A case study of beer production in Greece has been performed. Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) has been used to identify and quantify the environmental performance of the production and distribution of beer. LCA methodology provides a quantitative basis for assessing potential improvements in environmental performance of a system throughout the life cycle. The system investigated includes raw material acquisition, industrial refining, packaging, transportation, consumption and waste management. Energy use and emissions are quantified and some of the potential environmental effects are assessed. The impact categories most affected by the beer production. are the earth toxicity, or heavy metals, and the category of smog formation. Bottle production, followed by packaging and beer production are found to be the subsystems that account for most of the emissions. Thus, the attempt to minimize the adverse environmental impacts caused by the beer production should focus on the minimization of the emissions produced during these subsystems. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
