Abstract
The sustainable use of renewable resources has become an important issue worldwide in the move towards a less fossil-fuel-intensive future. Mainstream method for fulfilling this aim is to increase the share of renewable energy and materials to substitute fossil fuels and to become fully independent from fossil fuels over the long-term. However, the environmental sustainability of this endeavor has been questioned. In addition, economic and social sustainability issues are also much debated topics in this particular context. Forest resources are often thought to contribute partially to achieving a so-called “carbon-neutral society”. In this review, we discuss sustainability issues of using forest biomass. We present several sustainability indicators for ecological, economic and social dimensions and discuss the issues in applying them in sustainability impact assessments (SIAs). We also present a number of tools and methods previously used in conducting SIAs. We approach our study from the perspective of the Finnish forestry; in addition, various aspects regarding the application of SIAs in a broader context are also presented. One of the key conclusions of the study is that although sufficient data are available to measure many indicators accurately, the impacts may be very difficult to assess (e.g. impact of greenhouse gases on biodiversity) for conducting a holistic SIA. Furthermore, some indicators, such as “biodiversity”, are difficult to quantify in the first place. Therefore, a mix of different methods, such as Multi-criteria Assessment, Life-cycle Assessment or Cost-Benefit Analysis, as well as different approaches (e.g. thresholds and strong/weak sustainability) are needed in aggregating the results of the impacts. SIAs are important in supporting and improving the acceptability of decision-making, but a certain degree of uncertainty will always have to be tolerated.Highlights•Forest bioeconomy involves a range of multidimensional impacts.•A variety of methods exist to assess and evaluate sustainability.•Social sustainability is the most case-specific dimension to assess.•Indicators used in SIAs need case-specific considerations.•More consistency is needed regarding the concept and terminology of sustainability.
Highlights
Climate change is one of the most significant threats facing the world today, and mitigation of it has been recognized as an issue requiring urgent and extensive actions on the part of the global community
We introduce several methods, which have been used in sustainability impact assessment (SIA)
Increased activity in the forest bioeconomy to substitute fossil raw material, for example, creates various positive and negative impacts at Conclusions The need for a quick transition due to environmental degradation and climate change does not allow us to wait endlessly for some all solving innovations to emerge in the future
Summary
Climate change is one of the most significant threats facing the world today, and mitigation of it has been recognized as an issue requiring urgent and extensive actions on the part of the global community. This probably suggests that understanding the “big picture” in energy production and its impacts vary globally Number of measures, such as changes in domestic/ imported fuels, energy and other goods, could be used when assessing this indicator on a national (policy) level. In the context of this study, salary and the equal distribution of profits and income along the whole chain of actors (e.g. the forest bioeconomy production chain from forest owners to pulp/paper mills) could work as an applicable and relevant indicator In this way, equity (development) could be assessed and known anticipated (positive) development should result in higher overall acceptance of a decision (social sustainability), but this would be possible only if income data were made openly available, which is rarely the case. MCA methods apply the impact data obtained with other tools presented earlier
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