
Background & project objective
In current LCA practice, quantifying pesticide emissions from agricultural fields is not aligned with characterising related potential toxicological impacts on humans and different types of ecosystems. Furthermore, the pathways from pesticide application via emissions to environmental media and treated field crops to toxicity impacts are currently only partly and inconsistently covered and many relevant pesticides are currently not included. This leads to LCA results that are incomplete and often misleading and hard to interpret and this makes it impossible to assess and compare the environmental performance profiles of different pest management systems and practices.
To address these issues, it is the main objective of the OLCA-Pest project to build on current advances in life cycle inventory and life cycle impact assessment to operationalise and harmonize the emission quantification and impact characterization of pesticides in life cycle assessment (LCA) and product environmental footprinting.
Project output
Main project output documents and results can be found in below table, including a summary scientific open-access paper, a FAQ document around assessing pesticides in life cycle assessment (LCA), a set of default emission fractions and characterization factors for use in LCA, the main project report, and a set of public project deliverables.
Document title | Download file |
---|---|
Nemecek, T., Antón, A., Basset-Mens, C., Gentil-Sergent, C., Renaud-Gentié, C., Melero, C., Naviaux, P., Peña, N., Roux, P., Fantke, P., 2022. Operationalising emission and toxicity modelling of pesticides in LCA: The OLCA-Pest project contribution. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 27, 527-542. | https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-022-02048-7 |
FAQ — Summary and answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ) of the OLCA-Pest project methods and results | Project-OLCA-Pest_FAQ.pdf |
Summary — Overall summary of OLCA-Pest project results and main recommendations | Project-OLCA-Pest_FinalReport.pdf |
LCI results — Default life cycle inventory (LCI) pesticide initial emission distribution fractions from the OLCA-Pest project | Project-OLCA-Pest_EmissionFractions.xlsx |
LCIA results — Default life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) freshwater ecotoxicity and human toxicity characterization factors (CF) for (a) industrial chemicals and (b) agricultural pesticides from the OLCA-Pest project | (a) Project-OLCA-Pest_CF_IndustrialChemicals.xlsx (b) Project-OLCA-Pest_CF_Pesticides.xlsx |
Deliverable 1.1 — Guidance document on how OLCA-Pest and other international efforts can be aligned | Project-OLCA-Pest_D1.1.pdf |
Deliverable 1.3 — Stakeholder workshops on Catalan wine, Swiss crops, French viticulture, and on stakeholder acceptance | Project-OLCA-Pest_D1.3.pdf |
Deliverable 1.4 — Scientific publications, conference presentations, and public flyer to disseminate results | Project-OLCA-Pest_D1.4.pdf |
Deliverable 2.1 — Guidelines for harmonization and scrutinizing pesticide LCI/LCIA data | Project-OLCA-Pest_D2.1.pdf |
Deliverable 2.2 — Relevant substitutive/other products/metabolites to be considered | Project-OLCA-Pest_D2.2.pdf |
Deliverable 2.3 — Inventory of LCI/LCIA data structure and metadata description | Project-OLCA-Pest_D2.3.pdf |
Deliverable 3.1 — Set of improved and documented pesticide emission models for use in LCA and guidance on fate modelling | Project-OLCA-Pest_D3.1.pdf |
Deliverable 3.3 — Documentation of emission modelling in PestLCI Consensus model (PestLCI-web Documentation) | Project-OLCA-Pest_D3.3.pdf |
Deliverable 4.1 — Method and documentation of harmonized plant uptake modelling of organic and inorganic pesticides | Project-OLCA-Pest_D4.1.pdf |
Deliverable 4.2 — Status, next steps and documentation of groundwater ecotoxicity characterization | Project-OLCA-Pest_D4.2.pdf |
Deliverable 4.3 — Status, next steps and documentation of terrestrial ecotoxicity characterization | Project-OLCA-Pest_D4.3.pdf |
Deliverable 5.1 — Web based system, documentation, user guide for organic and inorganic pesticides (PestLCI-web Manual) | Project-OLCA-Pest_D5.1.pdf |
Deliverable 6.1 — Case study selection criteria and overall case study methodology white paper | Project-OLCA-Pest_D6.1.pdf |
Deliverable 6.4 — Evaluation of models by comparison with selected measured data or non-LCA models | Project-OLCA-Pest_D6.4.pdf |