Investigating sustainability improvement potential in the Canadian egg industry through integration of life cycle assessment, animal welfare, and operations research
department or school: Science, Irving K. Barber Faculty of (Okanagan)
department or school: Biology, Department of (Okanagan)
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCO
creator: Turner, Ian
issued: 2025-02-24T20:54:48Z
issued: 2025
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Livestock production systems are associated with large environmental impacts, substantially contributing to the ongoing transgressions of planetary boundaries. Egg production is generally associated with lower environmental impacts than other livestock systems. However, impact reductions must still be realized if eggs are to be part of a sustainable food system. Concurrently, the egg industry must also navigate animal welfare challenges, which are a driving force in ongoing transitions away from conventional cage production systems to alternatives in Canada, and elsewhere globally. This dissertation reports research undertaken to support evidence-based decision making in the Canadian egg industry as it navigates this transition and seeks to contribute to a more sustainable food system. The research is grounded in life cycle thinking and its associated analytical framework, life cycle assessment (LCA), presenting a transdisciplinary integration of LCA with the disciplines of animal welfare science and operations research. Updated baseline LCA models of Canadian, non-organic egg production were developed based on primary data collected from farmers, and best publicly available data for other supply chain activities. These models subsequently supported application of data envelopment analysis, and life cycle optimization to investigate environmental impact mitigation potentials of efficiency improvements on egg farms, and optimization of feed formulations to minimize environmental impacts. Further, a novel animal welfare life cycle impact assessment method was proposed for assessment of laying hens. This method was used with the baseline LCA models to optimize the distribution of Canadian non-organic egg production in alternative housing systems for animal welfare and environmental impacts. Throughout, this research suggests that substantial environmental impact reductions may be realized on Canadian egg farms that outweigh potential increases in production costs. Furt…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/90416
note: Investigating sustainability improvement potential in the Canadian egg industry through integration of life cycle assessment, animal welfare, and operations research by Ian Turner B.Sc., The University of Toronto, 2017 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Interdisciplinary Studies) (Sustainability) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) February 2025 © Ian Turner, 2025 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: Investigating sustainability improvement potential in the Canadian egg industry through integration of life cycle assessment, animal welfare, and operations research submitted by Ian Turner in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Dr. Nathan Pelletier, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science Supervisor Dr. Tina Widowski, University of Guelph Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Jeff Andrews, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Amir Ardestani-Jaafari, Faculty of Management University Examiner Dr. Greg Thoma, Colorado State University External Examiner iii Abstract Livestock production systems are associated with large environmental impacts, substantially contributing to the ongoing transgressions of planetary boundaries. Egg production is generally associated with lower environmental impacts than other livestock systems. However, impact reductions must still be realized if eggs are to be part of a sustainable food system. Concurrently, the egg industry must also navigate animal welfare challenges, which are a driving force in ongoing transitions away from conventional cage production systems to alternatives in Canada, and elsewhere globally. This dissertation reports research undertaken to support evidence-based decision making in the Canadian egg industry as it navigates this tr…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2025-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0448122
language: eng
degree discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Pelletier, Nathan
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/90416