December 2024 The Shift e-newsletter
Free webinar: Comparative LCA of Plant and Animal Based Meats | FOODIE Conference Case Studies | Upcoming Training
EarthShift Global recently completed a comparative LCA of Plant and Animal Based meats for the Good Food Institute. We are pleased to share the full report and invite you to a joint webinar discussing the findings:
Free Webinar
To register for the event, please visit the GFI website.
To read the full report, please use the link below to access our Case Studies and Reports section:
How LCA Guides Innovation:
FOODIE Conference Case Studies
Mariana Ortega-Ramírez, EarthShift Global Sustainability Analyst, was a conference organizer and presenter at the 2024 FOODIE Conference, recently held in San Diego, CA.
She presented several case studies on how LCA was instrumental in guiding innovation at multiple levels in the food system by impacting suppliers, regulators, and customers.
Fig. 1. Multiple levels in a nested hierarchy for food system innovation. Based on Geels (2005).
Case Study A: The Impact of Packaging
A baby food manufacturer conducted an LCA to identify the lifecycle stages with the greatest impacts. They were surprised to learn their packaging had a larger impact than their ingredients sourcing. Because of these findings, the company is now exploring new package designs.
Case Study B: Unintended Tradeoffs
The company set targets to reduce climate change impacts in their agricultural production stages. However, the LCA study identified significant tradeoffs - the climate change impacts were reduced with the new approaches, but water, human health, ecosystems, resources, and cumulative energy demand were greater than the original approaches. The company is now reconsidering its next actions.
Case Study C: The Impact of Energy
Anticipatory LCA was applied to assess whether biogas, hydrogen, or CCS is the best fit for new generation corn mills (Fig. 4). Wet mills are competing to offer top sustainable products to food and other industries, involving their suppliers in the process.
Upcoming Online Training
Advanced Life Cycle Assessment: Anticipatory LCA
January 15-16, 2025
Introduction to Sustainable Return on Investment (S-ROI)
February 5, 2025
Handling Recycling in Life Cycle Assessment
March 4, 2025
Sustainable Return on Investment (S-ROI)
March 12, 2025
Integrating Sustainability Into the Organization
March 19-20, 2025
Sustainability in Package Design
March 26-27, 2025