Professor Demirel is cofounder at Tandem Repeat Technologies and Huck Endowed Chair Professor at Penn State.
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Economic growth and sustainability have become intertwined in our current world, influencing business operations from consumer preferences to government regulations. This relationship between economic prosperity and environmental health must be examined holistically to ensure a healthier future for all.
From labor to natural resources, capital formation, technology advancements and social/political factors—the list of critical elements involved is long-standing. Their interaction dates back centuries, with thinkers exploring the precarious connection between population levels impacting resource usage faster than those same resources could recover or regenerate over time.
However, as the economic landscape evolves, several critical constraints have emerged that ultimately impede growth. These include an aging population lacking skilled workers, environmental pollution, deteriorating technical productivity and increasing social power conflicts between different social classes.
Climate technologies have great potential to make an impact on environmental sustainability. With a global market value of up to $10 trillion, fashion, consumer electronics and real estate are all big players working toward sustainable solutions.
Electric cars, solar power plants and turbines powered by wind energy may be some of the most well-known climate technology options; however, advancements extend much further than just harnessing renewable energies—every industry offers opportunities for innovations that can benefit both our planet’s health and economy.
By investing in research and development, creating better regulations, incentivizing companies to address their environmental impacts and providing access to capital for clean technology solutions, governments have an essential role in helping make sustainable solutions a reality.
The Fashion Industry
The global fashion industry stands at an unprecedented point, with pressure from consumers and organizations to create solutions that prioritize sustainability. Unfortunately, while the market is estimated to be worth $3 trillion worldwide, some of its practices are blatantly unsustainable—particularly those rooted in petroleum-based fibers used for apparel production. These fabrics release 2.1 gigatons (Gt) of greenhouse gases annually into our atmosphere, contributing to increased carbon emissions, plastic pollution and toxic chemical issues.
To ensure serious progress towards reducing these damaging effects on Earth's environment, we must implement efforts that minimize reliance on animal-based products and actively remove pre-existing greenhouse gases already present within our planet’s atmosphere through long-term sequestration strategies.
Textiles and clothing have become a staple in modern life, but this comes at an alarming environmental cost. With 110 million tons of fabric manufactured yearly—mostly from oil-based synthetic fibers—we're consuming massive amounts of resources like petroleum energy and contributing to carbon release, polluting waterways with microplastics and more.
Sustainability initiatives within fashion are slowly improving by optimizing textile manufacturing processes such as spinning, dyeing, finishing and garment manufacturing and minimizing microfiber pollution.
However, the fashion industry is one of the main contributors to pollution and struggles with finding sustainable alternatives for plastics. Natural fibers like silk and wool have excellent natural recycling capabilities but could quickly be depleted if overused. Additionally, bio-based materials face costly scalability compared to their synthetic counterparts—a problem initially birthed today’s most common fabrics, such as nylon.
Biomanufacturing And Economic Growth
A sustainable future depends on taking advantage of Earth's two energy sources—the sun and magma. Life forms have developed ways to create chemicals or food from these resources, but it is a slow process compared to what humans are capable of through bioengineering. The process of evolution is known to be gradual, often spanning millions or even billions of years, and influenced by various factors such as natural selection, genetic mutations, environmental conditions and reproductive biology. However, small-scale genetic changes can occur quickly within a population, leading to significant observable changes within just a few generations. These genetic changes can be harnessed in the fight against climate change.
By combining synthetic biology and manufacturing (biomanufacturing) using small-scale genetic changes, we can produce materials more efficiently while respecting our environment and reducing dependence on natural resources, harmful chemicals such as pesticides and greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. This could revolutionize current supply chains by creating new ones based solely on biomanufacturing where adaptive high-performing materials become essential for ecological preservation without compromising global economic growth.
Biomanufacturing companies like Amyris, Checkerspot, Genomatica, Ginkgo Bioworks, LanzaTech and Novozymes already offer renewable and sustainable products such as fragrances, cosmetics, fabrics, bio-based chemicals and enzymes for different industries.
For example, Genomatica creates bio-based chemicals for industrial use, while LanzaTech converts waste carbon emissions into low-carbon fuels and chemicals. Novozymes provides enzymes for agriculture, animal feed, bioenergy and household care industries.
Early-stage companies utilizing new biomanufacturing technologies, funded by venture funds or federal initiatives such as BioMADE, have also emerged in the last decade. For instance, Calyxt creates gene-edited crops, Kultevat uses dandelions for eco-friendly rubber, Superbrewed uses fermentation for nutritious drinks, and my company makes self-healing smart textiles. These companies and their products lead toward a more sustainable future while delivering high-performance and quality products.
Biomanufacturing Challenges We Must Overcome
Biomanufacturing costs are affected by various factors, including energy consumption, labor costs and production output. In modern industrial biotechnology, there is a need to comprehend how to produce and combine molecules and chemicals on a massive scale. Without addressing these concerns, it will be tough to enhance production yield rates or lower expenses linked to biomanufacturing processes for creating materials. Nevertheless, despite challenges, biomanufacturing shows potential for innovative solutions to current problems by adopting new technologies.
By mastering this technology, humankind could safely and cost-effectively produce anything from sustainable textiles to biofuels that respect our natural resources. We could create a more sustainable future with the right policies to support climate-positive manufacturing.
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