ToSIA—A tool for sustainability impact assessment of forest-wood-chains

October 24, 2009 by timbercommunity

A completely new software tool – ToSIA for decision makers in the forestry sector has been developed for assessing sustainability impacts of Forest-Wood-Chains (FWCs).

The tool shows what happens to the sustainable development when the production processes is changing. For example, one can determine the difference in carbon emissions of a wood product begins to be moved by rail instead of truck. Tosi is the result of the EU project EFORWOOD, which Skogforsk coordinates.

Tosi is meant to be used as a decision support for sustainable development. This tool puts a value on the flow of material through all the processes - from the plant to the consumer, including the recycling of the product

FWCs are defined as chains of production processes (e.g. harvesting–transport–industrial processing), which are linked with products (e.g. a timber frame house). Sustainability is determined by analysing environmental, economic, and social sustainability indicators for all the production processes along the FWC.

ToSIA is made up of a number of economic, social and environmental sustainability indicators, such as production, labor consumption and carbon balance. The tool measures the change in the indicators, but the value is not what is considered sustainable and what is not considered that. It's up to the user to determine if a change is positive or negative. For example, not all indicators are perceived as equally important.

The tool calculates sustainability values as products of the relative indicator values (i.e. indicator value expressed per unit of material flow) multiplied with the material flow entering the process.

Calculated sustainability values are then aggregated for the segments of the FWC or for the complete chain. The sustainability impact assessment requires carefully specified system boundaries.

ToSIA uses a data-oriented approach that is very flexible in the focus of the analysis and the selection of indicators of sustainability.

An example of alternative Norway spruce management systems in Southern Germany and their effects on six sustainability indicators is presented. The less intensive management system with natural regeneration and motor–manual harvesting shows higher carbon storage and slightly less energy use. It creates more employment and higher labour costs, but the average rate of accidents is also higher.

ToSIA offers a transparent and consistent methodological framework to assess sustainability impacts in the forest-based sector as affected, e.g. by changes in policies, market conditions, or technology. The paper discusses strengths and limitations of the approach and provides an outlook on further development perspectives of the methodology.

Sources:

FACTS EFORWOOD

    *      EFORWOOD – Tools for Sustainability Impact Assessment of the Forestry-wood Chain (stöd för strategiska beslut om hållbar utveckling i skogssektorn).
    *      EU-project 2005-2009.
    *      Budget: 22 000 000 euro.
    *      38 partners (universities, institutes, organizations) from 21 countries
    *     Initiative from  Skogforsk

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