STAR-ProBio’s first Focus Group webinar on sustainability assessment factors for bio-based products

January 29, 2018, BIOWAYS participated in STAR-ProBio  Focus Group Webinar on Sustainability Assessment Factors for Bio-Based Products.

The discussion was moderated by Luana Ladu (TU Berlin) and comprised experts with a EU perspective and representatives from various stakeholder groups from Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain and The Netherlands.

 

Five questions built the foundation for the discussions:

  • Which sustainability parameters/criteria should be considered by a sustainability assessment scheme for bio-based products?
  • Which factors should be mandatory in such a scheme and which ones should be voluntary?
  • Are particular parameters/criteria needed to assess specific bio-based products/product groups?
  • How should the compliance of these parameters be communicated to consumers?
  • Which particular needs regarding sustainability assessment parameters/criteria does your specific stakeholder group have?

 

The key conclusions of the event were summarized as follows:

1 Fossil-based products should be subject to the same sustainability criteria as bio-based products.

2 The only main difference for bio-based products is that the raw material is biomass. Therefore additional criteria regarding the production of biomass could/should be added.

3 Sustainability criteria for biomass for bio-based products should/could be similar to those applying to biomass for energy applications where binding criteria exist.

4 Regarding whether there should be a minimum percentage of bio-based content, different influencing factors have to be considered; in particular technology issues and consumers’ expectations.

5 Environmental criteria are more obvious than social and economic criteria.

6 The origin of biomass is also of importance (as shown by the bioenergy discussion).

7 Criteria that were explicitly referred to included: GHG emissions, bio-based content, and health-related aspects.

 

For more information  about the STAR-ProBio Project visit the website www.star-probio.eu