Abstract
Indicators are needed to assess both socioeconomic and environmental sustainability of bioenergy systems. Effective indicators can help to identify and quantify the sustainability attributes of bioenergy options. We identify 16 socioeconomic indicators that fall into the categories of social well-being, energy security, trade, profitability, resource conservation, and social acceptability. The suite of indicators is predicated on the existence of basic institutional frameworks to provide governance, legal, regulatory and enforcement services. Indicators were selected to be practical, sensitive to stresses, unambiguous, anticipatory, predictive, estimable with known variability, and sufficient when considered collectively. The utility of each indicator, methods for its measurement, and applications appropriate for the context of particular bioenergy systems are described along with future research needs. Together, this suite of indicators is hypothesized to reflect major socioeconomic effects of the full supply chain for bioenergy, including feedstock production and logistics, conversion to biofuels, biofuel logistics and biofuel end uses. Ten indicators are highlighted as a minimum set of practical measures of socioeconomic aspects of bioenergy sustainability. Coupled with locally prioritized environmental indicators, we propose that these socioeconomic indicators can provide a basis to quantify and evaluate sustainability of bioenergy systems across many regions in which they will be deployed.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 87-102 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Ecological Indicators |
| Volume | 26 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2013 |
Funding
Jeff Bielicki, Ranyee Chiang, Kristen Johnson, Alison Goss-Eng, Laurence Eaton and Rocio Martinez provided helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. We also appreciate comments from participants at the Department of Energy workshop in Washington, DC, and subsequent webinar on “Social Aspects of Bioenergy Sustainability.” MJ Emanuel and Jennifer Smith assisted with drafting Fig. 1 and resolving details in the manuscript. Katherine Ragle helped check the bibliography. This research was supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE) under the Office of the Biomass Program. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for DOE under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory | DE-AC05-00OR22725 |
Keywords
- Biofuel
- Economic
- Employment
- Energy security
- External trade
- Food security
- Profitability
- Resource conservation
- Social acceptability
- Social well-being
