Organizational Life Cycle Assessment of Sheridan Nurseries Farms and Greenhouses

There is very little known about the environmental impacts associated with the nursery sector globally. Therefore, the objective of the project is to quantify the environmental impacts, with a specific focus on global warming potential (herein referred to carbon footprint) associated with the operations of Sheridan Nurseries. We will use life cycle assessment (LCA), used extensively for quantifying the environmental impacts of a product along its supply chain. Recently the LCA method has been developed to characterize the environmental impacts of an entire organization (all its activities and products), an approach known as organizational LCA (O-LCA). The specific research question for this study is: What approaches and methodologies are most appropriate for an O-LCA of a nursery in growing land-based products with a variety of technologies, systems and operating conditions (e.g. greenhouse types, irrigation, fertilization, pest management, temperature and humidity). The objectives of this project are to develop and apply O-LCA to: 1) evaluate carbon footprint of Sheridan Nurseries operations and identify which aspects of the nursery contribute to the highest contribution of carbon footprint; and 2) use scenario analysis to evaluate alternative technologies and products to reduce the carbon footprint of Sheridan Nurseries.

Faculty Supervisor:

Goretty Dias;Christine Moresoli

Student:

Partner:

Sheridan Nurseries

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Agriculture

University:

University of Waterloo

Program: