Page 73 - Biofuels for a More Sustainable Future

Triple bottom line, sustainability and sustainability assessment, an overview 65

The studies unveil several challenges for a complete social impact assess-
ment (which encompass data availability, granularity of the data at the prod-
uct level, completeness of indicators, etc.). Moreover, it is important to assess
not only negative impacts but as well positive ones (Di Cesare et al., 2018).
In fact, biofuels may bring social benefits. However, positive social impacts
are still evaluated to a limited extent (Di Cesare et al., 2018; Ekener et al.,
2018) in literature.

5.1 Governance-related challenges in the biofuels domain
Measuring biofuel sustainability implies dealing with a wide array of com-
plex and conflicting values at stake. Consequently, the biofuel capacity to
contribute to one specific value cannot lead to any absolute conclusion about
the overall sustainability of biofuel (Baudry et al., 2017). Some authors have
worked on identifying the different sustainability criteria adopting a
stakeholder-based approach in which the different stakes are explicit and
transparently reported (see the example for France in Baudry et al., 2017).
In the biofuels domain stakeholders are very different (e.g., government
and NGOs, feedstock producers, biofuel producers, refining industry, fuel
distributors, users/consumers) and seeking for criteria fulfillment is very
challenging.
Evidence- and science-based decision-making in this field need a robust
and transparent integrated assessment of policy options. Scientific findings
do not lead straight to political conclusions, and the relationship between
science and decision-making is a debated issue. Barriers still exist and the
effective interaction and communication between scientific enquiry and
decision making is complex.

6 Economic sustainability

The need for decoupling economic growth from resource consumption and
from environmental impacts is considered one of the pivotal aspects to be
addressed by sustainable development. Decoupling takes place “when
resource use or some environmental pressure either grows at a slower rate
than the economic activity that is causing it (relative decoupling) or declines
while the economic activity continues to grow (absolute decoupling)” (IRP,
2017, p. 7). Indeed, decoupling can take place at two levels: resource decou-
pling and environmental impact decoupling. Quantitative measures of
decoupling result from comparing the economic output (e.g., Gross Domes-
tic Product, GDP) with indicators of resource use (e.g., Domestic Material