TY - JOUR
T1 - Application of the Crop Carbon Progress Calculator in a 'farm to ship' cotton production case study in Australia
AU - Visser, Francois
AU - Dargusch, Paul
AU - Smith, Carl
AU - Grace, Peter R.
N1 - Funding Information:
The financial support from the Cotton Research and Development Corporation ( UQ1306 ) to carry out the fieldwork for this study is highly appreciated and acknowledged. The assistance of P. Grace, P. Dargusch and A. Williams for a detailed review of the manuscript is sincerely appreciated. The authors also wish to thank the management of the case study cotton farm for their cooperation in the collection of the data.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2015/9
Y1 - 2015/9
N2 - The various initiatives in the market place to quantify the sustainability levels of products are putting pressure on farmers to demonstrate a reduction in the environmental impacts of their crop management practices, and in particular with the lowering of the carbon footprints of their crops. At present there is no internationally accredited common method or carbon footprint model which generates site specific and LCA aligned emission estimates. The application of the Crop Carbon Progress Calculator (CCAP) is demonstrated for an irrigated cotton 'farm to ship' case study in Australia where we determine that the progress made in the 2011 crop against a 2002 crop base year amounts to 44% reduction in GHG emission levels. We estimate that for this particular case study the total carbon footprint of producing a bale of cotton up to ship's side or point of export is 323 kg CO2e. This includes 182 kg CO2e from the farm production phase, 73.1 kg CO2e from the gin to port supply chain, and 68.1 kg CO2e that results from emission from the stock piled gin trash at the gins. It appears that a feasible option to avoid these trash emissions is to incorporate the waste at farm level. Our analysis shows that this could generate an emissions credit of 48.8 kg CO2e per bale at farm level, which will amount to a 27% reduction in the farm emissions footprint and a 15% reduction in the whole farm to ship carbon footprint. Due to a number of site specific environmental and crop management factors, there can be significant variances in crop carbon footprint outcomes.
AB - The various initiatives in the market place to quantify the sustainability levels of products are putting pressure on farmers to demonstrate a reduction in the environmental impacts of their crop management practices, and in particular with the lowering of the carbon footprints of their crops. At present there is no internationally accredited common method or carbon footprint model which generates site specific and LCA aligned emission estimates. The application of the Crop Carbon Progress Calculator (CCAP) is demonstrated for an irrigated cotton 'farm to ship' case study in Australia where we determine that the progress made in the 2011 crop against a 2002 crop base year amounts to 44% reduction in GHG emission levels. We estimate that for this particular case study the total carbon footprint of producing a bale of cotton up to ship's side or point of export is 323 kg CO2e. This includes 182 kg CO2e from the farm production phase, 73.1 kg CO2e from the gin to port supply chain, and 68.1 kg CO2e that results from emission from the stock piled gin trash at the gins. It appears that a feasible option to avoid these trash emissions is to incorporate the waste at farm level. Our analysis shows that this could generate an emissions credit of 48.8 kg CO2e per bale at farm level, which will amount to a 27% reduction in the farm emissions footprint and a 15% reduction in the whole farm to ship carbon footprint. Due to a number of site specific environmental and crop management factors, there can be significant variances in crop carbon footprint outcomes.
KW - Agriculture GHG emissions
KW - Carbon footprint
KW - Crop carbon footprints
KW - Crop nitrous oxide emissions
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84953359385&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.09.093
DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.09.093
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84953359385
SN - 0959-6526
VL - 103
SP - 675
EP - 684
JO - Journal of Cleaner Production
JF - Journal of Cleaner Production
ER -
