The forest biomass supply represents an important part of the value chain for different wood-based products, and its environmental impacts are also frequently crucial. The performance of biomass supply chains (BSCs) can be assessed for various purposes and using a variety of methodological approaches, either including or excluding spatial properties. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate what kind of spatial data are required and available for case-specific BSC analyses in Finland, and what would be suitable levels of spatial precision for the various approaches. This thesis consists of five papers, one of which reviews case studies carried out in various geographical BSC environments around the world, while the remaining four are spatial case studies of BSC systems in Finland, three of them focusing on bioenergy production and one assessing the performance of a novel pulpwood transportation concept. A geographical information system (GIS) was used as the principal tool in one study, while in the other three the role of GIS was to produce spatially analysed data for life-cycle assessment and agent-based simulation. The main conclusion is that a spatial precision of between 1 km and 10 km, where each point of origin represents roughly an area of 1–100 km2, is sufficient for forest biomass data in Finnish BSC systems. The final precision should be determined collectively by the setup of the case study, factors leading to complexity in the supply chain system and the geographical extent of the area concerned. Relative to many other parts of the world, Finland has a readily available high quality source of spatial data for BSC research. It is recommended that GIS-based research could be improved by adding dynamic properties and stochasticity to the models, because temporal variations in feedstock supply and demand will probably increase in the future.
Decision making for sustainable development calls for scientific support in anticipating the possible consequences of decision alternatives and identifying the trade-offs between these alternatives. At the EU level, there has been a consistent movement toward the utilization of Sustainability Impact Assessments (SIA). First, the EU Strategy for Sustainable Development voiced the need to look at how EU policies contribute to sustainable development. Next, the European Commission committed to perform impact assessments of all proposed major initiatives. SIA can be used to study how factors such as policy, management, or technology development affect the sustainability of a sector or value chain and helps to inform decision makers about consequences of decision alternatives.
The Tool for Sustainability Impact Assessment (ToSIA) was developed to achieve a holistic assessment method for structuring sustainability questions as value chains of interlinked processes that enable evaluating the impacts of changes in these chains. To evaluate these changes, indicators of ecological, economic and social sustainability are utilised to describe different sustainability dimensions. Selecting the preferred alternative within these calculated differences in sustainability indicators may imply trade-offs and is enabled for example by the multi criteria analysis appended on top of ToSIA. The use of ToSIA is demonstrated through its application in numerous case studies conducted by various organizations and scholars.
This thesis presents the developed ToSIA from a methodological point of view, describing how the method is used. ToSIA is the first software implementation of a method that combines material flow based value chain analysis with indicators of different sustainability dimensions and harmonized system boundaries. ToSIA is a valid tool for evaluating consequences of the difficult decisions ahead that need to be made as we strive to enact a transition both to a 1.5 degree warming future, as well as a more sustainable humankind.
Social, economic and environmental impacts vary in different wood utilization patterns, and national level strategies should consider possible trade-offs and regional needs. This thesis explored a variety of wood utilization scenarios in Finland and assessed their possible future benefits and trade-offs in environmental, economic and social sustainability, forming plausible pathways to actualize preferred outcomes reflecting different priorities in the goal setting. The research was conducted by using model-based sustainability assessment tools, material flow based Tool for Sustainability Impact Assessment (ToSIA) and Lifecycle Assessment (LCA), and explorative participatory scenario methods visualizing the targets quantitatively. The participatory methods utilized actor and researcher stakeholders from industry, policy, and multiple R&D fields. The results showed that cascading and shifting secondary wood flows e.g. industrial side streams and end-of-life wood-based products from energy uses to material uses, results in increased climate benefits and economic competitiveness. Energy use of wood had lower employment, value added, and substitution benefits as well as shorter carbon storing time compared with material uses of wood. Thus, modern wood-based construction, chemicals, textiles and composites need to increase their share in the product portfolios. National policy tools can support this development only to a limited extent, because the global markets set the market framework for wood uses. To change the global market environment, internationally renewed policies aiming at restricting fossil uses are needed to make wood-based material applications more competitive. European Union (EU) policies should also apply incentives to support factor integrates supporting renewable resource savings. Public financial support to develop new processing technologies and product design of wood-based modern applications are needed to boost cost-competitiveness. Industries and other private investors can contribute to sustainable development by focusing on improving existing processing technologies and making them more resource and energy efficient. However, international policy efforts are still needed to increase the mix of alternative clean energy forms in Finland
This study aimed to investigate the climate impacts of carbon sequestration in forests, and the substitution of fossil energy (e.g., coal, oil) and fossil-based materials (e.g., concrete, steel, plastic) with harvested energy biomass and timber (pulpwood, sawlogs) under Finnish boreal conditions. The study employed forest ecosystem model simulations and a life cycle assessment tool to calculate the net CO2 exchange for the forest-based biosystem. The effects of stocking in thinning, nitrogen fertilization, and the use of varying rotation lengths and harvest intensities in final felling (timber, logging residues with and without coarse roots and stumps) on the climate impacts and economic profitability of biomass production were studied. Current Finnish forest management recommendations for thinning, aimed at timber production, were used as a baseline. In addition, the sensitivity of climate impacts to displacement factors and timber use efficiency was studied. This work was conducted at the stand level, with a mature stand as a starting point (Paper I), at the landscape level, under alternative initial forest age structures (Paper II), and at the regional level, using national forest inventory data in southern Finland.
This study revealed that the best option for increasing the climate impacts of biomass production and utilization was through maintaining up to 20% higher stocking, nitrogen fertilization, and using 80–100-year rotations, since they increased carbon sequestration and timber and energy biomass yields. However, there was a tradeoff between the greatest climate impact and the economic profitability of biomass production.Sawn wood products were the best option for long-term substitution and increasing carbon stocks of wood products. It was also found that the effects of substitution and timber use efficiency on climate impacts were higher than those of the thinning regimes. Consequently, the greatest climate impacts were found when intensified biomass harvesting was performed, and the prominent regions for increasing climate impacts over the next 40-year period were the southern and eastern sub-regions of Finland. Furthermore, the climate impacts were found to be sensitive to the initial conditions set for the analyses, which affected the timing of the climate impacts and the preference of forest management in climate change mitigation. This indicates that management measures, together with the initial conditions of the forests, should be considered when evaluating efficient options for increasing climate impacts by forests and substitution.
This dissertation explores the governance, local impacts and costs of community-owned renewable energy (CRE). The objective is to understand if and in what context collective local ownership models represent a feasible and effective means to operationalising a more ‘sustainable development’ in the renewable energy sector and beyond. The articles draw on a range of fields, from energy governance and project economics to impact evaluation. Specific methodologies used are systematic literature review, discourse analysis, historical institutional analysis and risk-extended net present valuation. Unique contributions of this work are a meta-level understanding of the community energy sector in the UK and an understanding of its emergence in context of technological and institutional change. In addition, it provides an explicit assessment of Quality of Evidence problems in this subfield of energy and social science research, placing it firmly in the context of current literature and methods in project economics and impact evaluation. Findings show that ownership patterns in the energy sector are precarious and subject to changing narratives that emerge in response to domestic socio-economic and political dilemma’s, exogenous shocks, and emerging economic schools of thought. CRE projects have the potential to generate a variety of positive local impacts that vary depending on the motivation and management of projects and project revenues. Under certain conditions CRE can empower community organisations to address systemic socio-economic problems in the public domain. Finally, in a competitive market setting and where CRE is implemented by newly-established grassroots organisations, projects face a range of risks that commercial projects do not, and that erode their financial viability. As such, the development and expansion of community renewable energy as a substantial proportion of the energy sector requires policy makers to assign it special status and provide policy support on the basis of its local social, economic and environmental benefits. Policy support for community renewable energy requires a willingness to integrate energy and social policy domains.