Assessing the Environmental Footprint and Technical Efficiency of Leafy and Cruciferous Vegetable Production in the Region of Central Macedonia: A Pathway to Climate-Resilient Agriculture

Cruciferous and leafy vegetables are staples of the Mediterranean diet, yet their environmental footprint in small-scale systems remains poorly quantified beyond carbon. The present study assesses the carbon and broader environmental footprint of cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli and spinach, using primary data from 180 fields in Central Macedonia, Greece. IPCC Tier 1 emission factors were combined with SimaPro background modeling across four indicators and two functional units, complemented by Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis and a slacks-based data envelopment analysis (DEA) model. Per hectare, the carbon footprint ranged from 2465 kg CO2eq ha−1 (spinach) to 5080 kg CO2eq ha−1 (cabbage), and terrestrial ecotoxicity from 48.0 to 218 kg 1,4-DBeq ha−1. Per kilogram, this ranking reversed (spinach 0.399, cabbage 0.132 kg CO2eq kg−1), reflecting yield differences (6186 vs. 38,575 kg ha−1). Nitrogen and potassium fertilization dominated climate change, acidification and eutrophication, whereas plant protection products drove 85–99.6% of terrestrial ecotoxicity. DEA placed 43.9% of fields on the efficiency frontier, ranging from 80.6% for cauliflower to 29.9% for spinach, with the largest slacks in irrigation water and planting material. Fertilization and irrigation emerge as the main eco-efficiency levers, whereas lower ecotoxicity requires targeted plant protection use, so that mitigation is most effective when targeted to specific crops and indicators, for example, nitrogen optimization where climate change, acidification and eutrophication dominate, irrigation efficiency where input slacks are largest, and reduced plant-protection inputs where terrestrial ecotoxicity dominates.