Expanded agricultural data for LCA
ESU-services now offers Agri-footprint 8 as an add-on database for SimaPro
The database by Mérieux NutriSciences | Blonk provides Life Cycle Inventory data for environmental assessments of agriculture, food, animal feed and biomass.
Agri-footprint 8 is the largest update since the database was launched in 2013. The number of datasets has increased from approximately 4,800 to more than 10,000, significantly reducing the need to use general proxy datasets when specific agricultural data are unavailable.
Are you interested in using Agri-footprint 8 for an LCA? Learn more about Agri-footprint 8 and request a tailored offer!
New products and geographical regions
One of the main additions is the expansion of fresh fruit and vegetable data. The database now contains more than 2,600 fruit and vegetable datasets across 49 new product categories. These include important products such as apples, bananas, grapes, oranges, strawberries, cucumbers, lettuce, sweet potatoes and tomatoes.
Geographical coverage has also been expanded to 186 regions. New state-level datasets improve the modelling of crop production in the United States and Australia. They allow regional differences in yields, cultivation systems, fertilizer inputs and other agricultural conditions to be represented more accurately.
Agri-footprint 8 also includes:
- 26 new datasets for ten European beef-production systems, with a more detailed representation of animal life-cycle stages, production intensity and feed composition.
- More than 200 statistically weighted production mixes for European and global markets. These can be used when the agricultural product is known but its exact production origin is unavailable.
- A harmonized statistical baseline covering the years 2019 to 2023, including updated information on crop yields, fertilizers, pesticides, livestock production, trade and land-use change.
Updated agricultural modelling
In addition to the expanded data coverage, important methodological approaches have been revised. Livestock emission modelling has been updated from IPCC 2006 to IPCC 2019. Further improvements concern fertilizer application, peatland emissions, land occupation, blue-water consumption, rice methane emissions and indirect nitrous oxide emissions.
The background processes have been aligned with ecoinvent 3.12. This is particularly relevant for users who combine Agri-footprint and ecoinvent datasets in the same SimaPro project.
Agri-footprint 8 has also undergone an independent critical review according to ISO 14040 and ISO 14044. The review was led by Dr. Tomas Nemecek of Agroscope.
Applications of Agri-footprint 8
The database can be used for:
- Life Cycle Assessments (LCA)
- Product Carbon Footprints (PCF)
- Environmental Product Declarations (EPD)
- Scope 3 greenhouse gas calculations
- Product Environmental Footprint studies (PEF)
- Environmental assessments of food, feed and bio-based products
Agri-footprint is available with mass, energy or economic allocation, allowing users to select the version required for their assessment or conduct sensitivity analyses with different allocation approaches.
Agri-footprint 8 provided by ESU-services
ESU-services provides Agri-footprint 8 licences for SimaPro and supports users with database selection, installation, implementation and migration from previous database versions.
Are you interested in using Agri-footprint 8 for an LCA, Product Carbon Footprint, EPD, PEF or Scope 3 assessment? Learn more about Agri-footprint 8 and request a tailored offer!
About Mérieux NutriSciences | Blonk
Mérieux NutriSciences | Blonk has over two decades of experience in food system sustainability. The company was established to raise understanding of environmental issues pertaining to agriculture, and to help organizations in the agri-food value chain to put sustainability into practice.
'/%3E%3C/svg%3E){kind=small}