An environmentally extended input-output table (EE-IOT) is a tool from environmental accounting, which combines economic and environmental information in a common framework that follows concepts and definitions from national and environmental accounting. It allows to analyse various research questions regarding the interdependence of economic activities and environmental impacts.

Within the project “environmental-economic models for evaluating the sustainability of agri-food systems” carried out under the NRP 69 on Healthy Nutrition and Sustainable Food Production and with the financial support of the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), treeze and Rütter Soceco extended the Swiss input-output table (IOT) for the year 2008 by detailed data on the pollutant emissions and resource use of the industries and the private households. The IOT is disaggregated in agriculture, food processing industry, energy industry, transport, public administration as well as waste and wastewater management industry. A total of 96 industries and 20 final consumption categories are distinguished in the present environmentally extended input-output table (EE-IOT). The use of imported goods and services by industries and final consumption is taken into account separately from the use of domestic goods and services.
The three midpoint indicators greenhouse gas emissions, eutrophication potential and biodiversity damage potential were evaluated with the EE-IOT. From the consumption perspective, the environmental impacts according to the three indicators are strongly influenced by imports of goods and services. Between 51 % (eutrophication potential) and 66 % (biodiversity damage potential due to land use) of the total environmental impacts caused by Swiss consumption in 2008 occur abroad.

The final demand categories “housing and energy” and “transport” are responsible for a significant share of the domestic greenhouse gas emissions and the biodiversity damage potential. The waste and wastewater management sector is identified as an important direct contributor to the eutrophication potential. Agriculture causes an important share of the domestic environmental impacts in all three indicators analysed. The disaggregation of the agricultural sector into 17 subsectors in the EE-IOT 2008 allows the differentiation between agricultural product groups. According to the midpoint indicators analysed, farming of dairy and non-dairy cattle as well as the production of food cereals and feed crops cause the highest environmental impacts (in absolute terms) among the agricultural subsectors from the production perspective.

The EE-IOT is used in the NRP 69 phase 2 project to analyse the economic and environmental impact of nutrition in Switzerland and serve as a basis for scenarios of a sustainable development of the Swiss agri-food sector. In this project, the question of how nutritional patterns in Switzerland impact on health, environment, and socio-economic aspects is investigated. Recent data on dietary patterns in Switzerland will be combined with the EE-IOT and other environmental-economic models to create an integrative instrument for a comprehensive analysis of the food sector. In the center of this analysis is the question of trade-offs and synergies between the themes of sustainable and healthy diets. From this analysis recommendations for consumers, policy, farmers and the food industry will be derived. The project is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) – National research programmes (NRP). It is carried out by a consortium composed of FiBL, Flury & Giuliani, Rütter Soceco, ZHAW, university of Zurich and Treeze GmbH.