Lessons from the bioenergy life-cycle assessment journey

Abstract

Biofuels have been promoted as one strategy to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigate the threat of climate change. To assess the effectiveness of biofuels in reducing emissions, the scientific and policy communities have turned to life-cycle GHG assessments. As these analyses have begun to be included in policy, the methodology has come under intense scrutiny, which has led to a rapid evolution in its complexity and scope. This has, sometimes dramatically, changed the perceived benefits of different types of biofuel. While the building sector has made some use of life-cycle GHG assessments, the methods used have typically been simpler than those in the bioenergy sector. As such analyses are likely to become increasingly relevant in building standards and policy, the building sector should actively engage with the life-cycle assessment (LCA) expert community to help shape effective policy on the embodied energy of buildings. This paper provides a brief introduction to LCA, reviews trends in their use in the bioenergy sector, compares these with the analysis included in building standards, and provides some suggestions as to changes that the use of the methodology is likely to undergo in the building sector.