A recent study by Christos Vatistas, Dafni Despoina Avgoustaki, and Thomas Bartzanas highlights 'How vertical farms and greenhouses can influence the sustainability and footprint of urban microclimate with local food production.'
This research contains an extensive literature review based on 165 international publications (from 2006–2022) describing and analyzing the efficiency and impact of controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) methods, and more precisely, greenhouses (GHs) and vertical farms, in the environmental footprint of food production and consumption.
Conclusion
Based on various publications, we could draw the conclusion that vertical farms could highly influence a greener transition to the sustainability of urban consumption with reduced CO2 emissions sourcing from food transportation and limited post-harvest processes.
However, there is a significant demand for further energy efficiency, specifically when it comes to artificial lighting operations inside vertical farms. Large-scale implementation of vertical farms that operate with renewable energy sources (RES) could lead to significant urban decarbonization by providing the opportunity for integrated energy–food nexus systems.
Under this direction, vertical farms could optimize the way that cities interact with meeting the food and energy demand in densely urbanized areas.
Click here to access the entire research at MDPI.com
Vatistas, C.; Avgoustaki, D.D.; Bartzanas, T. A Systematic Literature Review on Controlled-Environment Agriculture: How Vertical Farms and Greenhouses Can Influence the Sustainability and Footprint of Urban Microclimate with Local Food Production. Atmosphere 2022, 13, 1258. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13081258