Abstract The carbon and land footprint of 26 certified food products – geographical indications and organic products and their conventional references are assessed. This assessment goes beyond existing literature by (1) designing a calculation method fit for the comparison between certified food and conventional production, (2) using the same calculation method and parameters for 52 products – 26 Food Quality Schemes and their reference products – to allow for a meaningful comparison, (3) transparently documenting this calculation method and opening access to the detailed results and the underlying data, and (4) providing the first assessment of the carbon and land footprint of geographical indications. The method used is Life Cycle Assessment, largely relying on the Cool Farm Tool for the impact assessment. The most common indicator of climate impact, the carbon footprint expressed per ton of product, is not significantly different between certified foods and their reference products. The only exception to this pattern are vegetal organic products, whose carbon footprint is 16% lower. This is because the decrease in greenhouse gas emissions from the absence of mineral fertilizers is never fully offset by the associated lower yield. The climate impact of certified food per hectare is however 26% than their reference and their land footprint is logically 24% higher. Technical specifications directly or indirectly inducing a lower use of mineral fertilizers are a key driver of this pattern. So is yield, which depends both on terroir and farming practices. Overall, this assessment reinforces the quality policy of the European Union: promoting certified food is not inconsistent with mitigating climate change.

To identify whether EU certified food – here organic and geographical indications – is more sustainable than a conventional reference, we developed 25 indicators covering the three sustainability pillars. Original data was collected on 52 products at farm, processing and retail levels, allowing the estimation of circa 2000 indicator values. Most strikingly, we show that, in our sample, certified food outperforms its non-certified reference on most economic and social indicators. On major environmental indicators – carbon and water footprint – their performance is similar. Although certified food is 61% more expensive, the extra-performance per euro is similar to classical policy interventions to improve diet sustainability such as subsidies or taxes. Cumulatively, our findings legitimate the recent initiatives by standards to cover broader sustainability aspects.

The dataset Sustainability performance of certified and non-certified food (https://www.doi.org/10.15454/OP51SJ) contains 25 indicators of economic, environmental, and social performance, estimated for 27 certified food value chains and their 27 conventional reference products. The indicators are estimated at different levels of the value chain: farm level, processing level, and retail level. It also contains the raw data based on which the indicators are estimated, its source, and the completed spreadsheet calculators for the following indicators: carbon footprint and food miles. This article describes the common method and indicators used to collect data for the twenty-seven certified products and their conventional counterparts. It presents the assumptions and choices, the process of data collection, and the indicator estimation methods designed to assess the three sustainability dimensions within a reasonable time constraint. That is: three person-months for each food quality scheme and its non-certified reference product. Several prioritisations were set regarding data collection (indicator, variable, value chain level) together with a level of representativeness specific to each variable and product type (country and sector). Technical details on how relatively common variables (e.g., number of animals per hectare) are combined into indicators (e.g., carbon footprint) are provided in the full documentation of the dataset.

Abstract This paper estimates the foodmiles (embedded distances) and transport-related carbon emissions of 27 Food Quality Scheme (FQS) products – Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), Protected Geographical Indications (PGI) and organic – and their reference products. It goes further than the existing literature by adopting a value chain perspective, instead of the traditional consumer perspective, and focusing on FQS products. The same methodology is applied across all the case studies. The article specifically investigates the determinants of differences between FQS and their references. FQS products travel significantly shorter distances (−30%) and generate significantly lower transport-related emissions (−23%) than conventional food products. The differences are even greater for vegetal and organic products. The relationship between distance and transport-related emissions is not exactly proportional and highlights the importance of transport modes and logistics, in particular for exports and imports. Finally, we stress the importance of the spatial distribution of the different stages in the value chains (e.g. production, processing). PDO technical specifications delimit a geographical area for production and processing, thereby limiting distances and transport-related emissions compared to conventional food products, but also compared to other types of FQS.

In this paper, we test to what extent Food Quality Schemes (FQS, including Geographical Indications and organic products) contribute to the social and economic sustainability of farmers and regions through employment and education. Through employment, FQS may counter the urban migration trend affecting rural regions, and help retain economic and social capital in the local region. Indeed, as FQS are often small and specialised sectors, the economic inefficiency of such businesses may translated into greater employment and social sustainability. Separately , by requiring a higher-level of quality and hence skills, FQS may encourage greater local educational attainment or skilled immigration. To test these propositions , we analyse the employment and educational outcomes of 25 FQS. Our results show that the FQS products examined have a 13% higher labour usage (labour-to-production ratio) compared to reference products, indicating that they provide greater employment. Additionally, wage levels are 32% higher in FQS compared to references. Despite providing greater employment and higher wages, profitability of FQS (i.e. how much turnover/profit is generated per employee) is nevertheless 32% higher for FQS compared to reference products, due to the ability to attract higher product prices. Finally, there is no clear link between FQS and greater (or lower) education attainment in the supply chain. Overall, our results suggest that FQS can provide a strong contribution to local employment, employee income and business profits, strengthening the social and economic sustainability of producers and regions.

Abstract Food quality schemes (FQS: organic and geographical indication products) are often supposed to be more sustainable by their political advocates. We explore the social sustainability advantage of FQS through the lens of supply chains’ bargaining power (BP) distribution. We propose an indicator synthesizing different sources underlying BP (competition-based, transactional, institutional) and counting two dimensions (fair BP distribution and adaptation capacity), that we apply to 18 FQS supply chains and corresponding reference. FQS perform better than their reference products on both dimensions. This better performance is due to a combination of sources.

Ce travail aborde la notion de centralite, en tenant compte des contextes territoriaux, et dresse un etat des lieux de leur role et de leur influence a differentes echelles du territoire, particulierement dans le cadre des nouvelles intercommunalites. Sur le plan operationnel, il produit des elements permettant : de donner un nouveau cadre d’analyse des centralites, partage et perenne ; de guider les actions de politique publique visant a renforcer les centralites selon le type de territoire (rural, metropolitain, periurbain, montagne, intercommunalite monocentrique ou polycentrique, etc.) et la dynamique (croissance, deprise, etc.) dans laquelle s’inscrit sa trajectoire interne et celle de son environnement geographique ; d’objectiver les discours sur la desertification de certains territoires et la disparition des services.

This paper investigates the mechanisms through which shared modes help reduce major spatial issues related to mobility in urban areas, namely road congestion and rivalry of use for parking spaces. In this article, I use gross space consumption estimations for different transportation modes as a basis and integrate the service provided by the modes. Results indicate that in terms of time-space consumption and service provided shared modes are intermediate modes between private modes and mass transit. Therefore, shared modes constitute key components of a comprehensive and efficient transportation system in urban areas. The present analysis provides guidance for local transportation authorities.

The present methodological handbook provides the methodologies which will be applied in each work package of the Strength2Food project. In particular, it contains a list of indicators on how to assess sustainability in food and agro-food supply chains. This methodological handbook aims at facilitating the task for field studies, both proposing several prioritizations (indicator, variable, value chain level), detailing how we will combine relatively common variables (eg., number of animals per hectare, …) into indicators (eg., carbon footprint) and indicating how we will provide default values for the majority of the requested variables (for one indicator, providing only 2-3 case-specific values and relying on default values for the other variables is enough to obtain a case-specific indicator). Methods and issues specific to each workpackage are also discussed in dedicated sections and the description of each indicator include a description of whether and how the indicator will be applied to Food Quality Schemes (WP5), Public Sector Procurement Policies (WP6) and Short Food Supply Chains (WP7).

This paper aims to correct standard measures of agglomeration economies to account for air pollution. This paper examines the impact of nitrogen oxide (NOX) a pollutant mainly released by transportation on worker productivity. Literature on agglomeration economies highlights the positive role of employment density on productivity, without accounting for the negative impacts of local pollutants. First, standard estimates of agglomeration economies for the 304 French employment areas are in line with the literature. Then, we introduce the variable (NOX) emissions and, once pollution is accounted for, the estimated direct impact of agglomeration externalities on productivity are lower by more than 13 per cent.

I propose a model for classifying innovations related to a particular function - mobility. My analysis demonstrates that existing typologies related to functional economy (FE) remain imprecise when considering specific functions. I include a systems perspective, bringing collective needs into the discussion. More precisely, I highlight the fact that, due to the complex systems in which the transportation system is embedded, collective consumption, like vehicle-sharing systems and self-service schemes, becomes crucial when mobility issues are addressed. Indeed, the satisfaction of individual needs has an impact on collective needs due to traffic congestion and rivalry for the use of limited parking spaces. As a strategy driving sustainability, the FE calls for institutional change.

L'economie de la fonctionnalite (EF) consiste en la substitution de la vente d'une fonction d'usage a celle d'un produit. Les usagers achetent alors de la mobilite plutot qu'un vehicule. Dans cet article, nous demontrons le potentiel tant economique qu'ecologique de l'EF, en particulier dans le domaine des transports, et analysons les conditions de mise en œuvre d'un tel modele economique et organisationnel. Apres avoir situe l'EF dans la theorie economique, nous examinons par quels mecanismes les caracteristiques propres a l'EF ou a sa mise en place (internalisation des couts, mutualisation des biens) permettent de repondre aux enjeux environnementaux et spatiaux contemporains - l'epuisement des ressources et le changement climatique, ainsi que les conflits d'usage en milieu urbain. Bien que l'effet rebond reduise les gains environnementaux attendus, nous montrons qu'un systeme de transport en EF possede un potentiel significatif en termes de reduction de flux de matiere et d'energie, et ce sans affecter la qualite du service rendu. Enfin, nous exposons les mecanismes permettant de depasser les obstacles a la mise en place d'un systeme en EF, ainsi que les conditions necessaires pour aller vers un systeme de transport operant selon les principes de l' EF, notamment le role de l'Etat et l'approche systemique.

The present methodological handbook provides the methodologies which will be applied in each work package of the Strength2Food project. In particular, it contains a list of indicators on how to assess sustainability in food and agro-food supply chains. This methodological handbook aims at facilitating the task for field studies, both proposing several prioritizations (indicator, variable, value chain level), detailing how we will combine relatively common variables (eg., number of animals per hectare, …) into indicators (eg., carbon footprint) and indicating how we will provide default values for the majority of the requested variables (for one indicator, providing only 2-3 case-specific values and relying on default values for the other variables is enough to obtain a case-specific indicator). Methods and issues specific to each workpackage are also discussed in dedicated sections and the description of each indicator include a description of whether and how the indicator will be applied to Food Quality Schemes (WP5), Public Sector Procurement Policies (WP6) and Short Food Supply Chains (WP7).