This year’s theme of World Environment Day on the 5th of June emphasized the critical importance of land restoration, combating desertification, and enhancing drought resilience. These elements are essential for a sustainable future, ensuring that our ecosystems can thrive and support the diverse life they sustain. By improving soil health through informed actions, we can aid in ecosystem revival and enhance resilience against the adverse effects of climate change.

Anthropogenic activities have significantly contributed to soil and land degradation. This has profound implications for biodiversity, food security, and climate stability. The Global Guidance on Environmental Life Cycle Impact Assessment Indicators (GLAM) Volume 2 offers essential recommendations for assessing these impacts in LCA. Discover more in the recent paper “Soil organic carbon as an indicator of land use impacts in life cycle assessment” (De Laurentiis et al., 2024).  Another crucial element in this area relates to harmonizing biogenic carbon accounting in LCA. The Biogenic Carbon Project is an expert-led multi-stakeholder process improving LCA methodologies for bio-based products.

By using these recent improvements in LCA, we can better understand the implications of different activities on soil health, enabling the development of strategies that mitigate negative impacts and promote the restoration of degraded lands.