Meeting Sustainability Requirements for SRC Bioenergy: Usefulness of Existing Tools, Responsibilities of Involved Stakeholders, and Recommendations for Further Developments Oskar Englund & Göran Berndes & Fredrik Fredrikson & Ioannis Dimitriou # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012 Abstract Short rotation coppice (SRC) is considered an important biomass supply option for meeting the European renewable energy targets. This paper presents an overview of existing and prospective sustainability requirements, Member State reporting obligations and parts of the method- ology for calculating GHG emissions savings within the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED), and shows how these RED-associated sustainability criteria may affect different stakeholders along SRC bioenergy supply chains. Existing and prospective tools are assessed on their usefulness in ensuring that SRC bioenergy is produced with sufficient con- sideration given to the RED-associated criteria. A sustainabil- ity framework is outlined that aims at (1) facilitating the development of SRC production systems that are attractive from the perspectives of all stakeholders, and (2) ensuring that the SRC production is RED eligible. Producer manuals, EIAs, and voluntary certification schemes can all be useful for ensuring RED eligibility. However, they are currently not sufficiently comprehensive, neither individually nor com- bined, and suggestions for how they can be more complemen- tary are given. Geographical information systems offer opportunities for administrative authorities to provide stake- holders with maps or databases over areas/fields suitable for RED-eligible SRC cultivation. However, proper consider- ation of all relevant aspects requires that all stakeholders in the SRC supply chain become engaged in the development of SRC production systems and that a landscape perspec- tive is used. Keywords Short rotation coppice . EU . Producer manuals . EIA . Certification schemes . GIS Background Bioenergy has been put forward as a potential option for improving energy security and mitigating climate change [1–3]. It offers a new market for farmers and bioenergy production has, particularly in developing countries, been proposed as a possible driver of rural development with capacity to improve energy access, increase employment, and stimulate productivity growth in agriculture. Over re- cent years, however, concerns have arisen regarding the true environmental, social, and economic viability of bioenergy systems, and the bioenergy sector has been put under pres- sure to verify the sustainability of its operations. In response to concerns about unintended consequences of biomass production and use for energy, producers of biomass feedstock in the private sector, as well as govern- mental and non-governmental organizations, have taken Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12155-012-9217-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. O. Englund (*) : G. Berndes Division of Physical Resource Theory, Department of Energy and Environment, Chalmers University of Technology, 41296 Gothenburg, Sweden e-mail: oskar.englund@chalmers.se F. Fredrikson County Administrative Board of Västra Götaland, Department of Rural Development, BOX 496, 50313 Borås, Sweden I. Dimitriou Department of Crop Production Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), P.O. Box 7016, 75007 Uppsala, Sweden Bioenerg. Res. DOI 10.1007/s12155-012-9217-z