Investigating life cycle assessment in the restaurant sector: a systematic literature review

Over the past decade, the agri-food sector has become increasingly important for achieving sustainable development goals. In this context, as a bridge between production and consumption, the restaurant sector acquires a pivotal role in accelerating the implementation of sustainable practices, reducing environmental impacts, and maximising the energy performance of organisations. In this scenario, the life cycle assessment emerges as the most suitable methodology for the assessment of environmental performance. Moreover, the results provided by the life cycle assessment analysis should support sustainability managers in decision-making processes. However, only a few contributions concerning the adoption of this assessment tool in the restaurant industry have been detected in the literature. In order to fill this gap, this paper performs a systematic literature review, analysing the state of the art regarding the implementation of the life cycle assessment in the restaurant industry, and providing future research directions.