The call to halt nature loss is growing. Companies and policymakers want to know the impact of their choices on species and ecosystems. Life cycle assessment, known for its climate footprints, is now also promoting biodiversity. A new report from IEA Bioenergy Task 45 describes how this can be achieved and where the biggest obstacles lie.
LCA adds biodiversity
LCA is standardized and widely applied for greenhouse gas emissions, including in the European Renewable Energy Directive. This is more challenging for biodiversity due to scale, context, and the lack of a single, consistent metric. Nevertheless, according to IEA Bioenergy, there is sufficient basis to expand LCA to include environmental impacts, specifically for land-use decisions in bioenergy systems and to visualize the trade-off between climate and nature. The report is partly the result of an international workshop in Stockholm in June 2024 and aligns with research within the Swedish Biopath program.
Indicators that guide management
The authors advocate for concrete, quantified indicators to guide policy and management. In Europe, the Commission is working on incorporating biodiversity into the Environmental Footprint, aiming to add biodiversity as a seventeenth category alongside the existing sixteen. Globally, the UN GLAM initiative is seeking alignment on indicators within LCA. This increases the likelihood of comparable, verifiable outcomes.
Case from South Sweden with forest remains
The approach becomes tangible in a case study involving the Kraftringen energy company in southern Sweden. The plant supplies heat and electricity to the region and runs on forest residues, primarily branches and tops after thinning and final felling, sourced via the Södra forestry cooperative. The biodiversity impacts of removing these residues were calculated using the Biodiversity Potential method, which weighs management aspects such as the number of very old trees, the diversity of native tree species, and the amount of coarse and fine deadwood. In this case study, the number of old trees carries the most weight at forty percent, the diversity of native tree species and deadwood each receive a substantial weighting, and the proportion of removed residues has a limited impact.
The results vary by forest and management choice. Stands with a high percentage of beech or oak score differently than spruce. The key is the translation to the functional unit. In this study, that is 1 kWh of heat delivered to the customer. In a pine stand with a low residual wood yield, the impact per kWh increases relatively sharply, because a small amount of energy supplied contributes to the same environmental change. Where productivity is higher or management conserves deadwood and old trees, the outcome is more favorable. The key point is that environmental impact depends not only on the type of biomass, but primarily on the origin, management, and utilization efficiency within the supply chain.
Data makes the difference
Reliable inventory data is the Achilles' heel. Detailed information on forest management and local environmental conditions is necessary, but collecting it takes time. Rapid progress with remote sensing helps. Satellites, aerial laser scanning, and photogrammetry enable estimates of stand age, tree species composition, structure in the vertical and horizontal strata, amount of standing and lying deadwood, and soil moisture. This brings the data side of LCA for biodiversity closer to scalability. Ownership rights to plot data can be a limitation, and validation with field measurements remains necessary.
The practical lesson is concrete. Don't ignore biodiversity because there's no single, perfect metric. Use indicators that align with management and policy and link them to an appropriate functional unit, in this case, 1 kWh of heat. Differentiate by location and productivity, because a low impact per hectare can still mean a higher impact per product if yields are low. Organize the supply chain so that suppliers can substantiate management choices with data.
From abstract to applicable
The IEA Bioenergy report demonstrates that biodiversity and LCA can work hand in hand. With reliable indicators, better data, and clear assumptions, the environmental impact of bioenergy can be visualized and managed. For energy companies, this means that the origin and management of bioflows are directly reflected in their performance. For the reader, it offers insight into the importance of not only whether biomass is sustainable, but also where it comes from, how the forest is managed, and how efficiently the energy is used.
Sources IEA Bioenergy, publication page a report Quantifying biodiversity impacts of bioenergy system.
