Evaluation of energy consumption and environmental impacts of strawberry production in different greenhouse structures using life cycle assessment (LCA) approach

This study employed the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental impacts of two types of greenhouse structures (Quonset and Spanish) used for strawberry production. The IMPACT World + method was used to quantify environmental impacts for 1 ha of greenhouse (structure and strawberry) as the functional unit. The energy results indicated that the average total energy consumption was 388,898 MJha−1 for Quonset and 658,646 MJha−1 for Spanish structures. Human labor (197,655 MJha−1) and electricity (214,922 MJha−1) were found to have the highest contribution to the total energy consumption in both types of structures. The environmental results showed that the human health index and ecosystem quality were 0.019 and 0.042 DALY.ha−1 and 4592 and 10,169 PDF.m2.yr.ha−1 for Quonset and Spanish structures, respectively. The environmental impacts of Spanish structures were found to be higher than those of Quonset structures due to their higher use of polyethylene and steel. Specifically, the values of climate change (kg CO2eq), fossil-nuclear resources (MJ deprived), and ozone layer depletion (kg CFC-11eq) per hectare were 12,818, 142,109, and 0.002 for Quonset and 30,094, 400,251, and 0.004 for Spanish structures, respectively. The environmental hotspots were identified as chemical fertilizers, electricity, and polyethylene, which had the highest environmental impacts.