RSBChemicals and polymers are the building blocks of the plastics and materials we use to create countless products that sustain and enhance our lives, including — among many others — medical equipment, construction components, automotive parts, textiles, electronics, and packaging.
Demand for these products continues to grow — along with consumer awareness of the need to produce, use, and reuse them in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner.
The global production of plastics amounted to 359 million tonnes in 2019.
16% of crude oil goes directly into petrochemicals.
The industry is committed to tackling sustainability challenges through different feedstocks and production systems, with a focus on the use of bio-based and circular approaches.
RSB’s approach to Advanced Products focuses on positive impacts: demonstrating that products are produced more sustainably, using fewer fossil resources and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The ubiquity of chemical and polymer products has come to be associated with major social and environmental challenges, as well as contributing to climate change through their carbon intensive production.
The sector is looking for solutions today.
Uptake of bio-based alternative feedstocks continues to grow. However, without sustainability certification, bio-based plastic production can result in food security being threatened, human, labour, and land rights being infringed upon, and environmental damage such as destruction of forests and water resources.
Waste feedstock offers an exciting solution for companies looking to increase the circularity of their production system. Increased technology, capacity and uptake for chemical recycling – which breaks products down to their monomer form to re-enter the production system – is helping to overcome the limitations of mechanical recycling.
Demonstrating GHG reduction across the supply chain enables industry to represent the climate impacts of complex production systems.
The RSB Advanced Products Standard has been developed to support the chemicals and polymers sector with its transition to real and credible sustainability, by providing a system to trace materials and impacts through complex supply chains and processes – enabling industry leaders to make powerful sustainability claims about their products.
RSB’s unique approach to Positive Impacts enables companies to demonstrate clearly that their products are produced more sustainably, with reduced greenhouse gas emissions and fewer fossil resources.
RSB-certified bio-naphtha is mixed with virgin fossil naphtha from UPM when it enters the INEOS O&P supply chain in Germany. The RSB-certified output material from their cracker is attributed (meaning the RSB sustainability characteristic is given to a selected batch of material) to the correct volume of ethylene ready to be sold to INOVYN for conversion to bio-attributed PVC – which is supplied to Tarkett for the production of PVC floor rolls and tiles which carry an RSB certification.
Nicola is responsible for the development of new RSB Standards and procedures, and the continuous improvement of existing ones. This involves interaction with RSB’s membership, scientific experts, and stakeholder community to ensure that the RSB Standards rely on solid science […]
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Elena is RSB’s Executive Director. Elena Schmidt joined the RSB in 2015 and has served as the RSB Standards Director since that time, before taking over as Executive Director. Prior to joining the RSB, she was Head of the […]
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Carolina is RSB’s Policy & Innovations Manager. A biologist with a Ph.D. in genetics and an MBA in Business Management, Carolina has dedicated her professional career to helping to achieve a balance between environmental protection and economic growth by establishing […]
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By creating solutions to ensure the sustainability of evolving bio-based and circular production, agricultural and energy systems, RSB is helping to drive a just transition to a net positive world.
By 2030, the RSB will have supported the emergence of a new world bioeconomy founded on social, economic and environmental considerations that contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals – reducing climate impacts, enhancing food security and rural development, and protecting ecosystems.
With credible solutions, global expertise, partners across the spectrum from government to industry and NGOs, and an extremely robust approach to sustainability, RSB is the partner of choice for the aviation industry as it seeks to fulfil its global commitments to greenhouse gas reduction while also ensuring social development and environmental protection.
RSB is a member-led organisation which represents a worldwide movement of businesses, NGOs, academics, government and UN organisations that have demonstrated their commitment to the development of the sustainable bioeconomy by working together to create our most trusted Standard.
The RSB Standard is the strongest and most trusted of its kind, recognised as such by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
Germany's oldest eco label, Blauer Engel (Blue Angel), found that RSB is the only certification system for biomass that fulfil their own rigorous requirements to be recognised under their own approach.
