Trend: green cosmetics
Cosmetic industry takes a renewed interest in biobased resources. Plant-based materials are ‘in’. Not merely because they are in public demand – also because biorefinery delivers a growing supply of plant-based substances. Says Philippe Catroux, of Laboratoires Pierre Fabre, at the Siñal conference last week in Châlons-en-Champagne. Green cosmetics will take the place of bio
Claude Roy: tackle global problems by valorisation of biomass
Claude Roy is a man who paints wide views with inexhaustible energy. As the chairman of the French Club des Bio-économistes his message, voiced for many years is that we need biomass for tackling the world’s major problems. In its highest quality possible, i.e. with priority given to food, materials and chemicals. In France, his
Valorise flower bulbs
Flower bulbs, a wonderful product. Again and again, tourists gasp at the sight of purple, yellow and red fields in Holland’s flower bulb area. Dutch cut flowers and flower bulbs are in great demand. But could not entrepreneurs create value from the multitude of high-quality substances contained in them? And reduce their waste problem at
Logical mistakes on CO2
Our planet’s temperature rises. There is ample proof for that. CO2 emissions are the main reason, we know that for sure as well. We cannot deny that our wealth and craving for energy have caused this. But we can hardly answer the question whether this will have dire consequences for our planet. Surely, we will
Glocal project: Ecover’s experiment on Mallorca
Glocal is the buzzword at Ecover: a term coined from Global and Local. Glocal also is the name of a major Ecover project, together with Forum for the Future, intended to sow the seeds for local production and local circular economies. Ecover first investigates this area on Mallorca, where it intends to produce its articles
Towards an ambitious Europe
In my increasingly eurosceptical home country, The Netherlands, intellectuals take a renewed interest in Europe. The squarely pro-European essay by the Austrian author and essayist Robert Menasse has been translated into Dutch. And the major study of the Belgian researcher Jonathan Holslag ‘De kracht van het paradijs’ (in Dutch, to be translated), a plea for
on: 5 May 2014