Purpose

An apicultural system is characterised by multifunctionality, with one of the functions being the pollination service performed by honeybees, which is of fundamental importance for the nutrition of mankind. The discussion on including ecosystem services in the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology has opened; this article proposes an alternative way of considering ecosystem services in the specific case of a multifunctional system. Indeed, in an LCA implementation, this study applies an economic allocation between the main product (honey) and the pollination service performed by domesticated honeybees for the ecosystems. Here, the consideration of the pollination service in two honey (orange-blossom and cherry-blossom) LCA case studies is examined.

Methods

The multifunctionality was managed by performing an economic allocation between the main product (honey) and the pollination service. The economic value of the main product was calculated by using specific costing approaches for honey, whilst the one of the pollination service by using its market value, where applicable, or on the basis of the dependence of the two species of fruit trees (related to the two types of honey analysed) upon pollination. The calculated values were then used in the main scenario of the study.

Results and discussion

The results of the case studies showed that the potential environmental impact of honey decreases for all impact categories when the economic allocation is performed. Electricity consumption for the storage of supers in the hives placement phase and the use of packaging materials were found to be the most impacting processes for both honey types, as well as the transport by aircraft for the distribution of the product overseas. Water consumption was the first most affected impact category, followed by human carcinogenic toxicity and terrestrial ecotoxicity. A sensitivity analysis confirmed the results.

Conclusions

Given the identified hotspots, an attempt should be made to reduce the impact of glass (for the jar) and steel (for the lid) by reducing their mass per unit as well as the electricity consumption for the refrigeration of supers. Furthermore, different options for distributing the product abroad should be examined.

中文翻译：

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考虑授粉的蜂蜜生命周期评估中的多功能建模

目的

养蜂系统具有多功能性，其中一项功能是蜜蜂的授粉服务，这对人类的营养至关重要。关于将生态系统服务纳入生命周期评估（LCA）方法的讨论已经开始；本文提出了在多功能系统的特定情况下考虑生态系统服务的另一种方法。确实，在实施LCA的过程中，本研究在主要产品（蜂蜜）和驯养蜜蜂为生态系统提供的授粉服务之间进行了经济分配。在此，我们考察了两个LCA（橙色开花和樱桃开花）LCA案例研究中对授粉服务的考虑。

方法

通过在主要产品（蜂蜜）和授粉服务之间进行经济分配来管理多功能性。主要产品的经济价值是通过使用特定的蜂蜜成本计算方法来计算的，而授粉服务之一是通过使用其市场价值（如果适用）或根据两种果树（与授粉后分析了两种类型的蜂蜜）。然后，将计算出的值用于研究的主要场景。

结果与讨论

案例研究的结果表明，在进行经济分配时，蜂蜜对所有影响类别的潜在环境影响均会降低。人们发现，在蜂箱放置阶段中用于储存supers的用电量和包装材料的使用对两种蜂蜜类型以及飞机运输产品到海外的分配影响最大。用水是受影响最严重的类别，其次是人类致癌毒性和陆地生态毒性。敏感性分析证实了结果。

结论

在确定了热点的情况下，应尝试通过减少玻璃的质量（单位重量）以及用于制冷超级玻璃的电力消耗来减少玻璃（用于广口瓶）和钢（用于盖子）的影响。此外，应研究在国外分销产品的不同选择。