SUSTCERT4BIOBASED project is set on fostering the adoption of effective and robust sustainability certification schemes and business-to-business labels for industrial biobased systems to support tracing the sustainability of biobased products along the value chains and trades within the EU and globally for responsible production and consumption. To this end, a monitoring system will be developed with a life-cycle perspective along four themes (environment, social, economic and governance) considering the complexity and relationships of all dimensions of sustainability and the rules and procedures on how the schemes are managed. This system will be optimized with pilot audit in practice and testing on existing schemes/labels for biobased systems evaluating their performance in the different themes and their coverage of the list of minimum requirements. Costs and benefits from the adoption of certification schemes and labels will be assessed, considering actual economic as well as internalized environmental and social ones. Data will be generated on volumes of biological resources and biobased products in global trade flow and extent of their certification. We will leverage the results of the project to provide best practices and recommendations to 4 key target groups: policy makers, sustainability system community, industrial biobased value chain actors, and regional/rural bioeconomy stakeholders. Our vision is that this will result in harmonized system requirements, continuous improvement and enhanced adoption of sustainability certification schemes and labels, and provide a significant contribution towards establishing a circular and sustainable bio-based industry for Europe contributing to the Bioeconomy Strategy and Green Deal. The large multi-sectorial stakeholders involvement (through an international Network of Interest domain and a comprehensive Advisory Board) will enable SUSTCERT4BIOBASED to increase outreach and aligning with ongoing international efforts.

The aim of the 3-CO project is to develop and demonstrate viability of a supportive framework for Label and Certification Schemes (LCS) on Business-to-Consumers (B2C) communication for industrial bio-based products (BBPs) that enables and supports consumers to make more sustainable buying choices. The supportive framework will consist of actionable guidelines for LCS owners that reflect consumers and other stakeholders needs, digital solutions to support better-informed decision-making processes of consumers as well as policy recommendations on deploying social measures. In terms of approach, 3-CO will (i) assess the LCS and metrics in the bioeconomy, (ii) iteratively engage consumers to understand their decision-making processes and motivation towards sustainability consumption, and needs and requirements towards future labelling of BBPs, (iii) co-develop smart digital solutions for consumers to support their behavioural change towards responsible consumption, (iv) assess measures for social engagement/innovation supporting consumers, industry and public bodies to switch towards socially and environmentally responsible behaviour, and (v) create guidelines for the design of labels for BBPs for owners of environmental labelling and information systems, public authorities and industry designers. The project aims to improve the sustainability performance and competitiveness in the bio-based systems. Impact of the 3-CO project will include (i) improved transparency of BBP value chains and information to consumers and public authorities through digital solutions, (ii) support of environmentally responsible decision-making through LCS, (iii) improved understanding of metrics on environmental, societal and economic value generated by BBPs, and as a wider impact (iv) innovative governance models. 3-CO will help to increase the market share of sustainable, circular BBPs, influencing the business of companies that make and offer these.

The CEWASTE project contributes to an improved recovery of valuable and critical raw materials (CRMs) from key types of waste through traceable and sustainable treatment processes in the entire supply chain of secondary raw materials. As such, CEWASTE will address the specific challenge to secure the sustainable access to CRMs for the EU economy and objectives set by the EU action plan for the Circular Economy, the issue of illegal trade of wastes within the EU and to non-EU countries and the need to support the development of environmentally and socially sound recycling systems globally. Specifically, the project will develop, validate and launch a voluntary certification scheme for collection, transport and treatment facilities of key types of waste containing significant amounts of valuable and critical raw materials. To ensure a comprehensive approach and a robust result, the project will be developed along the following six specific objectives: Objective 1 - Understand existing recovery practice, standards and verification schemes; Objective 2 - Develop sustainability and traceability requirements; Objective 3 - Develop an assurance system and related verification procedures; Objective 4 - Validate the new voluntary scheme; Objective 5 - Ensure long term sustainability of the scheme; Objective 6 - Ensure a transparent stakeholder process.

Digi-Label will design and deliver digital tools and solutions to compliment the EU energy label. Through these we aim to positively influence consumer buying choices and ultimately deliver greater energy savings and increased market share of the highest performing appliances. The consortium will target 4 of the top 5 EU economies – Germany, Spain, Italy and the UK – leveraging the biggest impact on energy saving – through established commitments from manufacturers and retailers to test and launch the digital solutions. The Digi-Label approach brings together a highly experienced consortium including CLASP, EEB, Fraunhofer, SEVEn and the Energy Saving Trust, with proven expertise in energy labelling of products, dissemination & communication, European and International project management of energy labelling programmes, manufacturer and retailer stakeholder relationship management, evaluation and consumer engagement.

STAR-ProBio constitutes a multidisciplinary and multi-actor collaborative project that will meet environmental, social and economic challenges, paving the way for a much-needed sustainability transition towards a bio-based economy. The overall objective of the project is to promote a more efficient and harmonized policy regulation framework, needed to promote the market-pull of bio-based products. This will be achieved by developing a fit-for-purpose sustainability scheme, including standards, labels and certifications for bio-based products. To this aim, an integral part of STAR-ProBio will be the adoption of life-cycle methodologies to assess the roll-out of bio-based products. Environmental assessment will be performed, through LCA, in a circular economy framework (with a focus on end-of-life analysis) looking at issues which emerge upstream and downstream the value chain. This will be complemented by a techno-economic assessment and by a social impact assessment conducted through stakeholder analysis, SLCA, surveys and field experiments. Indirect land use change issues (ILUC) will also be addressed from an environmental, economic and social perspective. Moreover, the analysis of selected case studies on (1) construction materials, (2) bio-based polymers, and (3) fine chemicals, will ensure that the approach is not too broad and theoretic, allowing the benchmarking against non bio-based products. Hence, STAR-ProBio will integrate scientific and engineering approaches with social sciences and humanities-based approaches in order to formulate guidelines for a common framework promoting the development of regulations and standards to support the adoption of business innovation models in the bio-based products sector.