftop gardening was associated with better personal development and suggested enhanced physical and emotional well-being, sense of purpose, social inclusion, interpersonal relations (including new perspectives on the urban environment and the changes in social roles), and general quality of life. Conclusion: Our study extends the evidence on the potential benefits of urban rooftop gardening in general, and specifically for those with intellectual disabilities and mental health disorders. The research presented in this article received funding from the Town Council of Barcelona and from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement no. 678034). These sponsors had no role in the design or analysis of this study. No copyrighted material was used in this manuscript.

The RESearch Centre on Urban Environment for Agriculture and Biodiversity (RESCUE-AB), within the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences of the University of Bologna, is committed to promote urban horticulture and biodiversity in Europe and in several countries of the Global South, bringing together skills and research expertise in the fields of horticulture, environmental sciences and entomology. Educational activities build upon a range of international projects, specifically devoted to create innovative training tools. These range from adult education for urban gardeners and school educators, to higher education curricula. Lifelong learning instruments addressing the social and environmental functions of urban horticulture have been developed within the framework of LLP-Grundtvig projects, such as the project “HORTIS” (Horticulture in Towns for Social Inclusion and Socialisation, www.hortis-europe.net). Successful application of the developed educational models are already being explored within social projects, such as the Urban Innovative Action “SALUS W SPACE” (Villa SALUS as a new Sustainable Accessible Livable Usable Social space for intercultural Wellbeing, Welfare and Welcoming in the Metropolitan City of Bologna), in which urban agriculture becomes a tool for social inclusion and capacity building among communities of political refugees and immigrants. Specific training on how to design and implement educational gardens in schools is then the main objective of the ongoing project “GARDENS TO GROW” (Urban Horticulture for Innovative and Inclusive Early Childhood Education), funded by Erasmus+. The same funding scheme promoted between 2014 and 2017 the project “URBAN GREEN TRAIN” (URBAN GReen Education for ENTteRprising Agricultural Innovation), with the aim of encouraging the creation of pioneering business initiatives in Urban Agriculture (UA), by reinforcing the so called knowledge triangle among Education, Research and Business. Within the project a partnership of public and private organizations from Italy, France, Germany and the Netherlands, developed, tested and made available to different types of learners a pilot international, cross-sectoral, multi-targeted training path on Urban Agriculture Entrepreneurship. Similarly, the ongoing project Erasmus+ “BUGI” (Western Balkans Urban Agriculture Initiative) brings together the most innovative business models in urban agriculture in Europe and support their adaptation and diffusion in Eastern Europe and the Balkan context. Finally, the capacity-building of early-stage researchers was addressed in the project H2020 MSCA “SUSTURBANFOODS” (Integrated sustainability assessment of social and technological innovations towards urban food systems), where innovative research on comparative sustainability assessment of different urban horticulture models across Europe was set in place.

Urban agriculture (UA) is expanding in European cities and it has recently colonized the roof of buildings in the form of rooftop agriculture (RA), particularly due to urban land constraints. The implementation of RA has been done in multiple ways: from high-tech business-oriented solutions, often promoted by research and innovation programs of the European Commission, to agro-ecological and socially oriented initiatives lead by the citizenship. This paper evaluates the current state of RA implementation in Western Europe by reviewing existing projects. A systematic search through internet, UA-related networks and societies was performed to list the existing projects around Europe. A total of 33 initiatives were evaluated, including projects (concept and planned), implemented cases and already closed experiences. Four categories of RA project were revealed in Western Europe: gardens, farms, engineering and landscape. The multi-functionality of RA implies a combination of objectives and benefits, namely food and non-food production, economic and social services, financial and environmental impacts. The analysis also unveiled some implementation barriers that constrain the development of RA, limiting the long-term viability of existing projects. How many will remain in 5 years' time? And how many will replace them, and find a sustainable system? This is the role of research teams to study these initiatives, to test technical options and policy regulations through socioeconomic models and scenarios to offer an enabling environment for RA to become one way for cities to cope with climate change, food and nutrition security, biodiversity management and human prosperity.

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), CO2 savings (16–112 tonnes of CO2 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 CO2) 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).

Compared to rural agriculture, urban agriculture (UA) has some distinct features (e.g., the limited land access, alternative growing media, unique legal environments or the non-production-related missions) that encourage the development of new practices, i.e., &ldquo, novelties&rdquo, or &ldquo, innovations&rdquo, This paper aims to (1) identify the &ldquo, triggers&rdquo, for novelty production in UA, (2) characterize the different kinds of novelties applied in UA, (3) evaluate the &ldquo, innovativeness&rdquo, of those social, environmental and economic novelties, and, (4) estimate the links between novelties and sustainability. The study was based on the evaluation of 11 case studies in four Western European countries (Italy, Germany, France and Spain). The results show that the trigger and origin of new activities can often be traced back to specific problems that initiators were intended to address or solve. In total, we found 147 novelties produced in the 11 case studies. More novelties are produced in the environmental and social dimensions of sustainability than in the economic. In most cases, external stakeholders played an important role in supporting the projects. The analysis further suggests that innovativeness enhances the overall sustainability in urban agriculture projects.

Notwithstanding that indoor farming is claimed to reduce the environmental pressures of food systems, electricity needs are elevated and mainly associated with lighting. To date, however, no studies have quantified the environmental and economic profile of Light Emitting Diodes (LED) lighting in indoor farming systems. The goal of this study is to quantify the effect of varying the red (R) and blue (B) LED spectral components (RB ratios of 0.5, 1, 2, 3 and 4) on the eco-effciency of indoor production of lettuce, chicory, rocket and sweet basil from a life cycle perspective. The functional unit of the assessment was 1 kg of harvested fresh plant edible product, and the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) method was employed for impact assessment. Even though most of the materials of the LED lamp and electronic elements were imported from long distances (14,400 km), electricity consumption was the largest contributor to the environmental impacts (with the LED lamps being the main electricity consumers, approximately 70%), apart from the resources use indicator, where the materials of the lamps and the mineral nutrients were also relevant. RB0.5 was the most energy-effcient light treatment but had the lowest eco-effciency scores due to the lower crop yields. This project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 708672. The elaboration of the manuscript was also supported by a grant from the Fundacion Séneca (reference 20555/IV/18, Call for Fellowships for Guest Researcher Stays at Universities and OPIS of the Region of Murcia) awarded to Francesco Orsini.

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.

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.

Urban Food Production (UFP) initiatives are expanding worldwide to enhance urban food production while contributing to the development of sustainable cities in a three-bottom perspective (environment, society, economy). Although the sustainability aspects of UFS have been addressed in the literature, there is a need to set a sustainability framework for UFP based on the concepts and the understanding of the stakeholders as a basis for quantifying their sustainability and for developing effective policy-making. This paper evaluates the concepts of the UFP sustainability from a stakeholders&rsquo, perspective through participatory methods and network analyses. Two different workshops were organized in the city of Bologna (Italy), where mind-mapping exercises to define the environmental, economic and social sustainability elements of UFP were performed. This bottom-up approach unveiled a comprehensive and complex vision of sustainable UFP, the relevance of certain sustainability elements and key aspects to take into consideration for the development of UFP and effective policy-making. The existence of bidimensional and tridimensional concepts indicated priorities, synergies and trade-offs among the dimensions of sustainability. The multi-scalar nature of UFP suggested that specific policies can be supported by global schemes (e.g., Sustainable Development Goals) and that UFP can be a local tool for democracy and equity at lower scales.

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.

Urban agriculture (UA) is a strategic means of achieving sustainable urban food security now and into the future. While a number of different models of agriculture will be required to provide food for the concentrated number of people in urban spaces, UA can be key tool in helping urban residents meet micronutrient requirements, whose deficiency is now recognized as the most important cause of “hidden hunger” globally. UA, or the cultivation of crops for food in small and irregular spaces within a city and its periphery, has been practiced for as long as cities have existed. However, it is gaining increased attention for both its limited scale, its effects on nutrition and community building, the associated possibilities for employment and social mobility, its relevance in a vibrant and diverse food system and for all of these reasons, its sustainability. UA projects are springing up in cities all over the world, always engaging the collaboration of multiple urban stakeholders and increasingly with a focus on the most vulnerable people in society: the poor, the elderly, children, and those suffering malnutrition and chronic disease. For all city dwellers, UA improves livelihoods within the city environment by reducing city ecological footprint, strengthening city resilience to climate change and environmental hazards, reducing noise, improving air quality and the city microclimate, minimizing drought by improving storm water management, and contributing to solid waste management. It increases human health and well-being through stress recovery, encouragement of exercise, reduction of urban violence, facilitating social contact, and providing sources of added employment and income. Using the concept of urban political ecology as a foundation for understanding food dynamics, this chapter will describe a range of different UA initiatives across the globe, giving special attention to their multifunctionality in the context of social vulnerabilities within urban spaces. In so doing, it will present UA as an important platform for community engagement and sustainability building toward increased food security. Turning concrete into green productive lands results in changes in physical, psychological, environmental, and community health. At the same time, the application of social leftovers (abandoned lands, unused rooftops, plastic and wood containers, etc.) onto productive means creates a new model for adding micronutrition to urban diets that integrates and takes seriously social, cultural, nutritional, and economic outcomes.

Urban agriculture (UA) is spreading within the Global North, largely for food production, ranging from household individual gardens to community gardens that boost neighborhood regeneration. Additionally, UA is also being integrated into buildings, such as Urban Rooftop Farming (URF). Some URF experiences succeed in North America both as private and community initiatives. To date, little attention has been paid to how stakeholders perceive UA and URF in the Mediterranean or to the role of food production in these initiatives. This study examines the promotion and inclusion of new forms of UA through the practice of URF and contributes to the nascent literature on the stakeholder and public perceptions of UA. It seeks to understand how those perceptions shape the development of new urban agriculture practices and projects. Barcelona (Spain) was used as a Mediterranean case study where UA and URF projects are growing in popularity. Through semi-structured interviews with 25 core stakeholders, we show that UA is largely perceived as a social activity rather than a food production initiative, because the planning of urban gardens in Barcelona was traditionally done to achieve leisure and other social goals. However, several stakeholders highlighted the potential to increase urban fertility through URF by occupying currently unused spaces. As a result, the positive valuation of URF depends on the conceptualization of UA as a social or food production activity. In turn, such conceptualization shapes barriers and opportunities for the development of URF. While most UA-related stakeholders (e.g., food co-ops, NGOs) preferred soil-based UA, newer stakeholders (e.g., architects) highlighted the economic, social and environmental opportunities of local and efficient food production through innovative URF.

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552 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.

International audience; Rooftop gardens are a promising way to supplement the growing demand for local food production, and are especially relevant in large cities with acute space constraints. However, they face the challenge of achieving viable food productivity while minimizing their impacts on the environment, two priorities that often oppose one another. Also, the actual impacts of management practices, which are deemed environmentally friendly in principle, are rarely quantified. Therefore, evaluations that encompass all components of urban gardens and a comprehensive range of environmental issues are necessary to reveal potential trade-offs and provide guidance in the design of these systems. In this study, we evaluated the environmental and economic impacts of rooftop gardening practices, focusing on crop and substrate selection, which are key parameters in system design but whose consequences have seldom been evaluated so far. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) were used to analyze a case study in the center of Paris (France). The production systems considered involved crop rotations of tomato and lettuce each grown in three different substrate types: compost and wood chips; compost, wood chips, and earthworms; and conventional potting soil. Despite the large environmental burdens of compost production, systems with compost performed better environmentally and economically than the system involving potting soil, specifically having 17-47% less greenhouse gas emissions per kg of product. Across systems, length of cultivation and yield appeared to be the most influential determinants of the environmental impacts. Within the compost systems, the most impactful component was the material used for garden infrastructure, and substrate production for the potting soil systems. This is the first study that considers compost as a substrate, weighs its benefits and impacts, incorporates it into a complete garden, and compares it to potting soil. Our results demonstrate that careful system design could significantly abate environmental impacts. They provide critically needed information to people implementing urban rooftop agriculture and considering the trade-offs involved in each decision.; Rooftop garden

This section focuses on the environmental dimension of implementing rooftop agriculture (RA) regarding energy efficiency, water footprint, use of residual CO 2 from buildings and global environmental preservation. RA contributes to improving the energy performance of cities, buildings and food production systems. The selection of water-efficient techniques and the promotion of rainwater harvesting and greywater recovery systems is a critical issue for minimizing the water footprint of RA. Finally, RA can positively contribute to face global-scale environmental problems such as climate change.

In this chapter, selected cases of rooftop agriculture across the world will be presented, explaining their organisation, technical design and operation, their business model and main functions , lessons learned during establishment and operation, their productive and societal results and their policy relevance . The owner or manager of the rooftop garden or farm and an independent researcher were involved in documenting the cases, When selecting the cases, we tried to include examples of the various types of rooftop agriculture presented in previous chapters. We also sought to include cases from all continents. Accordingly, a comprehensive list of most relevant rooftop agriculture experience across the world is presented, following an alphabetical order by city. For each case, the names of main informants (case study representatives) are listed altogether with the name of the author that coordinated data collection.

Pursuing a responsible and sustainable development, the United Nations urged to decouple economic growth from environmental impacts. Several European Union (EU) policies have been implemented towards such goal. Although multiple authors have evaluated the decoupling of the economic growth from the resource use or environmental concerns, the environmental assessment mostly focused on pressures rather than impacts, and used single indicators assumed to be a proxy of the overall effects on the environment. Furthermore, no studies were found using a process-based life cycle approach to quantify the environmental impacts of consumption. To solve such research gap, this paper assesses the decoupling in the EU focusing on potential environmental impacts, complementing a production-based approach with two options for accounting for the impacts of consumption. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the decoupling of the economic growth (in terms of Gross Domestic Product) from the environmental impacts due to EU-28 consumption, assessed by means of life cycle assessment (LCA). The decoupling is then assessed in impact terms rather than limited to pressures by using the Environmental Footprint (EF2017) indicators, which allows assessing 16 different impacts. The Consumption Footprint indicator quantified the environmental impacts of EU apparent consumption, including the territorial impacts (Domestic Footprint) and the embodied impacts in both imports and exports (Trade Footprint). The inventory of pressures for the trade component is compiled either with a bottom-up approach (process-based LCA of representative traded goods) or a top-down approach (input-output-based LCA). Methodological aspects influencing the decoupling assessment and the resulting outputs are presented and discussed. According to the results, the environmental impacts of EU-28 consumption showed decoupling during the last decades (2005–2014), between relative to absolute decoupling depending on the inventory modeling approach taken. Some countries showed higher decoupling levels than others displaying a heterogeneous map of EU-28 decoupling, which was led by acidification, particulate matter, land use and eutrophication impacts. Notwithstanding current limitations, the assessment of decoupling using consumption-based environmental indicators is very promising for supporting policy-making towards addressing the actual impacts driven by the EU production and consumption system., Highlights • Comprehensive assessment of the decoupling of environmental impacts of EU-28 consumption from GDP. • A life cycle perspective is taken for the environmental impact modeling. • Decoupling assessment need further refinements to be used for policy support. • Top-down and bottom-up approaches indicated from relative to absolute decoupling. • Decoupling of environmental impacts from human development index is also evaluated.

Urban gardens are spreading in many cities across Europe, with community gardening being a fundamental form of urban agriculture. While the literature reveals the essential role that community gardens can play in terms of learning and education, no studies have investigated the training needs for participants in community gardens to ensure their successful development. The goal of this article is to evaluate the training requirements of urban community gardens to ensure their successful implementation and their contribution to sustainability in European cities. Two questionnaires of users&rsquo, needs analysis were designed and implemented in Berlin, Bologna, Budapest, and Cartagena. The results unveiled the need to re-enforce the training in the formation and community building phases of community gardens towards ensuring the creation of an engaged gardening community to maintain activity, particularly for top-down activities (e.g., research-related gardens). Users claimed their need for being trained on crop management skills (e.g., maintenance, bed preparation, organic practices) and on communication skills to further disseminate their activity, thereby increasing the potential for citizen engagement. Such requirements could be overcome with the creation of urban gardens networks, where experiences and knowledge are shared among practitioners. Policy recommendations are provided based on the outputs of this study.

Rooftop agriculture (RA) is an innovative form of urban agriculture that takes advantage of unused urban spaces while promoting local food production. However, the implementation of RA projects is limited due to stakeholders’ perceived risks. Such risks should be addressed and minimized in policymaking processes to ensure the sustainable deployment of RA initiatives. This paper evaluates the risks that stakeholders perceive in RA and compares these perceptions with the currently available knowledge, including scientific literature, practices and market trends. Qualitative interviews with 56 stakeholders from Berlin and Barcelona were analyzed for this purpose. The results show that perceived risks can be grouped into five main categories: i) risks associated with urban integration (e.g., conflicts with images of “agriculture”), ii) risks associated with the production system (e.g., gentrification potential), iii) risks associated with food products (e.g., soil-less growing techniques are “unnatural”), iv) environmental risks (e.g., limited organic certification) and v) economic risks (e.g., competition with other rooftop uses). These risks are primarily related to a lack of (scientific) knowledge, insufficient communication and non-integrative policymaking. We offer recommendations for efficient project design and policymaking processes. In particular, demonstration and dissemination activities as well as participatory policymaking can narrow the communication gap between RA developers and citizens.

none 10 In recent years, urban agriculture is asserting its relevance in a vibrant and diverse food system for its small scale, its focus on nutrition and community building, its contribution to food security, and its possibility for employment and social mobility. Urban agriculture may also be a tool to re-appropriate a range of abandoned or unused irregular spaces within the city, including flowerbeds, roundabouts, terraces, balconies or rooftops. Consistently, all spaces that present a lack of identity may be converted to urban agriculture and, more specifically, to urban horticulture as a way to strengthen resilience and sustainability. The goal of this paper is to analyse current practices in the requalification of vacant areas as urban gardens with the aim of building communities and improving landscape and life quality. To do so, the city of Bologna (Italy) was used as case study. Four types of vacant areas were identified as places for implementing urban gardens: flowerbeds along street and squares, balconies and rooftops, abandoned buildings and abandoned neighbourhoods. Six case studies representing this variety of vacant areas were identified and evaluated by collecting primary data (i.e. field work, participant observation and interviews) and performing a SWOT analysis. For most cases, urban horticulture improved the image and the quality of the areas as well as brought social benefits regarding life quality, food access and social interaction among participants. Strong differences in some aspects were found between top-down and bottom-up initiatives, being the later preferable regarding the engagement of citizens. Policy-making might focus on participatory and transparent planning, long-term actions, food safety and economic development. Gasperi, Daniela; Pennisi, Giuseppina; Rizzati, Niccolò; Magrefi, Francesca; Bazzocchi, Giovanni; Mezzacapo, Umberto; Stefani, Monique Centrone; Sanyé-Mengual, Esther; Orsini, Francesco; Gianquinto, Giorgio Gasperi, Daniela; Pennisi, Giuseppina; Rizzati, Niccolò; Magrefi, Francesca; Bazzocchi, Giovanni; Mezzacapo, Umberto; Stefani, Monique Centrone; Sanyé-Mengual, Esther; Orsini, Francesco; Gianquinto, Giorgio

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. © 2012 Copyright The Society of Urban Technology.

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

In the expanding urban agriculture phenomenon in Europe, home gardens are a traditional form that have kept agriculture within cities, even becoming crucial in certain historical periods (e.g., war periods). However, horticultural practices in home gardens can also have negative consequences. The goal of this paper is to assess the eco-efficiency of home gardens as a type of urban agriculture. To do so, a case study in Padua (Italy) was evaluated following life cycle assessment and life cycle costing methods. A home garden of 30.6 m(2) and 21 crop cycles were evaluated. The functional unit of the assessment was 1 kg of harvested fresh vegetable at the consumption point, and the ReCiPe method was employed for impact assessment. Environmental assessment indicated that organic fertilization, use of tap water, mineral fertilization and pesticides were the most contributing elements of the entire life cycle. Furthermore, the relevance of garden design and crop selection was a determinant in the eco-efficiency results. The assessed home garden could satisfy the food requirements of between 1 and 2 members of the household. Crop management and design recommendations are provided to improve eco-efficiency and food security potential of home gardens.

The development and production of products in a more sustainable way has received special attention in recent years. In particular, packaging products range from single materials with simple designs as well as complex ones that include different materials (cardboard, woody boards, paper, plastics, etc.). A comprehensive assessment of the environmental impacts of a product’s life cycle comprises functions from the extraction of raw materials to waste management and disposal (i.e., the life cycle-assessment perspective). Thus, the knowledge of the environmental impacts of packaging products used in a specific production sector is a factor of major importance not only with the aim of improving the environmental performance of products and/or processes but also to fulfill the requirements of the ecological/green products market. One of the most valid tools to assess and reduce the inherent environmental burdens associated with products is ecodesign or Design for the Environment (DfE). This methodology consists of applying environmental criteria to the development of a product and implies a change of how we regard that product. The assessment of environmental improvement of the product’s entire life cycle is also considered for a comprehensive analysis. To demonstrate the application of DfE in the ecodesign of packaging products, a wooden storage box was assessed. Different types of materials, such as timber, plywood, engineered woods, plastics, brads, hoods, and/or staples, can be considered in the manufacture process. This type of box is often used for packaging when mechanical resistance is required for heavy loads, long-term warehousing, or adequate rigidity. Moreover, when such a box is used in the food sector, its production chain must include fitosanitary thermal treatment. According to the assessment by means of DfE methodology, the relevance of the raw materials chosen, as well as their origin, can greatly influence the associated environmental burdens, which can also be confirmed quantitatively by LCA. Thus, a correct methodological adaptation of the concept of “eco-briefing” as a tool for communication among environmental technicians and designers, includes the simplification of the analytical tool used and the application of the life cycle-assessment methodology, which facilitates the environmental analysis, are required to obtain new formats of packaging materials designed within a sustainable perspective.

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 CO2 eq·m−2.

Due to the rapid urbanization and the large contribution of cities to the global environmental impact, urban policies integrate sustainability in the public space design. Current literature has accounted for the environmental impact of the main elements of the urban fabric, although studies have dealt with them individually. This chapter aims to optimize the environmental performance of the urban fabric for supporting planning processes, based on existing life cycle assessment (LCA) data of the main elements of urban fabric: sidewalks, pavements, and the gas, water and wastewater networks. Material selection and lifespan are key issues in the environmental profile of the paved skin, while the installation accounts for the greatest share of the burdens in subterranean networks. The best design consists of concrete sidewalks, asphalt pavements, HDPE (high density polyethylene) gas pipes, PVC (polyvinyl chloride) water pipes, and concrete sewer pipes. Pavements and sidewalks are the most contributing elements to the overall environmental burdens of streets.

El títol del pre-print va ser: Eco-innovation of urban elements to support sustainable multimodal mobility The provision of an adequate network of urban infrastructures is essential to create clean and energy-efficient urban mobility systems. However, the urban infrastructure to support sustainable mobility can produce a substantial environmental burden if no life cycle environmental criteria are applied in its design and management. This paper demonstrates the potential to support energy-efficient and CO2-free pedestrian and e-bike mobility through the eco-design of urban elements. An eco-design approach is applied to reconceptualize a conventional pergola toward an eco-product (solar pergola). The solar pergola generates surplus photovoltaic electricity that provides a multifunctional character. According to the end-use of this energy, passive and active contributions to sustainability are distinguished for robust decision-making. The deployment of solar pergolas can contribute to save from 2,080 kg to over 47,185 kg of CO2 eq. and from 350,390 MJ to over 692,760 MJ eq. in 10 years, depending on the geographic emplacement and electricity grid system. These savings are equivalent to charging 2 to 9 e-bikes per day using clean energy. Instead of maximizing infrastructure deployment to shift to environmentally friendly modes of mobility, the implementation of multifunctional urban elements represents a key area of action in the context of smart city development.

Eco-design is used as a tool in the manufacturing and services sectors for improving the sustainability of products by integrating environmental aspects into the design stage, where most of the product impacts are determined. Laws (e.g., EU eco-design directive) and international schemes (e.g., ISO 14006) have encouraged the use of eco-design by companies; in addition, the literature has reported advances in methodology and widespread case studies in different economic sectors. This chapter aims to show a combined design for environment (DfE) and life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology for the implementation of eco-design by companies. The steps and tools of the methodology, as well as the most common strategies, are described. Product carbon footprint (PCF) plays an important role in the methodology in two main ways. First, PCF is one of the indicators that can be calculated with LCA, which has become a common environmental indicator used by companies, not only as quantitative data of the current environmental performance but also as a benchmark for further improvements. Second, PCF is used as a strategy for environmental communication to consumers through eco-labeling. The main strength of the carbon footprint is that stakeholders (business and consumers) are aware of and understand its meaning due to the presence of carbon emissions and global warming in mass media and public science studies.

Packaging products are common in all industrial sectors and in the market place. However, packaging design needs to be optimized while avoiding superfluous designs that do not consider the environment in their design. Directive 94/62/EC established a framework in order to harmonize the environmental requirements for packaging as well as to determine targets for recycling and recovering packaging waste. In this chapter, the eco-design projects of different sectors are presented in order to show the different strategies that are used to improve the environmental performance of packaging products. The carbon footprint of the products is quantified and used as an environmental indicator. Common strategies to reduce the carbon footprint of packaging are optimizing the volume (and therefore reducing the transportation requirements), using renewable materials, and optimizing the end-of-life management.

Energy performance of island tourism has been analyzed in the literature. However, tourist services tend to concentrate in tourist hubs, especially where mass tourism predominates (e.g., Mediterranean), and the energy metabolism of these systems has not yet been assessed. The present paper models and estimates the energy metabolism of tourist hubs in the Menorca Island (Spain) by integrating social, geographical and environmental methods. Mobility (both external and internal) and consumption of lodging services were characterized through surveys to users (tourists) and business managers. An environmental assessment evaluated CO2 emissions, and energy self-sufficiency potential was estimated via GIS data. The results indicate that, on average, a tourist consumes 4756MJ with associated emissions of 277kg of CO2 per stay (20 days on average). Of all the energy flows, external mobility contributes the most to total emissions (77%). For every day spent in a tourist hub, a tourist consumes between 29MJ and 93MJ in lodging services, consumption that could be 100% satisfied by photovoltaic systems, and these systems would result in positive effects for the island. Sustainable tourism management might focus on promoting environmentally friendly transportation, energy efficient practices, and environmental communication through ecolabeling. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

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%.

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.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%).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.