As a major component of the NOAA Sea Grant project “Business and Economic Planning for Seaweed Aquaculture Systems in the U.S.”, a fully-interactive, user-friendly tool was designed which allows stakeholders (farmers, extension agents, etc.) to develop their own Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) for integrated kelp nursery-growout operations. The tool has two major components: 1) an Excel spreadsheet aimed at collecting basic production parameters and material input requirements for the model farm; and 2) a customized LCA model built within the open-source platform openLCA, which accesses data from the spreadsheet to generate a comprehensive assessment of the ecosystem services generated by the aquaculture operation, including nutrient removal and the potential for negative CO2 emissions. The LCA model relies on open-source databases (USLCI and US Environmental Protection Agency/USEEIO) compiled by the U.S. government and made accessible through the Federal LCA Commons website. As a result, users are able to develop comprehensive LCAs that fully obviate the need for expensive proprietary software.
Because the LCA tool is fully integrated with an Excel-based financial model, users can incorporate the economic value of ecosystem services to the tables and forms produced by the financial component of the integrated model. Ultimately, users could generate estimates of potential revenue flows from Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes, if they become available to farmers. A practical demonstration of the tool is included using real-word data from cooperating kelp farming operations in Alaska.