Green Industrial Revolution Needed to Feed and Fuel the Future

DSM receives George Washington Carver Award for Innovation

11-May-2011 - Netherlands

"The so-called fossil-age will make a shift to the bio-based-economy. In two or three centuries from now, people will look back on our civilization as a merely brief moment in history where we in a period of just about 250 years shifted our total economy to coal, oil and gas. To make the shift back to living with, and especially off, nature, we need to start this shift now. We are at a turning point towards a next green industrial revolution to secure our feed and fuel needs in the future."

With these words DSM CEO Feike Sijbesma received the prestigious George Washington Carver Award for Innovation in Industrial Biotechnology in recognition of his outstanding contribution and vision to the development and innovation in industrial biotechnology. Mr. Sijbesma received the award and delivered a keynote address in Toronto (Ontario, Canada), during a plenary session of the 2011 World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bio-processing.

In his keynote address Mr. Sijbesma elucidated the importance and the impact of biotechnology in view of the current shift from the fossil-based- to the bio-based-economy. He gave examples of new bio-based materials and addressed that food and bio-fuels do not have to compete with each other; biotechnology can help to produce proteins for human consumption as well as bio-fuels and materials.

"Biotechnology of the future can possibly allow us to produce from plant-materials, both, human food, by extracting nutritional high quality human food proteins, as well as biomaterials, bio-chemicals and bio-energy (fuels and gas)", Sijbesma said.

According to BIO (the US based Biotechnology Industry Organization) Mr. Sijbesma is being honored as a visionary leader of the bio-economy, which is projected to contribute almost $250 billion to the world economy by 2020, according to the World Economic Forum. Under his guidance, DSM has made significant steps in the development of industrial biotechnology for conversion of renewable resources to value added health, nutrition and materials, supporting sustainable development.

Feike Sijbesma said: "I am truly honored having received the 2011 George Washington Carver Award for contributing to the innovation and development of the industrial applications of biotechnology. I am convinced that in the coming decades biotechnology will have an enormous contribution in addressing worldwide issues around health, nutrition and environment. At DSM, we are committed to make a lasting and sustainable difference to the world in which we live. Biotechnology will enable us to combine our knowledge of life sciences with materials sciences to provide brighter lives for people today and generations to come."

https://www.bionity.com/en/news/132362/green-industrial-revolution-needed-to-feed-and-fuel-the-future.html