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Environmental sustainability of an agri livestock farm: proposal for an integrated indicator

Jacopo Gabriele Orlando
Aboca S.p.A. Società Agricola
Bio
Geremia Gios
Università degli Studi di Trento, Via Inama 5, Trento-Italy
Bio
Margherita Tiradritti
Aboca S.pA. Società Agricola, Loc. Aboca 20, 52037 Sansepolcro (AR)-Italy
Bio
Daniele Valiante
3BEE Srl, Via Pastrengo 14, 20159 Milano-Italy
Bio

Published 2026-09-25

Keywords

  • environmental sustainability,
  • Agri-livestock systems,
  • Composite indicators,
  • natural capital,
  • Farm-level assessment

How to Cite

Orlando, J. G., Gios, G., Tiradritti, M., & Valiante, D. (2026). Environmental sustainability of an agri livestock farm: proposal for an integrated indicator. Italian Review of Agricultural Economics. https://doi.org/10.36253/rea-17275

Abstract

This paper proposes a way to overcome the limitations of the environmental sustainability indicators currently used for agri-livestock production. The reference paradigm is that of safe minimum standards. Five environmental components are considered: soil, water, biodiversity, gaseous emissions and energy. For each, an emergent property is identified and assessed using a single indicator. The five elementary indicators are aggregated following the pathway defined for the assessment of the ecological footprint. The results obtained by applying the proposed methodology to a Tuscan agri-livestock farm show that, although further refinements are possible, the method is sufficiently straightforward to apply.

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