Carbon, water, and energy footprint. A sustainability assessment for fruit and vegetable losses in Italy

According to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), by 2050, food losses and waste (FLW) could reach 2.1 billion tons, up +40% from the estimates by the FAO in 2011. Therefore, reducing FLW becomes important, not only because of the social and economic impacts they cause but also because when food is lost or wasted, many resources used in its production are also wasted, and large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) are also emitted. Therefore, linking the resource depletion and emissions generated to the production of food that will be lost or wasted could help frame the problem’s extent. In this study, therefore, an assessment of the environmental impacts related to fruit and vegetable losses in Italy was carried out through the carbon and water footprint and cumulative energy demand to link, based on available data and databases, resource depletion (water and energy) as well as GHGs to the production of food that was lost in Italy between 2019 and 2020, especially taking fruit and vegetable losses as a reference. The results show that horticultural losses decreased between 2019 and 2020, which reduced the CF by-24% and the WF and CED by-40%. This could save and avoid significant amounts of emissions, water, and energy and could thus fit into the context of achieving some national and international goals, such as the European Green Deal, SDGs, and Directive 2000/60/EC.