2018 ASHS Annual Conference

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a research tool for systematically evaluating the inputs and processes in a product’s life cycle relative to potential environmental impacts. LCA has been used to analyze the production systems for trees, shrubs, flowering annuals and potted flowering crops, focusing on global warming potential and water consumption. Information from these analyses have been used to calculate water consumption and water footprints (WF) for these products using international standards relying on monthly water scarcity index for specific locations. The calculation of water scarcity has evolved over the last decade from a simple ratio of withdrawal-to-availability (WTA) in 2006 to the current method recommended for characterizing water use in life cycle assessment (WULCA) to a ratio relative to a global average of available water remaining (AWARE) in 2016. Consumptive use in a location includes water used or degraded by human populations and our activities as well as water requirements to maintain ecosystems. The consumptive use portion of this equation for nursery and floriculture crops can be modified by increased irrigation efficiency, the capture, storage and recycling runoff water, and remediation of any potential contaminants in water discharged from the nursery or greenhouse site. Data will be presented to show the potential impact of such practices studied and proposed by the Clean WateR3 team on the model systems studied using LCA.