Hort Innovation has partnered with data company, Lifecycles, to better understand the environmental footprint of Australian avocados by conducting a life cycle assessment (LCA).
Lifecycles has experience in analysis of agricultural and food production systems, having developed much of the agriculture life cycle inventory (LCI) data in the AusLCI database.
The avocado LCA is its latest project, driven by the increasing need to advance sustainability efforts, guide future strategic investments, meet consumer information demands to support market development, and comply with new environmental reporting requirements.
The project will run for about 2 years, and is funded by Hort Innovation, using the avocado research and development levy and contributions from the Australian Government. It will provide avocado growers with environmental performance metrics and improvement opportunities to inform the industry’s environmental sustainability.
It complements other studies also commissioned by Hort Innovation related to industry benchmarking and sustainability strategy. These include an LCA for almond orchards conducted with Edge Environment, and an ongoing project with Lifecycles on a similar project for raspberry and blackberry production.
The LCA will be conducted according to the International Standard for Life Cycle Assessment (ISO14044), which is the recognised method for quantifying environmental impacts over the life cycle of a product. The quantitative information it generates provides the science-based data that decision-makers can use to substantiate sustainability initiatives.
The study will focus on the carbon footprint from greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and impacts from water use. It will compare environmental impact from both individual and industry level case studies . The individual case studies will explore different production typologies in detail, while the industry-scale LCA will collect a larger sample of data representing the Australian avocado industry.
Avocados Australia CEO, John Tyas, said the project will underpin the organisation’s sustainability strategy, which is currently under development.
