Nirit Havardi-Burger, Heike Mempel und Vera Bitsch have developed a framework for sustainability assessment of the value chain of flowering potted plants (FPP). Indicator-based assessment methods can provide insights into sustainability performance of agricultural value chains. The FPP value chain is not comparable to other agricultural systems and therefore cannot be assessed with existing indicator-based tools. Indicators in the new framework are designed to assess important environmental features as well as social and economic aspects, which were so far mostly neglected in sustainability assessments of FPP. Moreover, apart from the production stage, generally considered for sustainability assessments, the framework includes also breeding, propagation and distribution stages of the value chain. The generic sustainability assessment tools, Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture Systems (SAFA) and Response-Inducing Sustainability Evaluation (RISE), provided the foundation for indicator selection and development.

Havardi-Burger, N., Mempel, H., & Bitsch, V. (2021). Framework for sustainability assessment of the value chain of flowering potted plants for the German market. Journal of Cleaner Production 329, 129684. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129684

Highlights

• A system-specific indicator-based assessment framework was developed for the value chain of flowering potted plants.
• Social indicators are determined by national and regional socio-economic conditions and stakeholder groups.
• Economic indicators are determined by industry structure and conditions in the specific sector.
• Environmental indicators are associated with product-specific processes in each value chain stage.
• Indicators missing from generic assessment tools are related to environmental sustainability.