Kurkistus kuoren alle : elinkaariarviointi (LCA) omenan biodiversiteettivaikutuksista

This master’s thesis analyses the life cycle impacts of one kilogram of Polish apples exported to Finland on biodiversity in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. The impacts are assessed by focusing on three drivers of biodiversity loss: land use, climate change, and water use. The analysis is carried out as a life cycle assessment (LCA). Scientific literature and ecoinvent v3.10 database are used in the life cycle inventory analysis (LCI), and the analysis is carried out via openLCA software. In the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA), the impacts on biodiversity are calculated based on the inventory results by utilizing LC-IMPACT method, and for land use the ecoregion-specific characterization factors (CFs) by Scherer et al. (2023B). The estimated impact on terrestrial ecosystems is approximately 1.49E-15 PDF*year/kg and on freshwater ecosystems approximately 3.63E-16 PDF*year/kg. For terrestrial ecosystems, impacts caused by land use and climate change are considered, and for freshwater ecosystems, the impacts caused by climate change and water use are considered. For both ecosystems, the most significant driver of biodiversity loss is climate change. Climate change impacts are particularly driven by the emissions caused by the long export distance. Land and water use impacts are driven by direct land use and irrigation in the cultivation phase. It is important to focus on these factors in terms of their significant contribution to apples’ overall impacts on biodiversity.