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Applying water scarcity footprint methodologies to milk production in Finland

  • WATER USE IN LCA
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

Food production without consuming scarce local freshwater resources in an unsustainable way needs to be ensured. A robust method to assess water scarcity impacts is needed, not only for areas suffering from water scarcity but also in circumstances without water scarcity. This study provides basic knowledge about the current water scarcity footprint methodologies applied to rain-fed agriculture, with Finnish milk production as a case study.

Methods

A typical Finnish “cradle-to-dairy” milk production system was studied. An improved allocation method is suggested taking into account that a lactating cow consumes more drinking water due to milk production. Impact assessment methodologies, including midpoint impact indicators of water deprivation and water scarcity, and the endpoint impact indicators on human health, ecosystems and resources, were applied and evaluated.

Results and discussion

Finnish milk is associated with quite low consumptive water use, amounting to just 6.3 l per litre of packaged skimmed milk according to the suggested allocation method. The stress-weighted water footprint was 4.3 H2Oeq, and the water scarcity impact came to 12.2 leq per litre of Finnish milk. The comparisons between this study and case studies in the literature showed that the water scarcity impact results calculated with the AWARE method are well reasoned, and that mass flows from regions with high water scarcity cause higher water scarcity impact.

Conclusions

We conclude that the water scarcity footprint of Finnish milk in all the studied impact categories is relatively low. The AWARE method for water scarcity footprint assessment seems to be particularly applicable for Finland and is able to identify the critical hotspots of production chains.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Stephen Pfister, Marlies Zonderland-Thomassen and Anne-Marie Boulay for their assistance in interpreting and applying their methods and results.

This work was supported by MTT Agrifood Research Finland.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Myllytie 1, 31600, Jokioinen, Finland

    Kirsi Usva, Helena Hyvärinen, Jouni Nousiainen, Taija Sinkko & Sirpa Kurppa

  2. Soilfood ltd, Ratakatu 1b A 5, 00120, Helsinki, Finland

    Eetu Virtanen

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  1. Kirsi Usva
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  2. Eetu Virtanen
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  3. Helena Hyvärinen
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  4. Jouni Nousiainen
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Correspondence to Kirsi Usva.

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Responsible editor: Stephan Pfister

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Usva, K., Virtanen, E., Hyvärinen, H. et al. Applying water scarcity footprint methodologies to milk production in Finland. Int J Life Cycle Assess 24, 351–361 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-018-1512-2

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