Practical Ways to Assess Sustainability

Agroscope has developed the foundation of a methodology for assessing the sustainability of Swiss farms. From summer 2016, a set of indicators will be tested on around ten farms. Sustainably managed farms form an important basis for healthy, fit-for-the-future food production.

The assessment of a farm’s sustainability is a vital step in its optimisation. Here, equal consideration must be given to the criteria concerning the three dimensions of environment, economy and society. Agroscope has developed appropriate indicators, and published these in May 2016 in the ‘Agroscope Science’ publication series.

These indicators are the foundation for enabling farmers, consumers and associations as well as interested actors and stakeholders from production, processing and trade to develop a comprehensive farm sustainability assessment. Particular attention is devoted by Agroscope to the social dimension. This field still lacks sufficient resilient and practical indicators that are tailor-made for Swiss farms.

Well-being concept for human well-being

Four project teams developed indicators for assessing social sustainability, with a focus on the three areas of human well-being, animal welfare, and landscape aesthetics. Here, it was shown that the Well-being Concept of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) represents a good basis for depicting the various aspects of human well-being. To this end, key questions allowing the relevant topics to be described simply and concisely were developed for each sub-aspect such as e.g. work/life balance, social relationships and subjective well-being. 

Owing to the relevance of the topic for agriculture, a project team devoted itself to the calculation of temporal workload. On the basis of the ‘ART Work Budget’ software developed by Agroscope to calculate the expected working time, we derived an indicator by comparing the theoretically derived working-time input and the workforce available on the farm. 

Point system for animal welfare

A further project team noted that using a simple indicator to assess animal welfare cannot cover all of the requirements. The researchers therefore propose a point system that manages without observations or measurements on the animal itself. In this system, points are awarded to measures with an anticipated positive impact on one of the twelve animal welfare aspects taken into account in the existing Welfare®-Quality Protocol measuring instrument, e.g. freedom of movement or the absence of pain.  In order for points to be awarded, the anticipated animal welfare must go beyond the minimum stipulated in the Swiss Animal Protection Law. Follow-up projects will now aim to determine whether a correlation does in fact exist between the number of points awarded and the level of animal welfare.

Indicators for the economy and environment

Agroscope has also developed indicators for the economic and environmental dimensions; detailed information on these can be found in the relevant Agroscope publication of May 2016. The economic sustainability of a farm can be illustrated by two key figures in each of the following areas: profitability (earned income per family labour unit and total return on capital); liquidity (cashflow-turnover rate and dynamic gearing ratio), and stability (investment intensity and investment coverage). The environmental dimension of sustainability encompasses the components of resource efficiency, effects on climate, nutrients, and ecotoxicity, as well as biodiversity and soil quality. 

Practicability, utility, acceptance

Practical testing of the indicator set is carried out in close cooperation with the involved farmers. The test determines the practicability, utility and acceptance of a sustainability assessment at farm level. In addition to the refinement of the indicator set, a scientific analysis of the results is planned. The project will be concluded with an in-depth report at the end of 2019. The results obtained are meant to contribute to the implementation of a practical solution for assessing sustainability on a large number of farms. The project is financially supported by the Migros Cooperative Association (MGB). IP-Suisse is actively involved in data acquisition.

Further information:

Publications Gérard Gaillard

Jeanneret P., Baumgartner D. U., Freiermuth Knuchel R., Koch B., Gaillard G.
An expert system for integrating biodiversity into agricultural life-cycle assessment.
Ecological Indicators, 46, 2014, 224-231.

Bystricky M., Alig Ceesay M., Nemecek T., Gaillard G.
Ökobilanz ausgewählter Schweizer Landwirtschaftsprodukte im Vergleich zum Import.
Agroscope Science, 2, 2014, 177.

Kulak M. A., Nemecek T., Frossard E., Gaillard G.
How eco-efficient are low-input cropping systems in Western Europe, and what can be done to improve their eco-efficiency? .
Sustainability, 5, (9), 2013, 3722-3743.

Mouron P., Aubert U., Heijne B., Naef A., Strassemeyer J., Hayer F., Gaillard G., Mack G., Hernandez J., Avilla J., Solé J., Sauphanor B., Alaphilippe A., Patocchi A., Samietz J. and others
A Multi-attribute decision method for assessing the overall sustainability of crop protection strategies: A case study based on apple production in Europe.
In: Methods and Procedures for Building Sustainable Farming Systems. Berlin, Publ. Marta-Costa, A.A., Silva, E. , Springer. 2012, 123-137.

Alig M., Grandl F., Mieleitner J., Nemecek T., Gaillard G.
Life cycle assessment of beef, pork and poultry. September 2012: Executive Summery.
Publ. Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon ART, Zürich. 13. September, 2012, 1-8 pp.
other Languages: german | french

Mouron P., Heijne B., Naef A., Strassemeyer J., Hayer F., Avilla J., Alaphilippe A., Höhn H., Hernandez J., Mack G., Gaillard G., Solé J., Sauphanor B., Patocchi A., Samietz J. and others
Sustainability assessment of crop protection systems: SustainOS methodology and its application for apple orchards.
Agricultural Systems, 113, 2012, 1-15.

Hayer F., Scharfy D., Gaillard G., Anspach V.-A., Albisser Vögeli, G.
Ökobilanzierung des Anbaues von Zwischenkulturen zur Biogasproduktion: Schlussbericht .
Publ. Forschungsanstalt Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon ART, Zürich. April, 2012, 1-85 pp.

Dauriat A., Gaillard G., Alig M., Scharfy D., Membrez Y., Bachmann N., Steiner R., Charles R., Maltas A., Sinaj S.
Analyse de cycle de vie de la production centralisée et décentralisée de biogaz en exploitations agricoles : Rapport final.
Publ. Station de recherche Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon ART & Station de recherche Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil ACW, Zürich et Nyon. Avril, 2012, 1-147 pp.

Nemecek T., Weiler K., Plassmann K., Schnetzer J., Gaillard G., Jefferies D., García-Suárez T., King H., Milá i Canals L.
Estimation of the variability in global warming potential of worldwide crop production using a modular extrapolation approach.
Journal of Cleaner Production, 31, 2012, 106-117.

Oberholzer H.-R., Freiermuth Knuchel R., Weisskopf P., Gaillard G.
A novel method for soil quality in life cycle assessment using several soil indicators.
Agronomy for Sustainable Development, online, 2012, 1-11.

Deytieux V., Nemecek T., Freiermuth Knuchel R., Gaillard G., Munier-Jolain N. M.
Is Integrated Weed Management efficient for reducing environmental impacts of cropping systems? A case study based on life cycle assessment.
European Journal of Agronomy, 36, (1), 2012, 55-65.

Mieleitner J., Baumgartner D., Gaillard G.
Qualitative Evaluation von Massnahmen zur Senkung der Treibhausgasemissionen von Landwirtschaftsbetrieben: Projektbericht der Phase 1.
2011

Hersener J.-L., Baumgartner D., Dux D., Aeschbacher U., Alig M., Blaser S., Gaillard G., Glodé M., Jan P., Jenni M., Mieleitner J., Müller G., Nemecek T., Rötheli E., Schmid D.
Zentrale Auswertung von Ökobilanzen landwirtschaftlicher Betriebe (ZA-ÖB): Schlussbericht.
2011

Zimmermann A., Baumgartner D., Nemecek T., Gaillard G.
Are public payments for organic farming cost-effective? Combining a decision-support model with LCA.
The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 16, (6), 2011, 548-560.

Boulard, T., Raeppel, C., Brun, R., Lecompte, F., Hayer F., Carmassi, G., Gaillard G.
Environmental impact of greenhouse tomato production in France.
Agronomy for Sustainable Development, Online First, (24 June), 2011, 1-21.

Nemecek T., Dubois D., Huguenin-Elie O., Gaillard G.
Life cycle assessment of Swiss farming systems: I. Integrated and organic farming.
Agricultural Systems, 104, 2011, 217-232.

Nemecek T., Huguenin-Elie O., Dubois D., Gaillard G., Schaller, B. , Chervet, A.
Life cycle assessment of Swiss farming systems: II. Extensive and intensive production.
Agricultural Systems, 104, 2011, 233-245.

Hayer F., Bockstaller, C., Gaillard G., Mamy, L., Nemecek T., Strassemeyer, J.
Multi-criteria comparison of eco-toxicity models focused on pesticides.
In: 7th International conference on Life Cycle Assessment in the agri-food sector. 22-24 September 2010, Publ. The University of Bari , Bari, Italy. 2010, 305-310.

Gaillard G., Baumgartner D., Nemecek T.
Life cycle assessment for animal production: Benefits and challenges.
In: World Nutrition Forum. 15th October 2010, Salzburg. 2010.

Nemecek T., Gaillard G.
Challenges in assessing the environmental impacts of crop production and horticulture: Chapter 6.
In: Environmental assessment and management in the food industry - Life cycle assessment and related approaches. 28. September 2010, Publ. Ulf Sonesson, Johanna Berlin, Friederike Ziegler, Woodhead Publishing Limited, Oxford a.o.. 2010, 98-116.

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Nachhaltigkeit Kuhstall
Measuring environmental impacts: The new emissions test barn in Tänikon makes a useful contribution to sustainability research.
Nachhaltigkeit Bauernfrühstück Tische
A social affair: During a chat – here, over morning coffee – problems are aired, solutions discussed, and interpersonal relationships fostered.
Nachhaltigkeit Mähdrescher
Cost-efficient: The use of modern electronics will improve efficiency during harvesting in the future.
Nachhaltigkeit Silofutter
A biogas plant produces renewable energy and improves the sustainability of a farm.