# Life Cycle Assessment of Land Use Trade-Offs in Indoor Vertical Farming +
## 3 Results and Discussion
### LANCA Results
This observation highlights a trade-off: while carton box production contributes to environmental burdens through material use and emissions, it simultaneously delivers environmental benefits due to its potential positive interactions with ecosystem services. Regarding the avoided impacts on GRRP sourced from Cultivation, they are largely attributed to the composting process (relative contributions of Cultivation processes are reported in Figure 6). Compost production enhances soil organic carbon levels, which also explains the negative contribution of this process to the SOCRP indicator. This finding is consistent with the EF results, where composting also shows negative values in the LU category (Figure 3). Additional beneficial effects on GRRP, specifically in terms of reversible land transformation, originate from various processes, as illustrated in Figure 6. The negative values for this indicator, in fact, show contributions from the seeds production and transportation process and the electricity-related processes, such as electricity use for equipment and LED lighting. The predominance of these processes is evident across most indicators. The environmental benefits from the electricity-demanding sub-processes are linked to electricity production, particularly to the hydropower component. These benefits may be associated with the role of reservoirs in such systems, which store water and promote infiltration into surrounding soils and aquifers, enhancing groundwater recharge [58]. Figure 6: LANCA relative contributions from processes involved within the Cultivation phase. BLP = Biodiversity Loss Potential; EP = Erosion Potential; GRRP = Groundwater Regeneration Reduction Potential; IRP = Infiltration Reduction Potential; PFRP = Physicochemicaliltration Reduction Potential; SOCRP = Soil Organic Carbon Reduction Potential. Conversely, the role of seed production and transportation emerges as dominant across several LANCA categories, both in terms of soil occupation and Reversible transformation impacts. The significance of the seed process within the LANCA model may be attributed to the extensive agricultural land requirements associated with rapeseed cultivation, in line with recent findings [59]. This cultivation, in fact, involves soil occupation over growing cycles and potential indirect land use changes, such as deforestation or the conversion of natural ecosystems to agricultural land. Additionally, intensive farming practices, often required for rapeseed cultivation, could contribute to increased ecosystem pressure, as highlighted by [PERSON] et al. (2019) [60] and [PERSON] (2023) [61]. Nonetheless, environmental benefits can also be associated with seed cultivation due to the deep-rooted system characteristic of rapeseed plants [62]. This root system, in fact, improves soil structure and enhances water infiltration into the ground, aiding groundwater recharge. Moreover, their drought tolerance and ability to access water stored in deeper soil layers reduce the risks of water evaporation and runoff, leaving more water available for aquifer recharge [63; 64]. In addition to the contributions from electricity, seed production and transportation, and the waste composting process, other relevant processes within Cultivation, also presented in Figure 6, include the cleaning procedure, clothing production for workers, the substrate production and transportation. The high impacts on BLP, IRP and PFRP categories are primarily associated with energy consumption from non-renewable sources due to their contribution to emissions, habitat disruption, and resource extraction, all of which negatively affect biodiversity and soil functionality. Specifically, open-ground photovoltaic systems require significant land occupation throughout their lifecycle, directly affecting ecosystems despite their low operational emissions [65]. Similarly, wood chip co-generation for electricity production has been shown to drive substantial land use impacts.