Environmental impacts of horses, dogs, cats, pets and companion animals investigated in life cycle assessment
Pets like dogs, cats or horses are an important leisure activity in industrialised countries. From the point of view of ecological consumption, the question arises whether this development is relevant from an environmental point of view. For the first time, a full life cycle assessment study was carried out to examine the environmental impact of Swiss pet ownership. This shows that in the individual case, an animal can make a significant contribution to a person's environmental balance. However, when viewed across Switzerland as a whole, keeping pets is not a critical issue.
LCA for horses, dogs, cats and other pets
The present study, which was carried out as part of an internship, examined six animal species frequently kept in Switzerland: horses, dogs, cats, rabbits, ornamental birds, and ornamental fishes. All relevant influences on the environment are recorded in the data collection. This includes feeding, housing, feces, car journeys and other purchases caused by the pet. The relevant environmental aspects were evaluated using two methods: the global warming potential (carbon footprint) and the method of ecological scarcity (eco-points) as a measure for total environmental pollution or impact.
It was found that the impact increases with the size of the pet (and thus the feed requirement). The larger and heavier the animal, the higher the environmental impact. Other aspects, such as housing, can vary greatly depending on the species.
The study shows that specific decisions regarding the keeping of a pet can have a considerable influence on the environmental impact. A key factor here is the feeding of the pet.
The average Swiss consumption of products (food, textiles, equipment, etc.) and services (travel, events, public utilities, etc.) is a burden on the environment. The keeping of an animal can have a relevant influence on this individually caused environmental pollution, especially in the case of large animals such as horses. Compared to the average consumption of a person living in Switzerland, the keeping of a horse used by one single person would increase the related environmental impacts by one third. For the keeping of a dog it would be around six percent, for smaller animals the increase in pollution would be three percent or less.
However, with a view on Switzerland as a whole, the keeping of pets is of secondary importance. In 2015, it accounts only for about 1.2% of the total environmental pollution caused by the Swiss consumption.
The concept of functional unit is not enough to use the full power of LCA
Jungbluth, Niels presents ideas on the decisional unit with the case study example on the life cycle assessment of pets at the 78th LCA Forum - Life Cycle Thinking = Lower Environmental Footprint?
Presentation of an LCA of pets during the International Conference on LCA of Foods
Niels Jungbluth, Jasmin Annaheim, Martin Ulrich (2020) Life cycle assessment of pets and companion animals in Switzerland. Oral presentation for the 12th International Conference on Life Cycle Assessment of Food
Publications on life cycle assessment of pets
Annaheim J., Jungbluth N. and Meili C. (2019) Ökobilanz von Haus- und Heimtieren: Überarbeiteter und ergänzter Bericht. Praktikumsarbeit bei der ESU-services GmbH, Schaffhausen, Switzerland.
Annaheim J., Jungbluth N. and Meili C. (2018) Ökobilanz von Haus- und Heimtieren. Praktikumsarbeit bei der ESU-services GmbH, Schaffhausen, Switzerland.
