Indicators for Assessing Social Sustainability of Bioenergy Systems A Literature Review and Future Research Agenda

Abstract

There are pressing reasons for developing a better understanding group of indicators to assesssocial, economic and environmental sustainability of bioenergy systems. Therefore animportant current research need is to develop a group of indicators for acceptable socialsustainability. Effective indicators can help to identify and quantify the sustainabilityattributes of bioenergy options. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to critically review theindicators that assess the social sustainability of bioenergy systems. A comprehensiveliterature review and a desk study of 20 key research papers written on bioenergy areanalysed in this research study. This research identified a selection of indicators influencingsustainability criteria for bioenergy under social sustainability. 16 social indicators areidentified from the literature review for social well-being, labour rights, water use right, landuse right and land use change, social acceptability, resource conservation and energy security.16 indicators identified under seven categories from literature review will be used to identifycritical indicators affecting the sustainability criteria for bioenergy during the next phase ofthe study. These critical indicators are hypothesized to be practical toolset for capturing keysocial effects of bioenergy across a range of bioenergy system, including different pathways,locations, and management practices. To evaluate the hypothesis that the toolset meet thisgoal, and also to help measure variability and establish appropriate targets, the toolset shouldbe field tested in systems spanning a wide variety of conditions. If the hypothesis isconfirmed, the toolset can be implemented more broadly, modified as necessary for particularsituation.