title: Environmental impacts in the life cycle of olive oil: a literature review.
abstract: The production of olive oil is considered to be one of the largest agricultural business sectors in the Mediterranean area. Apart from its significant impact on the economies of countries in Southern Europe, Northern Africa and Middle East, olive oil production also involves considerable social and environmental considerations. However, despite such importance, the environmental effects of olive oil production have not been studied as much other agricultural productions and farming systems, which are more characteristic of central and northern Europe. We present a thorough and systematic literature review of scientific publications with respect to the use of environmental tools in the life cycle of olive oil. The analysis takes into consideration the farming of olive trees, the manufacture of olive oil, packaging, transportation and reverse logistics. To that end, journal publications up to 2015 in this specific field are recorded and, at the same time, the most important environmental impacts are revealed and a gap analysis is carried out. The analysis conducted reveals that farming of olive trees (with pesticide use and waste/by-product production being the 'hottest' topics) and the manufacturing of olive oil (concentrating mostly on waste/by-product production and management) are the phases with the highest environmental focus from the scientific community. Moreover, gaps in the literature are detected mostly with respect to fuel consumption and the use and promotion of renewable energy sources in olive oil production. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.
authors.affiliation: School of Economics, Business Administration & Legal Studies, International Hellenic University, 14th km Thessaloniki - N, Moudania, 57001 Thermi, Greece.
authors.forename: Georgios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Banias
authors.affiliation: School of Economics, Business Administration & Legal Studies, International Hellenic University, 14th km Thessaloniki - N, Moudania, 57001 Thermi, Greece.|Institute for Research and Technology Thessaly, Centre for Research and Technology-Hellas, 38333 Volos, Greece.
authors.forename: Charisios
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0761-6524
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Achillas
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering, Aristotle University Thessaloniki, Box 483, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vlachokostas
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering, Aristotle University Thessaloniki, Box 483, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Moussiopoulos
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Heat Transfer and Environmental Engineering, Aristotle University Thessaloniki, Box 483, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stefanou
mesh_terms: D017753:Ecosystem; D004777:Environment; D031658:Olea / Q000737:chemistry / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D000069463:Olive Oil / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000069463:Olive Oil
keywords: LCA; critical review; indicators; olive oil