Funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.3, Theme 10.
Sustainable accountancy and accountability approaches for selected value chains with definition of tools, indicators, and data (primary and secondary) for measuring sustainability, short and long-distance value chains, and food environments (e.g., Life Cycle Assessment, CHG protocol, Risk-Benefit Assessment, Local Multiplier3, FAO-SAFA).
Report on indexes and metrics of sustainability of short and long-distance value chains and food environments (M12)
The literature proposes many indicators to assess and communicate sustainability from the environmental perspective (e.g. life cycle assessment) but far fewer to assess economic and social sustainability. Moreover, when applied to agri-food systems, these indicators (Key Performance Indicators - KPI) are varied, heterogeneous, and often disconnected among supply chain partners and stakeholders, thus bringing about non-comparable sustainability performance measurements (SPM).
FAO has defined, through the SAFA methodology, a set of indicators (FAO, 2014; Gayatr et all. 2016) that was used in the framework of the EU Strenghth2Food project, but there are difficulties in its application on a larger scale (Arfini and Bellassen, 2020). Therefore, it is crucial to develop a comprehensive but simple set of indicators, and systems able to evaluate and communicate the triple bottom line of sustainability at the multiple tiers of the value chains and also from the territorial (Local Agrifood Systems - LAFS) and Food Environment perspectives.
The objective of the Task is to define KPIs, measurements, and systems that can be used to measure and communicate the environmental, social and economic sustainability features of food systems and supply chains. The types and tiers of value chains, and the impact they generate on the food system, the territory and consumers will be taken into account. The Task activity is divided into the following phases:
The expected results of this Task concern the following aspects: