Grill and Chill: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Environmental Impacts of Private Household Barbecuing in Germany

Shaoran Geng, Kevin Christopher Dorling (), Tobias Manuel Prenzel and Stefan Albrecht
Additional contact information
Shaoran Geng: Institute for Acoustics and Building Physics, University of Stuttgart, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
Kevin Christopher Dorling: Institute for Acoustics and Building Physics, University of Stuttgart, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
Tobias Manuel Prenzel: Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
Stefan Albrecht: Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 3, 1-27

Abstract: Rising environmental consciousness has prompted increased scrutiny of the environmental impact of everyday activities, such as barbecuing—a popular summertime activity in Germany. This study aimed to explore the environmental impacts of three grilling techniques, charcoal (including reusable types such as swivel, round, and kettle grills, as well as disposable charcoal grills), gas, and electric grills, utilizing a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach including the manufacturing of grills, consumption of energy sources and grilling ingredients, as well as the end-of-life of the grills. Five impact categories were considered: global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), eutrophication potential (EP), abiotic depletion potential fossil (ADP), and land use (LU) according to the CML2016 and ReCiPe 2016 methodology. This study found that a barbeque event for four people results in GWP, AP, EP, ADP, and LU values ranging from 18 to 20 kg CO 2 -eq., 174 to 179 g SO 2 -eq., 166 to 167 g PO 4 -eq., 102 to 138 MJ, and 36 to 38 m 2 annual crop-eq., respectively, across different types of grills. Furthermore, the ingredients proved to be the most significant contributor, surpassing 70% in all impact categories. Among the three types of grills, the electric grill emerged as the most environmentally friendly, while the disposable grill had the greatest environmental impact across the majority of categories. Lastly, the environmental impacts of varying consumer behaviors were evaluated to potentially assist consumers in adopting more sustainable grilling practices.

Keywords: LCA; environmental impacts; grill; consumer behaviors; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/3/1041/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/3/1041/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:3:p:1041-:d:1326452

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().