The Challenge
Sustainability certification schemes and eco-labels are fundamental tools to ensure the sustainability of global production. Although their role in European bioeconomy has grown over the last few decades, still there are a lot of challenges that needs to be addressed in order to be further adopted in the market:
- Different approaches of certification schemes regarding the system operating requirements (e.g sustainability criteria, verification procedures etc)
- Challenging for businesses to select and identify the schemes that are most credible
- Different schemes/labels put emphasis on different environmental impacts of the products
- Eco-labels and schemes are voluntary; therefore, their adoption depends on the benefits that could bring to the companies (economic benefits, social responsibility etc)
In order to ensure the transition to circular biobased systems occurs sustainably, it is important that effective and robust schemes and labels get implemented and further adopted. Moreover, the recognition of the benefits of sustainability certification schemes and labels is needed for their wider adoption by the European industries.
The concept
SUSTCERT4BIOBASED aims to develop the necessary support instruments (knowledge, data, tools etc.) and conclude on key recommendations and best practices that will be communicated to critical stakeholders:
Government and policy makers
Provide data and figures on trade of the biological resources and biobased materials and their level of certification
Monitoring system that can be integrated into the policy process to improve the effectiveness and robustness of schemes/labels
Sustainability system community
Identification of potential weaknesses of their schemes
Enhance the performance of their schemes/labels, accordingly while not compromising their usability and complexity
Industry
Raise awareness of the existing certification schemes and labels
Provide proof of the costs and benefits of their adoption
Regional bioeconomy stakeholders
Recommendations of how to implement the best practices and adopt them in their bioeconomy strategies
The approach
SUSTCERT4BIOBASED has designed a solid methodological approach to support the wider adoption of certification schemes and labels for biobased products in European industries.
The steps that will be followed through the duration of the project:
Project Factsheet
Project title: Sustainability Certification for Biobased Systems
Project acronym: SUSTCERT4BIOBASED
Type: HORIZON-CSA
Call: HORIZON-CL6-2021-ZEROPOLLUTION-01
Grant Agreement nº: 101059785
Duration: 36 months
Total cost: 1,999,750.00