Environmental impact assessment for ornamental plant greenhouse: Life cycle assessment approach for primrose production.

Improving the environmental impact is a critical factor in achieving sustainable development in agricultural systems. To achieve this goal, the environmental assessment of agricultural products to identify environmental hot-spots and provide strategies for reducing them is essential. In line with that, the current study is performed to assess the environmental impacts of Primrose greenhouse production in Savojbolagh County, Iran. More specifically, the environmental impacts of Primrose greenhouse production based on the cradle to gate analysis using the life cycle assessment approach are evaluated. According to results, production and combustion of diesel fuel are introduced as the environmental hotspot in non-carcinogens, respiratory inorganics, respiratory organics, terrestrial acid/nutri, aquatic acidification, global warming, and non-renewable energy impact categories. The application of pesticides and fertilizers in the greenhouse has the highest contribution in aquatic ecotoxicity as well as terrestrial ecotoxicity impact categories. Moreover, electricity consumption has the highest impact on carcinogens, and ozone layer depletion impact categories. Based on the outcomes of the life cycle assessment approach, the production of a piece of Primrose leads to damages of 1.48 × 10−7 DALY (disability-adjusted life year) and 3.41 × 10−1 PDF.m−2.yr−1 (potentially disappeared fraction in square-meters per year) to human health and ecosystem quality, respectively. In addition, the production of each Primrose plant results in primary damages of 2.06 × 10−1 kg CO2eq. (equivalent carbon dioxide) and 2.94 MJ (Megajoule) to climate change and resources, respectively. Finally, the weighing of environmental impacts based on IMPACT 2002+ methods shows that the ecosystem quality damage category has a share of 30% in total environmental impacts of one piece of Primrose production. Damages to ecosystem quality are mostly caused by pesticide and fertilizer applications in Primrose greenhouse. Accordingly, it could be concluded that correct management of pesticides and fertilizers can potentially mitigate environmental impacts of Primrose production in a greenhouse.