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Papers by Frans Silvenius

Journal of cleaner production, Apr 1, 2024

Journal of Cleaner Production, 2017

This study presents environmental impacts of rainbow trout production in Finland, when different ... more This study presents environmental impacts of rainbow trout production in Finland, when different raw materials for feed are used. The scenarios under consideration in this study are the present scenario, feed composition in 2009 and scenarios where Baltic herring is used as feed raw material resulting in nutrient circulation in the Baltic Sea area. The system boundaries included production of fish feed and feed raw materials and transports of them. Also considered were hatcheries, fish farming, fish processing and packaging, but these factors were assumed to be the same for all the scenarios. The environmental impacts considered were climate impact and aquatic eutrophication. According to the results, the present eutrophication impact of rainbow trout fillet is 40 kg PO 4-eq/ton, when economic allocation was used between fillet and by-products of gutting and filleting. The eutrophication impact of the rainbow trout product chain in 2009 and 2016 were the same: the higher canola oil content increased eutrophication impact as much as the impact was reduced by lower phosphorus and nitrogen emissions of the fish farming stage during years 2009e2016. If all the fish-based raw materials for feed are replaced with Baltic Herring, the total eutrophication impact would be À48 kg PO 4eq/ton, when using 2009 feed formulations, but when using 2016 feed formulations the impact would be only À5 kg PO 4-eq/ton because of lower fish raw material contents. The fuel consumption used when catching the Baltic herring capturing is about the same as catching the raw materials of fish meal and fish oil from the oceans, so changing the raw material from ocean-based fish to Baltic herring does not have an effect on climate impact of rainbow trout. Also the substitution of fish oil for canola oil does not cause major changes in climate impact. Scenarios where fish are caught and used directly for human consumption show that even more nutrients are omitted from the Baltic Sea in relation to the obtained amount of fish fillet and the climate impact is also lower than in farmed rainbow trout, but uncertainty with regard to the results is high because of limited fishing fuel consumption data. Nevertheless it is not likely that the Finnish consumption of domestic small caught fish, like Baltic herring, will increase because consumer behaviour has changed and people prefer to eat salmonids or other fillet-size fish instead. Allocation was found to be critical when calculating environmental impacts of seafood products and in this study economic allocation was preferred. One major question, which was not concerned, is that how to take into account local impacts of fish farming, because life-cycle assessment (LCA) is known to be a limited method for assessing local environmental impacts. That is essential when considering production licenses for fish cultivation in the Baltic Sea.

Maaseudun tulevaisuus, 2012

Oikeanlainen pakkaussuunnittelu voi vähentää ruokahävikkiä ja siten pienentää ruoantuotannon ympä... more Oikeanlainen pakkaussuunnittelu voi vähentää ruokahävikkiä ja siten pienentää ruoantuotannon ympäristövaikutuksia. Etenkin pienissä talouksissa pakkauskoolla on väliä.vo

Denna rapport omfattar resultaten av beräkningarna för klimatpåverkan av fem växthusprodukter i G... more Denna rapport omfattar resultaten av beräkningarna för klimatpåverkan av fem växthusprodukter i Greenhouse Carbon-forskningsprojektet. Produkterna var tomat, gurka, sallat, rosenbegonia och tulpan, totalt 16 studerade växthusanläggningar, fyra sallat-, tomat-och gurkanläggningar, två tulpananläggningar samt två blomanläggningar. På basis av beräkningarna utvecklades i projektet en kalkylator för beräkning av klimatpåverkan för växthusföretagarnas bruk. Räknaren kan fås på adressen www.kauppapuutarhaliitto.fi-> koldioxidavtryck. Utredningen av miljöeffekterna begränsades till klimatpåverkan. Av växthusgaser beaktades i beräkningen de tre viktigaste, koldioxid, metan och dikväveoxid. Utforskade aktiviteter var plantproduktion, tillverkning av kalk, gödsel och bekämpningsmedel, tillverkning och slutanvändning av krukor, användning av koldioxid, bevattning, belysning, värmegardiner och kylsystem, produktion och konsumtion av värme och el, produktion och sluthantering av växtunderlag, förpackning och transport av färdiga varor samt avfallshantering och återvinning. Handelns och konsumenternas aktiviteter samt distributionen lämnades utanför undersökningen. Det var den enda betydande delen, där studien skiljer sig från redovisningsrekommendationen för finsk livsmedels klimatpåverkan. Dessutom var tillverkning och underhåll av infrastrukturen uteslutna.

Suomen Maataloustieteellisen Seuran Tiedote, 2012

Suomessa kasvatetun kirjolohen pääasialliset ympäristövaikutukset tutkittiin Maa- ja elintarviket... more Suomessa kasvatetun kirjolohen pääasialliset ympäristövaikutukset tutkittiin Maa- ja elintarviketalouden tutkimuskeskuksen, Riista- ja kalatalouden tutkimuslaitoksen ja Suomen ympäristökeskuksen tekemässä yhteistyöhankkeessa 2009-2012. Tutkimus suoritettiin elinkaariarviointimenetelmällä ja tutkitut kvantitatiivisesti lasketut ympäristövaikutusluokat olivat rehevöityminen, ilmastonmuutos ja happamoituminen. Tutkimuksen pääasiallinen tavoite oli päivittää kymmenen vuoden takaiset tutkimustulokset (Seppälä ym. 2001). Tutkimustarve tiedostettiin, koska ennakolta tiedettiin kalankasvatuksen rehevöittävän kuormitusten pienentyneen johtuen rehun käyttömäärien pienentymisestä suhteessa kasvatettuun kalamäärään sekä rehujen kehityksestä. Saaristomeren ja Ahvenanmeren kalankasvatus poistettiin Suomen ympäristöministeriön vaatimuksesta Itämeren pahimpien ympäristökuormittajien niin kutsutulta hotspot-listalta Itämeren suojelukomission Helcomin 18.-19.11.2002 Tukholmassa pidetyssä kokouksessa....

Suomessa tuotetun ketunnahan hiilijalanjälki on kolme kertaa minkinnahan ympäristövaikutusta suur... more Suomessa tuotetun ketunnahan hiilijalanjälki on kolme kertaa minkinnahan ympäristövaikutusta suurempi.vo

Suomessa kasvatetun kirjolohen pääasialliset ympäristövaikutukset tutkittiin Maa-ja elintarviketa... more Suomessa kasvatetun kirjolohen pääasialliset ympäristövaikutukset tutkittiin Maa-ja elintarviketalouden tutkimuskeskuksen, Riista-ja kalatalouden tutkimuslaitoksen ja Suomen ympäristökeskuksen tekemässä yhteistyöhankkeessa vuosina 2010-2012. Tutkimus ...

This report presents the results of life cycle assessment based case studies of packed food produ... more This report presents the results of life cycle assessment based case studies of packed food products made in the Futu-pack2010EKO Project. The focal starting point for the study was to compare the environmental impacts of different food packaging options and including also impacts from the management of waste generated at the consumer phase due to deficient packaging. Environmental impacts of the entire production and consumption systems of three packed food products (ham, dark bread and a soy based yoghurt like product) and their packaging options were studied. Of the different environmental impact categories climate change, eutrophication, and acidification impacts were considered in the LCA studies. Special focus was laid on studying the amounts of consumer food waste as a function of the package size and the packaging material and on the assessment of the significance of the environmental impacts of the production and management of wasted food in relation to environmental impacts of the production and the end-use of packages. The environmental impacts associated with the production and management of the food fraction wasted by consumers were thus considered in the LCA calculations. The amount of consumer food waste was studied through a consumer survey. According to the results of the survey the amounts were moderately lower compared to results of other food waste studies done elsewhere and significant differences were not observed between food waste amounts of different packaging options. Therefore the consumer food waste was modelled using food waste scenarios based on the results of the consumer survey and of other food waste studies. End of life management and recycling of consumer food waste and package waste was modelled using four different scenarios. Two of these describe the present treatment methods for mixed and organic waste. In another alternative mixed waste was placed into landfill and in the other it was recovered as energy. In addition to these present state scenarios, two future waste management scenarios were established and studied. One alternative was energy recovery for all waste components and the other alternative assessed was energy recovery with maximum material recycling. The results of the LCA based case studies done showed that the production of the packed food product itself is the dominating cause of environmental impacts at the product-package system level. It was e.g. discovered that when using the chosen consumer food waste scenarios the production chain of wasted food was a more important cause for emissions related to climate change, eutrophication and acidification than the production chains of packages. Packaging solutions that minimize the generation of consumer food waste thus lead to the lowest amount of total environmental impacts in the entire production chain. Therefore the amount of possible consumer food waste should always be assessed together with other important sustainability aspects that should be taken into account when designing food packages. In fact, the research, planning and development of food products and their packages should be integrated to each other. This means that the environmental impacts of the production chains of both the consumed food product and the amount of food product that is wasted should definitely be included, at least through waste scenarios, when studying and comparing environmental performance of food packaging options in order to get a general view of compared matters and their order of significance. Thus eutrophying, acidifying and green house gas emissions can be reduced in advance through the minimization of consumer food waste. It was noticed that if the amounts of consumer food waste are assumed to be equally big for all packaging options and all stages of the life cycle of packed food product are considered in the assessment, the differences in total environmental impacts of different packaging options were relatively small.

In life cycle assessments (LCAs) one of the fundamental methodological choices that needs to be m... more In life cycle assessments (LCAs) one of the fundamental methodological choices that needs to be made is allocation, especially in multiple-output systems. The difficulty with allocation is that it usually has an ambiguous basis and, thus, damages the credibility of LCA results. Allocation solutions are easily influenced by perspectives and worldviews of the analyst, and there are arguments as to whether, for instance, allocation methods, such as economic, biophysical or mass-based allocations, are suited to different case studies and decision-making situations. Therefore, rules for different multiple-output situations are needed. While there are LCA guidelines that provide rules for different multiple-output situations, they do not fulfill their purpose, being susceptible to interpretation and/or enabling different allocation choices. This is demonstrated here with an attributional LCA case study of one tonne of Finnish rainbow trout fillet.

The aim of this study was to develop a framework that includes measures, criteria and document-ba... more The aim of this study was to develop a framework that includes measures, criteria and document-based arguments for ecological sustainability of Finnish local food. Our framework consists on several aspects of ecological sustainability: nutritional value of food, use of local resources in food production, eutrophication, ecotoxic and toxic impacts of used hazardous substances in food production, impacts of food production on biodiversity and ecosystem services and climate impact of food production. The arguments found in the project to support ecological sustainability of local food were aggregated into so-called argument bank. The local food sector enterprises can use the arguments to increase ecological sustainability in their functions concerning local food and to communication and marketing. In addition to the production side, consumer-focused versions of arguments were used for local food consumers in order to help them specify their demands for food sustainability. Arguments ca...

HARA-risteily Helsinki-Tukholma, 13.-15.2.2017 ; Water emissions and their reduction in village c... more HARA-risteily Helsinki-Tukholma, 13.-15.2.2017 ; Water emissions and their reduction in village communities – villages in Baltic Sea Region as pilots

Journal of cleaner production, Apr 1, 2024

Journal of Cleaner Production, 2017

This study presents environmental impacts of rainbow trout production in Finland, when different ... more This study presents environmental impacts of rainbow trout production in Finland, when different raw materials for feed are used. The scenarios under consideration in this study are the present scenario, feed composition in 2009 and scenarios where Baltic herring is used as feed raw material resulting in nutrient circulation in the Baltic Sea area. The system boundaries included production of fish feed and feed raw materials and transports of them. Also considered were hatcheries, fish farming, fish processing and packaging, but these factors were assumed to be the same for all the scenarios. The environmental impacts considered were climate impact and aquatic eutrophication. According to the results, the present eutrophication impact of rainbow trout fillet is 40 kg PO 4-eq/ton, when economic allocation was used between fillet and by-products of gutting and filleting. The eutrophication impact of the rainbow trout product chain in 2009 and 2016 were the same: the higher canola oil content increased eutrophication impact as much as the impact was reduced by lower phosphorus and nitrogen emissions of the fish farming stage during years 2009e2016. If all the fish-based raw materials for feed are replaced with Baltic Herring, the total eutrophication impact would be À48 kg PO 4eq/ton, when using 2009 feed formulations, but when using 2016 feed formulations the impact would be only À5 kg PO 4-eq/ton because of lower fish raw material contents. The fuel consumption used when catching the Baltic herring capturing is about the same as catching the raw materials of fish meal and fish oil from the oceans, so changing the raw material from ocean-based fish to Baltic herring does not have an effect on climate impact of rainbow trout. Also the substitution of fish oil for canola oil does not cause major changes in climate impact. Scenarios where fish are caught and used directly for human consumption show that even more nutrients are omitted from the Baltic Sea in relation to the obtained amount of fish fillet and the climate impact is also lower than in farmed rainbow trout, but uncertainty with regard to the results is high because of limited fishing fuel consumption data. Nevertheless it is not likely that the Finnish consumption of domestic small caught fish, like Baltic herring, will increase because consumer behaviour has changed and people prefer to eat salmonids or other fillet-size fish instead. Allocation was found to be critical when calculating environmental impacts of seafood products and in this study economic allocation was preferred. One major question, which was not concerned, is that how to take into account local impacts of fish farming, because life-cycle assessment (LCA) is known to be a limited method for assessing local environmental impacts. That is essential when considering production licenses for fish cultivation in the Baltic Sea.

Maaseudun tulevaisuus, 2012

Oikeanlainen pakkaussuunnittelu voi vähentää ruokahävikkiä ja siten pienentää ruoantuotannon ympä... more Oikeanlainen pakkaussuunnittelu voi vähentää ruokahävikkiä ja siten pienentää ruoantuotannon ympäristövaikutuksia. Etenkin pienissä talouksissa pakkauskoolla on väliä.vo

Denna rapport omfattar resultaten av beräkningarna för klimatpåverkan av fem växthusprodukter i G... more Denna rapport omfattar resultaten av beräkningarna för klimatpåverkan av fem växthusprodukter i Greenhouse Carbon-forskningsprojektet. Produkterna var tomat, gurka, sallat, rosenbegonia och tulpan, totalt 16 studerade växthusanläggningar, fyra sallat-, tomat-och gurkanläggningar, två tulpananläggningar samt två blomanläggningar. På basis av beräkningarna utvecklades i projektet en kalkylator för beräkning av klimatpåverkan för växthusföretagarnas bruk. Räknaren kan fås på adressen www.kauppapuutarhaliitto.fi-> koldioxidavtryck. Utredningen av miljöeffekterna begränsades till klimatpåverkan. Av växthusgaser beaktades i beräkningen de tre viktigaste, koldioxid, metan och dikväveoxid. Utforskade aktiviteter var plantproduktion, tillverkning av kalk, gödsel och bekämpningsmedel, tillverkning och slutanvändning av krukor, användning av koldioxid, bevattning, belysning, värmegardiner och kylsystem, produktion och konsumtion av värme och el, produktion och sluthantering av växtunderlag, förpackning och transport av färdiga varor samt avfallshantering och återvinning. Handelns och konsumenternas aktiviteter samt distributionen lämnades utanför undersökningen. Det var den enda betydande delen, där studien skiljer sig från redovisningsrekommendationen för finsk livsmedels klimatpåverkan. Dessutom var tillverkning och underhåll av infrastrukturen uteslutna.

Suomen Maataloustieteellisen Seuran Tiedote, 2012

Suomessa kasvatetun kirjolohen pääasialliset ympäristövaikutukset tutkittiin Maa- ja elintarviket... more Suomessa kasvatetun kirjolohen pääasialliset ympäristövaikutukset tutkittiin Maa- ja elintarviketalouden tutkimuskeskuksen, Riista- ja kalatalouden tutkimuslaitoksen ja Suomen ympäristökeskuksen tekemässä yhteistyöhankkeessa 2009-2012. Tutkimus suoritettiin elinkaariarviointimenetelmällä ja tutkitut kvantitatiivisesti lasketut ympäristövaikutusluokat olivat rehevöityminen, ilmastonmuutos ja happamoituminen. Tutkimuksen pääasiallinen tavoite oli päivittää kymmenen vuoden takaiset tutkimustulokset (Seppälä ym. 2001). Tutkimustarve tiedostettiin, koska ennakolta tiedettiin kalankasvatuksen rehevöittävän kuormitusten pienentyneen johtuen rehun käyttömäärien pienentymisestä suhteessa kasvatettuun kalamäärään sekä rehujen kehityksestä. Saaristomeren ja Ahvenanmeren kalankasvatus poistettiin Suomen ympäristöministeriön vaatimuksesta Itämeren pahimpien ympäristökuormittajien niin kutsutulta hotspot-listalta Itämeren suojelukomission Helcomin 18.-19.11.2002 Tukholmassa pidetyssä kokouksessa....

Suomessa tuotetun ketunnahan hiilijalanjälki on kolme kertaa minkinnahan ympäristövaikutusta suur... more Suomessa tuotetun ketunnahan hiilijalanjälki on kolme kertaa minkinnahan ympäristövaikutusta suurempi.vo

Suomessa kasvatetun kirjolohen pääasialliset ympäristövaikutukset tutkittiin Maa-ja elintarviketa... more Suomessa kasvatetun kirjolohen pääasialliset ympäristövaikutukset tutkittiin Maa-ja elintarviketalouden tutkimuskeskuksen, Riista-ja kalatalouden tutkimuslaitoksen ja Suomen ympäristökeskuksen tekemässä yhteistyöhankkeessa vuosina 2010-2012. Tutkimus ...

This report presents the results of life cycle assessment based case studies of packed food produ... more This report presents the results of life cycle assessment based case studies of packed food products made in the Futu-pack2010EKO Project. The focal starting point for the study was to compare the environmental impacts of different food packaging options and including also impacts from the management of waste generated at the consumer phase due to deficient packaging. Environmental impacts of the entire production and consumption systems of three packed food products (ham, dark bread and a soy based yoghurt like product) and their packaging options were studied. Of the different environmental impact categories climate change, eutrophication, and acidification impacts were considered in the LCA studies. Special focus was laid on studying the amounts of consumer food waste as a function of the package size and the packaging material and on the assessment of the significance of the environmental impacts of the production and management of wasted food in relation to environmental impacts of the production and the end-use of packages. The environmental impacts associated with the production and management of the food fraction wasted by consumers were thus considered in the LCA calculations. The amount of consumer food waste was studied through a consumer survey. According to the results of the survey the amounts were moderately lower compared to results of other food waste studies done elsewhere and significant differences were not observed between food waste amounts of different packaging options. Therefore the consumer food waste was modelled using food waste scenarios based on the results of the consumer survey and of other food waste studies. End of life management and recycling of consumer food waste and package waste was modelled using four different scenarios. Two of these describe the present treatment methods for mixed and organic waste. In another alternative mixed waste was placed into landfill and in the other it was recovered as energy. In addition to these present state scenarios, two future waste management scenarios were established and studied. One alternative was energy recovery for all waste components and the other alternative assessed was energy recovery with maximum material recycling. The results of the LCA based case studies done showed that the production of the packed food product itself is the dominating cause of environmental impacts at the product-package system level. It was e.g. discovered that when using the chosen consumer food waste scenarios the production chain of wasted food was a more important cause for emissions related to climate change, eutrophication and acidification than the production chains of packages. Packaging solutions that minimize the generation of consumer food waste thus lead to the lowest amount of total environmental impacts in the entire production chain. Therefore the amount of possible consumer food waste should always be assessed together with other important sustainability aspects that should be taken into account when designing food packages. In fact, the research, planning and development of food products and their packages should be integrated to each other. This means that the environmental impacts of the production chains of both the consumed food product and the amount of food product that is wasted should definitely be included, at least through waste scenarios, when studying and comparing environmental performance of food packaging options in order to get a general view of compared matters and their order of significance. Thus eutrophying, acidifying and green house gas emissions can be reduced in advance through the minimization of consumer food waste. It was noticed that if the amounts of consumer food waste are assumed to be equally big for all packaging options and all stages of the life cycle of packed food product are considered in the assessment, the differences in total environmental impacts of different packaging options were relatively small.

In life cycle assessments (LCAs) one of the fundamental methodological choices that needs to be m... more In life cycle assessments (LCAs) one of the fundamental methodological choices that needs to be made is allocation, especially in multiple-output systems. The difficulty with allocation is that it usually has an ambiguous basis and, thus, damages the credibility of LCA results. Allocation solutions are easily influenced by perspectives and worldviews of the analyst, and there are arguments as to whether, for instance, allocation methods, such as economic, biophysical or mass-based allocations, are suited to different case studies and decision-making situations. Therefore, rules for different multiple-output situations are needed. While there are LCA guidelines that provide rules for different multiple-output situations, they do not fulfill their purpose, being susceptible to interpretation and/or enabling different allocation choices. This is demonstrated here with an attributional LCA case study of one tonne of Finnish rainbow trout fillet.

The aim of this study was to develop a framework that includes measures, criteria and document-ba... more The aim of this study was to develop a framework that includes measures, criteria and document-based arguments for ecological sustainability of Finnish local food. Our framework consists on several aspects of ecological sustainability: nutritional value of food, use of local resources in food production, eutrophication, ecotoxic and toxic impacts of used hazardous substances in food production, impacts of food production on biodiversity and ecosystem services and climate impact of food production. The arguments found in the project to support ecological sustainability of local food were aggregated into so-called argument bank. The local food sector enterprises can use the arguments to increase ecological sustainability in their functions concerning local food and to communication and marketing. In addition to the production side, consumer-focused versions of arguments were used for local food consumers in order to help them specify their demands for food sustainability. Arguments ca...

HARA-risteily Helsinki-Tukholma, 13.-15.2.2017 ; Water emissions and their reduction in village c... more HARA-risteily Helsinki-Tukholma, 13.-15.2.2017 ; Water emissions and their reduction in village communities – villages in Baltic Sea Region as pilots