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.

Join us to launch the new SusChem logo and brand at 8EIS

SusChem will be launching its new logo and branding at a cocktail reception on Tuesday 15 November. The event takes place during the Eighth European Innovation Summit (8EIS) organised by Knowledge4Innovation. The theme for the evening event is ‘Together for sustainability’ and the launch takes place from 18:00 to 19:30 in the Members´ Restaurant of the European Parliament in Brussels. 

Please come and join us to learn how sustainable chemistry is inspiring the change of pace and mind-set needed to make a sustainable, smart and inclusive society real. Get first-hand insights of SusChem’s vision for a competitive and innovative Europe where sustainable chemistry and biotechnology together provide solutions for future generations.

This launch event is an excellent opportunity to begin the dialogue and engagement needed to tackle the most significant global challenges we face through the co-creation of sustainable chemistry solutions.  This is at the heart of SusChem’s work.

The event is hosted by Lambert van Nistelrooij, MEP and the main speaker will be Dr Klaus H. Sommer, Chair of the SusChem board (left). The 8EIS event will feature the launch of SusChem's new brand identity and logo.

You can find a detailed agenda and list of speakers on the 8EIS webpage. The event is free, but registration is required. The event will also include a number of exciting activities and present important new developments for the SusChem community. If you are interested in attending please register here no later than Friday, 4 November. We will update you with further details closer to the date - stay tuned via our twitter feed @SusChem!

8EIS programme - innovation for business
On the 8EIS webpage you can also register for other events during the 8th European Innovation Summit including the Opening and Closing events, as well as 8th EIS Conference and Parallel sessions.

The 8th European Innovation Summit comes at a time of major challenges and opportunities requiring bold decisions. Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things; innovative business models for the sharing economy; disruptive technologies such as autonomous driving or genetic engineering – are some of the big game changers that have a profound impact on the way we live and work.

Innovation as the response to major societal challenges is not only about technological developments executed by researchers in their labs. It requires the involvement of the users from the beginning and equally important a better connection and communication between science and society.

This year’s EIS debates cover a great variety of hot topics such as:

• The mid-term review and post 2020 discussions: Next Framework Programme, European Innovation Council, Structural Funds, etc. 
• People: STEM education, next generation innovators and entrepreneurs
• Disruptive technologies and business models
• Circular economy
• The effect of digitisation on society
• Bi-annual INPACT meeting - Pact for Innovation initial working groups

SusChem interest
Of particular interest to SusChem stakeholders will be a debate on the Mid-term review and post-2020 preparations on Tuesday 15 November from 9:00 to 11:00. In context of the midterm evaluation of Horizon 2020 and the planning for the upcoming Framework Programme 9, the debate will cover key questions on how to assess the success of EU research funding and its instruments, and what lessons to draw for the future.

The objectives of this plenary session are to gain insights in existing models and tools for measuring science and innovation impact, share experiences, identify lessons learnt and make recommendations for research and innovation policy and future programme design. The session will be moderated by Gernot Klotz President, K4I with contributions from Ronald de Bruin, Director, COST Association, Bert De Colvenaer, Director, Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking, Pedro de Sampaio Nunes, Head of Secretariat, Eureka, Andreas Klossek, COO, EIT KIC Raw Materials and Pierre Barthelemy, Executive Director, Research & Innovation, CEFIC

Also on Tuesday 15 November from 16:00 to 18:00 there is a conference on the Circular Economy with speakers including Dr Detlef Maennig, from Evonik Degussa, Sira Saccani, Director of Sustainable Production Systems, Climate KIC, and Andreas Klossek, COO, EIT KIC.

And Cefic and Knowledge4Innovation are holding an invitation-only EIS Lunch Debate on Wednesday, 16 November, from 12:30 to 14:30 with the topic 'Turning CO2 into value for Europe: Opportunities and challenges'.  During this session a range of opportunities will be discussed, such as renewable hydrogen and CO2 utilisation, which can help Europe towards its objective of a more sustainable economy, and the steps we have to take to insure investments and industrial deployment right here in Europe. Speakers include Alexis Bazzanella, Head of Research & Project Coordination, Dechema, Pierre Barthelemy, Executive Director Research and Innovation, Cefic, and Philippe Tulkens, Deputy Head of Unit, DG RTD, European Commission.

Sustainable Chemistry for Life - The Role of Chemistry in the European Bioeconomy

The Thirteenth Congress of the European Chemical Regions Network (ECRN) brings together decision-makers, industry representatives, researchers and stakeholders to exchange experiences on policies and good practices on sustainability, chemistry and the bioeconomy on 8 and 9 October in Novara and Milan, Italy. The discussions will be enriched by a ‘Market of Ideas’ introducing regional activities, innovative products and projects from chemical regions across Europe. You are invited to join the event, present your activities and be inspired by others!

The ECRN event will be organised in two parts. The first day will be held in Novara and the second day in Milan. The first day will focus on sustainable innovations and technological advancements in the field of biotechnology and bioeconomy and the second day will address policies and future perspectives.

Discussions will be linked to the broad themes of Expo Milan 2015, “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life” and enriched by a “market of ideas” introducing regional experiences, best practices and projects that illustrate the variety of activities taking place across Europe's chemical regions.

The Market of Ideas
The afternoon of the first Congress day (8 October) is dedicated to presenting and exhibiting examples of regional projects and innovative chemical companies and clusters. Representatives from projects and organisations will have a chance share their stories with other participants. The Market of Ideas is an open, interactive session for networking and finding new partners and contacts. It provides regional and industrial actors, SMEs, (inter)regional projects, research institutes, clusters and other organizations with an opportunity to showcase their initiatives and success stories and build bridges across the value chain.

Each presenter will have their own space for networking and meeting other interested participants. Beyond brokerage or matchmaking, participants can learn from each others’ experiences and find new contacts. In addition to networking between individuals, a moderator will draw attention to interesting initiatives in the market with on-the-spot mini-interviews.

Participants should prepare a brief abstract (~ 250 words) on their project, product or organisation for the congress materials and organize any supporting materials you might need for your “market stall” – such as roll-up(s), flyers, brochures, reports, laptop presentations etc. - to promote their activities.

Reasons to participate in the ECRN Congress Market of Ideas include:

• Benefiting from a platform for networking opportunities and meeting valuable new contacts (decision-makers and stakeholders from authorities, academia and industry)
• Gaining visibility by having your project or organization presented in the congress materials and on the event website
• Using the opportunity to participate in the entire Congress programme (in Novara and Milan), the Congress reception, and visit the major EXPO 2015 in Milan.
• Participating in and presenting your activities is free – all you need to do is register!

Participating and presenting in the Market of Ideas is free of charge, but advance registration is required. Registration is being handled by the ECRN Secretariat in Brussels and the office can also provide additional information to interested potential participants. The secretariat can be contacted via email.

More details on the Conference can be found on the ECRN website and the Congress programme can be downloaded here.

SusChem and the bioeconomy
The opening ECRN session will highlight the ways in which chemistry and chemical innovations can enhance and contribute to the bioeconomy and sustainability. Chemistry is a key source for sustainable solutions and future challenges on issues like sustainable feeding or biobased solutions for a circular economy are very important for the chemical industry.

The SusChem Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA) has a dedicated chapter on ‘A Sustainable and Inclusive Bioeconomy’ and SusChem is an essential link between the chemical industry, industrial biotechnology and stakeholders in the bioeconomy.

The platform is actively involved in two large and relevant PPPs between the European Commission and industry launched in 2014:

• The Joint Technology Initiative ‘Biobased Industries’ (BBI) that brings together research and industry partners along the whole value chain of biobased products and focuses on innovation for products from biobased feedstock.
• The PPP ‘Sustainable Process Industry through Resource and Energy Efficiency’ (SPIRE) that provides a solid basis for academia, SMEs, and multinational companies to collaborate on cross-sectorial initiatives in these areas.

SusChem contributes to the alignment of both initiatives. The interface between BBI and SPIRE is the provision and use of biobased platform chemicals. In addition, both PPPs may support projects using biotechnological conversion processes and specific improvements of biotechnology processes may be eligible for funding through either PPP. SusChem will enable the coherence of ongoing and future funding initiatives and the deployment of flagship projects that demonstrate technological leadership and that Europe is a globally competitive location to invest in the bioeconomy.

For more information on SusChem's Bioeconomy activities, contact Cefic Innovation Manager for the Bioeconomy Flavio Benedito.

Evaluating Sustainability in the Process Sectors

Every year Europe invests millions of Euros to develop new technologies and modify processes and products to bring resource and energy efficiency improvements. However, in order for EU stakeholders and industry to see the true value of these new technologies and modifications, and make informed decisions surrounding their adoption, a consistent approach is needed to assess the sustainability impact across the full value chain. This is particularly challenging when it comes to assessing sustainability across sector boundaries, or in a data lean environment.

The European process industries recognise that assessment of sustainability is an essential component of their business management. As such, many sustainability indicators, tools and methodologies already exist. However, these vary widely in their sophistication, applicability, maturity and usability thereby limiting broad cross-sectoral implementation.

Consequently, three projects have recently been funded through the Horizon 2020 SPIRE Public-Private-Partnership to coordinate studies of current approaches. The projects resulted from the SPIRE-4 call 'Methodologies, tools and indicators for cross-sectorial sustainability assessment of energy and resource efficient solutions in the process industry'. The three projects are:

• STYLE - Sustainability Toolkit for easy Life-cycle Evaluation
• SAMT - Sustainability Assessment methods and tools to support decision-making in the process industries
• MEASURE - Metrics for Sustainability Assessment in European Process Industries

Collectively they have the aim of delivering:

• Recommendations for the current use of sustainability indicators, tools and methodologies for the SPIRE sectors. These can be used for future SPIRE and other H2020 funded projects to determine the overall sustainability benefits and impacts of the projects.
• Identification of gaps in the available tools
• Recommendations for future research needs and standardisation
• A harmonised roadmap summarising the recommendations across the three projects (available at the end of December 2016)

The three projects
In order to look at certain aspects of sustainability evaluation in more detail, the three projects have specific focus areas:

MEASURE focus: in-depth cross-sectorial life cycle based evaluation approaches supporting sustainable supply chain management.

MEASURE partners: Friedrich-Schiller University Jena (coordinator: Dana Kralisch), Evonik Industries, Procter & Gamble Services Company N.V., ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe, the Technische Universität Berlin as well as the Universities of Cambridge, Manchester and Ghent.

Project Website: www.spire2030.eu/measure/

SAMT focus: industrial best-practice and opportunities for cross-sector assessment of energy and resource efficiency.

SAMT partners: VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (coordinator: Tiina Pajula), Fundacion Tecnalia Research & Innovation, Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment & Energy, CEMEX Research Group AG, Suez Environment, Neste Oil Corporation, Bayer Technology Services GmbH, BASF SE and Asociación Española de Normalización y Certficación.

Project Website: www.spire2030.eu/samt/

STYLE focus: pragmatic sustainability tools that can be used by non-specialists.

STYLE partners: Britest (coordinator: Amy Peace), Arcelor Mittal, Britest, Carmeuse, Holcim, IVL, RDC Environment, Solvay, Tata Steel, Utrecht University and Veolia.

Project Website: www.spire2030.eu/style/ 

Broad engagement, questionnaire

The projects will build on previous SusChem-inspired projects such as PROSUITE and will be engaging with the broad process sector community through stakeholder workshops, the development of industrial case studies, in-depth interviews, questionnaires, consultations and webinars. The projects are keen to get involvement from a wide range of stakeholders, including:

• Process sector industries (cement, ceramics, chemicals, engineering, non-ferrous metals, minerals, steel and water representing big and small companies)
• Sector representatives and trade associations
• Research organisations and academia
• Representatives from other Horizon 2020 projects that include sustainability evaluation
• Public sector bodies
• Finance and investment organisations 
• Non-Governmental Organisations 
• Standardisation bodies
• End users/ customers of the sectors

If you are interested in being a stakeholder in the projects, or just to be kept informed of progress, please complete this short questionnaire by 6 March 2015. The responses to the questionnaire will inform a joint project workshop to be held at the end of March.

Get involved with Innovation Fusion 2015 in Berlin

SusChem invites you to attend the INNOVATION FUSION event and be inspired by Europe’s best industrial innovators! The European Networking Group (ENG) is hosting the 11th annual INNOVATION FUSION event on 21 22 April 2015 in Berlin. The event will bring together leading experts in R&D and Innovation from the specialty chemical and consumer goods sectors. Cefic and SusChem have secured a 20% discount for all its members that wish to attend the conference.

Amongst the leading industry members that will be joining and leading the discussions in Berlin are BASF, DuPont, P&G, AkzoNobel, Evonik and Air Liquide.

By joining the event, you will be able to exchange best practices, engage in real business stories and discover new business models and emerging markets. The event will address a broad range of topics, from incremental and disruptive innovation to KPI’s in the chemical industry and sustainability throughout the value chain.

More information and registration
You can download the event programme here. SusChem members may use the CEFIC20 discount code when registering online or can contact Joanna Serweta at ENG events directly.

Sustainability Assessment: Towards a Standardised Methodology?

SusChem projects and programmes aim to support the development of products and technologies that address societal needs while being environmentally sound and economically viable. They aim to enable a future in which chemical research and innovation brings new, safe, high performance products and technologies rapidly to market: enabling society to “do more with less”. The integration of all aspects of sustainability into the framework of SusChem-inspired projects at an early stage of the development of new processes and products is a key element for their success. However this requires a consistent sustainability framework for the objective assessments of projects. A FP7 project, PROspective SUstaİnability assessment of TEchnologies (PROSUİTE), looked at the issues involved.

Achieving sustainability requires a balance of economic, environmental and social goals. This triple bottom line, often referred to as ‘people, profit, planet’ (see below), is a key element for SusChem.

But how can we objectively assess sustainability? To do this requires the development of new tools that can analyse activities and their consequences upon the economy, the environment, and society. And these tools must be adequate for measuring these complex domains, as well as their interactions. Reliably performing sustainability assessments should help point us to better, more sustainable solutions to the challenges that society faces. They should be able to highlight where performance can be improved, where corrections can be made, and where wiser choices can lead to a preferred “triple bottom line” result.

The PROSUITE project was a four-year initiative funded under FP7 that started in 2009 and worked to provide such assessment tools in particular for use in assessing new technologies. SusChem board member Gernot Klotz was a member of the advisory board for the project.

Technologies, today and tomorrow
PROSUITE developed its tools through delivering a broad life cycle assessment (LCA) framework. The tools are freely accessible on the project website and are designed to support the sustainability decisions that product developers, policy makers and businesses are facing. The tools have been tested on four technology case studies:

• Biorefineries – producing energy from organic waste
• Nanotechnology - in new textiles
• Multifunctional mobile (telephone) devices - containing rare metals that should be recycled
• Carbon storage and sequestration - to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and large-scale industrial sources.

Five pillar approach
The PROSUITE tools and concepts go beyond the traditional three pillars. In order to deliver even more detailed and meaningful results for decision makers the project adopted a five-pillar framework for assessment, which is supported by a freeware Decision Support System.

When sustainability is defined only on the traditional three ‘Ps’ approach, existing assessments may be flawed by overlapping issues. For instance, human health and income could be viewed as part of the social pillar, since both factors have a large influence on the quality of life of people. However, they also could be viewed as part of the economic pillar. To enable proper assessment, PROSUITE developed an innovative framework that limits such overlaps and ensures that each pillar has a unique set of indicators. To achieve this goal, the resulting framework proposed five pillars:

• Impact on human health: The impacts on human health of a new technology include all changes in morbidity and mortality that are caused by the introduction of new technologies, through all possible pathways, including environmental, occupational and consumer. These can be quantified using the ‘DALY-concept’ (Disability Adjusted Life Years). 
• Impact on social well-being: The social impact includes all impacts on human well-being that are related to inter-human relationships. Impact on human well-being includes everything that affects the quality of life of people both on an individual and collective basis (however, excluding human health and economics). These include impacts on autonomy, safety, security and tranquillity (SST), equal opportunities and participation and influence.
• Impact on prosperity: Technology development is often pursued to increase the quantity and quality of goods and services for consumption. Final consumption can be increased through changes in factor productivity or through the production of new products and services satisfying new consumer needs. Gross domestic product (GDP) is a measure of the value of goods and services available for final consumption. 
• Impact on natural environment: The ‘natural environment’ encompasses the natural ecosystems around the world in terms of their function and structure. For this endpoint, the aim is to quantify the negative effects on the function and structure of natural ecosystems as a consequence of exposure to chemicals, biological or physical interventions. The impact on natural environment is then expressed in terms of ‘potentially disappeared fraction of species’. 
• Impact on exhaustible resources: Impact on exhaustible resources is concerned with the removal of resources from the environment (and their use) which results in a decrease in the availability of the total resource stock. This impact category comprises abiotic resources: fossil fuels and mineral ores.

Level assessment
Another important aspect of sustainability assessment is the level at which the assessment is conducted. In PROSUITE three different levels are explicitly differentiated and addressed:

• The first level corresponds to the assessment of a process chain per functional unit.
• The second level takes additional into consideration the market penetration of the technology in a given scenario (for example, expressed in the expected total number of functional units).
• The third level goes beyond the process itself and includes the effect of deploying a technology at the system level by taking into account not only the penetration of the technology but also the implications of such penetration on, for example, trade flows across sectors in the economy.

The work in PROSUITE has resulted in an increased understanding of the complex set of approaches and tools needed to assess the potential impacts of technologies at an early stage of development.

The three projects recently awarded funding under the Horizon 2020 / SPIRE call: SPIRE-4 Methodologies, tools and indicators for cross-sectorial sustainability assessment of energy and resource efficient solutions in the process industry will further address this important area of work.

More information
For more information on the PROSUITE approach visit the project website and download the PROSUITE Handbook.