Sustainability of sugar cane bagasse utilization in Valle del Cauca, Colombia

Introduction: This article is the result of the research titled “Sustainability of sugar cane bagasse utilization in Valle del Cauca, Colombia”, developed in 2015 at the Faculty of Environmental Engineering at the Universidad Santo Tomas. Methodology: the sustainability of sugarcane bagasse utilization produced in the Valle del Cauca was determined using the integrated sustainable development indicator S3 and the biogram developed by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). For this analysis, a diagnosis of the current bagasse utilization was performed; variables and periods involved were defined, the indicator was calculated and the sustainability of bagasse utilization was analyzed. Results: the result of the current sugar cane bagasse utilization sustainability is 0.51, which represents an average sustainability for the periods evaluated. Conclusions: It was concluded that the most important aspects to improve sustainability include environmental dimension discharge management, improvements on the productivity of bagasse in the economic dimension and greater coverage of programs in the social dimension.