Then and Now: 120 Bioeconomy Pioneers look at yesterday, today, inspirations and challenges

Sebastien Haye

Then: I just started working for what would become one of the most important initiative for sustainable biofuels: The Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels. We were just starting rallying as many stakeholders worldwide to draft the first version of the RSB standard. Very exciting times!

Now: I am now working with E4tech, mostly on sustainable bioenergy, but we also do fuel cell, hydrogen, energy storage and lots of interesting stuff. Essentially, we try to support companies to move ahead with a comprehensive understanding of the technologies, markets, policies and sustainability aspects. More on www.e4tech.com

Inspirations: The bioeconomy is an acknowledgement of our deep connections with nature and living beings, after so many decades building up on the illusion that a fossil-based industry and progress would bring happiness. It’s a major contributor to climate change.

Challenges: The bioeconomy comes with many threats, the main one being about the challenge to produce and manage biomass resources in a sustainable way, making the right choices in terms of priority of use. An uncontrolled boom in the bioeconomy could have terrible consequences on soil, water and climate change.