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The environmental performance of cow milk produced in a conventional semi-intensive system was assessed using a cradle-to-farm gate attributional life cycle assessment. The impacts of 1 kg FPCM-fat and protein corrected milk were obtained considering six midpoint impact categories from the ReCiPe 2016 method: climate change (CC), terrestrial acidification (TA), freshwater eutrophication (FE), land use (LU), water consumption (WC), and fossil resource scarcity (FRS). The modeling of the product system and calculating the environmental impacts considered the use of SimaPro™ software. Enteric methane and nitrogen emissions and inputs for feeding animals (fertilization for pasture production, use of seed in corn crops, and milk replacer in calves feed) were the main contributors to impacts in milk production in most categories. In addition, the indirect energy use and wastewater generation in milking and milk cooling also were relevant. Literature-based strategies are suggested to mitigate the identified environmental impacts to achieve the best environmental performance without decreasing technical and quality milk production. We emphasize the importance of improving productivity per milk cow, knowing the origin of the supply chain inputs, and using it efficiently to produce animal feeds as the main strategies to improve milk's environmental performance. Changes in allocation methods did not substantially differ in impact categories. Sensitivity analysis foregrounds the consistency of results and conclusions of the current study despite the uncertainties associated with methodological choices, simplifications, suppositions, and the use and adaptation of international databases.

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This data article is related to the research article "Comparative life cycle assessment of coffee jar lids made from biocomposites containing poly (lactic acid) and banana fiber". The article reports the model parameters used to construct each stage and unit process inventory of the life cycle of coffee jar lids, and the subsequent inventories of the investigated system. It also contains details of calculations and descriptions of inventory uncertainties. Primary data were obtained from lab-scale and pilot-scale tests during product preparation. Secondary data collection was based on detailed review of related international and regional literature, databases and recognized web sites. The data presented here can be used by future life cycle assessment studies on natural fiber composites in packaging applications.

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RESUMO Atualmente um dos impactos ambientais de maior preocupação, as emissões de gases de efeito estufa (GEE) influenciam as tomadas de decisão provenientes tanto do setor privado como do governamental. Nessa preocupação, encontra-se o processo de crescimento da produção de biodiesel de soja que ocorre no Brasil, e no Rio Grande do Sul, um dos principais produtores dessa matéria-prima. Baseado nisso, a quantificação das emissões de GEE da cultura da soja e seus prováveis impactos passam pela realização de um inventário que contemple a aproximação maior para a realidade dessa região. Assim, neste trabalho, as emissões de GEE provenientes da mudança do uso da terra (MUT) para produção de soja foram investigadas considerando dados históricos de 20 anos da produção da cultura no Rio Grande do Sul (entre 1992 e 2013). Nesta pesquisa, verificou-se o crescimento da cultura predominantemente sobre lavouras temporárias, o que repercute em uma quantificação diferente do que é apresentada nos inventários atuais, em que é apresentado um avanço da soja sobre florestas. Neste caso, o trabalho em questão verificou que, conforme metodologia do Painel Intergovernamental sobre Mudança do Clima (IPCC), a MUT ocorreu somente em 15,4% da área em que a soja avançou. Não menos importante, o trabalho sugere discussões futuras para metodologias que contemplem o avanço da soja sobre áreas de várzea, conforme evidenciado neste estudo.

ABSTRACT One of the environmental impacts that presents great concern nowadays, the green-house gases (GHG) emissions affect decision-making from both government and private sector. Within this concern is the soybean biodiesel production growing that takes place in Brazil and Rio Grande do Sul State, this last one of main producers of soybean. Based on this, GHG emissions accounting from soybean cultivation and their potential environmental impacts depend on an inventory performing that presents a reality as close as possible in relation to Rio Grande do Sul State. Thus, this work aimed to trace how the soybean cultivation has developed for 20 years at Rio Grande do Sul State (between 1992 and 2013). During this research, a soybean growing, mainly on temporary croplands, that results in a different accounting in relation to current inventories that show soybean cultivation moving forward on forests areas was found. In this case, it was verified that this work, following The Intergovernmntal Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) methodology, the land use change (LUC) occurred in only 15.4% of the area, where soybean cultivation moved forward for 20 years. Finally, this work suggests future discussion for methodologies that encompass soybean cultivation advanced over wetland areas according to what is pointed out in this study.

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Due to the heterogeneity and complexity of food systems, there is a need to increase the knowledge on environmental impacts of regional productions by performing studies in a transparent manner, so that researchers could compare and accurately adapt such data to assess mitigation strategies. With the exception of beef, chicken and pork are the most consumed meats in Argentina and their consumption is expected to continuing increasing. However, despite the growing importance of chicken and pork industry, no studies on environmental impact of these products have been conducted to date in this country. Performing a life cycle inventory with data derived from government statistical publications, academia and communications with industry, the present study aims to investigate the energy and carbon footprints per ton of live weight (LW) of chickens and pigs from intensive production systems at farm gate in Argentina. In addition, we discussed in detail the effects on energy and carbon footprints of two animal diets which comprise different soybean by-products commonly used in animal husbandry, namely expeller-extruded soybean meal and solvent-extracted soybean meal and oil. We found that the energy and carbon footprint at farm gate for chicken was 13.6-15.1 GJ/ton LW and 2.03-2.22 ton CO2-eq/ton LW, for pigs in hoop systems 23.2-24.0 GJ/ton LW and 5.14-5.17 ton CO2-eq/ton LW, and for pigs in confinement systems 23.6-24.2 GJ/ton LW and 6.06-6.45 ton CO2-eq/ton LW, respectively. The choice of expeller-extruded soybean meal or solvent-extracted soybean meal and oil as feed ingredients showed small differences on the energy and carbon footprints of chickens and pigs.

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The cane sugar industry in Mexico depends heavily on the supply of energy, fossil fuels and material resources for its proper operation. The overuse of these resources plus the technical and technological deficiency causes severe environmental consequences. This scientific work aims to analyze the environmental damage attributable to cane sugar production following the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. System boundaries include sugarcane growing and harvesting, sugarcane transportation, sugar milling and electricity cogeneration from bagasse. The associated emissions were acquired from the SimaPro-Ecoinvent database, the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB) and the Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon Research Station (ART). The life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) was carried out by SimaPro 8.3.0 software and the characterization method used was IMPACT 2002+. The results show that sugarcane growing and harvesting stage provides the most harmful environmental impacts (52%) followed by electricity cogeneration (25.7%), sugarcane transportation (12.1%) and finally, sugar milling (10.2%). Regarding the environmental contributions at the endpoint categories, the highest percentage of impacts is found in the Human health category (53%), followed by Climate change (21%), Ecosystem quality (16%) and Resources (10%). The LCA in cane sugar production can support the decision-making process to deal with this environmental problem.

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Brazil, as a result of economic development and strengthening of the construction industry in recent years, is generating an increasing amount of construction and demolition waste (CDW). Hence, environmental assessment of the management systems is vital. A life cycle assessment (LCA) is presented of CDW management in a medium-sized municipality located in the southeast region of Brazil, where the impacts of leaching were not considered due to absence of consistent data. Six different proposed scenarios for the current CDW management situation have been considered. These scenarios comprised the combined use of landfilling, sorting, and recycling, and the use of CDW as paving material for landfill roads, in different percentages. Considering 0.8 ton of waste as the functional unit, the life cycle inventory was performed using primary data obtained from field survey and secondary data from the database Ecoinvent version 3.1, and from the literature. The method CML 2 baseline 2001 was used for environmental impacts evaluation. The results highlight that recycling is beneficial when efficient CDW sorting takes place at construction sites, avoiding the transport of refuse to sorting and recycling facilities, and the distance between the generation source and the recycling unit is within 30 km. Thus, our results are helpful to ensure that the decision-making processes are based on environmental and technical aspects, and not only on economic and political factors, and also provide data and support for other LCA studies on CDW.

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