Room: Poster Area
Date: Monday, 24 June 2024
Time: 16:15 - 17:15 CEST
Session code 2AV.3
Sustainability assessments and stakeholders inclusion in bioenergy and bioeconomy
A System to Assess and Monitor the Sustainability Performance of Existing Sustainability Certification Schemes for Biobased Systems
Short Introductive summary
A plethora of certifications and labels have been developed as major tools for global production and trade to become more sustainable and for the private sector to demonstrate corporate responsibility. Yet, there must be ways to evaluate the performance of these tools. The goal is to develop a monitoring system to assess the effectiveness, robustness, and comprehensiveness of existing certification schemes. The SUSTCERT4BIOBASED project leads the development of the content level of the joint monitoring system (JMS). This level focuses on assessing the sustainability requirements of certification schemes. For the development of the content level, sustainability principles and criteria in relevant EU legislation, certification schemes, studies in the field of sustainable bioeconomy and existing monitoring/benchmarking tools and guidelines were reviewed. The content level of the JMS was developed by building upon this information. It is structured into four dimensions: economic, environmental, social and circularity. For each dimension, a set of principles, criteria, and indicators were defined. Furthermore, an evaluation mechanism was developed to assess schemes for each principle.
Presenter
Heleen BALLEMANS
Wageningen Research, THE NETHERLANDS
Presenter's biography
Heleen is a researcher at Wageningen Food & Biobased Research. She holds a MSc in Industrial Ecology, and has experience as an advisor for several governmental organizations. With her strong intrinsic motivation she seeks to bridge the gap between science and practice towards a sustainable society.
Biographies and Short introductive summaries are supplied directly by presenters and are published here unedited
Co-authors:
H. Ballemans, Wageningen Food & Biobased Research, Wageningen, THE NETHERLANDS
L. Vayrynen, Environmental Coalition on Standards, Brussels, BELGIUM
M. Waite, Environmental Coalition on Standards, Brussels, BELGIUM
M. Lopez, Environmental Coalition on Standards, Brussels, BELGIUM
M. Crepy, Environmental Coalition on Standards, Brussels, BELGIUM
Session reference: 2AV.3.5