63 bio-based industry leaders sign letter to EU Commissioners calling for a stronger recognition of the sector in the green recovery

18 June 2020

63 BIC industry member CEOs and C-level representatives have signed an open letter addressed EU Commissioners calling for a stronger recognition of the bio-based sector in the EU's green recovery.

BIC has also published a position paper on the green recovery which can be consulted here

                             The bio-based industries - key to the green recovery

                                             Calling for a stronger recognition of the bio-based sector

Dear Executive First Vice-President Timmermans,

Dear Commissioner Wojciechowski,

Dear Commissioner Gabriel,

Dear Commissioner Ferreira,

Dear Commissioner Sinkevičius,

Dear Commissioner Breton,

Europe is undergoing an unprecedented crisis and the impacts are felt in all aspects of our daily lives. While our society is facing challenging times, the bio-based industries welcome the immediate reaction from the European Commission to formulate a common response to the crisis and its economic consequences. 

With about 700 billion EUR turnover and 3.6 million people employed, the bio-based industries are helping to alleviate the impact of the crisis by keeping essential services running and maintaining green jobs. Our companies are providing much-needed supplies such as food and feed ingredients, (compostable) packaging, hand sanitisers, masks, tissues, and energy from renewable feedstock.

The future impacts of the crisis are unpredictable. What is predictable, however, is that climate change will not halt if we do not take action. Reducing Europe’s dependency on fossil-based resources, sustaining healthy ecosystems and reaching the climate neutrality goal will require better integration across sectors to create more circular and innovative bio-based solutions. To quote President von der Leyen, the European Green Deal is “an opportunity to rebuild our economies differently and make them more resilient”.

The bio-based sector can help by turning the crisis into new opportunities for green growth and by being a strong partner in the EU’s green economic recovery. We are integrating ‘traditional’ industrial sectors into innovative value chains in making the European bioeconomy the global leader. We sustainably use domestic renewable feedstock from agriculture, forestry and fisheries as well as residues and bio-waste, and process it in state-of-the-art biorefineries to provide bio-based solutions for our customers and consumers. We help to improve food security, foster circularity, stimulate rural development and maintain green jobs in EU regions.

It is necessary to build on the positive impacts of the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) and to fully implement the EU Bioeconomy Strategy. To enable our industry to fully deploy its potential, the European Green Deal should better recognise the importance of the bioeconomy and support the private-public partnership ‘Circular Bio-based Europe’. Only together can private and public sectors ensure that economic recovery and green growth go hand in hand. Our companies are committed to investing in circular and innovative bio-based solutions in Europe, paving the way to a more sustainable and resilient future.

ADM EMEA

Ismael Roig

President

AEP Polymers

Alan Patrick Giles

CEO

Algae 4 Future

Nuno Coelho

CEO

AlgaEnergy S.A

Augusto Rodríguez-Villa Matons

President

API Europe MEPE

Theodora Retsina

CEO

Arbiom

Marc Chevrel

President

BE-Basic Foundation

Abraham Brouwer

Managing Director

Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant

Wim Soetaert

CEO

BioEconomy Cluster

Matthias Zscheile

CEO

Bio-Mi

Filip Miketa

CEO

Biosphere S.r.l

Mario Riciputi

Chairman of the Board

Biotrend

Bruno Sommer Ferreira

CEO

BioVale

Sarah Hickingbottom

CEO

Borregaard

Per Arthur Sørlie

President and CEO

Capax Biobased Development

Bart Tambuyser

CEO

Cellicon

Ton Runneboom

CEO

Celtic Renewables Ltd.

Mark Simmers

CEO

Centro Ricerche per la Chimica Fine S.r.l

Samuele Giovando

CEO

ChainCraft

Niels van Stralen

Co-founder and Director

Circular Biobased Delta

Willem Sederel

Chairman of the Board

Clariant

Hariolf Kottmann

Executive Chairman

CLIB - Cluster Industrielle Biotechnologie

Dennis Herzberg

Managing Director and Cluster Manager

CLIC Innovation Oy

Jatta Jussila

CEO

Consorzio Italbiotec

Diego Bosco

CEO

Corbion

Olivier Rigaud

CEO

Cosun

Albert Markusse

CEO

CTA - Corporación Tecnológica de Andalucía

Elias Atienza

CEO

Dutch Biorefinery Cluster

Ger Willems

Chair of the Board

EnginZyme

Karim Engelmark Cassimjee

CEO

Evonik Industries

Ulrich Küsthardt

CIO

Fertinagro Biotech

Jose Luis Moya

CEO

FiberLean Technologies Ltd

Paris Kyriacopoulos

CEO

Flanders’ Food

Inge Arents

Managing Director

Fortum Oyj

Pekka Lundmark

President and CEO

Glanbia Ireland DAC

Jim Bergin

CEO

Graanul Invest AS

Raul Kirjanen

CEO

GreenWin

Véronique Graff

Managing Director

 

IAR, the French Bioeconomy Cluster

Yvon Le Hénaff

Chairman of the Board

IBioIC

Mark Bustard

CEO

InnovEn S.r.l

Fausto Tagliaferro

President

Irish Bioeconomy Foundation

Stephen Napier

CEO

Kaneka Europe Holding Company NV and Kaneka Belgium NV

Shinji Mizusawa

President

LanzaTech Inc.

 

Jennifer Holmgren

CEO

MBio, Innovation arm of Monaghan Mushrooms

Peter Corcoran

CEO

Metabolic EXplorer

Benjamin Gonzalez

CEO

MetGen Oy

Alex Michine

CEO

Metsä Group

Ilkka Hämälä

President and CEO

Natac Biotech SL

Antonio Delgado

CEO

Neste Corp.

Peter Vanacker

President and CEO

Norske Skog Golbey

Yves Bailly

Managing Director

Nova Pangaea Technologies (UK) Ltd

Sarah Ellerby

Chief Executive

 

Novamont S.p.A

Catia Bastioli

CEO

Novozymes

Ester Baiget Arnau

CEO

OLEON SAS

Moussa Naciri

President

Process Design Centre

Hans Keuken

Managing Director

Royal DSM

Dimitri de Vreeze

Co-CEO & Managing Board Member

Sappi Europe SA

Berend John Wiersum

CEO

Södra

Peter Karlsson

President/CEO

Stora Enso

Annica Bresky

President and CEO

Südzucker

Thomas Kirchberg,

COO & Member of the Executive Board

SUSPACC

Bart Labrie

President

Unilever

Peter ter Kulve

President, Home Care

UPM Kymmene Corporation

Jussi Pesonen

President and CEO

The open letter was also published in Politico here.