Assessing eco-efficiency: A metafrontier directional distance function approach using life cycle analysis Mercedes Beltrán-Esteve a, ⁎, Ernest Reig-Martínez b , Vicent Estruch-Guitart c a Department of Applied Economics II, University of Valencia, Spain b Department of Applied Economics II, University of Valencia, Ivie, Spain c Department of Economy and Social Sciences, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain abstract article info Article history: Received 8 March 2016 Received in revised form 4 October 2016 Accepted 3 January 2017 Available online xxxx Sustainability analysis requires a joint assessment of environmental, social and economic aspects of production processes. Here we propose the use of Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), a metafrontier (MF) directional distance function (DDF) approach, and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), to assess technological and managerial differences in eco-efficiency between production systems. We use LCA to compute six environmental and health impacts asso- ciated with the production processes of nearly 200 Spanish citrus farms belonging to organic and conventional farming systems. DEA is then employed to obtain joint economic-environmental farm's scores that we refer to as eco-efficiency. DDF allows us to determine farms' global eco-efficiency scores, as well as eco-efficiency scores with respect to specific environmental impacts. Furthermore, the use of an MF helps us to disentangle technolog- ical and managerial eco-inefficiencies by comparing the eco-efficiency of both farming systems with regards to a common benchmark. Our core results suggest that the shift from conventional to organic farming technology would allow a potential reduction in environmental impacts of 80% without resulting in any decline in economic performance. In contrast, as regards farmers' managerial capacities, both systems display quite similar mean scores. © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Data envelopment analysis Directional distance function Eco-efficiency Life cycle analysis Metafrontier Organic citrus farming 1. Introduction Modern agricultural systems can be considered as ecosystems whose properties have been amended in some way to increase produc- tivity (Pretty, 2008), thus providing food and fibre to a rapidly growing human population. The relationship between agricultural systems and natural ecosystems covers a wide range of positive and negative effects (Power, 2010; Swinton et al., 2007; Zhang et al., 2007), and a variety of frameworks have been developed to explore the links between farming and the environment (EEA, 2005; EEA, 2006; OECD, 1993, 1999a, 1999b, 2001; Rao and Rogers, 2006; Smyth and Dumanski, 1993; van Cauwenbergh et al., 2007). It is within this context that the term ‘agri- cultural sustainability’ has been coined, relating to the concern about the potential negative consequences of modern farming, such as the de- pletion or degradation of natural resources. Nevertheless, as shown by its wide range of alternative meanings, sustainability is something of an elusive concept. This explains why some experts in the field have consistently argued in favour of developing sustainability indicators, be- cause it “pulls the discussion of sustainability away from abstract formulations and encourages explicit discussion of the operational meaning of the term” (Rigby et al., 2000, p. 5). Broadly speaking, two main ways of empirically assessing agricul- tural sustainability have been explored. One is based on the identifica- tion of management strategies deemed sustainable (e.g. organic agriculture), and the other on achieving a targeted state of the agro-sys- tem defined as sustainable and evaluated with a set of indicators. Now- adays, organic farming systems are widely regarded as ‘sustainable’ by the general public, or at least as relatively more ‘sustainable’ than con- ventional ones. Promoting organic farming may pave the way for a sus- tainable agriculture. The advantages of organic systems over conventional systems with respect to the conservation of natural re- sources and the reduction of environmental impacts per unit area have been demonstrated by several meta-analyses of research carried out on a global (Mondelaers et al., 2009) and European scale (Tuomisto et al., 2012), though there is a wide range of impact variation between different impact categories within both types of farming sys- tems. Nevertheless, inferior yields per hectare and reduced economic competitiveness of organic versus conventional farming is an issue that frequently places organic systems at disadvantage and can neutral- ize some of their environmental benefits (Beltrán-Esteve and Reig-Martínez, 2014; De Ponti et al., 2012; Offermann and Nieberg, 2000). Therefore, it is of paramount importance on both scientific and Environmental Impact Assessment Review 63 (2017) 116–127 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Department of Applied Economics II, Faculty of Economics, University of Valencia, Campus de Tarongers, 46022 Valencia, Spain. E-mail address: mercedes.beltran@uv.es (M. Beltrán-Esteve). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2017.01.001 0195-9255/© 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Environmental Impact Assessment Review journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/eiar