Abstract
The development of ToSIA (tool for sustainability impact assessment of the Forest Wood Chain) involved to measure economic, social and environmental indicators of all transformation processes belonging to the Forest Wood Chain (FWC). In this context, a specific tool has been developed to measure indicators related to almost all transport processes of each European FWC. The aim of this article is to describe the approach and the method used to set up this tool and also to illustrate some of its applications through an example. The example shows how the tool can deal with major transport issues by determining, in a German case, the distances (respectively, 330 and 280 km) setting the economic advantage to use rail and inland waterways instead of road. Moreover, it evaluates the implications of such changes in term of Green House Gas reduction (respectively, 50 and 56%).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
French Ministry of sustainable development, research and industry, “2008–2012, Programme de travail du Predit 4” (PREDIT 2009), with a technological improvement and similar logistics chains GHG emissions are expected to decrease by 60%.
Logistics costs include not only transport costs, but also inventory, sorting, packing and production costs. Therefore, a reduction in transport costs will not necessarily lead to a reduction in total logistics costs. Even in the relationship between logistics costs and services, transport services include various factors (time-designated delivery, missed delivery, delay and re-delivery, etc.), which affect inventory costs (OECD, Benchmarking Intermodal Freight Transport, 2002).
16 indicators are covered by the free-usable version. The EFORWOOD version contained 17 other indicators. However, it has been decided not to keep them their estimates involving strong assumptions.
This tonnage is the authorised gross vehicle weight (6 vehicles: 60T, 40T, 26T, 13T, 9T and 2.7T) from which the full capacity load is deduced and used for calculation.
Panorama of transport (EUROSTAT 2007), concerning EU-25 road, rail and inland waterways transport in tkm.
Proposed default values have to be taken cautiously, especially for cost indicators. The use of national statistics can over evaluate costs with the inclusion of loading and unloading costs for the three modes. Indeed, the transport FWC profile may not be based on three modes.
Bourcet et al. (2008)
Volumes and weights capacities of lorries are then taken into account in indicators calculations.
Tractor costs, (semi) trailer costs and crane costs. Capital costs or depreciation costs can be expressed as costs for owning and financing vehicles (charges spent for renewing the vehicle).
The methodology differs from Combes and Lafourcade (2005) approach, as it does not include reference to Geographical Information System and time factors.
Panorama of transport 2007, concerning EU-25 road, rail and inland waterways transport in tkm.
Sauvant (2003) estimates the French average production cost at 0.03 Euros per tkm. An exception is made for the transport of roundwood in France where, according to expert estimates, the cost is closer to 0.06–7euros/tkm.
Some comparisons were done with data got from the French Inland Waterways Agency (VNF) confirming COMPETE figures robustness.
Including the pre and post routes for using rail and inland waterways provides a more realistic comparison between alternative transport modes.
Based on French estimates (Bourcet et al. 2008).
It is free to get is by fulfilling a form: http://www.fcba.fr/eforwood/index.html?PHPSESSID=8378115b94d2558010a8a500280a5b74
References
ADEME (2006) Manuel d’utilisation du tableur Bilan_carbone_v4.xls version 4.0
Anderson JE, Van Wincoop E (2004) Trade costs. J Econ Lit 42–3:691–751
Bourcet J, Bourget C, Danguy des Deserts D (2008) Le transport du bois et sa logistique, rapport du MEDDADT et du MAP. http://www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr/rapports-publics/084000759/index.shtml?xtor=EPR-526. Accessed the 12 Nov 2009
Combes P-P, Lafourcade M (2005) Transport costs: measures, determinants, and regional policy implications for France. J Econ Geogr 5:319–349
Comité National Routier (2003) Analyse comparative du coût de personnel de conduite en Europe. http://www.cnr.fr/etudes/europe/e-docs/00/00/01/34/document_cahier_obs.phtml Accessed 12 Nov 2009
COMPETE Annex 1 (2006) Analysis of operating cost in the EU and the US, http://www.isi.fhg.de/projects/compete/reports.htm. Accessed 12 Nov 2009
ECORYS (2008) Progress on EU sustainable development strategy—Final report. http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/post/doc/studies/2008-ecorys-final_en.pdf. Accessed 12 Nov 2009
EFORWOOD (2008) Assessment of logistics concepts to sustainability: development of a common approach to transport issues. Deliverable D3.3.3–http://87.192.2.62/Eforwood/Portals/0/documents/D3.3.3_combined_FINAL_toAK20080630.pdf. Accessed 12 Nov 2009
EFORWOOD (2008). Manual for data collection for Regional and European cases. Deliverable PD0.0.16. Final version 2 July 2008—UPDATE 3 September 2008
Entreprendre pour l’environnement (2006) GHG Transport Protocol—Présentation
Eurostat (2007) Panorama of Transport, Eurostat Statistical Book. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-DA-07-001/EN/KS-DA-07-001-EN.PDF. Accessed the 12 Nov 2009
FCBA (2008) Voies navigables et dessertes. Massifier les flux pour intégrer le transport fluvial dans les chaînes logistiques portuaires: étude des impacts économiques et environnementaux. Le cas du transport fluvial de bois
Forsberg M, Frisk M, Rönnqvist M (2005) FlowOpt—a decision support tool for strategic and tactical transportation planning in forestry. Int J For Eng 16–2:101–114
González-Garcia S, Berg S, Feijoo G, Moreira MT (2009) Comparative environmental assessment of wood transport models A case study of a Swedish pulp mill. Sci Total Environ 407–11:3530–3539
ISO 2006 ISO 14040:26 Environmental management—Life cycle assessment—Principles and framework. International Organisation for Standardization
Karjalainen T, Asikainen A (1996) Greenhouse gas emissions from the use of primary energy in forest operations and long-distance transportation of timber in Finland. Forestry 69–3:215–228
Lindholm E-L, Berg S (2005) Energy requirement and environmental impact in timber transport. Scand J For Res 20–2:184–191
Lindner M et al (2009) ToSIA-A tool for sustainability impact assessment of forest-wood chains. Ecol Model. doi:10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2009.08.006
Ness B, Urbel-Piirsalu E, Anderberg S, Lennart O (2007) Categorising tools for sustainability assessment. Ecol Econ 60:498–508
PRé-Consultants. SimaPro 7—introduction to LCA with SimaPro 7 (2007) Amersfoort (The Netherlands)
PREDIT (2009) GO4: logistique et transport de marchandises http://www.predit.prd.fr/predit3/documentFo.fo?cmd=visualize&inCde=35492. Accessed 12 Nov 2009
PROMIT (2007) D4.2 Promoting indicators and benchmarks for self assessment
Sauvant (2003) Ouverture du fret ferroviaire à la concurrence: quelles conséquences potentielles? Notes de synthèse du SES. http://www.statistiques.equipement.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/NS_145-27-34_cle791efa.pdf. Accessed 12 Nov 2009
White MK, Gower ST, Ahl DE (2005) Life cycle inventories of roundwood production in northern Wisconsin: inputs into an industrial forest carbon budget. For Ecol Manag 219:13–28
Data:
CNR: http://www.cnr.fr/
EUROSTAT: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home/
GHG protocol: http://www.ghgprotocol.org/
Lipasto: http://lipasto.vtt.fi/indexe.htm
Acknowledgments
We especially thank Sara González-García (University of Santiago de Compostela) for the provision of figures allowing the comparison of environmental indicators. We are grateful to Anne Varet (FCBA) for her suggestions and comments in the writing of this article. We are also very grateful to EFORWOOD partners for their contributions in the set up of the transport tool.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by W. Warkotsch.
This article originates from the context of the EFORWOOD final conference, 23–24 September 2009, Uppsala, Sweden. EFORWOOD—Sustainability Impact Assessment of Forestry-wood Chains. The project was supported by the European Commission.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chesneau, JB., Le Net, E. & Berg, S. A transport tool to evaluate sustainability impacts of transport processes within the Forest Wood Chain. Eur J Forest Res 131, 73–80 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-011-0530-4
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-011-0530-4