A multicriteria decision method assessing the overall sustainability of new crop protection strategies: the case of apple growing in Europe

Apple crop protection mainly relies on pesticides although several alternative pest management strategies being available. This is largely caused by the problem that multiple environmental and economic aspects are to consider simultaneously, hiding if one strategy is more sustainable than another. In our study we investigated the elements that need to be considered in order to reach transparency upon the overall result of the sustainability assessment. We present a system description tool created specially for data collection required by life cycle assessment, environmental risk assessment and full cost calculations. Using the various results from these assessments as qualitative attributes we designed a multicriteria tool that allows us to aggregate sustainability attributes over five levels to an overall sustainability rating. An example, assessing different crop protection systems of apple production, demonstrates the transparency of this method. We conclude that rating scales and decision rules might substantially influence the overall sustainability rating. Therefore, the definition of rating scales and decision rules should be carefully set and discussed among the research teams. In our case experts have participated from five European countries being partner of the EU-FP6 project ENDURE.