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Life Cycle Assessment of Honey: Considering the Pollination Service

Author

Listed:
  • Ioannis Arzoumanidis

    (Department of Economic Studies, University “G. d’Annunzio”, 65127 Pescara, Italy)

  • Andrea Raggi

    (Department of Economic Studies, University “G. d’Annunzio”, 65127 Pescara, Italy)

  • Luigia Petti

    (Department of Economic Studies, University “G. d’Annunzio”, 65127 Pescara, Italy)

Abstract

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been increasingly used for the improvement of the environmental performance of products and services, including food systems. Amongst them, however, honey appears to have been rarely analysed. Furthermore, the pollination by honeybees can be regarded as one of the functions of an apiculture system and is of utmost importance both for natural ecosystems and agriculture. When implementing an LCA of an apiculture system, the pollination service can and should be considered as one of the functions of a multifunctional system and the issue of how to deal with this multifunctionality in the modelling of that system should be considered carefully. The aim of this paper is to explore the economic value of pollination as a potential basis for managing multifunctionality in LCA modelling as well as its implementation in a case study. Economic allocation was performed between the pollination service and honey production. The results demonstrated that the production phase is the most impactful one for most of the environmental categories (due to the use of glass for the honey jars and electricity consumption during the storage of supers in refrigerator rooms), followed by the distribution phase. Finally, the most affected environmental impact category appeared to be natural land transformation, followed by marine ecotoxicity, freshwater eutrophication and human toxicity.

Suggested Citation

  • Ioannis Arzoumanidis & Andrea Raggi & Luigia Petti, 2019. "Life Cycle Assessment of Honey: Considering the Pollination Service," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-13, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:9:y:2019:i:1:p:27-:d:217207
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Gallai, Nicola & Salles, Jean-Michel & Settele, Josef & Vaissière, Bernard E., 2009. "Economic valuation of the vulnerability of world agriculture confronted with pollinator decline," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 810-821, January.
    2. Hanley, Nick & Breeze, Tom D. & Ellis, Ciaran & Goulson, David, 2015. "Measuring the economic value of pollination services: Principles, evidence and knowledge gaps," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 14(C), pages 124-132.
    3. A. Champetier & D. Sumner & J. Wilen, 2015. "The Bioeconomics of Honey Bees and Pollination," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 60(1), pages 143-164, January.
    4. Cheung, Steven N S, 1973. "The Fable of the Bees: An Economic Investigation," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(1), pages 11-33, April.
    5. Ioannis Arzoumanidis & Luigia Petti & Andrea Raggi & Alessandra Zamagni, 2013. "Life Cycle Assessment for the Agri-Food Sector," Springer Books, in: Roberta Salomone & Maria Teresa Clasadonte & Maria Proto & Andrea Raggi (ed.), Product-Oriented Environmental Management Systems (POEMS), edition 127, chapter 0, pages 105-122, Springer.
    6. Gallai, Nicola & Salles, Jean-Michel & Settele, Josef & Vaissière, Bernard E., 2009. "Economic valuation of the vulnerability of world agriculture confronted with pollinator decline," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(3), pages 810-821, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Raffaella Taddeo, 2021. "Industrial Ecology and Innovation: At What Point Are We? Editorial for the Special Issue “Industrial Ecology and Innovation”," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-6, September.
    2. Arianna Pignagnoli & Stefano Pignedoli & Emanuele Carpana & Cecilia Costa & Aldo Dal Prà, 2021. "Carbon Footprint of Honey in Different Beekeeping Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-14, October.

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