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.

List of Project Members

Masayuki SAGISAKA (PROJECT 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 Ba�os, 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.

Full Report

RPR-2010-22

Contents

Cover

Foreword and Acknowledgement

List of Project Members

List of Contributors

Table of Contents

Abbreviation and Acronyms

Executive Summary

1. Introduction

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

5. Presentation of Results

6. Conclusions and Recommendations

References

Appendix