Assessment methods for sustainable tourism declarations: the case of holiday farms

Farm-based tourism has a long tradition in Europe. Using farms to host tourists has become more widely seen as an effective means of supporting local economies and contributing to the preservation of landscapes and cultural heritage in the countryside. Furthermore, farm-based tourism is considered one of the most environmentally sustainable activities among touristic options. Nevertheless, the environmental sustainability of holiday farms still must be assessed. No applications of an environmental assessment method to touristic farms can be found in the literature. The only reference for such application is the PCR (Product Category Rule) basic module on “Accommodation, food and beverage services” developed for the Environmental Product Declaration system®. This document can be used as a reference for declarations for several hosting structures or catering services, nevertheless the performance of this module on touristic farms has not been validated yet. This study therefore aims to discuss and give practical recommendations when the PCR on accommodations is used for holiday farms thorough an actual case study in Northern Italy. The farm adopted as case study covers 15 ha of orchards managed according to the organic production protocol. In order to precisely evaluate the farm, the performance of three functional units was tested applying a full Life Cycle Assessment, in accordance with the guidelines and requirements of the ISO 14040. Among other impact categories, the global warming potential of the whole farm in 2011 is 112 tCO2 eq, which corresponds to 232 kg CO2 eq/(guest ∗ night) and 3.32 kg CO2 eq/€. Considering the services in the farm, 81% of the global warming potential is related to the breakfast service, 2% to the room services and the remaining 18% to the agricultural parts of the system. The results allow us to highlight general key aspects to be considered for the definition of product category rules for such activity including the importance of the choice of the modelling approach, the system boundaries and the functional unit.