ESCIB: Developing environmental sustainability and circularity assessment methodologies for industrial bio-based systems

ESCIB will develop a robust method to assess the environmental sustainability and circularity of bio-based systems, taking into account spatial-explicit environmental impacts and temporal-explicit circularity measurements.

Central to ESCIB's mission is to tackle many unsolved methodological challenges when assessing bio-based systems. To ensure sustainable bio-based production, the environmental impacts caused by land use changes, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, soil organic carbon and freshwater availability, need to be better understood. These impacts are highly spatiotemporal dependent and often underreported due to a lack of high-resolution data and models.

A European collaboration

The Energy & Resources group at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development is responsible for WP3 in ESCIB, where we will develop dynamic life cycle assessment models to quantify spatiotemporal environmental impacts of biomass production at a high resolution.

In addition, the circularity assessment of circular-biobased production at both low and high TRLs will be investigated in close collaboration with industrial partners. Through in-depth research and collaborative efforts, ESCIB is poised to drive a significant shift towards a more sustainable and eco-conscious future. The consortium comprises twelve European entities from Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Finland, Austria, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, each bringing expertise in the bio-based economy.

The project is funded by the European Commission through Horizon Europe and runs from 2024 to 2028.