Environmental impact of meal service catering for dependent senior citizens in Danish municipalities
| Autor: | Susanne Margrete Bølling Laugesen, Jørgen Dejgård Jensen, Henrik Saxe, Wender L.P. Bredie |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
Service (business)
Meal Consequential life cycle assessment Dependent senior citizens 020209 energy Recipe digestive oral and skin physiology 02 engineering and technology 010501 environmental sciences 01 natural sciences Unit (housing) Food waste Agricultural science Global warming potential (GWP ) Monetized environmental impact Sustainability Meal service 0202 electrical engineering electronic engineering information engineering Environmental impact assessment Business Life-cycle assessment Municipal kitchens 0105 earth and related environmental sciences General Environmental Science |
| Zdroj: | Saxe, H, Jensen, J D, Laugesen, S M B & Bredie, W 2019, ' Environmental impact of meal service catering for dependent senior citizens in Danish municipalities ', International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 654-666 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-018-1487-z |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s11367-018-1487-z |
| Popis: | PurposeThis study aims at defining and quantifying strategies to reduce the environmental impact caused by public and private Danish meal service supplying vulnerable home-dwelling senior citizens. Besides informing the scientific community, the goal is to inform decision makers at municipal and private commercial kitchens about their potential role in significantly reducing the environmental impact of the meal services by conscious, deliberate, and sustainable choices at each step of the meal-selection-production-packaging-delivery-chain.MethodsThe Danish meal service is represented by five public and private meal producers with a combined annual production of 1.2 million main meals targeted at sustaining senior citizens living at home throughout nine municipalities. Forty-seven main meal recipes, divided into five categories, represent the typically available meals: vegetarian, fish/seafood, pork, poultry, and veal/beef. The study quantifies the environmental impact of the five meal categories by consequential life cycle assessment, using three functional units (mass, energy, and protein content) to investigate if differential impacts among the meal categories can support sustainability-improving strategies. Two impact categories, global warming and the monetized overall environmental impact, were calculated for each recipe, including all ingredients and processing. The environmental impacts of packaging, meal delivery, and food waste were estimated separately.Results and discussionThe average environmental impact of main meals with veal/beef were 5–7 times higher than the average impact of all other meals, and 8–11 times higher impact than the impact of the average vegetarian meal. The ranges reflect differences in the chosen functional unit and impact category. Differences among the non-beef meal categories were smaller, with vegetarian and fish/seafood meals having the lowest impact. The average global warming impact of the average main meals was 3.70 kg CO2-eq and the overall monetized impact 0.62 €. Impact of waste was 0.03–0.18 kg CO2-eq and 0.007–0.023 € per meal in kitchens, and 0.031–0.329 kg CO2-eq and 0.006–0.041 € for consumers. The environmental impact of packaging added 0.07 kg CO2-eq and 0.006 €, and meal delivery 0.026–0.435 kg CO2-eq and 0.005–0.09 € per meal.ConclusionsThe most important strategy for reducing the environmental impact of Danish meal service is to reduce the number of meals containing veal/beef. Vegetarian meals were rarely more sustainable than fish/seafood. Packaging, food waste, and delivery of meals played minor roles in the overall sustainability of Danish meal service, and the most efficient strategy to reduce the environmental impact of these activities would be to deliver meals weekly rather daily. PurposeThis study aims at defining and quantifying strategies to reduce the environmental impact caused by public and private Danish meal service supplying vulnerable home-dwelling senior citizens. Besides informing the scientific community, the goal is to inform decision makers at municipal and private commercial kitchens about their potential role in significantly reducing the environmental impact of the meal services by conscious, deliberate, and sustainable choices at each step of the meal-selection-production-packaging-delivery-chain.MethodsThe Danish meal service is represented by five public and private meal producers with a combined annual production of 1.2 million main meals targeted at sustaining senior citizens living at home throughout nine municipalities. Forty-seven main meal recipes, divided into five categories, represent the typically available meals: vegetarian, fish/seafood, pork, poultry, and veal/beef. The study quantifies the environmental impact of the five meal categories by consequential life cycle assessment, using three functional units (mass, energy, and protein content) to investigate if differential impacts among the meal categories can support sustainability-improving strategies. Two impact categories, global warming and the monetized overall environmental impact, were calculated for each recipe, including all ingredients and processing. The environmental impacts of packaging, meal delivery, and food waste were estimated separately.Results and discussionThe average environmental impact of main meals with veal/beef were 5–7 times higher than the average impact of all other meals, and 8–11 times higher impact than the impact of the average vegetarian meal. The ranges reflect differences in the chosen functional unit and impact category. Differences among the non-beef meal categories were smaller, with vegetarian and fish/seafood meals having the lowest impact. The average global warming impact of the average main meals was 3.70 kg CO2-eq and the overall monetized impact 0.62 €. Impact of waste was 0.03–0.18 kg CO2-eq and 0.007–0.023 € per meal in kitchens, and 0.031–0.329 kg CO2-eq and 0.006–0.041 € for consumers. The environmental impact of packaging added 0.07 kg CO2-eq and 0.006 €, and meal delivery 0.026–0.435 kg CO2-eq and 0.005–0.09 € per meal.ConclusionsThe most important strategy for reducing the environmental impact of Danish meal service is to reduce the number of meals containing veal/beef. Vegetarian meals were rarely more sustainable than fish/seafood. Packaging, food waste, and delivery of meals played minor roles in the overall sustainability of Danish meal service, and the most efficient strategy to reduce the environmental impact of these activities would be to deliver meals weekly rather daily. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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