Assessing techno-ecological synergies in the life cycle of biofuels

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an environmental impact assessment method which captures all the stages of the life cycle of a commercial product. However, conventional LCA does not account for the role played by ecosystems in supporting human activities. Techno-ecological synergy (TES) is developed to bridge the gap between human and natural systems. Techno-ecological synergy life cycle assessment (TES-LCA) includes ecosystem services (ES) in conventional LCA which quantifies ecosystem services as an absolute reference value. Absolute environmental sustainability (AES) provides insight into the transgression level of human activities as compared to nature's carrying capacity. TES-LCA is a multiscale framework which assesses ESs from local to global levels using biophysical models and brings in high geospatial resolution. Public and private ownership of ESs is considered separate which illustrates the contributions of stakeholders at different levels. This framework is applied to the soybean biodiesel with a focus on carbon sequestration and water-provisioning services. The local scale, where the production site is located, is considered along with regional and global scales. This case study illustrates that compared to conventional LCA and other AES assessment methods, TES-LCA is more robust and encourages nature-positive actions like ecosystem restoration.