Type of indicator
Quantitative
Relative dimension and aggregated criteria
Environmental sustainability: Abiotic resources conservation: Energy use
Description
This indicator measures the farm’s energy consumption, both direct and indirect, per kg of FPCM produced. It is based on the cumulative energy demand methodology (Frischknecht et al., 2015) and is adapted from Pellerin et al. (2013) and Tailleur et al. (2020). Direct energy consumption encompasses all energy used for on-farm processes (e.g., crop management, heating in buildings, and electricity in barns). This element is recorded at the farm level during data collection. Indirect energy consumption takes into account all energy used for the production of off-farm inputs (e.g., off-farm feed production, diesel production). This element is obtained through the LCA methodology.
Indicator calculation
(𝑑𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 + 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛) / FPCM
Where:
𝐷𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = Direct energy consumption in Megajoule (MJ)
𝐼𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = Indirect energy consumption in MJ
𝐹𝑃𝐶𝑀 = Total FPCM produced in kg
Unit
MJ/kg of milk
Indicator interpretation
Higher values indicate larger negative impacts on the environment.
Scale definition
| Reference values
(MJ/kg of milk) |
Scales | Dexi
interpretation |
References | |
| 1.39 MJ/kg of milk | < 2 | Very low | + | (Claudine et al., 2009) |
| 2.51 MJ/kg of milk | [2; 4] | Low | (Christel and Berit, 2000) | |
| 3.10 MJ/kg of milk | [4; 8] | Medium | ||
| 3.55 MJ/kg of milk | [8; 10] | High | (Thomassen et al., 2008a)
Scale: Expert opinion |
|
| 5 MJ/kg of milk | >=10 | Very high | – | |
References
Expert opinion adapted from the technical report (Arvalis et al., 2020) and the action 10 : reducing the energy consumption from building and equipment to limit direct CO2 emission (Pellerin et al., 2013)
Expert opinion based on technical report of Arvalis et al., (2020) and Pellerin et al. (2013) (i.e, action #10).
CED method (Frischknecht et al., 2015)
Arvalis, Idèle, Ctifl, Ifv, Itavi, Ifip, inovia, T., 2020. GES’TIM+ : la référence méthodologique pour l’évaluation de l’impact des activités agricoles sur l’effet de serre, la préservation des ressources énergétiques et la qualité de l’air p. 560p.
Pellerin, S., Bamière, L., Angers, D., Béline, F., Benoît, M., Butault, J.P., Chen, C., Colnenne- David, C., De Cara, S., Delame, N., Doreau, M., Dupraz, P., Faverdi, P., Garccia-Launa, F., Hassouna, M., Hénault, C., Jeuffroy, M.H., Klumpp, K., Metay, A., Moran, D., Recous, S., Samson, E., Savini, I., Pardon, L., 2013. Quelle contribution de l’agriculture française à la réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre ? Potentiel d’atténuation et coût de dix actions techniques. INRA, France, p. 92p.
Frischknecht, R., Wyss, F., Büsser Knöpfel, S., Lützkendorf, T., Balouktsi, M., 2015. Cumulative energy demand in LCA: the energy harvested approach. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 20(7), 957-969.