S. van der Veen | TU Delft Repository

Towards a just bioeconomy

Lessons from emerging bio-based value chains in Spain, Colombia and Namibia

Doctoral thesis (2026) - S. van der Veen, P. Osseweijer, L. Asveld

This dissertation investigates how emerging bio-based value chains (BBVCs) can be developed to account for the needs, knowledge, skills, and values of all relevant actors. Particular attention is given to stakeholders at the beginning of the value chain, who play a critical role yet are often overlooked in the design, development, and improvement of (bio-based) value chains.

The transition to a bioeconomy, where biomass replaces fossil resources to produce energy and materials, is expected not only to contribute significantly to tackling climate change but also to generate socio-economic and environmental benefits in biomass-producing regions. While technological innovation is a key driver of this transition, achieving a sustainable bioeconomy requires a broader societal transformation involving multiple stakeholders who both shape and are affected by how the bioeconomy is developed and governed. Although new BBVCs can create opportunities for producers to diversify income and improve practices, they have also been criticized for negative environmental and social consequences. Ensuring that BBVCs realize their potential, therefore, depends on understanding how they can be developed in ways that are both sustainable and socially equitable. This is especially critical for rural contexts in the Global South, where a large part of the available biomass is produced and where poverty and socio-economic exclusion are widespread, particularly among smallholder farmers.

By studying three diverse cases of prospective BBVCs based on waste biomass - olive oil residues in Spain, coffee and cocoa residues in Colombia, and encroacher bush in Namibia - this research provides insights into the social dynamics that shape the potential for a just bioeconomy transition. The central research question of this dissertation is: How to develop secure, inclusive, and sustainable bio-based value chains that take into account the needs, knowledge, skills, and values of all relevant actors, with special attention to actors at the beginning of the chain? ...

This dissertation investigates how emerging bio-based value chains (BBVCs) can be developed to account for the needs, knowledge, skills, and values of all relevant actors. Particular attention is given to stakeholders at the beginning of the value chain, who play a critical role yet are often overlooked in the design, development, and improvement of (bio-based) value chains.

The transition to a bioeconomy, where biomass replaces fossil resources to produce energy and materials, is expected not only to contribute significantly to tackling climate change but also to generate socio-economic and environmental benefits in biomass-producing regions. While technological innovation is a key driver of this transition, achieving a sustainable bioeconomy requires a broader societal transformation involving multiple stakeholders who both shape and are affected by how the bioeconomy is developed and governed. Although new BBVCs can create opportunities for producers to diversify income and improve practices, they have also been criticized for negative environmental and social consequences. Ensuring that BBVCs realize their potential, therefore, depends on understanding how they can be developed in ways that are both sustainable and socially equitable. This is especially critical for rural contexts in the Global South, where a large part of the available biomass is produced and where poverty and socio-economic exclusion are widespread, particularly among smallholder farmers.

By studying three diverse cases of prospective BBVCs based on waste biomass - olive oil residues in Spain, coffee and cocoa residues in Colombia, and encroacher bush in Namibia - this research provides insights into the social dynamics that shape the potential for a just bioeconomy transition. The central research question of this dissertation is: How to develop secure, inclusive, and sustainable bio-based value chains that take into account the needs, knowledge, skills, and values of all relevant actors, with special attention to actors at the beginning of the chain?

Inclusive pathways to a sustainable bioeconomy

Balancing inclusion and economic feasibility in new bio-based value chains

Journal article (2026) - Susan van der Veen, Lotte Asveld, Patricia Osseweijer

The transition to a circular bioeconomy, where biological resources replace inputs from fossil fuels, offers a promising pathway to address climate change and sustainability challenges. However, establishing new bio-based value chains (BBVCs) presents substantial challenges, particularly concerning stakeholder inclusion, distributive justice, and context-sensitive implementation. While inclusive strategies have been extensively studied in agri-food systems, their practical application in the bioeconomy remains underexplored. This paper investigates how inclusive business, inclusive value chain, and inclusive development strategies can be applied to BBVCs. Drawing on a comparative analysis of three empirical case studies, olive oil residues in Spain, coffee and cocoa residues in Colombia, and encroacher bush in Namibia, we examine the practical and contextual barriers to inclusion and identify what different stakeholders require to meaningfully engage to create positive social impact and a just transition towards a sustainable bioeconomy. Our findings underscore the importance of a pluralistic, stepwise approach to inclusion, acknowledging that full inclusion may not be feasible initially in all contexts, particularly where enabling environments are weak. Instead, more modest strategies such as inclusive business can serve as an entry point, providing tangible benefits while laying the groundwork for more ambitious inclusion over time. We argue that inclusive learning and adaptive strategies are essential to balance ideal goals with practical constraints, and that inclusive BBVCs must evolve in response to local realities, stakeholder capacities, and institutional conditions. ...

Strengthening Social Life Cycle Assessment for a just bioeconomy

Insights from Namibia's bush-based value chains

Journal article (2025) - Susan van der Veen, Elisabeth van Rechteren Limpurg, Lotte Asveld, Sivaramakrishnan Chandrasekaran

The bioeconomy has the potential to contribute significantly to sustainable development and a just transition. To ensure the sustainable production of bio-based products, it is essential to understand their potential environmental, economic, and social impact. However, the social dimension receives far less attention in sustainability literature and assessments than the environmental and economic dimensions. Especially in the Global South, where a large part of the world's biomass is produced, vulnerable communities are at higher risk of being negatively affected by the bioeconomy. These risks include food insecurity, monoculture expansion, and unequal wealth distribution. Therefore, it is crucial to understand new bio-based value chains' (potential) social impacts better. This paper contributes to this debate by developing a prospective Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) for a bush-based value chain in Namibia. We assessed the existing charcoal value chain and identified potential social risks, impacts, and opportunities of a prospective value chain to produce marine biofuels from encroacher bush. We use this case study to reflect on the SLCA methodology and compare the SLCA results with our qualitative fieldwork based on interviews and a multi-stakeholder workshop. We found that the current methods for SLCA do not adequately capture salient aspects of the local context. SLCA is a good method to quantify some social impacts and to identify social risks in the value chain, such as labor conditions and existing policies. However, the methodology of SLCA currently misses a more nuanced understanding of the context and potential social issues, like issues related to gender and ethnicity, and the adherence to existing policies. We propose adding more context-specific indicators to the risk assessment. In addition, stakeholder engagement is crucial for identifying and assessing relevant social impact categories, and we advocate for incorporating local stakeholders' subjective assessments. This approach allows for the inclusion of softer social impact categories, such as gender and ethnicity-related social norms, which are not easily captured by general indicators. ...

The bioeconomy has the potential to contribute significantly to sustainable development and a just transition. To ensure the sustainable production of bio-based products, it is essential to understand their potential environmental, economic, and social impact. However, the social dimension receives far less attention in sustainability literature and assessments than the environmental and economic dimensions. Especially in the Global South, where a large part of the world's biomass is produced, vulnerable communities are at higher risk of being negatively affected by the bioeconomy. These risks include food insecurity, monoculture expansion, and unequal wealth distribution. Therefore, it is crucial to understand new bio-based value chains' (potential) social impacts better. This paper contributes to this debate by developing a prospective Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) for a bush-based value chain in Namibia. We assessed the existing charcoal value chain and identified potential social risks, impacts, and opportunities of a prospective value chain to produce marine biofuels from encroacher bush. We use this case study to reflect on the SLCA methodology and compare the SLCA results with our qualitative fieldwork based on interviews and a multi-stakeholder workshop. We found that the current methods for SLCA do not adequately capture salient aspects of the local context. SLCA is a good method to quantify some social impacts and to identify social risks in the value chain, such as labor conditions and existing policies. However, the methodology of SLCA currently misses a more nuanced understanding of the context and potential social issues, like issues related to gender and ethnicity, and the adherence to existing policies. We propose adding more context-specific indicators to the risk assessment. In addition, stakeholder engagement is crucial for identifying and assessing relevant social impact categories, and we advocate for incorporating local stakeholders' subjective assessments. This approach allows for the inclusion of softer social impact categories, such as gender and ethnicity-related social norms, which are not easily captured by general indicators.

Designing bio-based value chains for social justice

The potential of Capability Sensitive Design

Journal article (2024) - Susan van der Veen, Lotte Asveld, Patricia Osseweijer

Bio-based value chains (BBVCs) have often been criticized for their detrimental social and environmental effects. Existing methods such as social impact assessment do not sufficiently address these negative effects because of their limited focus and lack of attention to social justice. This paper explores the contribution of Capability Sensitive Design (CSD) to designing BBVCs for social justice. CSD is a combination of Value Sensitive Design (VSD), an approach to account for human values in a design process, and the Capability Approach (CA), a normative framework that incorporates multiple dimensions of human well-being. Three case studies demonstrate how CSD can be used to make design choices in the early stages of developing new BBVCs from waste biomass. The cases explore olive oil residues in Spain, coffee and cocoa residues in Colombia, and encroacher bush in Namibia. CSD is a relatively new approach and its contribution to social justice in BBVCs remained unexplored. We show that CSD can contribute to distributive, recognition, and procedural justice by allowing the identification of local vulnerable stakeholders and providing tools to connect their needs, knowledge, and capabilities to concrete design choices. ...