IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v11y2018i12p3395-d187773.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing Energy and Environmental Efficiency of the Spanish Agri-Food System Using the LCA/DEA Methodology

Author

Listed:
  • Jara Laso

    (Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Cantabria, Avda. de los Castros s/n, 39005 Santander, Spain)

  • Daniel Hoehn

    (Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Cantabria, Avda. de los Castros s/n, 39005 Santander, Spain)

  • María Margallo

    (Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Cantabria, Avda. de los Castros s/n, 39005 Santander, Spain)

  • Isabel García-Herrero

    (Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Cantabria, Avda. de los Castros s/n, 39005 Santander, Spain)

  • Laura Batlle-Bayer

    (UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change ESCI-UPF, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Pg. Pujades 1, 08003 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Alba Bala

    (UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change ESCI-UPF, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Pg. Pujades 1, 08003 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Pere Fullana-i-Palmer

    (UNESCO Chair in Life Cycle and Climate Change ESCI-UPF, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Pg. Pujades 1, 08003 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Ian Vázquez-Rowe

    (Peruvian LCA Network, Department of Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Av. Universitaria 1801, San Miguel, Lima 15088, Peru)

  • Angel Irabien

    (Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Cantabria, Avda. de los Castros s/n, 39005 Santander, Spain)

  • Rubén Aldaco

    (Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Cantabria, Avda. de los Castros s/n, 39005 Santander, Spain)

Abstract

Feeding the world’s population sustainably is a major challenge of our society, and was stated as one of the key priorities for development cooperation by the European Union (EU) policy framework on food security. However, with the current trend of natural resource exploitation, food systems consume around 30% of final energy use, generating up to 30% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Given the expected increase of global population (nine billion people by 2050) and the amount of food losses and waste generated (one-third of global food production), improving the efficiency of food systems along the supply chain is essential to ensure food security. This study combines life-cycle assessment (LCA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) to assess the efficiency of Spanish agri-food system and to propose improvement actions in order to reduce energy usage and GHG emissions. An average energy saving of approximately 70% is estimated for the Spanish agri-food system in order to be efficient. This study highlights the importance of the DEA method as a tool for energy optimization, identifying efficient and inefficient food systems. This approach could be adopted by administrations, policy-makers, and producers as a helpful instrument to support decision-making and improve the sustainability of agri-food systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Jara Laso & Daniel Hoehn & María Margallo & Isabel García-Herrero & Laura Batlle-Bayer & Alba Bala & Pere Fullana-i-Palmer & Ian Vázquez-Rowe & Angel Irabien & Rubén Aldaco, 2018. "Assessing Energy and Environmental Efficiency of the Spanish Agri-Food System Using the LCA/DEA Methodology," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-18, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:11:y:2018:i:12:p:3395-:d:187773
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/12/3395/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/12/3395/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Duan, Na & Guo, Jun-Peng & Xie, Bai-Chen, 2016. "Is there a difference between the energy and CO2 emission performance for China’s thermal power industry? A bootstrapped directional distance function approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 1552-1563.
    2. Nathan Pelletier & Peter Tyedmers, 2011. "An Ecological Economic Critique of the Use of Market Information in Life Cycle Assessment Research," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 15(3), pages 342-354, June.
    3. Abbas Mardani & Dalia Streimikiene & Tomas Balezentis & Muhamad Zameri Mat Saman & Khalil Md Nor & Seyed Meysam Khoshnava, 2018. "Data Envelopment Analysis in Energy and Environmental Economics: An Overview of the State-of-the-Art and Recent Development Trends," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-21, August.
    4. Khoshnevisan, Benyamin & Rafiee, Shahin & Omid, Mahmoud & Mousazadeh, Hossein, 2013. "Applying data envelopment analysis approach to improve energy efficiency and reduce GHG (greenhouse gas) emission of wheat production," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 588-593.
    5. Sözen, Adnan & Alp, Ihsan & Özdemir, Adnan, 2010. "Assessment of operational and environmental performance of the thermal power plants in Turkey by using data envelopment analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 6194-6203, October.
    6. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    7. Yevgeniya Arushanyan & Anna Björklund & Ola Eriksson & Göran Finnveden & Maria Ljunggren Söderman & Jan-Olov Sundqvist & Åsa Stenmarck, 2017. "Environmental Assessment of Possible Future Waste Management Scenarios," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-27, February.
    8. Khoshroo, Alireza & Mulwa, Richard & Emrouznejad, Ali & Arabi, Behrouz, 2013. "A non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis approach for improving energy efficiency of grape production," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 189-194.
    9. Hosseinzadeh-Bandbafha, Homa & Safarzadeh, Dariush & Ahmadi, Ebrahim & Nabavi-Pelesaraei, Ashkan & Hosseinzadeh-Bandbafha, Ehssan, 2017. "Applying data envelopment analysis to evaluation of energy efficiency and decreasing of greenhouse gas emissions of fattening farms," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 652-662.
    10. Xiancun Hu & Chunlu Liu, 2017. "Slacks-based data envelopment analysis for eco-efficiency assessment in the Australian construction industry," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(11-12), pages 693-706, December.
    11. David J. Murphy & Michael Carbajales-Dale & Devin Moeller, 2016. "Comparing Apples to Apples: Why the Net Energy Analysis Community Needs to Adopt the Life-Cycle Analysis Framework," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-15, November.
    12. Garcia-Herrero, I. & Hoehn, D. & Margallo, M. & Laso, J. & Bala, A. & Batlle-Bayer, L. & Fullana, P. & Vazquez-Rowe, I. & Gonzalez, M.J. & Durá, M.J. & Sarabia, C. & Abajas, R. & Amo-Setien, F.J. & Qu, 2018. "On the estimation of potential food waste reduction to support sustainable production and consumption policies," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 24-38.
    13. João Pires Gaspar & Pedro Dinis Gaspar & Pedro Dinho da Silva & Maria Paula Simões & Christophe Espírito Santo, 2018. "Energy Life-Cycle Assessment of Fruit Products—Case Study of Beira Interior’s Peach (Portugal)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-12, October.
    14. Luis R. Murillo‐Zamorano, 2004. "Economic Efficiency and Frontier Techniques," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 33-77, February.
    15. Zhihai Yang & Dong Wang & Tianyi Du & Anlu Zhang & Yixiao Zhou, 2018. "Total-Factor Energy Efficiency in China’s Agricultural Sector: Trends, Disparities and Potentials," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-16, April.
    16. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
    17. Jun-Fei Chu & Jie Wu & Ma-Lin Song, 2018. "An SBM-DEA model with parallel computing design for environmental efficiency evaluation in the big data context: a transportation system application," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 270(1), pages 105-124, November.
    18. Kiyotaka Masuda, 2018. "Energy Efficiency of Intensive Rice Production in Japan: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, January.
    19. Lina I. Brand-Correa & Paul E. Brockway & Claire L. Copeland & Timothy J. Foxon & Anne Owen & Peter G. Taylor, 2017. "Developing an Input-Output Based Method to Estimate a National-Level Energy Return on Investment (EROI)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-21, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bartłomiej Bajan & Aldona Mrówczyńska-Kamińska & Walenty Poczta, 2020. "Economic Energy Efficiency of Food Production Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-16, November.
    2. Ali Mohammadi & G. Venkatesh & Samieh Eskandari & Shahin Rafiee, 2022. "Eco-Efficiency Analysis to Improve Environmental Performance of Wheat Production," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-16, July.
    3. Beata Milewska & Dariusz Milewski, 2022. "Implications of Increasing Fuel Costs for Supply Chain Strategy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-14, September.
    4. Antonio A. Pinto & Susana Fischer & Rosemarie Wilckens & Luis Bustamante & Marisol T. Berti, 2021. "Production Efficiency and Total Protein Yield in Quinoa Grown under Water Stress," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-18, November.
    5. Jara Laso & Isabel García-Herrero & María Margallo & Alba Bala & Pere Fullana-i-Palmer & Angel Irabien & Rubén Aldaco, 2019. "LCA-Based Comparison of Two Organic Fraction Municipal Solid Waste Collection Systems in Historical Centres in Spain," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-18, April.
    6. Gennitsaris, Stavros & Sagani, Angeliki & Sofianopoulou, Stella & Dedoussis, Vassilis, 2023. "Integrated LCA and DEA approach for circular economy-driven performance evaluation of wind turbine end-of-life treatment options," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 339(C).
    7. Colamartino, Chiara & Dipierro, Anna Rita & Toma, Pierluigi & Frittelli, Massimo, 2023. "What lies behind the success of Italian GIs products? Questioning tradition in consortia via aggregated conditional efficiency," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 87(PB).
    8. Bartłomiej Bajan & Joanna Łukasiewicz & Agnieszka Poczta-Wajda & Walenty Poczta, 2021. "Edible Energy Production and Energy Return on Investment—Long-Term Analysis of Global Changes," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-16, February.
    9. Jiří Jaromír Klemeš & Petar Sabev Varbanov & Paweł Ocłoń & Hon Huin Chin, 2019. "Towards Efficient and Clean Process Integration: Utilisation of Renewable Resources and Energy-Saving Technologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-32, October.
    10. Leonidas Sotirios Kyrgiakos & George Vlontzos & Panos M. Pardalos, 2021. "Ranking EU Agricultural Sectors under the Prism of Alternative Widths on Window DEA," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-26, February.
    11. Daniel Hoehn & María Margallo & Jara Laso & Isabel García-Herrero & Alba Bala & Pere Fullana-i-Palmer & Angel Irabien & Rubén Aldaco, 2019. "Energy Embedded in Food Loss Management and in the Production of Uneaten Food: Seeking a Sustainable Pathway," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-19, February.
    12. Chan Kyu Lee & Mo Chung & Ki-Yeol Shin & Yong-Hoon Im & Si-Won Yoon, 2019. "A Study of the Effects of Enhanced Uniformity Control of Greenhouse Environment Variables on Crop Growth," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-24, May.
    13. Seiji Matsuo & Masaya Suzuki & Teruaki Shimazu, 2022. "Proposal of Agro-Industrial Integration Heat Transport System Using High-Performance Medium for the Realization of a Sustainable Society," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-19, February.
    14. Jara Laso & Cristina Campos & Ana Fernández-Ríos & Daniel Hoehn & Andrea del Río & Israel Ruiz-Salmón & Jorge Cristobal & Ainoa Quiñones & Francisco José Amo-Setién & María del Carmen Ortego & Sergio , 2020. "Looking for Answers to Food Loss and Waste Management in Spain from a Holistic Nutritional and Economic Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-24, December.
    15. Yu, Dejian & He, Xiaorong, 2020. "A bibliometric study for DEA applied to energy efficiency: Trends and future challenges," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    16. George Halkos & Kleoniki Natalia Petrou, 2019. "Analysing the Energy Efficiency of EU Member States: The Potential of Energy Recovery from Waste in the Circular Economy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-32, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Abbas Mardani & Dalia Streimikiene & Tomas Balezentis & Muhamad Zameri Mat Saman & Khalil Md Nor & Seyed Meysam Khoshnava, 2018. "Data Envelopment Analysis in Energy and Environmental Economics: An Overview of the State-of-the-Art and Recent Development Trends," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-21, August.
    2. Spyros Niavis & Nikos Tamvakis & Basil Manos & George Vlontzos, 2018. "Assessing and Explaining the Efficiency of Extensive Olive Oil Farmers: The Case of Pelion Peninsula in Greece," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-13, February.
    3. Tian, Dong & Zhang, Min & Xiong, Chuqiao & Mu, Weisong & Feng, Jianying, 2019. "Measuring the energy consumption and energy efficiency in two-harvest-a-year grape cultivation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    4. Singh, Pritpal & Singh, Gurdeep & Sodhi, G.P.S., 2019. "Energy auditing and optimization approach for improving energy efficiency of rice cultivation in south-western Punjab, India," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 269-279.
    5. Kaab, Ali & Sharifi, Mohammad & Mobli, Hossein & Nabavi-Pelesaraei, Ashkan & Chau, Kwok-wing, 2019. "Use of optimization techniques for energy use efficiency and environmental life cycle assessment modification in sugarcane production," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 1298-1320.
    6. Anirban Nandy & Piyush Kumar Singh & Alok Kumar Singh, 2021. "Systematic Review and Meta- regression Analysis of Technical Efficiency of Agricultural Production Systems," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 22(2), pages 396-421, April.
    7. Marcos Ferasso & Miguel Blanco & Lydia Bares, 2021. "A Data Envelopment Analysis of the Impact of European Funds on Environmental Indicators," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-15, March.
    8. Vlontzos, G. & Pardalos, P.M., 2017. "Assess and prognosticate green house gas emissions from agricultural production of EU countries, by implementing, DEA Window analysis and artificial neural networks," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 155-162.
    9. Alizadeh, Reza & Gharizadeh Beiragh, Ramin & Soltanisehat, Leili & Soltanzadeh, Elham & Lund, Peter D., 2020. "Performance evaluation of complex electricity generation systems: A dynamic network-based data envelopment analysis approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    10. Fakarudin Kamarudin & Bany Ariffin Amin Nordin & Junaina Muhammad & Mohamad Ali Abdul Hamid, 2014. "Cost, Revenue and Profit Efficiency of Islamic and Conventional Banking Sector: Empirical Evidence from Gulf Cooperative Council Countries," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 15(1), pages 1-24, March.
    11. Roslah Arsad & Zaidi Isa, 2024. "Evaluating Company Efficiency in Malaysian Stock Markets: Insights from DEA and Super Efficiency Models," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(8), pages 4707-4718, August.
    12. Sara Ilahi & Yongchang Wu & Muhammad Ahsan Ali Raza & Wenshan Wei & Muhammad Imran & Lyankhua Bayasgalankhuu, 2019. "Optimization Approach for Improving Energy Efficiency and Evaluation of Greenhouse Gas Emission of Wheat Crop using Data Envelopment Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-16, June.
    13. Chien-Ming Chen & Magali A. Delmas & Marvin B. Lieberman, 2015. "Production frontier methodologies and efficiency as a performance measure in strategic management research," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 19-36, January.
    14. Chen, Weidong & Geng, Wenxin, 2017. "Fossil energy saving and CO2 emissions reduction performance, and dynamic change in performance considering renewable energy input," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 283-292.
    15. Hua Zhang & Sidai Guo & Yubing Qian & Yan Liu & Chengpeng Lu, 2020. "Dynamic analysis of agricultural carbon emissions efficiency in Chinese provinces along the Belt and Road," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(2), pages 1-22, February.
    16. Monastyrenko, Evgenii, 2017. "Eco-efficiency outcomes of mergers and acquisitions in the European electricity industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 258-277.
    17. Fadzlan Sufian & Fakarudin Kamarudin, 2013. "Efficiency of the Bangladesh Banking Sector: Evidence from the Profit Function," Jindal Journal of Business Research, , vol. 2(1), pages 43-57, June.
    18. Li, Hong Xian & Li, Yan & Jiang, Boya & Zhang, Limao & Wu, Xianguo & Lin, Jingyi, 2020. "Energy performance optimisation of building envelope retrofit through integrated orthogonal arrays with data envelopment analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 1414-1423.
    19. Wang, Ke & Wei, Yi-Ming & Huang, Zhimin, 2018. "Environmental efficiency and abatement efficiency measurements of China's thermal power industry: A data envelopment analysis based materials balance approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 269(1), pages 35-50.
    20. Isabel Narbón-Perpiñá & Maria Balaguer-Coll & Emili Tortosa-Ausina, 2019. "Evaluating local government performance in times of crisis," Local Government Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(1), pages 64-100, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:11:y:2018:i:12:p:3395-:d:187773. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.