November 21, 2022

On 17 November 2022 we held our 6th ISCC Technical Stakeholder Meeting “Circular Economy and Bioeconomy.” The meeting was attended by over 370 participants from around the world. This mirrors the importance of the topic and also the growth of the ISCC PLUS certification scheme during the past few years.

The meeting began with welcoming remarks by Committee Chairs Frederic Dreux and Jason Pierce and a presentation by ISCC Director Jan Henke summarizing ISCC PLUS activities, development, and accomplishments in 2022 and looking ahead to 2023, which will be the era of more maturity, increased capacity, additional raw materials and markets. Next Adela Putinelu from Plastic Energy adressed plastic to plastic chemical recycling, stressing that, while it is a much needed solution, it is not a silver bullet, but that a mix of downstream and upstream policies are urgently needed to create a level playing field for all recycling technologies. Johannes Musseleck of INEOS Styrolution confirmed that mass balance is key to developing high recycling rates and a low-carbon economy, and pointed to ISCC’s crucial role in developing standardization processes. It was agreed that the acceptance of the mass balance approach needs to be increased by better communicating the benefits and thus connecting “head and heart” among all stakeholders.

Alessandro Pistillo from “Together for Sustainability (TfS)”, a joint sustainability initiative of 37 chemical companies, presented the first industry-specific guidance on calculating the carbon footprint of chemical products. Stefan Gärtner picked up on this and presented ISCC’s market expansion plans, which include measures to integrate Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) calculations more closely into ISCC PLUS. Given the increasing complexity of value chains, ISCC is continuously gathering information, through exchanges with companies, scientific institutions, and study analysis. In addition, ISCC is investigating how mass balance rules can be aligned with PCF calculation norms and standards and is preparing the next steps for an integration of a PCF calculation approach under ISCC PLUS.

Closing the event, Isna Apriani of Pigeon presented a brand owner’s perspective on using ISCC PLUS certification for their baby products. The company is committed to a sustainable future for today’s children and therefore uses ISCC PLUS as a credible certification standard to communicate the sustainability of the bio-based plastic linked to their products and the resulting lower CO2 emissions of their products.

We thank all participants and speakers for their participation and fruitful discussions! It once again was an interesting event, that makes us already look forward to the next meeting on 6 June 2023, for which you can already register!