Abstract
The capacity to demonstrate the sustainability of bio-based products is crucial for promoting the full deployment of a circular bio-based economy, and for boosting new products’ market uptake. Hence, there is a growing need to deliver methodological guidance to companies on assessing the sustainability of their innovative and claimed sustainable bio-based products. In this regards, the present article proposes a tool for assessing the sustainability of bio-based products, addressing the most relevant sustainability aspects (i.e. environmental, social, economic and circular) from a life cycle perspective. The proposed integrated assessment tool (IAT) is the result of a transdisciplinary process involving contributions from both industry and academia. To this end, the research involved numerous repeat interactions with practitioners and researchers to guide the selection of relevant areas of sustainability protection and related indicators and metrics, for ultimate inclusion in the tool. Multi-stakeholder workshops, webinars and expert interviews were also employed in the development of the tool´s functional elements (i.e. data collection, scoring, communication). The resulting tool consists of 48 sustainability indicators with proposed metrics based on existing standards, methodologies and best practices in sustainability assessment. The tool scoring system allows users to compare the performance of their bio-based product to an “ideal”. A key finding of the research is that, to produce a complete and reliable sustainability assessment, effective collaboration between economic operators along the bio-based value chain is needed. Furthermore, overall sustainability performance, particularly with respect to the life cycle assessment indicators, are heavily influenced by the type of biomass and related agricultural practices. It is therefore recommended to employ the tool on a case by case basis, maximizing the use of primary data.
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