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The goal of this work was to evaluate the socio-economic and environmental life cycle advantages of alternative defossilization pathways for a bio-based industrial network in Central Germany. Five scenarios were defined considering the potential energy utilization of further regionally available biomass capacities. The evaluation was made using an integrated approach, i.e., using a traditional life cycle assessment methodology, complemented by a regionalized socio-economic life cycle assessment framework. The results show that the environmental advantages from the change in energy provisioning reduced about 5% of the total environmental impacts. The analysis of the socio-economic impacts shows that the path to defossilization of the integrated network provides a clear enhancement of the expected regional socio-economic impacts. These results show that 100% decoupling from natural gas brings overall positive sustainability advantages to all organizations participating in the evaluated value chains. The methodological approach presented in this work can allow the identification of hotspots and opportunities within the regions where the implementation of technological alternatives takes place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A future bioeconomy pursues the transformation of the resource base from fossil to renewable materials in an effort to develop a holistic, sustainable production and provision system. While the significance of this change in the German context is not yet entirely explored, scenarios analysing possible pathways could support the understanding of these changes and their systemic implications. Bioeconomy in detail depends on respective framework conditions, such as the availability of biomass or technological research priorities. Thus, for scenario creation, transferable methods for flexible input settings are needed. Addressing this issue, the study identifies relevant bioeconomy scenario drivers. With the theoretical approach of narrative analysis, 92 statements of the German National Bioeconomy Strategy 2020 have been evaluated and 21 international studies in a STEEPLE framework were assessed. For a future German bioeconomy 19 important drivers could be determined and specific aspects of the resource base, production processes and products as well as overarching issues were exploratively characterised on a quantitative and qualitative basis. The developed method demonstrate an approach for a transparent scenario driver identification that is applicable to other strategy papers. The results illustrate a possible future German bioeconomy that is resource- and technology-driven by following a value-based objective, and which is supplied by biogenic residue and side product feedstocks. As such, the bioeconomy scenario drivers can be used as a starting point for future research like scenario development or modelling of a future German bioeconomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As bioeconomy strategies strive to integrate industrial sectors for achieving innovative materials alternative to the ones produced from non-renewable resources, the development of monitoring systems and tools to assess the implementation of such value chains is still a work in progress. This work intended to integrate the traditional life cycle assessment with a regionalized social life cycle assessment method to evaluate alternative production scenarios of a hybrid construction system with a wood-based lightweight concrete panel as a core component currently in its final stages of technical development. The life cycle impact assessment was carried out by comparing the relative advantages of two product development scenarios against the reference system's results. The social life cycle assessment was carried out using the model "REgional SPecific cONtextualised Social life cycle Assessment" (RESPONSA), which was developed for assessing wood-based value chains under a regional scope. The results showed that both alternative scenarios present large advantages when compared to the reference system. Moreover, the implementation of the production value chain was found to imply positive socioeconomic advantages in the region, in particular, due to the quality of the jobs found in the organizations associated with the production system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Using the World Café with La Prospective enhances acknowledgement of complexity. • Future studies fit as relevant science for sustainability of complex systems. • Biogas systems from an holistic perspective can be understood with future studies. • Biogas is strategic for waste and residue management in the circular bioeconomy. Biogas currently plays an important role in the German energy mix - mainly as a way to produce electricity; but will this still be the case in 2050? This paper addresses this question by studying the system's future to better understand the next actions it should take in the present. It aims to determine the key influential factors in the evolution of the biogas system with the goal of understanding its integration in the wider energy systems of 2050. A sequential, mixed and multidisciplinary system method was used based on the methodology of la prospective : a common methodology for future research and scenario planning. These key influential factors have the most links within the biogas system and are both highly dependent and highly influential. Thus they can be strategically managed to influence the system as a whole. The primary finding of the study is that biogas should be more strategically employed in waste and residue management, playing a stronger role in the circular bioeconomy, as opposed to its current role as an electricity generator. Furthermore, the paper identified the factors green jobs creation , flexible small biogas technology innovations and carbon capture and utilization technologies as possible indicators of the evolution of the system. Finally, this study shows that the applied methodology is a sound way of determining how a complex system may be assessed and identifies the factors that can influence its development towards more complex solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A bioeconomy tackles sustainable development at both the global and regional levels, as it relies on the optimized use of renewable bio-based resources for the provisioning of food, materials, and energy to meet societal demands. The effects of the bioeconomy can be best observed at a regional level, as it supports regional development and affects the social dimension of sustainability. In order to assess the social impacts of wood-based production chains with regional differentiation, the social life cycle assessment framework "RESPONSA" was established in 2018. We present an initial study, in which this method is applied to an exemplary production chain in a case study of laminated veneer lumber produced in central Germany. The results show a relatively better social performance compared to the reference economic sector, reflecting a relatively low rate of female employees as a major social hotspot. Several social opportunities are identified, in terms of health and safety, equal opportunities, and adequate remuneration, for the organization taking part in the value chain. Finally, considering the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a global normative framework, a number of additional indicators for RESPONSA, as well as further developments and recommendations regarding its application in other regions and the upcoming social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) guidelines, are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade, the bioeconomy has become increasingly important and visible in international policy agendas, with several strategies being recently developed. The implementation of bio-based technologies mostly takes place on a regional scale. Therefore, from a regional perspective, a key question revolves around what main challenges are associated with technological developments that could catalyze the implementation of sustainable bioeconomy regions. In this study, a cross-cutting analysis was carried out to determine these challenges. First, interviews were conducted with industry practitioners and scientists working in the bioeconomy field. These interviews were supplemented with a literature review to determine the status quo of bioeconomy strategies and their implementation, particularly on a regional level. A multidisciplinary workshop was then organized to identify the most relevant challenges in the short- and mid-term associated with establishing bioeconomy regions. The results show that there is a three-pronged challenge in innovative technological development from a regional perspective: (1) Resources: The establishment of sustainable regional feedstock strategies and supplies for supporting the bio-industrial sector; (2) collaborators: The establishment of a regional "critical mass" by fostering supply chain clusters and networks; and (3) neighbors: Understanding the local dynamics of societal trends and preferences and social acceptance of bio-technologies and their representative bio-based products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bioeconomy as an industrial metabolism based on renewable resources is characterized by, not intrinsic, but rather potential benefits for global sustainability, depending on many factors and actors. Hence, an appropriate systematic monitoring of its development is vital and complexly linked to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as diverse stakeholder expectations. To structure a framework of the important aspects of such a monitoring system, we conducted a series of stakeholder workshops to assess the relevance of SDGs for the bioeconomy. Our results show how the complexities of these issues are perceived by 64 stakeholders, indicating significant commonalities and differences among six SDGs, including specific interests, perceptions, and, in some cases, counterintuitive and contradictory issues. Eventually, the idea of a bioeconomy is a question of the perception of ends and means of a societal transformation toward holistic sustainability. Global implications like trade-offs, hunger, poverty, and inequalities are aspects of high relevance for monitoring of bioeconomy regions in which they actually do not seem to be substantial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a part of the developing bioeconomy, liquid biofuels may play an important role for transportation due to the hope for a sustainable drop-in alternative to substitute fossil fuels and maintaining existing economic infrastructures. In this case study we applied Holistic and Integrated Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment to a prospective technical concept for the production of biofuels from wood residues, sorghum and straw via gasification and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis located in the German federal state Brandenburg. Through this quantitative and qualitative sustainability assessment we identified synergies and hot-spots of biofuel production on a detailed and aggregated level, as well as compare the impacts to fossil fuels and other alternative transport systems. 99 social, ecological and economic indicator results addressing 14 out of 17 SDGs show contributions but also sustainability risks of such biofuels for the SDGs. The total substitution factor of impacts (f = 21.38) for all indicators of biofuels compared to fossil fuels indicates significantly higher impacts of biofuels production, in particular for land (SDG 15, f = 30.43), water (SDG 14, f = 125.57), consumption and production patterns (SDG 12, f = 54.11), low energy efficiency and maintaining problematic global supply chains and working conditions. However, the impacts on climate can be lower (SDG 13, f = 0.42), if residual heat is effectively and efficiently used. Comparing the transportation systems and use phases of fuels, all types of car-based individual transportation including fossil fuels (f = 6.50), biofuels (f = 9.16) and electric drive (f = 6.46) had significant higher impacts than transportation by train. Besides technological downsides, such as the high energy demand, biofuels may play a minor role for specific applications with no other alternative energy technologies in the future. In conclusion, it is very questionable whether such liquid biofuels are a suitable drop-in solution to substitute fossil fuels in a significant quantity. In a final discussion we referred to the necessary societal-ecological transformation with structural changes of production, consumption, political economy and global supply chains. In the future, Holistic and Integrated Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment will be further improved by closing indicator and database gaps, including a cost analysis and direct stakeholder participation, as well as absolute sustainability assessments on how much biofuel production is sustainable. [Display omitted] • A Holistic and Integrated Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment analyses impacts, synergies, trade-offs & political economy. • Biofuels can have less CO 2 emissions but more social, ecological & economic risks. • Regional bioeconomy can maintain problems in global supply chains. • Biofuels from this technology are not a drop-in solution to substitute fossil fuels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The German Bioeconomy focuses on innovation and in particular on the smart mobilization of resources to produce high-value-added bio-based products, processes and services. In the case of the production of biofuels, the demand for reducing fossil fuel utilization has placed the focus on second-generation biofuel value chains, which mobilize residual streams as their main biomass feedstocks. However, while the environmental impacts of these value chains have been studied using life-cycle approaches, little attention has been given to their social implications. This work aims to fill this gap by assessing the potential social hotspots associated with the production of second-generation biofuel through a prospective case study in Eastern Germany. We use the RESPONSA framework, a regionalized social life cycle assessment developed specifically for assessing value chains of the German Bioeconomy. The results for 22 social indicators reveal that while biofuel production generates employment opportunities, aspects such as working conditions, support for professional qualification, and workers' participation have an overall poor social performance. The results lead to conclude that socioeconomic issues related to advanced biofuel production persist, exhibiting a socioeconomic disparity, with employment creation being the only area of socioeconomic benefit. Yet, there is a contradiction between job creation and addressing broader social issues in the biofuel industry, which underlines the need for a balanced approach to reconcile environmental objectives with social development. These results provide an opportunity to discuss how to mitigate the negative social impacts of second-generation biofuel production in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]