Circular vertical farms to reduce environmental impacts in cities (ECOFARM-CITY)

Vertical farms (VFs) are expected to reach mature levels of development in the mid to long-term, as they represent an ideal opportunity to produce food in a more sustainable way by improving freshness and reducing food miles.

However, some of these claims often lack quantitative evidence of the contribution that VFs can make to help decarbonize and mitigate environmental damages of food systems.

The project Circular vertical farms to reduce environmental impacts in cities (ECOFARM-CITY) aims to improve the environmental performance of vertical farms and their surrounding urban environments through the development of circular strategies.

Specifically, I will assess the environmental performance of real-case vertical farms to develop circular strategies aimed at improving their environmental sustainability.

Further, I will investigate how the use of waste resources from cities (e.g. wastewater) can be used as input resources in VFs (e.g. fertilizers), and how this impacts the environmental performance of food systems.

The aim is to broaden the current product-oriented focus of vertical farming by including urban metabolism and the circularity potential of integrating VFs within cities.

By moving the focus from a product-oriented perspective to a more integrative viewpoint, the aim is to increase VFs multifunctionality (e.g. handling waste resources).

Overall, this will give guidance on how to integrate VFs into the urban planning based on consistent environmental assessments.