Biomass - a renewable energy source?

In its original sense biomass denotes living mass. Through biomass not only a bio-chemical energy potential is renewed, but also vital living conditions and quality of live domains: for example a favorable climate, water and soil quality as well as spaces for habitat, recreation and identification. Retaining the capacity for such (re)productive and value-creating 'biological-ecological work' needs to be considered when using bioenergy for 'technical work'. Hence, the design and application of bioenergy technology should involve a place-based landscape context. Based on this argumentation Anja Brüll unfolds in this book the concept of 'Landscape Quality Management (LQM)' - a standardized adaptive stakeholder process to continuously improve various quality aspects of the landscape. The process also serves to assess and develop the sustainability of biomass production and eventually other land uses. The author goes on to develop 'complementary biomass production' as a regional guiding principle. That means to use biomass sources and practices, which do not compete with agricultural food production, but complement it in terms of providing ecosystem services and contributing to landscape quality. Several case studies illustrate this convincing approach. Finally, it is shown how LQM could provide a source of innovation for sustainable production by linking it with corporate environmental and quality management.