# Cumulative Energy Demand and Carbon Footprint of the Greenhouse Cultivation System
## 4 Conclusions  
The paper discusses the issues of reducing the CF in a greenhouse's use phase, resulting from the change of the fuel supplying the boiler. The analyses aimed to reduce the negative impact on the environment and move away from fossil fuels, assuming that the changes concern only the heat source. For this purpose, the LCA method and the methodology for calculating the energy performance of the building were used.  
The CED and CF values indicate that there is significant potential to reduce the operating costs of GH production and reduce its environmental footprint. In the coal-burning scenario, the CED value is 4473.5 MJ\(\cdot\)m\({}^{-2}\cdot\)y\({}^{-1}\), and the CF is 366.6 kg CO\({}_{2}\)-eq\(\cdot\)m\({}^{-2}\cdot\)y\({}^{-1}\). In the most favourable scenario with wood chips combustion, the CED value is 747.6 MJ\(\cdot\)m\({}^{-2}\cdot\)y\({}^{-1}\), while the CF is 18.4 kg CO\({}_{2}\)-eq\(\cdot\)m\({}^{-2}\cdot\)y\({}^{-1}\). The use of a renewable energy source (wood chips) means a reduction in the cumulative energy demand (CED) compared to the coal-burning scenario. As a result, the carbon footprint in the wood chips scenario is only 5% of the carbon footprint of scenario 1 with a non-renewable energy source such as coal. Importantly, carbon dioxide emissions from the combustion of biomass are not included in the total emissions.  
The scenarios to determine the CED and CF values for reduced GH uptime lead to the conclusion that the shutdown of production in the three coldest months of the year could reduce heat demand by 48.5% and carbon footprint by 43.2% when burning wood chips. This would mean, however, that GH would not fulfil the role it is intended for. The scenarios for biomass combustion show a significant potential to reduce the heat demand and reduce the negative environmental impact in the operational phase of GH production in Poland.  
The results of the analysis of potted flower cultivation in the year-round exploitation of GH in Polish weather conditions make it possible to make a high-level comparison of the key CED and CF indicators per unit of cultivated area. The CED for the use phase when burning wood pellets is 385.1 MJ\(\cdot\)m\({}^{-2}\cdot\)y\({}^{-1}\), which means that it is comparable to facilities in Germany with a similar lifetime. In turn, the CF value for the GH use phase is set to 11.5 kg CO\({}_{2}\)-eq\(\cdot\)m\({}^{-2}\cdot\)y\({}^{-1}\), which indicates that the production of GH in Polish conditions, when biomass is used as fuel and devices with similar operating times are compared, has a greater negative impact on the environment than in Germany. Assuming a temporary shutdown of the facility, it is possible to determine the reduction in the environmental footprint of the planned cultivation in heated GH, directly by comparing the CED and CF values for the use phase.  
Further research on greenhouse cultivation systems could explore the concept of GH integrated with hybrid heat and electricity supply equipment based on cogeneration units or different types of heat pumps supported by solar collectors and photovoltaic panels.  
The following supporting information can be downloaded at: [[https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app12178786/s1](https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app12178786/s1)]([https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app12178786/s1](https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app12178786/s1)), Raw Sampling Data.  
Conceptualization, S.G.; methodology, R.G. and S.G.; validation, S.G. and R.G.; investigation, S.G.; data curation, R.G.; writing--original draft preparation, S.G.; writing--review and editing, S.G. and R.G.; visualization, S.G.; supervision, R.G. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research received no external funding.  
Not applicable.  
The authors declare no conflict of interest.