Sustainability Assesment for Bio-Based Products

This three-day course provides participants with the fundamental concepts and perspectives related to sustainable bio-based products, delivered by a diverse range of university teachers and guest lecturers. Our aim is to share our expertise on developing sustainable technologies to help industrial and academic professionals measure bio-based technologies’ sustainability performance. During the course, you will acquire the following skills: • An overview of the fundamentals of bio-based production, supply chain, and life cycles in biotechnology • The ability to identify quantifiable key environmental, societal, and economic indicators • To be able to quantitatively assess and combine environmental and economic sustainability in biotechnology, based on life cycle assessment (LCA) and techno-economic assessment (TEA) approaches • Translate sustainability assessment results into informed decisions relevant to biotechnology R&D, resulting from a basic introduction to the concept of sustainability and a comprehensive evaluation of the environmental performance of specific bio-based products and technology life cycles. • Understanding how to utilize existing LCA’s and TEA’s as strategic tools in steering innovation towards sustainability in a commercial and planetary context.

By the end of the course, you will have a basic understanding of the methods used in quantifying sustainability. You will: • Become familiar with the prevailing definitons of sustainability, the history of sustainability as a concept, and the development of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) • Understand the importance of considering the whole life cycle when evaluating sustainability in a biotechnology context • Be able to identify the major drivers of impact when assessing the sustainability of a product and its functionalities • Develop critical thinking skills to analyze sustainability assessments and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) • Gain an overview of the tools used to quantify bio-based products’ economic and environmental performance • Understand the trade-offs between economic and environmental impacts. • Understand the concepts of planetary boundaries and absolute Sustainability

Nongraded

The course is tuned to a wide range of audiences from industry and academia in the life science sector to understand, critique, communicate and make informed decisions to quantitatively assess and improve bio-based products and technologies’ economic and environmental sustainability performance. This course is especially beneficial for professionals with background, skills, or experience in the following areas: • Natural scientists from different fields of expertise. • Engineering, agro-science, and production disciplines from design, planning, R&D, and operations • Postdocs and senior scientists who want to update themselves in a sustainability assessment • Non-scientific professionals from administration, finance, sales, or other non-technical disciplines, seeking a thorough understanding of sustainability and assessment tools. Prerequisites Participants do not need to have specific knowledge in the field of biotechnology other than a basic high-school-level understanding of natural sciences. The course material comprises practice exercises, and we expect participants to be able to use MS Excel.