eco-footprint being the principal ones. Climate footprint was the main sustainability
factor considered, however a full impact suite was taken into account to avoid
possible burden shifting and spill-over effects.
It is likely that a fully-fledged move to transform the resource base of a regional
economy will eventually require further tools as a supplement. Monitoring and
evaluating the development of a regional bio-economy needs to take into account
technical, social and environmental factors, as well as paying regard to employment
conditions and local amenity objectives. Tools for some of these were developed as
part of the initiative, and were applied to several scenarios of biomass sources,
product mixes and social structures.
O’Keefe describes an integrated approach—the SUMINISTRO framework—
that considers the above factors using methodologies based on both traditional and
social LCA, evaluating the environmental and socio-economic impacts from different product mixes of the bio-economy(s) being modelled. The study concludes
that an integrative assessment framework and knowledge base can indeed facilitate
industrial transformation towards regional bio-economies based on local resources.
The establishment of participative stakeholder networks helps to identify key
opportunities and risk in such a transformation. A number of actual local case
studies of biomass-derived products confirms the feasibility of this approach.
Ian Vázquez-Rowe. Consequential life cycle assessment methods can be used to
evaluate the various environmental, social and economic consequences of public
policy decisions for further development of regional agriculture. A particular preoccupation for agriculture these days is water use and climate change, not only in
terms of adaptation but also for GHG generation from agriculture itself.
Vázquez-Rowe presented an evaluation of potential agricultural developments in
Peru, in particular for the growing of grapes for production of pisco (an alcoholic
beverage made from grapes) for export. The market for this is expected to increase,
making a sustainability (GHG and water) assessment very pertinent. Potential
impacts have to be seen in the light of crop replacement and possible use of fallow
land that do not require additional new lands to be brought into production. The
study had to take into account questions of land-use, property markets, and the
optimum way to allocate production under different economic and market scenarios.
Nevertheless, not all parameters influencing farmers’ decision could be included in
the model. In the end it was found that there need not be an increase in net GHG
emissions if appropriate farming practices were employed, but water use was
dependent on the area farmed.
3 Overview
Individually, the presentations describe some interesting research and regional case
studies. Several broke new ground in the application of life cycle tools at regional
level, both in assessment and in LCM, as for example in social LCA related to
bio-economy transformation in Germany. Several others described the relevance of
436
F. Balkau and T. Grant
factor considered, however a full impact suite was taken into account to avoid
possible burden shifting and spill-over effects.
It is likely that a fully-fledged move to transform the resource base of a regional
economy will eventually require further tools as a supplement. Monitoring and
evaluating the development of a regional bio-economy needs to take into account
technical, social and environmental factors, as well as paying regard to employment
conditions and local amenity objectives. Tools for some of these were developed as
part of the initiative, and were applied to several scenarios of biomass sources,
product mixes and social structures.
O’Keefe describes an integrated approach—the SUMINISTRO framework—
that considers the above factors using methodologies based on both traditional and
social LCA, evaluating the environmental and socio-economic impacts from different product mixes of the bio-economy(s) being modelled. The study concludes
that an integrative assessment framework and knowledge base can indeed facilitate
industrial transformation towards regional bio-economies based on local resources.
The establishment of participative stakeholder networks helps to identify key
opportunities and risk in such a transformation. A number of actual local case
studies of biomass-derived products confirms the feasibility of this approach.
Ian Vázquez-Rowe. Consequential life cycle assessment methods can be used to
evaluate the various environmental, social and economic consequences of public
policy decisions for further development of regional agriculture. A particular preoccupation for agriculture these days is water use and climate change, not only in
terms of adaptation but also for GHG generation from agriculture itself.
Vázquez-Rowe presented an evaluation of potential agricultural developments in
Peru, in particular for the growing of grapes for production of pisco (an alcoholic
beverage made from grapes) for export. The market for this is expected to increase,
making a sustainability (GHG and water) assessment very pertinent. Potential
impacts have to be seen in the light of crop replacement and possible use of fallow
land that do not require additional new lands to be brought into production. The
study had to take into account questions of land-use, property markets, and the
optimum way to allocate production under different economic and market scenarios.
Nevertheless, not all parameters influencing farmers’ decision could be included in
the model. In the end it was found that there need not be an increase in net GHG
emissions if appropriate farming practices were employed, but water use was
dependent on the area farmed.
3 Overview
Individually, the presentations describe some interesting research and regional case
studies. Several broke new ground in the application of life cycle tools at regional
level, both in assessment and in LCM, as for example in social LCA related to
bio-economy transformation in Germany. Several others described the relevance of
436
F. Balkau and T. Grant