Decreasing the Environmental Impact in an Egg-Producing Farm through the Application of LCA and Lean Tools
Iván E. Estrada-González, Paúl Taboada-González, Hilda R. Guerrero García Rojas, Liliana Márquez-Benavides
Abstract
Intensive poultry farming transforms vegetable protein into animal protein through shelf egg and chicken meat production. Mexico is the largest egg consumer and fifth-ranked egg producer worldwide. However, the environmental impact of egg production in this country is scarcely reported. This research aimed to design an eco-efficient approach for egg production in a semi-technified farm based on door-to-door life cycle assessment (LCA) and value stream mapping (VSM) methodologies. The LCA points out that the climate change category is a hotspot in egg production, with emissions of 5.58 kg CO2 eq/kg per egg produced. The implementation of an eco-efficient scheme focused on energy usage could result in a 49.5% reduction of total energy consumption and 56.3% saving in environmental impacts. Likewise, by using an environmental economic evaluation system, it is identified that the eco-efficient scheme allows more sustainable production through the internalization of externalities. From an environmental–economic point of view, externalities—that is, those environmental damages that are not initially considered part of the production cost—were included, meaning they were internalized. The integral framework for LCA and VSM provides a possible path for sustainable productivity.