The potential of the LCT approaches in supporting economic choices at company level in the agri-food sector

INTRO: Despite the recent advancements in the development and implementation of Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) approaches, agri-food companies still seem to show a limited interest in the use of these methodologies. On the other hand, distribution companies (for example, Wal-Mart, Tesco and others) and final consumers, especially in some markets, have become increasingly aware of environmental and social issues. Also, a similar driver has come from international institutions (such as the OIV, which has been working on a specific protocol) and European ones (e.g.: European policies and the Emission Trading Scheme under reform). OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper is to highlight the potential use of LCT methods and tools to support business decisions, which can have economic, social and environmental impacts, in the short and long term, using the agri-food industry as a case study. In this way, we intend to contribute to the solution of the much-debated issue in the literature concerning the poor attractiveness of LCT approaches, above all E-LCA, compared to other methods of environmental impact assessment. CRITICAL ISSUES IN LCA: - Difficulty of communicating the results of conventional LCA to unskilled end-users -- see how Carbon Footprint has been generally accepted, instead (Weidema et al, 2008); - The costs that companies meet to perform the evaluation; - Companies not feeling responsible for the stages which are not under their direct control (such as distribution). - Also, the potential of the different approaches not being explicitly transmitted to the different users; - The environmental component of sustainability being often assessed without emphasizing interrelations with economic and/or social aspects.