The European Commission may renounce its former renewable fuel directive, and plans to lower the required renewable fuel percentage from 10 to 5%. The ethanol industry is furious, and accuses the Commission of an ‘irresponsible U-turn on biofuels policy’. Could … Read more
Seaweed for human consumption. In the Far East, it has been on the menu for ages. In our bioshops it is quite expensive nowadays – but in the Western world, seaweed harvested in the wild, was poor people’s food, and … Read more
The environmental movement of the seventies, precursor to the present movement for sustainability, was largely anti-technological. Technology seemed to be inherently large-scale; it produced nuclear power stations and polluting chemical complexes. But technology has taken a turn into the opposite … Read more
The Austrian healthcare Biotech SME ProtAffin AG and the French Global Bioenergies are the joint winners of the Most Innovative Biotech SME Award 2012. EuropaBio names three other outstanding runners up: Green Biologics Ltd, from the UK, Promethera BioSciences from … Read more
Item in the discussion series on shale gas on this site. The European Parliament Environmental Committee is of the opinion that member states should be prudent in drilling for shale gas, until better data are available about risks. According to … Read more
Upon hearing the word bonobo, many (in particular intellectual males) exclaim: sex!, and they beam all over. Yes, it is true: sex is important in the life of the bonobo, much more so than in that of our other nearest … Read more
Sorry, this column about a discussion in The Hague, 17 September, on biobased business opportunities, is only available in Dutch.
China’s 11th Five-Year Plan contains plans for development of the next generation of biomedical material applications, as the nation seeks to meet the growing demands of an aging population. Its declared goal, according to a Lux Research report China’s Expanding … Read more
We barely published an article intended to open up a discussion on the effect of cheap shale gas on the biobased economy ( September 2012), when Amory Lovins and Jon Creyts of the Rocky Mountain Institute published a column ‘Hot … Read more
In a column on this site, dated 21 August, Lucas Reijnders is of the opinion that presently available bioplastics are more environmentally harmful than the most common fossil-based plastics. He refers to the ‘Pittsburgh Study’, a heavily criticized source with … Read more
Schuttelaar and Partners organise a political café in Nieuwspoort, The Hague, in the afternoon of 17 September. The theme is: ‘Biomass, boundlessly sustainable’. For details, we refer to the Dutch text.
Sustainability has been a topic for some time: for forty years (counting from the ‘Limits to Growth’ report), or even for fifty years (counting from Rachel Carson’s ‘Silent Spring’). During those years, it has moved from the periphery to the … Read more
Until quite recently, a few developments seemed to be clear, at least to the editors of this website. The economy would become more sustainable by finding alternatives for oil (over the peak), natural gas (source of international conflict), and coal … Read more
‘It is easier said than done, in discussions on the biobased economy, to return the minerals to the land. The question often overlooked is, whether the farmer needs them at that specific moment. That is the question we address in … Read more
Sorry, this blog on sustainability in the Dutch elections is only available in Dutch.