Bioeconomy and environmental impacts

Bioeconomy

Brief me

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate environmental impacts of Bioeconomy (2021).

Life-cycle-based approaches provide comprehensive, structured and consistent means of assessing the environmental performance of bio-based products and systems within safe ecological limits.
An LCA-based analysis allowed to assess that the overall EU Bioeconomy Footprint increased by 23% between 2010 and 2020, mainly due to increased consumption of bio-based products.
Food consumption has the highest share of the total impacts, with 83–85 % across the years, followed by bioenergy (9–10 % of total impacts), while other sectors show a limited contribution.
Compared with their conventional counterparts, bioeconomy innovations perform better in climate change and fossil resource use, while some other impacts, such as land use and eutrophication, might be higher.

Find out more in the brief and explore further other resources!

Explore further

European Platform on Life Cycle Assessment

Access a whole set of resources related to LCA: guidance, network, projects, tools and data.

Environmental Footprint Methods

Access knowledge and tools to quantify and convey your environmental performance in a reliable way.

Consumer Footprint Model

Explore the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)-based framework to monitor the evolution of the overall environmental footprint of EU production and consumption and compare the footprint against planetary boundaries.

Consumer Footprint Calculator

Calculate the environmental impacts of your consumption pattern and evaluate how changes in your lifestyle may affect your personal footprint.

Safe and sustainable by design chemicals and materials

Discover what the framework is, underlying scientific basis, and how to put it into practice.

JRC research on Life cycle assessment (LCA)

Access JRC publications on the measurement of the environmental impact of the bioeconomy.

Overview of projects on application of LCA

Aligning LCA methods and bio-based sectors

Improving bio-based industrial processes

RELIability of product Env. Footprint

CORDIS Results-SSbD chemicals & materials

PLANET BIO project

Latest knowledge

EVENT | 12 Feb 2026

Safe and Sustainable by Design: Accelerating the Industrial Transition

This conference will bring together the European SSbD community, including industry leaders, policymakers, researchers and innovators from across Europe. It will also kick-start the Commission’s...

PUBLICATION | 23 Jan 2026

Assessing the potential to enhance the circularity of bio-based waste

The study maps major biobased waste streams across Europe and, despite data gaps and inconsistent reporting, identifies substantial untapped circularity potential.

PUBLICATION | 23 Jan 2026

Towards healthy and sustainable diets: understanding food consumption trends in the EU

The assessment of food system sustainability requires a profound understanding of the evolution of food production and consumption. Monitoring the transition towards healthier and sustainable diets is crucial for supporting future...