The environmental footprint of an organic peri-urban orchard network.

Over the past years, the implementation of urban and peri-urban orchards in cities has increased and so has the environmental awareness regarding these systems. This study applied the environmental extended multi-regional input-output analysis to obtain the Environmental Footprint associated with an organic peri-urban orchard network in Spain. The total environmental impacts were calculated for seven organic peri-urban orchards identified as PUO1 to PUO7. PUO1, PUO4 and PUO6 presented the highest environmental impacts due to a higher consumption of (1) fuel, (2) plastics and (3) electricity in comparison to the other orchards. Approximately 70% of the overall impacts were indirect impacts generated in the supply chain. A more in-depth study of climate change impacts in the supply chain of the organic peri-urban orchard network revealed that the major hotspots were the sectors "extraction of crude petroleum" (29%) and "production of electricity by gas and coal" (31%) located in Spain, China and Middle East countries. The Environmental Footprint serves as a useful indicator to provide the environmental performance of an organic peri-urban orchard network and foster greener and more sustainable cities.