Table 3 BSF Biomanufacturing and the SDGs

SDG #1: End poverty in all its forms everywhere

• BSF biomanufacturing will offer economic opportunities and could be adopted worldwide to valorise widely available and underutilised organic wastes.

SDG #2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

• Compared to other biomanufacturing methods, BSF biomanufacturing does not require feedstocks derived from food crops and will improve food security.

• BSF biomanufacturing for generating value-added animal feeds will improve nutrition and livestock productivity.

• Greater adoption of BSF biomanufacturing will increase frass production for improved crop growth.

SDG #3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

• In 2015, pollution was the leading environmental cause of premature death and disease globally¹⁷⁰. BSF biomanufacturing for the generation of high-value products could clean up pollutants in organic wastes and reduce open dumping and burning of organic wastes.

SDG #6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

• BSF biomanufacturing for the generation of high-value products would incentivise the development of infrastructure to collect organic waste, reducing open dumping and the consequent proliferation of pests and contamination of waterways.

• BSF biomanufacturing could generate products that can inexpensively clean up industrial wastewater.

• BSF farming requires significantly less water than livestock and horticulture⁷³.

SDG #8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

• BSF biomanufacturing provides exciting job opportunities for researchers and entrepreneurs that will help to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.

SDG #9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation

• BSF biomanufacturing would provide an opportunity for the private sector to valorise organic waste and develop the infrastructure required to collect and utilise organic waste.

• BSF biomanufacturing is not yet established and provides many opportunities for research and innovation.

SDG #11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

SDG #12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

• BSF biomanufacturing could improve biomanufacturing sustainability and slow climate change, reduce pollution and eutrophication and reduce organic waste burning and improve air quality.

SDG #13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

• The waste sector is estimated to be responsible for 5% of global annual greenhouse gases⁶, mainly due to landfilling organic wastes. BSF biomanufacturing will reduce organic waste landfilling.

• Synthetic fertilisers are estimated to be responsible for 2.5% of annual greenhouse gas emissions¹¹⁷ and this does not include the volatilisation of the potent greenhouse gas, N₂O, from synthetic fertiliser applied to soils. Greater adoption of BSF biomanufacturing and production of frass could reduce our reliance on synthetic fertilisers.

• Agriculture and its associated land use are estimated to be responsible for 17% of total annual greenhouse gas emissions¹¹⁷. Improved animal feeds will improve livestock productivity. BSF engineered to improve frass could improve horticulture productivity.

• BSF biomanufacturing does not require feedstocks from food crops and will reduce land clearing and preserve forests as a large carbon sink.

• BSF could be engineered as a platform for soil carbon capture for carbon credits.

SDG #14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

• BSF engineered to synthesise marine omega-3 fatty acids could reduce the requirement for wild-caught fish feed to support adequate aquaculture nutrition.

• BSF engineered as a platform for biomanufacturing and bioremediation will reduce pollutants and organic waste eutrophication in the environment and improve species conservation.

• BSF engineered to process soiled mixed plastic wastes will allow plastics to be processed locally and reduce plastic pollution in the ocean.

SDG #15: Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

• BSF biomanufacturing could reduce land clearing for crops and thereby preserve forests, habitats and biodiversity:

1) Compared to other biomanufacturing methods, BSF biomanufacturing does not require feedstocks derived from food crops.

2) BSF frass could improve soil quality and improve crop productivity per unit of land.

• BSF biomanufacturing could halt biodiversity loss:

1) Climate change and pollution are major threats to species conservation¹⁷¹ and BSF engineered as a platform for biomanufacturing and bioremediation could address significant sources of emissions, as well as reduce pollution in the environment.