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Evaluating the carbon footprint of the cork sector with a dynamic approach including biogenic carbon flows

  • LIFE CYCLE SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

The aim of the present study is to assess the influence of two different attributional life cycle assessment (LCA) approaches, namely static LCA (sLCA) and dynamic LCA (dLCA), through their application to the calculation of the carbon footprint (CF) of the entire cork sector in Portugal. The effect of including biogenic carbon sequestration and emissions is considered as well.

Methods

sLCA is often described as a static tool since all the emissions are accounted for as if occurring at the same time which may not be the case in reality for greenhouse gases. In contrast, dLCA aims to evaluate the impact of life cycle greenhouse gas emissions on radiative forcing considering the specific moment when these emissions occur.

Results and discussion

The results show that the total CF of the cork sector differs depending on the approach and time horizon chosen. However, the greater it is the time horizon chosen, the smaller the difference between the CF results of the two approaches. Additionally, the inclusion of biogenic carbon sequestration and emissions also influences significantly the CF result. The cork sector is considered a net carbon source when biogenic carbon is excluded from the calculations and a net carbon sink when biogenic carbon is included in the calculations since more carbon is sequestered than emitted along the sector.

Conclusions

dLCA allows an overview of greenhouse gas emissions along the time. This is an advantage as it allows to identify and plan different management approaches for the cork sector. Even though dLCA is a more realistic approach, it is a more time-consuming and complex approach for long life cycles. The choice of time horizon was found to be another important aspect for CF assessment.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Corticeira Amorim, APCOR (Portuguese Cork Association) and C.E. Liège (European Cork Federation) for the collaboration. This study was supported by the project “Cork carbon footprint: from trees to products” (PTDC/AGR-FOR/4360/2012) funded by FEDER (European Regional Development Fund) through COMPETE (Operational Program Thematic Factors of Competitiveness) (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER027982) and by FCT (Science and Technology Foundation—Portugal). Thanks are due, for the financial support, to CESAM (UID/AMB/50017), to FCT/MEC through national funds, and the co-funding by the FEDER, within the PT2020 Partnership Agreement and Compete 2020.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre of Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM), Department of Environment and Planning, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal

    Martha Demertzi, Luís Arroja & Ana Cláudia Dias

  2. Centre of Forest Studies (CEF), Superior Institute of Agronomy (ISA), Tapada da Ajuda, University of Lisbon, 1349-017, Lisbon, Portugal

    Joana Amaral Paulo & Sonia Pacheco Faias

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  1. Martha Demertzi
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  2. Joana Amaral Paulo
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  3. Sonia Pacheco Faias
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  5. Ana Cláudia Dias
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Correspondence to Martha Demertzi or Ana Cláudia Dias.

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Responsible editor: Alessandra Zamagni

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Demertzi, M., Paulo, J.A., Faias, S.P. et al. Evaluating the carbon footprint of the cork sector with a dynamic approach including biogenic carbon flows. Int J Life Cycle Assess 23, 1448–1459 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-017-1406-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-017-1406-8

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