Statistical variability of LCA results using regionalized and representative inventory data: the case of olive production in Italy

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is one of the most adopted methods for assessing the potential environmental impacts associated with the life cycle of agri-food products and related agricultural practices. Despite this, there is a common consensus among scholars on the need for site-specific Life Cycle Inventories (LCIs) that should be as much as possible representative of the investigated agri-food system. In this regard, the research projects of national interest (PRIN) 2017 "Promoting Agri-Food Sustainability: Development of an Italian LCI Database of Agri-food products (ILCIDAF)" aimed at developing Italian regionalised databases including representative LCIs for four agri-food products, to be used in LCA studies, i.e., cereal and pasta, wine, citrus and olive oil. The aim of this study is to analyse the statistical variability, among 19 Italian regions, in terms of Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) results that may occur using inventories that are representative of each region. Results show high variability among the 19 Italian regions in all the impact categories investigated. In particular, the coefficient of variability ranges from 43.87% in climate change to 49.75% in eutrophication (freshwater). The highest variability, in all the analysed impact categories, emerges for ferilizers and diesel production, and direct emission to air.