Integration of Product Environmental Footprint with RothC model for the valorisation of organic agriculture environmental performance: the case of organic olive oil production in Italy

European Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) method allows the practitioner to calculate the environmental life cycle performance of products for several mandatory impact categories, which can be also combined with the use of additional environmental indicators included in the Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR). When applied to agricultural production, these additional criteria can highlight specific aspects of the investigated production process and therefore help to valorise organic agricultural supply chains, to which LCA studies may allocate higher environmental impacts if compared to conventional productions, because the yield strongly affects the results. In this study, after performing the PEF study of an Italian organic olive oil in the framework of the LIFE EFFIGE project (www.lifeeffige.eu), the RothC model was applied, as suggested by the current draft version of the PEFCR for olive oil production, for the calculation of organic carbon storage in the soil of olive groves, with the aim to both valorise the environmental performance of the organic olive oil and highlight the model strengths and weaknesses. RothC evaluates the turnover of organic carbon in topsoil according to the soil type, the temperature and rainfall, the soil moisture and the soil cover of the studied area. A combination of site-specific data provided by the company and literature data were used for the application of the model. Climate data consist of the monthly average air temperature and total rainfall, obtained from regional specific databases and the monthly open pan evaporation, which was calculated by literature formulas and reference data for the studied area. The clay content of the soil, its organic carbon content and the monthly input of organic fertiliser were derived from primary data provided by the company. The input of plant residues was calculated by literature average data, whereas the depth of the soil layer was estimated according to the agricultural work processes in the olive grove in the reference years (2016 and 2017). The results of the annual return of organic carbon to the soil, calculated by the model, will be presented at the conference, as well as the results of different scenarios obtained by the variation of some main parameters, such as the quantity of organic fertilisers, the amount of plant residues and the presence or absence of plant cover. Finally, the limits of the model will be discussed.