RT Journal Article
T1 Embedding Water-Energy-Food nexus and circularity assessment for organization benchmarking: A case study for dairy farms
A1 Rebolledo Leiva, Ricardo
A1 Vetroni Barros, Murillo
A1 Entrena-Barbero, Eduardo
A1 Vasquez-Ibarra, Leonardo
A1 Fernández, Mario
A1 Feijoo Costa, Gumersindo
A1 Moreira Vilar, María Teresa
A1 González García, Sara
K1 Circular economy
K1 Multicriteria decision analysis
K1 Life cycle assessment
K1 Sustainable agriculture
K1 Data envelopment analysis
K1 Agro-industrial cooperative
AB The Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus approach is increasingly being used for supporting a transition to sustainable development, with initiatives involving the concept of circular economy (CE). In the agricultural sector in particular, assessing this nexus is crucial to ensure food security, control the consumption of key resources such as water and energy, as well as measure atmospheric emissions linked to climate change. This manuscript aims to propose a novel approach by coupling the WEF nexus with a circularity indicator, seeking to capture in a single index (the WEF+CEi) both performances in a sample of companies. The novel approach is applied to 30 dairy farms located in Galicia (NW Spain) to benchmark them in a holistic manner. To do this, the WEF nexus of each farm was represented through the following indicators: carbon footprint, water footprint, energy footprint, and food productivity. In addition, the percentage of circularity for each farm, and for the agro-industrial cooperative was measured thanks to the application of a circularity tool in percentage terms. Finally, the WEF+CEi indicator was obtained using the multicriteria mathematical tool of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The results show that without considering the agro-industrial cooperative, the system is 51 % circular. On the other hand, considering the farms and the cooperative, the system goes up to 80 % of circularity. Finally, the proposed approach can support decision-making and provide insights for producers and stakeholders in the area.
PB Elsevier
SN 1879-2456
YR 2024
FD 2024-09-05
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10347/42574
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10347/42574
LA eng
NO Rebolledo-Leiva, R., Barros, M. V., Entrena-Barbero, E., Vásquez-Ibarra, L., Fernández, M., Feijoo, G., Teresa Moreira, M., & González-García, S. (2024). Embedding Water-Energy-Food nexus and circularity assessment for organization benchmarking: A case study for dairy farms. Waste Management, 189, 410–420. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.WASMAN.2024.08.038
NO Transition to sustainable agri-food sector bundling life cycle assessment and ecosystem services approaches (ALISE) (TED2021–130309B-I00), funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ and the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR
DS Minerva
RD 28 abr 2026