Abstract
Monitoring bioeconomy transitions and their effects can be considered a Herculean task, as they cannot be easily captured using current economic statistics. Distinctions are rarely made between bio-based and non-bio-based products when official data is collected. However, production along bioeconomy supply chains and its implications for sustainability require measurement and assessment to enable considered policymaking. We propose a starting point for monitoring bioeconomy transitions by suggesting an adapted framework, relevant sectors, and indicators that can be observed with existing information and data from many alternative sources, assuming that official data collection methods will not be modified soon. Economic–environmental indicators and innovation indicators are derived for the German surfactant industry based on the premise that combined economic–environmental indicators can show actual developments and trade-offs, while innovation indicators can reveal whether a bioeconomy transition is likely in a sector. Methodological challenges are discussed and low-cost; high-benefit options for further data collection are recommended.
Highlights
Monitoring the bioeconomy is becoming increasingly important, as the demand for products based on biogenic resources, including biomass from agriculture, forestry, fishery, and organic waste, is increasing and new bio-based technologies are being explored in various sectors
We find that transitioning from a fossil- to a bio-based economy is a central objective in most bioeconomy strategies and that relevant substitution processes are occurring in the chemicals industry
We wish to contribute towards the development and measurement of relevant indicators for the economic and environmental impacts of bioeconomies
Summary
Monitoring the bioeconomy is becoming increasingly important, as the demand for products based on biogenic resources, including biomass from agriculture, forestry, fishery, and organic waste, is increasing and new bio-based technologies (e.g., gene editing) are being explored in various sectors. There is, a growing interest among governments in setting up bioeconomy monitoring systems that can enable the measurement and assessment of bioeconomy supply chains—from biomass extraction to consumption and recycling—and their implications for sustainability in order to facilitate considered policymaking [1,2]. Measuring bioeconomy sectors has the advantage that biomass input can be channeled to those sectors that use it most efficiently and effectively in terms of sustainability. Monitoring bioeconomies and their economic, environmental, and social effects can be seen as a Herculean task. Each bioeconomy can be considered a cross-sectoral economy (i.e., an economy spanning various sectors), similar to the environmental economy or health care industry. A key problem for bioeconomy monitoring is that when data is collected by governments for official economic statistics, distinctions are rarely made between bio-based and non-bio-based products. Bioeconomy contributions are not clearly delineated in official statistics, making their complete depiction difficult and presumably costly
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