S06 - Session O5 - Keynote:The two sides of the coin: sustainability and controlled environment horticulture

Authors: Beatrix Waechter Alsanius *, Sammar Khalil, Maria E. Karlsson, Maria Hellström, Anna Karin Rosberg

"Sustainability", although already outlined in the late 1980ies, has evolved to a game changer to the discourse on production systems. In this context, the discourse is centered around food and nutrition security (FNS) (including food safety) but also in order to cope with other grand global challenges, such as resource depletion, land use, ecosystem conservation. This applies especially to production systems for high value crops with high in- and outputs, e.g., controlled environment production systems. Sustainability drives the development of production systems. Factors promoting the sustainability and resilience within controlled environment horticultural systems can be stronger exploited by including cutting-edge crop loss preventive measures to output dimensions. This also includes the use of modern surveillance systems. But production systems also affect the development in sustainability. This contribution looks into the subject from the perspective of controlled environment horticulture from the perspective of selective Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Three areas are used as examples: (i) artificial lighting, (ii) closed soilless and hydroponic systems, as well as (iii) growing media.