Life Cycle Assessment in the Olive Oil Sector

Abstract In this chapter the implementation of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology in the specific sector of olive oil production is discussed. The olive oil industry is a significant productive sector in the European Union and the related production process is characterised by a variety of different prac-tices and techniques for the agricultural production of olives and for their pro-cessing into olive oil. Depending on these differences, the olive oil production is associated with several adverse effects on the environment, both in the agricul-tural and olive oil production phases. As a consequence, using a tool such as LCA is becoming increasingly important for this type of industry. After an over-view of the characteristics of the olive oil supply chain and its main environmen-tal problems, the authors of this chapter provide a description of the international state-of-the-art of LCA implementation in this specific sector, also briefly de-scribing other Life Cycle Thinking methodologies and tools suitable for the envi-ronmental assessment of this product (such as Simplified LCA, Footprint labels and Environmental Product Declarations). Then, the methodological problems connected with the application of LCA in the olive oil production sector are deeply analysed starting from a critical comparative analysis of the applicative LCA case studies in the olive oil production supply-chain. Finally, guidelines for the application of the LCA methodology in the olive oil production sector are proposed, in order to face and manage at best the methodological problems pre-viously presented.