Evidence indicates that human activities are surpassing Earth's safe limits, necessitating urgent reductions in our environmental impact. Agriculture, pivotal in both production and natural resource protection, contributes significantly to environmental impacts, including global greenhouse gas emissions, notably through soil carbon losses. Yet, studies underscore both agriculture's potential to store substantial carbon in soils and more generally agriculture's overall impacts on soil, which is critical for providing essential ecosystem services. However, soils are under threat, with land degradation affecting a significant portion of global land area and incurring substantial economic costs, particularly in Europe.
To address these challenges, there is a pressing need to adopt more sustainable land management practices that safeguard soil quality. Soil quality is integral to achieving many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Life cycle assessment (LCA) stands as the globally recognised method for evaluating environmental impacts across production chains. Despite its adoption as a standard for reporting environmental data and certifications, LCA application to agricultural products faces significant limitations, especially regarding its ability to assess the impact of land use on soil quality comprehensively.
"Soil quality" refers to a soil's fitness to function within its context, a concept that defies direct measurement and relies on proxy indicators. Existing frameworks, such as those developed by the JRC European Platform on LCA, have made strides in assessing soil organic carbon but fall short in evaluating broader soil functions. Current methods struggle to balance the need for comprehensive soil quality assessment with practical applicability, indicating a critical gap in the understanding and implementation of soil-related metrics in LCA.
The Soil quality Assessment in Agriculture For life cycle assessment-based Eco-design (SAAFE) EU project aims to tackle these challenges through an interdisciplinary approach, developing a dedicated framework and complementary models to assess soil quality's key functions comprehensively. By enhancing model implementation and fostering interdisciplinary research, SAAFE seeks to ensure its framework's adoption by LCA end-users and policymakers, thus advancing sustainable development aligned with SDG objectives.
