IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v27y2018i8p1558-1568.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Life cycle assessment calculative practices in the Swedish biofuel sector: Governing biofuel sustainability by standards and numbers

Author

Listed:
  • David Lazarevic
  • Michael Martin

Abstract

Since the introduction of the European Union's Renewable Energy Directive (RED), biofuel‐producing firms are required to perform life cycle assessment (LCA) based greenhouse gas accounting in order to fulfill part of directive's sustainability criteria. This paper adopts the concepts of “governing by standards” and “governing by numbers” to understand the LCA practices of biofuel‐producing firms and assess the critical moments of friction between these alternative modes of governance. We focus our analysis on the use of LCA in the Swedish biofuel industry, undertaking case studies on the use of LCA in four Swedish biofuel‐producing firms and semistructured interviews with industry associations and governmental bodies. Results indicated that the RED not only influences what biofuel sustainability entails but also structures the calculative practices used to measure it. At the same time, our results point to friction between achieving regulatory compliance and improving biofuel sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • David Lazarevic & Michael Martin, 2018. "Life cycle assessment calculative practices in the Swedish biofuel sector: Governing biofuel sustainability by standards and numbers," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1558-1568, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:27:y:2018:i:8:p:1558-1568
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.2214
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2214
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.2214?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joana M. Comas Martí & Ralf W. Seifert, 2013. "Assessing the Comprehensiveness of Supply Chain Environmental Strategies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 339-356, July.
    2. Eva Heiskanen, 2000. "Managers' interpretations of LCA: enlightenment and responsibility or confusion and denial?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(4), pages 239-254, July.
    3. Czyrnek-Delêtre, Magdalena M. & Smyth, Beatrice M. & Murphy, Jerry D., 2017. "Beyond carbon and energy: The challenge in setting guidelines for life cycle assessment of biofuel systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 436-448.
    4. Boyer, Robert & Orlean, Andre, 1992. "How Do Conventions Evolve?," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 2(3), pages 165-177, October.
    5. Frans Berkhout, 1996. "Life Cycle Assessment And Innovation In Large Firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(3), pages 145-155, September.
    6. Pontus Cerin, 2006. "Introducing Value Chain Stewardship (VCS)," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 39-61, March.
    7. Stefan Seuring, 2004. "Industrial ecology, life cycles, supply chains: differences and interrelations," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(5), pages 306-319, September.
    8. Emma Rex & Henrikke Baumann, 2008. "Implications of an interpretive understanding of LCA practice," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(7), pages 420-430, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Klein, Bruno Colling & Chagas, Mateus Ferreira & Watanabe, Marcos Djun Barbosa & Bonomi, Antonio & Maciel Filho, Rubens, 2019. "Low carbon biofuels and the New Brazilian National Biofuel Policy (RenovaBio): A case study for sugarcane mills and integrated sugarcane-microalgae biorefineries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    2. Mihail Busu, 2019. "The Role of Renewables in a Low-Carbon Society: Evidence from a Multivariate Panel Data Analysis at the EU Level," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-16, September.
    3. Lisandra Rocha-Meneses & Oghenetejiri Frances Otor & Nemailla Bonturi & Kaja Orupõld & Timo Kikas, 2019. "Bioenergy Yields from Sequential Bioethanol and Biomethane Production: An Optimized Process Flow," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, December.
    4. Johanna Olofsson, 2021. "Time-Dependent Climate Impact of Utilizing Residual Biomass for Biofuels—The Combined Influence of Modelling Choices and Climate Impact Metrics," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-17, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Raphaëlle Stewart & Peter Fantke & Anders Bjørn & Mikołaj Owsianiak & Christine Molin & Michael Zwicky Hauschild & Alexis Laurent, 2018. "Life cycle assessment in corporate sustainability reporting: Global, regional, sectoral, and company‐level trends," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1751-1764, December.
    2. Eve Caroli & Natalie Glance & Bernardo Huberman, 1995. "Formation en entreprise et débauchage de main d'oeuvre aux Etats-Unis : un modèle dynamique d'action collective," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 46(3), pages 807-816.
    3. Walter J.V. Vermeulen, 2015. "Self‐Governance for Sustainable Global Supply Chains: Can it Deliver the Impacts Needed?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 73-85, February.
    4. Romy Morana & Stefan Seuring, 2011. "A Three Level Framework for Closed-Loop Supply Chain Management—Linking Society, Chain and Actor Level," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 3(4), pages 1-14, April.
    5. Robert Boyer, 1995. "The Future of Unions: Is the Anglo-Saxon Model a Fatality, or Will Contrasting National Trajectories Persist?," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 33(4), pages 545-556, December.
    6. Subhani, Muhammad Imtiaz & Hasan, Syed Akif & Osman, Ms. Amber, 2012. "Impact of Organization Culture on Promoting Green Supply Chain," MPRA Paper 45090, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Hans D. G. Hyun, 2023. "A financial frontier model with bankers' susceptibility under uncertainty," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(1), pages 94-118, February.
    8. Boyer, Robert, 1996. "Seven paradoxes of capitalism...or is a theory of modern economies still possible ?," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Couverture Orange) 9620, CEPREMAP.
    9. Nicolas Buclet, 2013. "Small streams make big rivers," Post-Print halshs-00940704, HAL.
    10. Yang, Chung-Shan & Lu, Chin-Shan & Haider, Jane Jing & Marlow, Peter Bernard, 2013. "The effect of green supply chain management on green performance and firm competitiveness in the context of container shipping in Taiwan," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 55-73.
    11. Amable, Bruno & Boyer, Robert, 1995. "Europe in the world technological competition," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 167-183, June.
    12. Federico Battista & Nicola Frison & David Bolzonella, 2019. "Energy and Nutrients’ Recovery in Anaerobic Digestion of Agricultural Biomass: An Italian Perspective for Future Applications," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-13, August.
    13. Bruna Alexandra Elias Mota & Ana Isabel Cerqueira de Sousa Gouveia Carvalho & Maria Isabel Azevedo Rodrigues Gomes & Ana Paula Ferreira Dias Barbosa‐Povoa, 2020. "Business strategy for sustainable development: Impact of life cycle inventory and life cycle impact assessment steps in supply chain design and planning," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 87-117, January.
    14. Kumar, Ajeet & Vachan Tirkey, Jeevan & Kumar Shukla, Shailendra, 2021. "“Comparative energy and economic analysis of different vegetable oil plants for biodiesel production in India”," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 266-282.
    15. Jörg Firnkorn & Martin Müller, 2012. "Selling Mobility instead of Cars: New Business Strategies of Automakers and the Impact on Private Vehicle Holding," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 264-280, May.
    16. Alfred Posch & Abhishek Agarwal & Peter Strachan, 2011. "Editorial: Managing Industrial Symbiosis (IS) Networks," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(7), pages 421-427, November.
    17. Tatoglu, Ekrem & Bayraktar, Erkan & Sahadev, Sunil & Demirbag, Mehmet & Glaister, Keith W., 2014. "Determinants of voluntary environmental management practices by MNE subsidiaries," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 536-548.
    18. Philip Beske & Julia Koplin & Stefan Seuring, 2008. "The use of environmental and social standards by German first‐tier suppliers of the Volkswagen AG," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(2), pages 63-75, March.
    19. Christel Dumas & Céline Louche, 2016. "Collective beliefs for responsible investment," Post-Print hal-01183744, HAL.
    20. Ntabe, E.N. & LeBel, L. & Munson, A.D. & Santa-Eulalia, L.A., 2015. "A systematic literature review of the supply chain operations reference (SCOR) model application with special attention to environmental issues," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 310-332.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:27:y:2018:i:8:p:1558-1568. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.