IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i15p8656-d607543.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Methodological Approach to Designing Circular Economy Indicators for Agriculture: An Application to the Egg Sector

Author

Listed:
  • Roger Rukundo

    (Department of Agricultural Economics and Consumer Science, Laval University, 2425, Rue de l’Agriculture, QC G1V 0A6, Canada)

  • Stéphane Bergeron

    (Department of Agricultural Economics and Consumer Science, Laval University, 2425, Rue de l’Agriculture, QC G1V 0A6, Canada)

  • Ibrahima Bocoum

    (Department of Agricultural Economics and Consumer Science, Laval University, 2425, Rue de l’Agriculture, QC G1V 0A6, Canada)

  • Nathan Pelletier

    (Department of Biology, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, University of British Columbia Okanagan, 340-3247 University Way, Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada)

  • Maurice Doyon

    (Department of Agricultural Economics and Consumer Science, Laval University, 2425, Rue de l’Agriculture, QC G1V 0A6, Canada)

Abstract

Analysing production systems from a circular economy (CE) perspective helps to pinpoint interventions to mitigate the environmental footprint by improving resource use efficiency, waste recovery, and prolonged product usage, recycling and reuse. Few studies exist on the measurement of CE at the micro-level. Additionally, available metrics/indicators address only certain aspects of the CE’s socio-economic metabolism, ignoring important components of the CE concept. Other frameworks propose a single indicator that aggregates and summarizes several facets of CE. This study develops a holistic approach for designing indicators with a structured methodology and an analytical framework to assess CE at the micro (unit of production) level in agriculture. The proposed approach is based on the ECOGRAI method for indicator development, and on validation of the methods with experts and final users via an application to egg production in Canada. Twenty-five performance indicators (PI) were generated for 11 decision variables that were selected as important for the sector. This resulted in a practical tool that proposes fourteen actions to improve the economic circularity (EC) of egg farms. Our methodological approach could be replicated to assess CE performance in other agricultural sectors.

Suggested Citation

  • Roger Rukundo & Stéphane Bergeron & Ibrahima Bocoum & Nathan Pelletier & Maurice Doyon, 2021. "A Methodological Approach to Designing Circular Economy Indicators for Agriculture: An Application to the Egg Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-19, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:15:p:8656-:d:607543
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/15/8656/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/15/8656/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nathan Pelletier & Maurice Doyon & Bruce Muirhead & Tina Widowski & Jodey Nurse-Gupta & Michelle Hunniford, 2018. "Sustainability in the Canadian Egg Industry—Learning from the Past, Navigating the Present, Planning for the Future," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-24, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Giscard Valonne Mouafo Nebot & Haiyan Wang, 2022. "Port Terminal Performance Evaluation and Modeling," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-22, January.
    2. Simone Wurster & Luana Ladu, 2022. "Triple-C: A Tridimensional Sustainability-Oriented Indicator for Assessing Product Circularity in Public Procurement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-23, October.
    3. Patrizia Ghisellini & Amos Ncube & Gloria Rotolo & Chiara Vassillo & Serena Kaiser & Renato Passaro & Sergio Ulgiati, 2023. "Evaluating Environmental and Energy Performance Indicators of Food Systems, within Circular Economy and “Farm to Fork” Frameworks," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-38, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ilkka Leinonen, 2019. "Achieving Environmentally Sustainable Livestock Production," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-5, January.
    2. Fabio Gaetano Santeramo & Emilia Lamonaca & Marco Tappi & Leonardo Di Gioia, 2019. "Considerations on the Environmental and Social Sustainability of Animal-Based Policies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-12, April.
    3. Li, Y. & Arulnathan, V. & Heidari, M.D. & Pelletier, N., 2022. "Design considerations for net zero energy buildings for intensive, confined poultry production: A review of current insights, knowledge gaps, and future directions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:15:p:8656-:d:607543. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.