Green marketing tools for fruit growers associated groups: Application of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for strawberries and berry fruits ecobranding in northern Italy

In recent years, interest in environmental issues has increased and, in particular, it has been firmly established the idea that consumer choices can actually affect the environmental performance of the different production systems. In the fruit and vegetables sector, retailers are among those who have been able to respond more quickly to this challenge, mainly using third-party certification and private eco-branding. However, there are other players in the sector that can have a pro-active role in the differentiation of their product, including producer groups, as stakeholder with direct experience of the product from the outset. Associated groups of agricultural producers of food growers can be encouraged and supported to include in their marketing practices eco-friendly information regarding their production systems. Eco-labelling could support these coops in differentiating their products to better position themselves in the market. This paper presents how the use of LCA methodology combined with the calculation of the carbon dioxide offsetting of the same production system using the IPCC method, can help to integrate environmental content (green) into the Delizie di Bosco di Piemonte brand of cooperative Agrifrutta. At the aggregate level, the application of LCA methodology to the supply chains considered has been able to quantify the emissions from the strawberries and berry fruits marketed under the “Delizie di Bosco del Piemonte” brand. For the year 2013 the total emissions of brand products, according to the GWP impact category, amounted to 209 t CO2 eq. The results for the emissions calculated for 2013 have been fully offset within the cooperative, through the sequestration of CO2 performed by 21 ha of chestnut trees on the farms owned by the members of the Cooperative. It discusses the need of further investigation on the way to combine effectively an eco-label with a corporate brand and how to improve of the label credibility by an appropriate and balance communication.