Defining Bioenergy Sustainability
by moderator Dr. Virginia H. Dale (Environmental Sciences Division at Oak Ridge National Lab.) who emphasized the components that make up sustainability.
· The challenge is to find “bioenergy options that facilitate smooth interactions of the components of bioenergy sustainability.”
· She stated that the social components (food security, energy security, labor rights, land rights, physical security), environmental components (soil health, air quality, water quality and quantity, biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions), and economic components (prices, cost, trade, market access, supply and demand, natural resource accounting) must be all incorporated into one equation for an accurate definition of sustainability to be derived.
· It is important to exchange information in order to collect good data. For instance, in the feedstock production it is necessary to know the condition of the land, the location, environmental attributes, how is the feedstock managed, and to what extent. READ MORE
