New Policy Brief from OXIPRO: Advancing Safe and Sustainable by Design for Enzyme-Based Innovations
OXIPRO has published a new policy brief offering critical insights and recommendations for enhancing the EU’s Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework, based on real-world experiences from four enzyme-based innovation cases.
As the EU pushes for greener, safer chemical solutions under its Chemical Strategy for Sustainability, SSbD has emerged as a guiding approach for developing chemicals and materials with minimal harm across their life cycle. However, the current framework poses challenges for early-stage innovations—particularly enzyme-based technologies like those explored in OXIPRO.
Drawing on practical lessons from case studies in detergents, home textiles, nutraceuticals, and sunscreens, this policy brief highlights key barriers to implementation and offers actionable policy and technical recommendations.
It calls for:
- Better integration of sustainability alongside safety in early-stage assessments
- Stronger alignment between SSbD and broader EU policies
- Improved tools and standards for data generation and socio-economic evaluation
- Targeted training and knowledge transfer across value chains
“Our findings show that enzyme-based solutions have strong potential to support Europe’s sustainability goals. But to realize this, the SSbD framework must evolve to recognize their unique characteristics and support early innovation,” said Dr. Gro Bjerga, OXIPRO Coordinator.
This publication aims to inform ongoing refinements of the SSbD framework to support safer, more sustainable innovations in biotechnology.