The European Forest Institute’s International Partnerships Facility has launched the Forest Governance Index (FGI) website, a platform designed to deepen understanding of forest governance and facilitate collaboration among stakeholders committed to sustainable forest management.
Avantium N.V., a leading company in renewable and circular polymer materials, started a strategic collaboration with leading textile innovators Auping, Monosuisse and Antex. This partnership – the Dutch company states – aims to develop PEF-based yarns, to be used in mattresses for Auping. “This collaboration demonstrates the broad potential of fibers and yarns made from Avantium’s PEF across different application areas, supporting the introduction of PEF to the everyday life of consumers.”
UPM Biochemicals and Nokian Tyres, a leading developer and manufacturer of premium tires, are set for an industry first with its concept tire partly based on UPM BioMotion™ Renewable Functional Fillers (RFF). The partnership will launch UPM’s CO₂-negative Renewable Functional Fillers (From cradle to gate, considering biogenic carbon from UPM’s feedstock and purchasing 100% green electricity) into a new market segment and highlights the possibilities to use a lighter weight, 100% renewable alternative to traditional CO₂-intensive fillers.
Roquette, a global leader in plant-based ingredients and a major supplier of pharmaceutical excipients, presented its life+nature program, aimed at renewing and strengthening its sustainability approach, and defining some ambitious targets for 2030. In the coming years, the group is committed to decarbonizing its activities by reducing its direct and indirect emissions, making its product offering more sustainable by systematically integrating eco-design, and continuing to put people at the heart of its strategy in terms of health, safety, well-being, ethics, diversity and inclusion – whether they are Roquette employees, customers, suppliers or the local communities where it operates.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recently joined the National Commission on Research, Science, and Technology (NCRST) to officially launch Namibia’s very first Sustainable Bioeconomy Strategy 2024-2029. This landmark strategy, developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Higher Education, Technology, and Innovation (MHETI), represents a significant milestone as Namibia becomes the second African country to adopt a National Bioeconomy Strategy.
The Mitsubishi Chemical Group’s biomass-based polycarbonatediol (PCD) BENEBiOL was selected by Citizen Watch Co. for use in its fall/winter 2024 CITIZEN PROMASTER model. BENEBiOL™ will be used as a raw material for polyurethane for the watch band.
Artigo, an international rubber flooring company based in Italy, will produce their next-generation flooring collections from 2025 with UPM BioMotion™ Renewable Functional Fillers (RFF). By incorporating UPM Biochemicals’ RFF, Artigo has achieved CO2 footprint savings of up to 0.5 kg CO2e/sq. meter and managed to reduce the weight by up to 5% per square meter flooring.
The Compostable By Design Platform (CBDP) was launched in Europe by a group of leaders of compostable materials value chain with TotalEnergies Corbion has one of the steering group members. The platform gathers stakeholders representing the entire value chain from raw material producers, converters, brand owners to waste management organizations as well as testing and certification bodies.
INEOS Inovyn launched two new PVC pilot plants at its Jemeppe-sur-Sambre site in Belgium, to accelerate technologies for recycling PVC which is not mechanically recyclable today. It forms part of a strategic ‘Project Circle’ initiative, which aims to commission an industrial unit with a 40KT recyclable capacity by 2030. To strengthen the technical and commercial development, INEOS Inovyn joined two value chain consortiums supported by the Walloon and Flemish authorities.
Boeing is buying 9.4 million gallons (35.6 million liters) of blended sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to support its 2024 U.S. commercial operations, reducing its carbon emissions and working to help grow the supply of the fuel globally. This is the company’s largest annual SAF purchase, more than 60% higher than its buy in 2023. The blended fuel – 30% SAF made from waste by-products such as fats, oils, and greases and 70% conventional jet fuel – will support the Boeing ecoDemonstrator program and Boeing U.S. commercial operational flights.
IL BIOECONOMISTA 