Definition of a sustainability measurement system for agrifood chains, systems and food environments

The literature proposes many indicators to assess and communicate sustainability from the environmental perspective (e.g. life cycle assessment) but far fewer to assess economic and social sustainability. Moreover, when applied to agri-food systems, these indicators (Key Performance Indicators - KPI) are varied, heterogeneous, and often disconnected among supply chain partners and stakeholders, thus bringing about non-comparable sustainability performance measurements (SPM). 

FAO has defined, through the SAFA methodology, a set of indicators (FAO, 2014; Gayatr et all. 2016) that was used in the framework of the EU Strenghth2Food project, but there are difficulties in its application on a larger scale (Arfini and Bellassen, 2020). Therefore, it is crucial to develop a comprehensive but simple set of indicators, and systems able to evaluate and communicate the triple bottom line of sustainability at the multiple tiers of the value chains and also from the territorial (Local Agrifood Systems - LAFS) and Food Environment perspectives.

The objective of the Task is to define KPIs, measurements, and systems that can be used to measure and communicate the environmental, social and economic sustainability features of food systems and supply chains. The types and tiers of value chains, and the impact they generate on the food system, the territory and consumers will be taken into account. The Task activity is divided into the following phases:

• Literature analysis on SPMs and KPIs for sustainability adopted by various types of value chains, local systems and food environments (e.g Local Multiplier 3 –LM3)
• Identification of existing datasets and tools used for LCA assessment along with the definition of relevant data and parameters
• Definition of simplified tools and related KPIs for Long-distance Food Supply Chain, Short Food Supply Chain, Local Agro-Food System, Food environment and for the evaluation of energy efficiency and RES integration and on the energy and environmental impacts.
• Stakeholder analysis aimed at verifying the indicators' ability to measure and communicate sustainability also in view of the way in which the information is obtained and also including social indicators (e.g. gender).
• Definition of a statistical methodology for measuring and describing the level of sustainability in punctual and aggregated form through clustering

The expected results of this Task concern the following aspects: 

• Literature analysis on SPMs and KPIs for sustainability adopted by various types of value chains, local systems and food environments
• Identification of existing datasets and tools used for LCA assessment along with the definition of relevant data and parameters
• Definition of simplified tools and related KPIs for Long-distance Food Supply Chain, Short Food Supply Chain, Local Agro-Food System and Food environment and for the evaluation of energy efficiency and RES integration and on the energy and environmental impacts.
• Stakeholder analysis aimed at verifying the indicators' ability to measure and communicate sustainability also in view of the way in which the information is obtained
• A statistical methodology for measuring and describing the level of sustainability in punctual and aggregated form through clustering