Monday, April 30, 2012: 3:30 PM
Waterbury Ballroom, 2nd fl (Sheraton New Orleans)
Indicators are needed to assess both socioeconomic and environmental sustainability of bioenergy systems. Effective indicators can help to identify and quantify the sustainability of bioenergy options. Building on existing knowledge and on national and international programs that are seeking ways to assess sustainable bioenergy, we identify 19 measurable environmental indicators for soil quality, water quality and quantity, greenhouse gases, biodiversity, air quality, and productivity and 21 socioeconomic indicators that fall into the categories of employment, energy security, external trade, food security, natural resource accounting, profitability, social acceptability, and social welfare. This set of indicators assumes as a prerequisite for sustainability that governance, legal, regulatory and enforcement conditions are in place. Indicators were selected that are practical, reliable, valid, adaptable to multiple scales and processes, and cost effective. The utility of each indicator, methods for measurement, target establishment, 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 effects on sustainability of the full supply chain for bioenergy, including feedstock production and logistics, conversion to biofuels, biofuel logistics and biofuel end uses. Coupled with locally-prioritized environmental indicators, we anticipate that these indicators can provide a common basis to quantify and evaluate sustainability of bioenergy systems across many regions in which they will be deployed.