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Environmental life cycle assessment of an on-site modular cabinet vertical farm
KTH, School of Architecture and the Built Environment (ABE), Sustainable development, Environmental science and Engineering. Life Cycle Management, Sustainable Society, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3014-8930
KTH, School of Architecture and the Built Environment (ABE), Sustainable development, Environmental science and Engineering, Sustainability Assessment and Management.
Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
2024 (English)In: Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, E-ISSN 2571-581X, Vol. 8, article id 1403580Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The number of vertical farms has been expanding rapidly in recent years to provide more resilient and sustainable global food provisioning closer to consumers. However, there is a lack of empirical evidence on whether vertical farms can provide sustainable sourcing of food. The purpose of this study is to assess the environmental performance of a modular cabinet vertical farm producing lettuce and basil on-site at the end-user. To assess the environmental performance of this system, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted to determine the total impact of producing lettuce and basil on-site, i.e., a kitchen for an office cafeteria, and compare to conventional sourcing. The results from this study suggest that the modular vertical farm can provide crops with environmental impacts comparable to or less than conventionally sourced options. GHG emissions ranged from 0.78–1.18 kg CO2-eq per kg lettuce and from 1.45–2.12 kg CO2-eq per kg basil from on-site production. The ranges suggest that the environmental performance is sensitive to methodological choices and life cycle inventory (LCI) data choices. These include how to treat the infrastructure for the modular cabinet, as it is often rented as a growing-service system, in addition to the LCI data choices related to the source of electricity. In conclusion, under local conditions (i.e., Stockholm, Sweden) the modular vertical farm can produce lettuce with equivalent emissions and quality to imported lettuce, despite its high energy requirement. The findings and knowledge from this study add to the growing body of literature on vertical farming, providing empirical evidence on the sustainability of an on-site commercial cabinet-based vertical farm. Such information can be used for comparisons and validation of claims in the industry, and to provide empirical evidence to this developing field.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Frontiers Media SA , 2024. Vol. 8, article id 1403580
Keywords [en]
controlled environment agriculture (CEA), life cycle assessment (LCA), product service system, sustainability, vertical farm
National Category
Environmental Management Environmental Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-353426DOI: 10.3389/fsufs.2024.1403580ISI: 001306040300001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85203438605OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-353426DiVA, id: diva2:1899099
Note

QC 20240920

Available from: 2024-09-19 Created: 2024-09-19 Last updated: 2024-10-04Bibliographically approved

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Martin, MichaelBustamante, Maria J.

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