Calculating CO2 footprint of the organic greenhouse horticulture

In recent years the horticultural sector has been confronted with questions about the carbon footprint of its products. However, the global standards used to calculate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have some gaps that do not address the sector specific issues for horticulture, such as crop rotation, land use of soil organic matter and Combined Heat and Power (CHP). Therefore, a need was identified for a sector specific standard which addresses these interpretations gaps. In response to this need the `Carbon footprinting of horticulture products protocol' (DNCF2009) was developed by the Dutch horticultural sector. In the greenhouse cultures energy consumption is the main component of the CO2 emission. To save energy a lot of Dutch greenhouse companies use CHP to heat their greenhouses. The grower thereby generates two products; the horticultural product and the electricity. The CO2 emission of the electricity production should be deducted from the total CO2 production of the CHP, in order to calculate the CO2 emission that should be assigned to the production of the tomatoes. To find out what the position of the organic way of cropping will be, organic crop production is compared with regular cropping systems, with or without CHP. An example for organic grown tomatoes is worked out. It shows the specific organic input factors and their impact at the CO2 footprint