It is becoming more and more apparent in everyday life that our rapidly changing world is limited by increasingly strained planetary boundaries. Bio-based products can but do not necessarily reduce this strain. That is why we apply prospective sustainability assessment tools to addresses risks and barriers of the products and technologies developed in this project. This will guide EnXylaScope towards a positive contribution to our well-being and enable long-term success.

Climate change is only one of the planetary boundaries that is increasingly exceeded. Replacing fossil-based products by bio-based products can lead to substantial climate change mitigation but often at the same time increases strain on other planetary boundaries. Many of these boundaries are under pressure by unsustainable agriculture and forestry. Furthermore, fair and socially sustainable production needs to be guaranteed. Unsustainable products do not only endanger our well-being but their business perspectives are endangered, too.

EnXylaScope aims to develop sustainable bio-based products. The project therefore includes a comprehensive prospective sustainability assessment to provide decision support towards this goal. The IFEU – Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Heidelberg contributes this sustainability assessment in close collaboration with Celignis and supported by the whole project consortium. The assessment is based on the methodology integrated life cycle sustainability assessment (ILCSA) that been developed and is successfully applied for more than ten years by IFEU. Within this project, ILCSA integrates parallel assessments of techno-economic, environmental and social sustainability aspects by introducing common definitions, settings and system models. Additionally, it will later on integrate all results and address potential synergies and conflicts regarding several sustainability goals. This way, coherent decision support can e provided to support a sustainable implementation and long-term success of the technologies and products developed by EnXylaScope.