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Bio-based Economy - Towards Industrial Sustainability
The transformative ability of biotechnology applied to industrial process in delivering profitability and environmental gains hand-in-hand, and the influential report “The Application of Biotechnology to Industrial Sustainability” (OECD, 2001: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/61/13/1947629.pdf), prepared by the OECD Task Force on Biotechnology for Sustainable Industrial Development, has prompted action in several countries towards delivering a more resilient, more sustainable and more biobased economy.
The focus at the OECD on industrial biotechnology is to identify the potential contribution of biotechnology to sustainable growth and development, and identify and appraise policy options for supply and demand side interventions that can drive efficient transition towards bio-based economy.
Current focus is on supply-side limitations for industrial biotechnology – including on capital supply, human resources and globalisation of R&D. A Workshop to validate the findings of this work is planned to coincide with the 2008 World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology. The Task Force is also reviewing the utility of green and other sustainability indices for biobased products.
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