Method for environmental impact assessment of human-induced small-medium activities: the case study of wood biomass supply chain

Politecnico di Torino – DIATI, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, Torino 10129, Italy

^* Corresponding author: marina.clerico@polito.it

Abstract

Climate change evolution, joined by other environmental issues, will lead in the coming years to a rapid introduction of new actions and technologies. They will have to resolve, in the different economic sectors, one or more aspects of the current unsustainability. The relevant risk is that, in urgent conditions where the unreleased practices will be proposed, the assessment of their environmental impact will remain limited to their specificfield/sector. Therefore, the evaluation would not be extended to any wide-ranging environmental effects. Withoutan accurate assessment it would be impossible to determine whether the solution was more damaging and burdensometo the environment than the initial problem. Small-medium anthropic activities do not possess, from the economicpoint of view, the means and the duty to achieve an impact analysis ad hoc. This work aims to describe an analysis methodology developed for the environmental impact assessment of Small-Medium Enterprises. It is both exhaustive and easily applicable to small work activities and processes. This methodology is aimed both at business managers and at local authorities. The identified method of analysis allows an exhaustive evaluation of the whole forest energy chain and the identification of technical choice with less impact on the environment.