Attitudes on and criteria for sustainable bioproducts

Delft University of Technology, Department of Biotechnology, Biotechnology and Society group, Julianalaan 67, 2628 BC Delft, The Netherlands

While “sustainability” as a term was specifically put on the agenda beginning with the Brundtland report, the clear definition of it remained vague. Many different stakeholders have been trying to push for their own concepts and priorities. Today, the term seems to become more established and operationalized with actors framing sustainability with measurable environmental, social and economic parameters.

This project seeks to advance our understanding of sustainability and its “DNA”/core concepts through studying the attitudes and criteria put in place relating to the sustainability of food and biomass products. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, this PhD project identifies and explores different concepts and priorities within industry, in certification schemes and by consumers.

The project focuses on commodities and production chains where sustainability has been declared a goal. Specifically analysed are multi-stakeholder initiatives, labels and EU policies like the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the EU Biofuels Directive, Fairtrade and the Rainforest Alliance seal, and others. With international collaborations, it aims to study the consumer sustainability criteria, priorities and potential buying behaviour for food and biomass products in at least five countries around the world.

The project will provide insights how sustainability of food and biomass products, the assessment practices and their communication are understood and supported by consumers and the society at large. The findings could be the basis for improvements in sustainability assessments and efforts for more sustainability by showing if there is a disconnect between consumer wishes and current practices and lead to changes, more communication and/or public engagement activities of the stakeholders. What should the ideal sustainability label for food and biomass be like?

Find more information also on http://www.biosustainable.net and follow news on the project and on sustainability and bioproducts via the project Twitter account and Facebook page.

Jean-Baptiste Michel*, Yuan Kui Shen, Aviva Presser Aiden, Adrian Veres, Matthew K. Gray, William Brockman, The Google Books Team, Joseph P. Pickett, Dale Hoiberg, Dan Clancy, Peter Norvig, Jon Orwant, Steven Pinker, Martin A. Nowak, and Erez Lieberman Aiden*. Quantitative Analysis of Culture Using Millions of Digitized Books. Science (Published online ahead of print: 12/16/2010)

More information about the Ngram viewer also here and here. The database on which the paper is based is also available on the last link for more detailed, reliable and scientific analysis. For the sake of this blogpost, I will stick to the Ngram viewer results.

An analysis of all these books reveals a sharp increase after the release of the Brundtland report, approximately 10fold, of the usage of both the terms “sustainable” and “sustainability”, particularly in the 90′s. In recent years, the usage seems to level off a little bit, although the database gets, according to the scientists, less reliable after the year 2000. Sustainable ranks higher, probably due to the fact that its usage is more common also in everyday language.

The magnitude of an approximate 10fold increase stays the same for the term “environmentally sustainable”  - it however shows a much lower increase for the usage of the terms “socially sustainable” and “economically sustainable” both ‘only’ doubling in usage.

Similar results can be seen for the term environmental sustainability in comparison to social and economic sustainability.

So overall, also the google books analysis supports the theory that the usage of the term, so at least the awareness of the sustainability definition, is stronger linked to environmental aspekts then to social or economic ones. Is this because this is the area that is perceived to need the most attention? Is it because of historical reasons? And is this selective attention also reflected in the sustainability criteria of food and biomass certification schemes and in the awareness and attitudes of consumers? That is what I am trying to find out with my PhD…

Master Project:
Sustainability of food, biofuels and agriculture in the media: a news framing analysis

The term “sustainability” became an item on the political agenda and in the media with the publication of the Brundtland report, in which it was first defined. The Brundlandt commission defined sustainable development as an approach to economic and industrial development by which one meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations. Over time, this somewhat philosophical definition has become enriched with some 200 alternative definitions in scientific literature, in literature on certification and by different stakeholder groups (NGO’s, industry, governmental papers). Current definitions are broader than the original one and take into consideration social, economic and environmental aspects.

The project ‘sustainability of food, biofuels and agriculture in the media’ seeks to contribute to the emerging field of sustainability research by studying sustainability definitions and sustainability criteria in the national and international media. It is embedded in a broader research project on sustainability of bioproducts. The aim is to get a view on how, in the media, the term sustainability has developed over time and which are and have been the main drivers behind sustainability.

Description of Qualifications

The Master student has an interest in environmental, social and economic perspectives of sustainability. Proficient command of English and one of the following languages is a requirement: Dutch, French, German or Portuguese. Experience in quantitative and qualitative content analysis with an emphasis on framing analysis is a plus. This is not a paid position.
European applicants might be eligible for an Erasmus Mundus scholarship. For eligibility criteria, see: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus_mundus/

About the TUDelft:
A fascination for science, design and engineering is the common denominator driving the 13,000 bachelor and master students and the 5000 employees of TU Delft. Delft University of Technology is not only the oldest, but also the largest university of technology of the Netherlands: a university constantly seeking outstanding talent to keep the research and education of this unique institution top-ranked. More info on www.tudelft.nl .

Information and application
If you have questions or want to apply for the position, you are welcome to contact Sebastian Olényi (details below). Applications should contain a letter of motivation and a detailed CV.
Sebastian Olényi
Biotechnology and Society group
TU Delft
Julianalaan 67
2628 BC Delft, The Netherlands
T +31 (0)15 27 89308
Email: s(dot)olenyi(at)tudelft(dot)nl

Find more information about the research project under: http://www.biosustainable.net .

Find the project description also here as a pdf download.

Representation of how sustainability perception seems to be with the general public. Image: Sebastian Olenyi with Powerpoint.

In the literature, but also in the first interviews that I am leading on sustainability, it becomes obvious that sustainability is perceived and communicated today mainly under an environmental perspective. Social and economic considerations play only a minor role, if at all, and a hierarchy seems to become obvious.

That should on the one hand not be that surprising, given the strong roots of the political roots of the word in the environmental movement. One can clearly link the emergence of the popularity of sustainability as being important in the political arena to the Agenda 21 process and the Brundtland report. Especially the latter has an almost exclusive environmental focus.

On the other hand, that might be a bit short sighted and will not be helpful to achieve true sustainability. Looking exclusively at the environment, leaving out the “people profit”-dimension, the economic and social components, will weaken the usefulness of the word as a boundary object and potentially also the efforts for a holistic approach towards sustainability.

Representation on how sustainability priorities of companies seem to be. Image: Sebastian Olenyi with Powerpoint.

It also seems like the economic dimension, despite being crucial for companies and being prioritized by them, is not necessarily being considered as effort towards sustainability.

I would argue that striving for profits of course ensures a company’s survival and is essential for sustainability if the company contributes anything to it. Defining sustainability as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, most company leaders probably believe to contribute to some sustainability. And some of them do – optimizing efficiency with new products often leads to more sustainable solutions in terms of energy, water or other resource usage. In a capitalistic society with very little exceptions, the economic dimension is just as important as the other ones. One does not work without the other.

Idealized representation of sustainability - see also Wikipedia and Adams, W.M. (2006). "The Future of Sustainability: Re-thinking Environment and Development in the Twenty-first Century." Report of the IUCN Renowned Thinkers Meeting, 29–31 January 2006.

I would argue that the three pillars of sustainability are equally important and that the definition and perception of sustainability should take into consideration all aspects of it more equally – what do you think?

"Nested sustainability" by wikipedia user Sunray, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Opening the blog with a decent post about the project was important, so here is what I have been looking into over the last weeks: What are the definitions and concepts of sustainability?

Some write that there are over 200 different definitions of the term, and wikipedia gives a fairly interesting overview on the topic, yet staying – as encyclopedias are supposed to – very politically correct and vague in some aspects. Frankly: It is a mess. So many actors use and misuse the term that it is a jungle, even though my focus is on biomass, agriculture and food production “only”. To start off, reading a lot should be helpful, and I am working on a literature review. Find here a first outline of the list of publications which I am looking at to learn more about the definitions and concepts of sustainability; I found much more papers also about sustainability labels and sustainable consumer behavior which I will show in another post and read a bit later.

1. Hueting R. The Brundtland report : A matter of conflicting goals. Ecological Economics. 1990;2(2):109 – 117. Available at: http://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v2y1990i2p109-117.html .

2. Heiskanen E, Pantzar M. Toward Sustainable Consumption: Two New Perspectives. Springer Netherlands; 1997:409-442-442. Available at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/g510h15466807414/.

3. Kagawa F. Dissonance in students’ perceptions of sustainable development and sustainability: Implications for curriculum change. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. 2007;8(3):317-338. Available at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=1467-6370&volume=8&issue=3&articleid=1621388&show=html.

4. Kates R, Parris T, Leiserowitz A. What is sustainable development? Environment. 2005;47(3):8 – 21. Available at: http://www.citeulike.org/user/buter/article/5720914.

5. Kraxner F, Yang J, Yamagata Y. Attitudes towards forest, biomass and certification–a case study approach to integrate public opinion in Japan. Bioresource technology. 2009;100(17):4058-61. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2009.03.056.

6. MACNAGHTEN P, JACOBS M. Public identification with sustainable development Investigating cultural barriers to participation. Global Environmental Change. 1997;7(1):5-24. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0959-3780(96)00023-4.

7. Marshall JD, Toffel MW. Framing the Elusive Concept of Sustainability:  A Sustainability Hierarchy. Environmental Science & Technology. 2005;39(3):673-682. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es040394k.

8. McDonald S, Oates CJ. Sustainability: Consumer Perceptions and Marketing Strategies. Business Strategy and the Environment. 2006;15(3):157-170. Available at: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/bse.524.

9. MCGREGOR A. Sustainable development and “warm fuzzy feelings”: discourse and nature within Australian environmental imaginaries. Geoforum. 2004;35(5):593-606. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2004.02.001.

10. Shi T. Operationalizing Sustainability: An Emerging Eco-Philosophy in Chinese Ecological Agriculture. Journal of Sustainable Agriculture. 2004;24(4):113-131. Available at: http://www.informaworld.com/10.1300/J064v24n04_09.

11. Stiller Y, Daub C-H. Paving the way for sustainability communication: evidence from a Swiss study. Business Strategy and the Environment. 2007;16(7):474-486. Available at: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/bse.599.

12. Verbeke W. Consumer attitudes toward genetic modification and sustainability: implications for the future of biorenewables. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining. 2007;1(3):215-225. Available at: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/bbb.27.

13. Anon. Public perceptions and sustainability in Lancashire. Available at: http://csec.lancs.ac.uk/docs/lancashire_public_perceptions_reportmacnaghten.pdf

14. Anon. Community Surveys: Measuring Citizens’ Attitudes Toward Sustainability . Available at: http://www.joe.org/joe/1999june/a2.php.

It is a pretty arbitrary collection obtained mostly via google scholar, and I will look into them also for more references. Still, I would be happy for (a limited amount of) more hints and will also be looking for them to interesting and crucial scientific publications on this and will try to sum up some of the results I can think about when reading all this stuff, probably even reviewing one or two of the most interesting articles.

First impressions: Wow has there already been a lot done on this. Second one: There is a strong environmental focus with a lot of definitions and with a lot of people.  One of the challenges of my project will be to keep the balance between the different aspects of sustainability – because one thing is certain in all the definitions: There is more to it then the environment.  (and I am explicitly not writing “just”, because it is very important!) Already the wikipedia scheme I am using here – why is the economy at the center, then the society, then the environment? And why the differences in sizes? Third one: There seems to be a very politicized debate about the term, and I sure don’t want to have to choose sides in this, which might be harder then it looks like at the first glance.

So I will probably try to find a balanced definition of sustainability by looking at the criteria in the different definitions which match the most and combining those to a concept of sustainability which I can build on. But thats just an idea for now. First, I will read more, and discuss then with one or more experts on this…

Homepage-picture by Stefan Franke / www.jugendfotos.de, CC-Lizenz(by-nc-nd)