Assessing environmental impacts of nursery production: methodological issues and results from a case study in Italy

An EFA was applied to a real case study in northern Italy in order to validate the model. Strengths and weakness of two units (100 grafted plant to be sold and one hectare production surface) are discussed in the light of the results obtained in the case study. Among other case specific results, plastic had the highest relative environmental impact in the nursery system (about 80% of the value of the total footprint), making it the main resource used which should be re-considered to improve the environmental performance of the system. According to the proposed model, the nursery stage accounts for almost 17% of the entire environmental impact of the main orchard system connected to the nursery in the case study.