Combining Life Cycle Assessment and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis to assess agricultural waste management alternatives

Food production is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and environmental damage. Urgent actions are needed to reduce climate risks, and countries are currently committed to reducing emissions in the agricultural sector. Methodologies related to Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) are widely used,...

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Main Authors: Patrizia Lombardi, Elena Todella, Timothée D’Amico, Giovanni Zanderigo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: DEI Tipografia del Genio Civile 2025-07-01
Series:Valori e Valutazioni
Subjects:
Online Access:https://siev.org/6-37-2025/
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author Patrizia Lombardi
Elena Todella
Timothée D’Amico
Giovanni Zanderigo
author_facet Patrizia Lombardi
Elena Todella
Timothée D’Amico
Giovanni Zanderigo
author_sort Patrizia Lombardi
collection DOAJ
description Food production is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and environmental damage. Urgent actions are needed to reduce climate risks, and countries are currently committed to reducing emissions in the agricultural sector. Methodologies related to Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) are widely used, focusing mainly on environmental aspects. However, a recent interest oriented toward additional aspects related to agricultural sustainability emerged, both economic and social. Within this context, this paper proposes an application of a combined evaluation framework, based on the integration of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with Multi-Criteria Decision Analyses (MCDAs), and, in particular, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to assess three alternative technologies for processing orange peel waste. The present paper represents a preliminary experimental application of the proposed framework, exploring the usefulness of supporting the decision-making process in the agriculture sector through a holistic perspective and the consideration of several evaluation criteria relating to multiple – and potentially conflicting – objectives, interests, and actors, as offered by MCDAs. The evaluation of alternative valorization options is fundamental for proposing effective policies and practices, with the aim to propose a multi-dimensional perspective on agricultural waste management, including environmental, economic, and social dimensions.
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series Valori e Valutazioni
spelling doaj-art-cfe257d4f0884a62861d8cbe08da7d992025-08-20T03:50:31ZengDEI Tipografia del Genio CivileValori e Valutazioni2036-24042025-07-01378711410.48264/VVSIEV-20253706Combining Life Cycle Assessment and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis to assess agricultural waste management alternativesPatrizia Lombardi0Elena Todella1Timothée D’Amico2Giovanni ZanderigoInteruniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning (DIST), Politecnico di TorinoInteruniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning (DIST), Politecnico di TorinoSection of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, EPFL Lausanne,Food production is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and environmental damage. Urgent actions are needed to reduce climate risks, and countries are currently committed to reducing emissions in the agricultural sector. Methodologies related to Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) are widely used, focusing mainly on environmental aspects. However, a recent interest oriented toward additional aspects related to agricultural sustainability emerged, both economic and social. Within this context, this paper proposes an application of a combined evaluation framework, based on the integration of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with Multi-Criteria Decision Analyses (MCDAs), and, in particular, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to assess three alternative technologies for processing orange peel waste. The present paper represents a preliminary experimental application of the proposed framework, exploring the usefulness of supporting the decision-making process in the agriculture sector through a holistic perspective and the consideration of several evaluation criteria relating to multiple – and potentially conflicting – objectives, interests, and actors, as offered by MCDAs. The evaluation of alternative valorization options is fundamental for proposing effective policies and practices, with the aim to propose a multi-dimensional perspective on agricultural waste management, including environmental, economic, and social dimensions.https://siev.org/6-37-2025/life cycle assessmentmulti-criteria decision analysisanalytic hierarchy processorange peel waste
spellingShingle Patrizia Lombardi
Elena Todella
Timothée D’Amico
Giovanni Zanderigo
Combining Life Cycle Assessment and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis to assess agricultural waste management alternatives
Valori e Valutazioni
life cycle assessment
multi-criteria decision analysis
analytic hierarchy process
orange peel waste
title Combining Life Cycle Assessment and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis to assess agricultural waste management alternatives
title_full Combining Life Cycle Assessment and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis to assess agricultural waste management alternatives
title_fullStr Combining Life Cycle Assessment and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis to assess agricultural waste management alternatives
title_full_unstemmed Combining Life Cycle Assessment and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis to assess agricultural waste management alternatives
title_short Combining Life Cycle Assessment and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis to assess agricultural waste management alternatives
title_sort combining life cycle assessment and multi criteria decision analysis to assess agricultural waste management alternatives
topic life cycle assessment
multi-criteria decision analysis
analytic hierarchy process
orange peel waste
url https://siev.org/6-37-2025/
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