Environmental assessment of diets: overview and guidance on indicator choice
2 Division Physical Resource Theory, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden.
3 Chalmers University of Technology [Gothenburg, Sweden]
4 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
5 Stockholm University
6 KTH - KTH Royal Institute of Technology [Stockholm]
7 Animal Production System group
8 WUR - Wageningen University and Research [Wageningen]
9 CSE - Department of Computer Science and Engineering [Göteborg]
10 SUA - Sokoine University of Agriculture
11 IVL - Swedish Environmental Research Institute
12 UWO - Western University [Ontario]
13 LIU - Linköping University
14 Agroscope
15 LUCSUS - Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies
16 SAS - Sol Agro et hydrosystème Spatialisation
17 CU - Cornell University [Ithaca]
18 CALS - College of Agriculture and Life Sciences [Cornell University]
19 NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology [Trondheim]
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Résumé
Comprehensive but interpretable assessment of the environmental performance of diets involves choosing a set of appropriate indicators. Current knowledge and data gaps on the origin of dietary foodstuffs restrict use of indicators relying on site-specific information. This Personal View summarises commonly used indicators for assessing the environmental performance of diets, briefly outlines their benefits and drawbacks, and provides recommendations on indicator choices for actors across multiple fields involved in activities that include the environmental assessment of diets. We then provide recommendations on indicator choices for actors across multiple fields involved in activities that use environmental assessments, such as health and nutrition experts, policy makers, decision makers, and privatesector and public-sector sustainability officers. We recommend that environmental assessment of diets should include indicators for at least the five following areas: climate change, biosphere integrity, blue water consump tion, novel entities, and impacts on natural resources (especially wild fish stocks), to capture important environ mental trade-offs. If more indicators can be handled in the assessment, indicators to capture impacts related to land use quantity and quality and green water consumption should be used. For ambitious assessments, indicators related to biogeochemical flows, stratospheric ozone depletion, and energy use can be added.