Biobased Live: Innovation for Sustainable Products

From 31 May to 1 June the BioBased Live Europe event will be taking place at the Amsterdam Science Park. BioBased Live aims to take biobased innovations from laboratory to market through best practice sharing and making biobased products a key part of sustainable strategies.

BioBased Live and its organisers, BioBased World News, believe there has never been a more exciting time to work in the biobased industries - and SusChem agrees! Global production of biobased chemicals now exceeds 60 million tonnes with the global market for biobased chemicals expected to increase to at least $12.2 billion by 2021. We want to support this sustainable shift towards the circular economy and bio-based products.

What is BioBased Live Europe?
This second annual meeting offers an interactive and intimate environment to make biobased innovations a key part of future sustainable strategies. Bringing together CEOs, senior R&D,and Process Heads with the sustainability professionals, brand marketing specialists and end users, the event creates a unique platform to do business and create practical takeaways to ensure long-term sustainable success.

As an emerging industry the journey from lab innovation to commercialisation for biobased products can be a difficult one. It is a convoluted ecosystem and all actors are required to collaborate and work together to ensure a productive future for the bio-based industry. This is where Biobased Live comes in.

Focus of the event, in which SusChem will participate is on two themes:

• Process Innovation & Technology - developing biobased and green innovations that are cost-competitive at commercial scale.
• Sustainable Products - improving the triple bottom line for brands and retailers by placing biobased and green adoption at the heart of sustainability strategies.

You can find out more at the BioBased Live website, where you can look at the event's agenda, download a brochure for the event and, of course, register. SusChem stakeholders are being offered a 15% discount on registration fees using the code SUS15.

Green and Sustainable Chemistry in Berlin

Following a very successful first edition in April 2016, the second Green and Sustainable Chemistry Conference will again bring together international researchers from academia and industry, from authorities and other institutions, to communicate and share the latest developments across the broad and diverse fields of Green and Sustainable Chemistry. The conference takes place on 14 - 17 May at the Hotel Intercontinental in Berlin. 

SusChem board member and Director of the Institute for Sustainable and Environmental Chemistry at Leuphana University Lüneburg, Prof. Klaus Kümmerer (pictured below), is the Chairman of the Conference organising committee. In a welcome message to conference delegates he says:

"Research has shown that reduction in waste, energy and resources not only contributes to a more sustainable growth of industry in developing countries and also improves sustainability of the chemical industry. In addition to improvements in synthesis and issues directly linked to the chemicals themselves it also has been learnt that sustainability issues throughout the life cycle of chemicals and other chemicals products should be taken into consideration. This holds not only for developed but also for developing countries."

Submissions for oral and poster presentations at the conference were particularly welcome on aspects of green and sustainable chemistry that directly relate to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

Topics that will be covered at the conference include:

• Mineral resources and recycling
• Resources for organic molecules
• Synthesis and catalysis
• Energy conversion
• Green and sustainable pharmacy
• Legislation and sustainable chemistry
• The UN Sustainable Development Goals and sustainable chemistry
• Developing countries and sustainable chemistry
• Industry and sustainable chemistry
• Education

You can access more details on the programme for the conference here and registration details are here. Early registration fees are available until 17 March. The twitter hashtag for the conference is #greenchem2017.

Sustainable Chemistry Challenge

Another unique feature of this conference will be the Elsevier Foundation Green and Sustainable Chemistry Challenge. Projects can be in any field of Green or Sustainable Chemistry, but must be applicable for use in developing countries. The top five candidates will be invited to the conference to make presentations and winners will be selected with an awards ceremony at the end of the conference. The winning project receive EUR 50 000; with a second prize of EUR 25 000 also available.

Mainstreaming Sustainable Chemistry

The Green and Sustainable Chemistry Conference is also being organised in cooperation with the inaugural conference of ISC3 and ISCnet: “Mainstreaming Sustainable Chemistry” on 17-18 May in Berlin. The conference programme will cover:

• International political and economic issues of importance for the development of sustainable chemistry
• Results of studies from a project to frame the area of future research by the ISC3
• Drawing up the organisational structure for ISCnet (see below)
• The introduction of the ISC3 executives

This conference also provides an opportunity to meet members of the ISCnet global network, which is open to everyone engaged in sustainable chemistry. The International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre (ISC3) wants to support the global breakthrough of Sustainable Chemistry. The project for the establishment of ISC3 was launched in March 2015 by the German Federal Environment Agency.

Date announced for 2017 SusChem Stakeholder Event!

SusChem is proud to announce that its 2017 Stakeholder event will take place on
Thursday, 8 June in Brussels.

Mark the date in your diary now! As usual attendance at the event will be free of charge for all SusChem stakeholder, but registration will be required.

More details will be published soon on the SusChem website. In the meantime if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the SusChem Secretariat.