LIFE TTGG: improving the supply chain efficiency of European hard or semi-hard PDO cheeses by development of an Environmental Decision Supporting System (EDSS) for Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) assessment

In order to limit global warming, the reduction of GHG emissions in the coming decades will have to be very consistent and should cover all sectors: not only the energy sector, which is responsible for the largest quantities of direct emissions in global terms, but also the agricultural sector, which today is a direct source of about 10–12% of total emissions worldwide. Available projections indi- cate that an increase in food consumption, without action, will rise GHG from the agricultural sector. The European dairy sector represents one of the principal players in the world in terms of both importation and expor- tation. In the European ranking Italy and France are big European cheese producers, Italy has the sixth highest pro- duction in terms of cheese in general. The Grana Padano PDO accounting for ~24% of total milk output in Italy, is one of the most important cheese in the country. The EU has founded the ‘LIFE TTGG’ project, which aims to reduce the carbon foot- print of hard and semi-hard cheese production by 10% (111,000 tons CO2 eq/y) in the following 2/3 years after the project considering: the 25% of Grana Padano production, the 5% of other IT hard cheese PDOs, the 10% of FR hard cheese PDOs, involved in PEF reduction. Solutions are needed to improve Italian and France cheeses supply chain efficiency and to analyse and reduce their Product Environmental Footprint (PEF). In this regard the project proposed underlines the importance of implementing environmental solutions to improve the Grana Padano PDO’s supply chain efficiency, sup- porting the development of a tool (EDSS) for PEF analysis and reduction. The project, coordinated by Politecnico di Milano, provides the development of a life-cycle analysis (LCA) on a representative sample of Grana Padano PDO (65 farms, 18 dairies and 18 pack- aging producers) and on a French hard or semi-hard PDO cheese (35 farms and 15 dairies); the implementation of a Life-Cycle Inventory (LCI) datasets for the production of 1 L of cows’ milk; the production of two of main feeds used for cows; the production of 1 kg of Grana Padano PDO; the production of 1 kg of French hard or semi-hard PDO cheese, the production of three packaging solutions. The LIFE TTGG project will be a useful contribution to the implementation of European environmental policies and also represents an opportunity to test Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR). Acknowledgements Project LIFE TTGG: LIFE The Tough Get Going (LIFE 16 ENV/IT/000225) funded by European Commission.