Environmental indicators of biofuel sustainability: What about context?

Journal Article · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2013 · Environmental Management

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-012-9907-5· OSTI ID:1068062

Efroymson, Rebecca Ann ^[1]; Dale, Virginia H ^[1]; Kline, Keith L ^[1]; McBride, Allen ^[1]; Bielicki, Jeffrey M ^[1]; Smith, Raymond ^[2]; Parish, Esther S ^[1]; Schweizer, Peter E ^[1]; Shaw, Denice ^[2]

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1. ORNL
2. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Indicators of the environmental sustainability of biofuel production, distribution, and use should be selected, measured, and interpreted with respect to the context in which they are used. These indicators include measures of soil quality, water quality and quantity, greenhouse-gas emissions, biodiversity, air quality, and vegetation productivity. Contextual considerations include the purpose for the sustainability analysis, the particular biofuel production and distribution system (including supply chain, management aspects, and system viability), policy conditions, stakeholder values, location, temporal influences, spatial scale, baselines, and reference scenarios. Recommendations presented in this paper include formulating the problem for particular analyses, selecting appropriate context-specific indicators of environmental sustainability, and developing indicators that can reflect multiple environmental properties at low cost within a defined context. In addition, contextual considerations such as technical objectives, varying values and perspectives of stakeholder groups, and availability and reliability of data need to be understood and considered. Sustainability indicators for biofuels are most useful if adequate historical data are available, information can be collected at appropriate spatial and temporal scales, organizations are committed to use indicator information in the decision-making process, and indicators can effectively guide behavior toward more sustainable practices.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1068062
• Journal Information: Environmental Management, Vol. 51, Issue 2; ISSN 0364--152X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

biofuel
bioenergy
indicator
context
sustainability