Indicators to support environmental sustainability of bioenergy systems

McBride, Allen C.; Dale, Virginia H.; Baskaran, Latha; Downing, Mark; Eaton, Laurence; Efroymson, Rebecca A.; Garten, Charles T.; Kline, Keith L.; Jager, Henriëtte I.; Mulholland, Patrick J.; Parish, Esther S.; Schweizer, Peter E.; Storey, John

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2011.01.010

Cited by 200 publications

(132 citation statements)

References 104 publications

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“…One recent article describes the need to identify and characterize indicators to quantify benefits and costs associated with different bioenergy options and resource uses (McBride, et al, 2011). Another paper in process is -Indicators to support assessment of socioeconomic sustainability of bioenergy systems‖ (Dale et al) Because there are many other frameworks proposed to organize a way to assess environmental damages, in cases of loss (Efroymson, 2004), these very specific case resources and references have been left out of the report.…”

Section: Environmental Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Project Galaxy - Sustianable Resource Supply and Environmental Implications

Downing¹,

Wimmer²

2012

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Section: Environmental Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Project Galaxy - Sustianable Resource Supply and Environmental Implications

Downing¹,

Wimmer²

2012

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“…However, the production of these biofuels has to be managed in a sustainable way to fulfil these commitments. The assessment of the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of biofuels in a more coherent and policy-relevant manner has been urged (Lovett et al 2011;Gasparatos et al 2013), including environmental sustainability indicators (McBride et al 2011). Advanced biofuel technologies have been advocated for reducing the social and environmental risks associated with biofuel production and usage (UNCTAD 2014).…”

Section: Biofuelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental and Ecological Aspects in the Overall Assessment of Bioeconomy

Székacs

2017

J Agric Environ Ethics

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Bioeconomy solutions potentially reduce the utilization demand of natural resources, and therefore, represent steps towards circular economy, but are not per se equivalent to sustainability. Thus, production may remain to be achieved against losses in natural resources or at other environmental costs, and materials produced by bioeconomy are not necessarily biodegradable. As a consequence, the assumption that emerging bioeconomy by itself provides an environmentally sustainable economy is not justified, as technologies do not necessarily become sustainable merely through their conversion to using renewable resources for their production. A source of the above assumption is that the utility of bioeconomy is mostly assessed in interaction between technology developers and economists, resulting in biased assessment with private commercial technology benefits being included, but environmental costs, especially longer term ones, not being sufficiently considered in the economic models. A possible solution to this conceptual contradiction may come from bioethics, as a strong concept in environmental ethics is that no technological intervention can be imposed on nature beyond its receptive capacity. To achieve a better balanced analysis of bioeconomy, environmental and ecological, as well as non-economic social aspects, need to be included in the overall assessment.

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“…McBride et al [19] and West et al [23] do not include CO 2 flux from soil respiration or photosynthesis in determining the GHG flux as this carbon is typically accounted for by determining soil carbon stocks and estimates of standing biomass. CO 2 and N 2 O flux can be measured directly in the field or estimated from the literature.…”

Section: Ghg Emissionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…HFC's and PFC's do not need to be accounted for within the farm gate as they are generally derived from industrial sources and cooling systems. CO 2 and N 2 O have been suggested as the main components to be monitored [19] given that the flux of both compounds is strongly correlated to management practices [20][21][22]. N 2 O may be produced directly through the processes of denitrification and nitrification or indirectly by conversion of deposited NO x and NH 3 as well as through combustion.…”

Section: Ghg Emissionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sustainability Indicators of Biomass Production in Agroforestry Systems

Thevathasan¹,

Gordon²,

Simpson³

et al. 2014

TOASJ

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Production of biomass for bioenergy will depend on the sustainability of the production resource-base: the soil, water, air and the diversity of the ecosystem as a whole. For soil, potential sustainability indicators, including soil nitrogen and phosphorus, total organic matter, components associated with soil erosion and bulk density are discussed. Indicators related to the water resource water quality, water availability index, nitrate levels in water and biological oxygen demand are also discussed. Greenhouse gases and their sequestration potentials are discussed for maintaining atmospheric air quality. For biodiversity, a biodiversity index and soil biota index were selected as potential indicators. In addition to the production resource-base, the paper also discusses the importance of economic and social sustainability indices. To summarize, we are suggesting that a common method of visualizing the above indicated indices is to generate amoeba diagrams. This paper also provides a review on the term 'sustainability' and specific indicators, with metrics where possible, are described as candidates for inclusion as potential indicators appropriate for agroforestry based bioenergy systems in Canada. Three agroforestry based bioenergy systems are described and specific indicators are discussed within the bounds of these systems.

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Indicators to support environmental sustainability of bioenergy systems

Cited by 200 publications

References 104 publications

Project Galaxy - Sustianable Resource Supply and Environmental Implications

Project Galaxy - Sustianable Resource Supply and Environmental Implications

Environmental and Ecological Aspects in the Overall Assessment of Bioeconomy

Sustainability Indicators of Biomass Production in Agroforestry Systems

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