S06 - Session O5 - Environmental performance of two ornamental crops from commercial greenhouses in Greece.

Authors: Vasileios Anestis, Leonidas Andris, Thomas Bartzanas *

The assessment of potential environmental impacts of potted, ornamental greenhouse crop products' supply chains has received low attention in the scientific literature to date. In Greece specifically, relevant assessments using the life cycle approach are still very rare. The objective of this paper is to estimate the environmental performance of two potted Poinsettia products ( EP3G : 3l PP pot, VENLO 2×3.2 2016m 2 glasshouse; EP0.68P : 0.68l PP pot, plastic greenhouse 1051.2m 2 (PE roof and PC walls)) and one potted Geranium product ( PZ2.2P : 2.2l PP pot, same plastic greenhouse), all grown on a commercial nursery farm located in Attica Region, Greece. For all plants, fertigation using an open hydroponic system and peat as a substrate was applied. The assessment was conducted using 1kg of net plant biomass as a reference flow and the SimaPro v. 8.5.2 PhD software for the simulation of the three cradle-to-point-of-sale supply chains. Eleven environmental impact category indicators (EICIs) were estimated including impact categories such as Climate Change, Acidification, Terrestrial and Aquatic Eutrophication and Fossil fuel depletion. All potential EICI estimates were larger for the EP3G and EP0.68P products when compared to PZ2.2P indicating an improved environmental performance for the PZ2.2P product per kg of plant biomass at the point of sale. Small differences were observed for the majority of the EICI estimates between the EP3G and EP0.68P products. The input of heavy fuel oil, its use for heating purposes and the electricity input for the operation of the heating system are primarily responsible for the lower environmental performance of the two Poinsettia products. Investigation of alternative heating systems based on renewable energy sources as well as of alternative substrate materials connected with lower land occupation and greenhouse gas emissions during their production would be suggested for the improvement of the environmental performance of the studied supply chains.