Holistic and integrated life cycle sustainability assessment of community supported agriculture: A case study of school catering in Leipzig, Germany

Global food supply and intensive agriculture significantly impact social, economic, and ecological sustainability. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) strives to transform regional food networks by connecting producers and consumers. Although intrinsically more sustainable due to agroecological farming, short supply chains, and regional cooperation, no assessment has yet quantified the sustainability benefits of CSA. No Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been conducted in Germany, and only a few studies have been carried out in Europe to identify the impacts and improvement potentials of CSA. A Holistic and Integrated Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (HILCSA) was applied to a CSA in Leipzig, Germany, offering a novel integrative approach to analyze CSA benefits and impacts compared to a conventional reference in all three sustainability dimensions. Seven different fruits and vegetables produced by the CSA and distributed to schools in Leipzig were assessed. Based on 82 indicators, the results showed that CSA has 63 % fewer sustainability risks compared to the conventional German food market. All substitution factors of impacts aggregated to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were below 1.0, indicating a positive contribution by the CSA. Additionally, replacing conventional supply with supply from the CSA to 200 pupils can avoid 1 ton of CO 2 equivalents over one school year. Resource efficiency emerged as a key area for improvement, as the CSA had significantly lower yields than conventional production. However, it had similar water, land, and energy uses per hectare. At the same time, the highest upstream impacts were caused by Spent Mushroom Substrate (SMS) applied as organic fertilizer. The findings highlight the potential of CSA to drive regional socio-ecological transformation while suggesting improvements in resource efficiency. • Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has 63 % less sustainability risks compared to the conventional food market in Germany. • Spent mushroom substrate includes several sustainability risks and was identified as a hotspot in the product system. • By switching to a supply from CSA, school caterers can reduce their carbon emissions by more than 1 ton of CO2 equivalents per school year. • Comparatively low yields at the CSA cause low water and land use efficiencies.