# Life Cycle Assessment of Land Use Trade-Offs in Indoor Vertical Farming +
###### Abstract  
Urban agriculture (UA) is emerging as a promising strategy for sustainable food production in response to growing environmental pressures. Indoor vertical farming (IVF), combining Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) with Building-Integrated Agriculture (BIA), enables efficient resource use and year-round crop cultivation in urban settings. This study assesses the environmental performance of a prospective IVF system located on a university campus in Portugal, focusing on the integration of photovoltaic (PV) energy as an alternative to the conventional electricity grid (GM). A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was conducted using the Environmental Footprint (EF) method and the LANCA model to account for land use and soil-related impacts. The PV-powered system demonstrated lower overall environmental impacts, with notable reductions across most impact categories, but important trade-offs with decreased soil quality. The LANCA results highlighted cultivation and packaging as key contributors to land occupation and transformation, while also revealing trade-offs associated with upstream material demands. By combining EF and LANCA, the study shows that IVF systems that are not soil-based can still impact soil quality indirectly. These findings contribute to a broader understanding of sustainability in urban farming and underscore the importance of multi-dimensional assessment approaches when evaluating emerging agricultural technologies. url  
Article Life Cycle Assessment of Land Use Trade-Offs in Indoor Vertical Farming +
Footnote †: This article is an extended and revised version of research previously presented at the 18 th Conference of the Italian LCA Network (Pescara, Italy, 2024) and at the 14 th LCA Food International Conference (Barcelona, Spain, 2024). are taking shape [2]. Advanced agricultural technologies and novel farming systems can help sustain current production levels and meet future food demands while claiming to minimize soil use [3,4]. Urban agriculture (UA) has been increasingly explored as a localized food production strategy that can contribute to addressing emerging environmental and social challenges. By repurposing underutilized urban spaces, UA reduces the need for new land use and brings food production closer to consumers, promoting also community engagement [5, 6, 7]. Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) emerges as a critical technology within UA, optimizing crop growth through the use of enclosed spaces that provide controlled microclimates, hydroponic systems, software-controlled environmental parameters, Light-Emitting Diode (LED) lighting, and nutrient dosing [8]. These controlled environments are frequently incorporated into vertical farming systems, which maximize the use of available space while mitigating the challenges posed by climate variability, effectively neutralizing it as an uncontrollable factor [9]. While vertical farms and CEA systems consume significant amounts of energy, their integration with Building-Integrated Agriculture (BIA) and the use of renewable energy can significantly reduce their environmental impact [10]. This approach, indeed, leverages urban infrastructure to power energy-intensive vertical farming operations, thereby enhancing UA through efficient and localized food production systems [4,11,12]. Beyond optimizing space and energy use, UA enables the cultivation of nutrient-rich crops, further contributing to the rising demand for nutritious food. One such example is the production of microgreens, vegetables grown and harvested at the first leaf stage, which offer high nutritional content as a final consumer product [13]. The compact growing systems used for microgreens reduce direct land occupation, which is an important consideration in densely populated areas [11]. Despite those positive aspects, there is limited data to clearly assess, compare and validate these innovative technologies regarding two critical environmental effects.