When you are nibbling away at your scrumptious chocolate bar, do you ever stop to wonder about the environmental impacts of your tasty treat? The University of Milan evaluated the environmental impacts of dark chocolate from an Italian chocolate factory through a cradle-to-grave Life Cycle Analysis.
A Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is a method to quantify the environmental impacts of a product or process. This ranges from toxicities, or the use of resources, to climate change and eutrophication. The intent of an LCA is to incorporate the whole life cycle of a product or process, from the extraction of raw materials up until waste processing. Through this holistic view, you can identify which life cycle stage in the life cycle of your product is the most resource-, energy- and impact-intensive. Here our focus will be on identifying the impacts of the various life cycle stages on global warming.
Source: Dr Klara van Mierlo, Researcher at Wageningen University & Research
One kilogram of Italian dark chocolate is equivalent to the effect of 2.63 kg of CO2 emissions.
One kilogram of dark chocolate corresponds to 10 bars of 100 gram.
LIFE CYCLE PHASES
The life cycle of our chocolate bar is divided in three phases: up-stream, core and downstream. Upstream processes are composed of the production of raw cocoa and of ingredients like sugar cane and sugar beet. Additionally, the production of packaging materials such as cardboard and aluminum foils, as well as auxiliary materials like lubricant oil, detergent, and jute, are also included in the upstream processes. The transportation of all these inputs to the production plant, the chocolate manufacturing in Northern Italy, and the treatment of industrial waste constitute the core processes. Chocolate production is an energy-intensive process. In this case the majority of energy is supplied by a trigeneration system that includes the best technologies available on the market. Downstream processes cover the distribution of the chocolate, packaging waste, and end-of -life treatments. Below you can see that upstream and core processes contribute most to global warming.
Source: F. Recanati et al. / Science of the Total Environment 613–614 (2018) 1013–1023 (From beans to bar: A life cycle assessment towards sustainable chocolate supply chain).
Upstream
The upstream processes involve the production of all the input materials required to manufacture the dark chocolate bars.
Core phase
Core processes include the transportation of the inputs to the production plant and the chocolate manufacturing itself.
Downstream
Downstream processes include distribution (freight, lorry) and packaging waste (recycling, incineration, land fill).
From the LCA results, cocoa bean provisioning (i.e., cultivation and transportation) and energy supply at the manufacturing plant have emerged as environmental hotspots along the chocolate supply chain.
*Others: distribution of the chocolate, collection of packaging waste, and end-of-life treatments