Edited by ERIA Working Group on “Sustainability Assessment of Biomass Utilization in East Asia”
Posted: November 2011
The fourth phase of the working group culminated several years of developing and testing methodology for assessing sustainability of biomass utilization in East Asia. After review of existing indicators for environmental, economic and social pillars, relevant for biomass systems, one indicator was identified for each of the pillars, based on importance and relevance particular to the East Asian context. Life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, total value added (TVA) and the Human Development Index (HDI) of the United Nations Development Programme were the shortlisted indicators of above three pillars, respectively, which were then tested for actual application at four study sites. The studies confirmed the applicability of the indicators but also revealed shortcomings with respect to requirement of extensive data collection for all the indicators and interpretation of results. In this phase of the working group’s effort, discussions were made on the applicability of the indicators for various scales.
Masayuki SAGISAKA: ERIA Working Group Leader, Dr. Eng., Senior Researcher, Research Institute of Science for Safety and Sustainability, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan
Yuki KUDOH: Tentative ERIA Working Group Leader, Dr. Eng., Research Scientist, Research Institute of Science for Safety and Sustainability, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan
Sau Soon CHEN: Ph.D., Senior General Manager, Environment & Bioprocess Technology Centre, SIRIM Berhad, Malaysia
Jessie C. ELAURIA: Ph.D., Professor, Institute of Agricultural Engineering, College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology, University of the Philippines Los Baños, the Philippines
Shabbir H. GHEEWALA: Dr. Eng., Professor, The Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment (JGSEE), King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand
Udin HASANUDIN: Dr. Eng., Head, Department of Agroindustrial Technology, University of Lampung, Indonesia
Hsien Hui KHOO: Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences (ICES), A*STAR, Singapore
Tomoko KONISHI-NAGANO: Ph.D., Researcher, Environmental Technology Laboratory, Environment & Energy Research Center, Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd., Japan
Jane ROMERO: Ph.D., Policy Researcher, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Japan
Yucho SADAMICHI: Ph.D., Post Doctoral Research Scientist, Research Institute of Science for Safety and Sustainability, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan
Vinod K. SHARMA: Ph.D., Professor, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), India
Xunpeng SHI: Ph.D., Associate Researcher, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asian (ERIA), Indonesia
2. WG Methodology and Summaries of Pilot Studies in Selected East Asian Countries
3. Lesson Learned from the Pilot Studies
4. Indicators Applicable at Different Scales
6. Conclusions and Recommendations
