IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v40y2014icp1202-1216.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A systematic literature review on indicators to assess local sustainability of forest energy production

Author

Listed:
  • Lähtinen, Katja
  • Myllyviita, Tanja
  • Leskinen, Pekka
  • Pitkänen, Sari K.

Abstract

Bioenergy production is considered the single most significant contributor to the climate change mitigation within the forest sector. In addition, the production of forest-based bioenergy may also positively affect social welfare, local development and forest economy. In environmental markets the role of forests and the challenge of combining international, national and local needs related to their sustainable use for bioenergy and social livelihood is increasing. These global ecological and socio-economic changes pose new challenges for ecologically, economically, socially and culturally sustainable utilization of forest resources. The purpose of this literature review is to map the existing indicator sets introduced in scientific literature suitable for evaluating the sustainability of forest-based bioenergy production systems from a local perspective. In addition, also the challenges in assessing ecological, economic, social and cultural sustainability by using different types of indicators are discussed. According to the results of this study, there are plenty of indicators suitable for assessing either the ecological, economic, social and cultural sustainability of forest-based bioenergy production at a local level. In contrast, information on appropriate procedures for taking into account local development goals abreast with the objectives of sustainable development at general global level are lacking. Additionally, in order to analyze trade-offs in different sustainability dimensions caused by optional decisions regarding forest-based energy production, methodological development would be required. The comprehensive indicators lists presented in this study can employed as background information to define the measures that are especially relevant in enhancing the local sustainability goals from the perspective of different stakeholders in specific localities.

Suggested Citation

  • Lähtinen, Katja & Myllyviita, Tanja & Leskinen, Pekka & Pitkänen, Sari K., 2014. "A systematic literature review on indicators to assess local sustainability of forest energy production," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1202-1216.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:40:y:2014:i:c:p:1202-1216
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2014.07.060
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032114005127
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2014.07.060?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mrosek, Thorsten & Balsillie, David & Schleifenbaum, Peter, 2006. "Field testing of a criteria and indicators system for sustainable forest management at the local level. Case study results concerning the sustainability of the private forest Haliburton Forest and Wil," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(6), pages 593-609, August.
    2. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    3. Afgan, Naim H. & Carvalho, Maria G. & Hovanov, Nikolai V., 2000. "Energy system assessment with sustainability indicators," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(9), pages 603-612, July.
    4. Gallego Carrera, Diana & Mack, Alexander, 2010. "Sustainability assessment of energy technologies via social indicators: Results of a survey among European energy experts," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 1030-1039, February.
    5. Buytaert, V. & Muys, B. & Devriendt, N. & Pelkmans, L. & Kretzschmar, J.G. & Samson, R., 2011. "Towards integrated sustainability assessment for energetic use of biomass: A state of the art evaluation of assessment tools," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(8), pages 3918-3933.
    6. Eric Neumayer, 2013. "Weak versus Strong Sustainability," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14993.
    7. Acosta-Michlik, Lilibeth & Lucht, Wolfgang & Bondeau, Alberte & Beringer, Tim, 2011. "Integrated assessment of sustainability trade-offs and pathways for global bioenergy production: Framing a novel hybrid approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 2791-2809, August.
    8. Kurka, Thomas & Blackwood, David, 2013. "Participatory selection of sustainability criteria and indicators for bioenergy developments," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 92-102.
    9. Graymore, Michelle L.M. & Sipe, Neil G. & Rickson, Roy E., 2008. "Regional sustainability: How useful are current tools of sustainability assessment at the regional scale?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 362-372, October.
    10. Hoffmann, Dunja, 2009. "Creation of regional added value by regional bioenergy resources," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(9), pages 2419-2429, December.
    11. David Throsby, 2011. "Cultural Capital," Chapters, in: Ruth Towse (ed.), A Handbook of Cultural Economics, Second Edition, chapter 20, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Reed, Mark S. & Fraser, Evan D.G. & Dougill, Andrew J., 2006. "An adaptive learning process for developing and applying sustainability indicators with local communities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(4), pages 406-418, October.
    13. John Parkins & Richard Stedman & Jeji Varghese, 2001. "Moving towards local-level indicators of sustainability in forest-based communities: A mixed-method approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 43-72, October.
    14. Neves, Ana Rita & Leal, Vítor, 2010. "Energy sustainability indicators for local energy planning: Review of current practices and derivation of a new framework," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(9), pages 2723-2735, December.
    15. James Meadowcroft, 2000. "Sustainable Development: a New(ish) Idea for a New Century?," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 48(2), pages 370-387, May.
    16. Ralph Sims, 2003. "Bioenergy to mitigate for climate change and meet the needs of society, the economy and the environment," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 8(4), pages 349-370, December.
    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. Ranacher, L. & Lähtinen, K. & Järvinen, E. & Toppinen, A., 2017. "Perceptions of the general public on forest sector responsibility: A survey related to ecosystem services and forest sector business impacts in four European countries," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 180-189.
    2. Hamunen, Katri & Kurttila, Mikko & Miina, Jari & Peltola, Rainer & Tikkanen, Jukka, 2019. "Sustainability of Nordic non-timber forest product-related businesses – A case study on bilberry," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    3. Lähtinen, Katja & Guan, Yucong & Li, Ning & Toppinen, Anne, 2016. "Biodiversity and ecosystem services in supply chain management in the global forest industry," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 21(PA), pages 130-140.
    4. Baglivi, Antonella & Fiorese, Giulia & Guariso, Giorgio & Uggè, Clara, 2015. "Valuing crop diversity in biodiesel production plans," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(P2), pages 2351-2362.
    5. Mari Jönsson & Jörgen Sjögren & Björn Hannrup & Anders Larsolle & Ulla Mörtberg & Maria Nordström & Bengt A. Olsson & Monika Strömgren, 2020. "A Spatially Explicit Decision Support System for Assessment of Tree Stump Harvest Using Biodiversity and Economic Criteria," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-21, October.

    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. Tanja Myllyviita & Katja Lähtinen & Teppo Hujala & Leena Leskinen & Lauri Sikanen & Pekka Leskinen, 2014. "Identifying and rating cultural sustainability indicators: a case study of wood-based bioenergy systems in eastern Finland," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 287-304, April.
    2. Luthra, Sunil & Mangla, Sachin Kumar & Kharb, Ravinder K., 2015. "Sustainable assessment in energy planning and management in Indian perspective," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 58-73.
    3. Chye Ing Lim & Wahidul Biswas, 2015. "An Evaluation of Holistic Sustainability Assessment Framework for Palm Oil Production in Malaysia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(12), pages 1-27, December.
    4. Argentino Pessoa & Mário Rui Silva, 2009. "Environment Based Innovation: Policy Questions," FEP Working Papers 308, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    5. Liu, Gang, 2014. "Development of a general sustainability indicator for renewable energy systems: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 611-621.
    6. Vichan Nakthong & Kuskana Kubaha, 2019. "Development of a Sustainability Index for an Energy Management System in Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-24, August.
    7. Binder, C.R. & Schmid, A. & Steinberger, J.K., 2012. "Sustainability solution space of the Swiss milk value added chain," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 210-220.
    8. Poinssot, Ch. & Bourg, S. & Ouvrier, N. & Combernoux, N. & Rostaing, C. & Vargas-Gonzalez, M. & Bruno, J., 2014. "Assessment of the environmental footprint of nuclear energy systems. Comparison between closed and open fuel cycles," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 199-211.
    9. Tahseen, Samiha & Karney, Bryan W., 2017. "Reviewing and critiquing published approaches to the sustainability assessment of hydropower," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 225-234.
    10. Weidner, Helmut, 2005. "Global equity versus public interest? The case of climate change policy in Germany," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Civil Society and Transnational Networks SP IV 2005-102, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    11. Behroozeh, Samira & Hayati, Dariush & Karami, Ezatollah, 2022. "Determining and validating criteria to measure energy consumption sustainability in agricultural greenhouses," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    12. Millar, Neal & McLaughlin, Eoin & Börger, Tobias, 2019. "The Circular Economy: Swings and Roundabouts?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 11-19.
    13. Werner Hediger, 2013. "From Multifunctionality and Sustainability of Agriculture to the Social Responsibility of the Agri-food System," Journal of Socio-Economics in Agriculture (Until 2015: Yearbook of Socioeconomics in Agriculture), Swiss Society for Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, vol. 6(1), pages 59-80.
    14. Ngo Long & Vincent Martinet, 2018. "Combining rights and welfarism: a new approach to intertemporal evaluation of social alternatives," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 50(1), pages 35-64, January.
    15. Baumgärtner, Stefan & Quaas, Martin F., 2009. "Ecological-economic viability as a criterion of strong sustainability under uncertainty," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 2008-2020, May.
    16. Gunnarsdottir, I. & Davidsdottir, B. & Worrell, E. & Sigurgeirsdottir, S., 2022. "Indicators for sustainable energy development: An Icelandic case study," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    17. Jean-François Ruault & Alice Dupré La Tour & André Evette & Sandrine Allain & Jean-Marc Callois, 2022. "A biodiversity-employment framework to protect biodiversity," Post-Print hal-03365820, HAL.
    18. Indra de Soysa & Jennifer Bailey & Eric Neumayer, 2004. "Free to Squander? Democracy, Institutional Design, and Economic Sustainability, 1975–2000," Macroeconomics 0412004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Michelle L. M. Graymore, 2014. "Sustainability Reporting: An Approach to Get the Right Mix of Theory and Practicality for Local Actors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(6), pages 1-26, May.
    20. Gemma Burford & Elona Hoover & Ismael Velasco & Svatava Janoušková & Alicia Jimenez & Georgia Piggot & Dimity Podger & Marie K. Harder, 2013. "Bringing the “Missing Pillar” into Sustainable Development Goals: Towards Intersubjective Values-Based Indicators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 5(7), pages 1-25, July.

    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:eee:rensus:v:40:y:2014:i:c:p:1202-1216. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    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.