This study therefore aims to discuss and give practical recommendations when the PCR on accommodations is used for holiday farms thorough an actual case study in Northern Italy.
The farm adopted as case study covers 15 ha of orchards managed according to the organic production protocol. In order to precisely evaluate the farm, the performance of three functional units was tested applying a full Life Cycle Assessment, in accordance with the guidelines and requirements of the ISO 14040. Among other impact categories, the global warming potential of the whole farm in 2011 is 112 tCO2 eq, which corresponds to 232 kg CO2 eq/(guest ∗ night) and 3.32 kg CO2 eq/€. Considering the services in the farm, 81% of the global warming potential is related to the breakfast service, 2% to the room services and the remaining 18% to the agricultural parts of the system.
The results allow us to highlight general key aspects to be considered for the definition of product category rules for such activity including the importance of the choice of the modelling approach, the system boundaries and the functional unit.