Sustainability Impact
The BioBrew platform aims to create and scale endless bio-product possibilities with an eye towards sustainability, harmony and balance in the global supply ecosystem.
Lifecycle Analysis (LCA)
LCA is the most advanced tool for comprehensive, multi-criteria environmental impact assessment. This standard method measures the quantifiable effects of products or services on the environment.
We performed an initial LCA and will continue to use the most rigorous methods to precisely measure and continuously improve on all our key sustainability metrics.
This "Life Cycle Assessment" is standardized by the ISO 14040:2006 and ISO 14044:2006 LCA standards.
Description of Methodology
The LCA establishes a quantitative balance of all incoming flows (water, energy, raw materials) and outgoing flows (water, air, waste), at each stage of a product's life cycle. This makes it possible to identify impact on the environment across several impact dimensions.
The goal of our initial LCA was to evaluate BioBrew environmental impact and compare impact across alternate systems:
- BioBrew Whey Protein
- Conventional Dairy Whey Protein*
- Conventional Poultry Albumin Protein*
*We leveraged a specific class of proteins for increased specificity and precision.
We used two sets of benchmarks to compare BioBrew to conventional production:
- Aggregate LCA studies: average values from existing, publicly available literature aggregating several LCA studies in the industry.
- Single LCA studies: values from a single LCA study deemed most comparable to BioBrew.
- Finally, we calculated key metrics based on both economical allocation, as well as mass allocation in order to create more visibility as well as better decision making process for BioBrew.
Key Impact Dimensions:
Climate Change
Emissions of greenhouse gases responsible for an increase of the average atmosphere temperature (unit: kg CO2 eq. / kg protein)
Water Use
Water footprint for the whole life cycle of the product (unit: liters / kg protein)
Agricultural Land Occupation
Land use and land use change (unit: m2 year / 1kg protein)
Renewable Energy
Rate of renewable energy for onsite consumed electricity (unit: %)
LCA Results
Climate change
kg CO2 eq. / kg dried product
24
Biobrew Protein
61
Conventional Dairy
(Single LCA)
80
Conventional Dairy
(Aggregate LCA)
vs. conventional
sources
Agricultural land occupation
m².year / kg dried product
11
Biobrew Protein
70
Conventional Dairy
(Single LCA)
223
Conventional Dairy
(Aggregate LCA)
vs. conventional
sources
Dairy Protein
| Metric |
|
|
| Climate Change kg CO2 eq. / kg dried product |
80 | |
| Water Use m³ / kg dried product |
95 | |
| Agricultural land occupation m².year / kg dried product |
223 | |
| Renewable Energy % |
20% |
| Economic Allocation | Mass Allocation | ||
| Conventional Dairy Protein Single LCA |
Bio Brew Dairy Protein Single LCA |
Conventional Dairy Protein Single LCA |
Bio Brew Dairy Protein Single LCA |
| 61.8 | 24.9 | 18 | 8.1 |
| 1.7 | 1.2 | Not available | 0.3 |
| 70.0 | 11.9 | Not available | 3.9 |
| 20% | 100% | Not available | 100% |
Poultry Egg Protein
| Metric |
|
|
| Climate Change kg CO2 eq. / kg dried product |
34 | |
| Water Use m³ / kg dried product |
20 | |
| Agricultural land occupation m².year / kg dried product |
46 | |
| Renewable Energy % |
20% |
| Mass Allocation | |
| Conventional Poultry Egg Protein Single LCA |
Bio Brew Poultry Egg Protein Single LCA |
| 36.9 | 8.1 |
| Not available | 0.3 |
| 37.1 | 3.9 |
| 20% | 100% |
