Department of Computing and Industries, Faculty of Engineering Sciences, Universidad Católica del Maule, 3605 Talca, Chile.
Colegiado de Engenharia de Produção, Universidade Estadual do Paraná, Paranaguá, Paraná, Brazil.
Waste Manag. 2024 Dec 1;189:410-420. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2024.08.038. Epub 2024 Sep 5.
The Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus approach is increasingly being used for supporting a transition to sustainable development, with initiatives involving the concept of circular economy (CE). In the agricultural sector in particular, assessing this nexus is crucial to ensure food security, control the consumption of key resources such as water and energy, as well as measure atmospheric emissions linked to climate change. This manuscript aims to propose a novel approach by coupling the WEF nexus with a circularity indicator, seeking to capture in a single index (the WEF+CEi) both performances in a sample of companies. The novel approach is applied to 30 dairy farms located in Galicia (NW Spain) to benchmark them in a holistic manner. To do this, the WEF nexus of each farm was represented through the following indicators: carbon footprint, water footprint, energy footprint, and food productivity. In addition, the percentage of circularity for each farm, and for the agro-industrial cooperative was measured thanks to the application of a circularity tool in percentage terms. Finally, the WEF+CEi indicator was obtained using the multicriteria mathematical tool of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The results show that without considering the agro-industrial cooperative, the system is 51 % circular. On the other hand, considering the farms and the cooperative, the system goes up to 80 % of circularity. Finally, the proposed approach can support decision-making and provide insights for producers and stakeholders in the area.
水-能源-粮食（WEF）关系方法越来越多地被用于支持向可持续发展的转型，涉及循环经济（CE）概念的举措。特别是在农业部门，评估这种关系对于确保粮食安全、控制水和能源等关键资源的消耗以及衡量与气候变化相关的大气排放至关重要。本文旨在通过将 WEF 关系与循环性指标相结合，提出一种新的方法，试图在单个指数（WEF+CEi）中捕捉一组公司的绩效。该新方法应用于位于西班牙西北部加利西亚（Galicia）的 30 家奶牛场，对它们进行全面的基准测试。为此，通过应用百分比形式的循环性工具，通过以下指标来表示每个农场的 WEF 关系：碳足迹、水足迹、能源足迹和粮食生产力。此外，还测量了每个农场和农业综合企业的循环性百分比。最后，使用数据包络分析（DEA）的多标准数学工具获得 WEF+CEi 指标。结果表明，如果不考虑农业综合企业，该系统的循环率为 51%。另一方面，如果考虑农场和合作社，系统的循环率上升到 80%。最后，所提出的方法可以支持决策者的决策，并为该地区的生产者和利益相关者提供见解。
