About Author: Krishna Mohan Puvvada has served Novozymes for over 20 years in various roles. Having joined the company in 1997 as Marketing Manager, Mohan rose through the ranks covering diverse industry segments and geographies. Prior to Novozymes, he had worked with Lupin laboratories where he was responsible for the launch and promotion of specialty products in South India.
What is the most common understanding of climate change? Extreme weather events around the globe, inhabitable farmlands with low fertile soil or alarmingly 22 million people worldwide at an anticipated risk of severe hunger? In the more recent context, climate change is a term that has much more broader implications, affecting geo-politics to economies to migration.
We live in a world which is dynamic and is rapidly changing. There are many challenges to solve – mitigating climate change, feeding growing populations, and maximizing output from our shared resources. Left unchecked, we the Sapiens are pushing the limits leading to food scarcity, worsening droughts, and mass extinction of species.
Biotechnology as a pathway holds the key to many of the world’s challenges and at the heart of this is challenging conventions. Imagine if we could shift to biobased detergents to protect our planet. It could mean preventing 10 tons of chemicals from being poured down the drain every minute. Think of reducing use of chemicals in our crop production with biological alternatives that do not affect biodiversity. Or reducing the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere using biology. Imagine if we could replace 10% of animal protein with alternative proteins, it would mean saving agricultural land equivalent to 50% of EU’s agricultural area.
Biotech is the key to reducing chemical load
Through biotechnology, we can use the power of the nature’s smallest components – enzymes and microbes to address the threats coming in the way to our sustainable future. Biotechnology is already helping us solve some of the major challenges of our time. Let’s take an example of biofuel which is the enabling factor that can achieve sufficient carbon emission reductions across all transport segments.
Accounting for 25% of global energy-related CO2 emissions, today’s transport sector is the key target area for reducing carbon emissions. Blending of ethanol with petrol (EBP) leads to 40% lower CO2 emissions compared with traditional fossil-based petrol. EBP plays a pivotal role in the roadmap of India in achieving energy security, clean energy transition and higher farmers’ income. The Indian government plans to build 12 biorefineries (2G ethanol), the first of which was inaugurated by our Hon’ble PM in August 2022.
“Biotechnology as a pathway holds the key to many of the world’s challenges.”
Similarly, enzymes and micro-organisms are being used to make biobased products in sectors as diverse as chemicals, food and feed, healthcare, detergents, paper and pulp, and textiles. Enzymes– have been in use for many years in our detergents not only to remove stains but also to maintain colour, whiteness, and fabric smoothness. In a laundry detergent, enzymes are one of the most weight efficient ingredients, which can deliver profound effects in small dosing and that too in a sustainable manner. Besides, the stain removal enzymes enable low temperature wash (20 degree or lower) enabling longevity of apparel. Biotechnology is the key in reducing chemical load in our daily detergents. Another example, again from our daily use, is bread which is one of the world’s most widely consumed foods. Bakers have been using enzymes to improve the moistness, crumb softness, elasticity, and mouthfeel, thereby reducing food waste in the most natural way possible – often reducing the use of additives and savings on the use of plastic packaging.
There are multiple factors at play which is rapidly changing the business landscape. This includes changing consumer demographics and buying preferences, increasing consciousness about environment and an inflationary environment. Embracing sustainability is a smart choice wherein you can never go wrong.
Promising future with transformative biosolutions
We spoke about laundry solutions earlier and presence of enzymes and other renewable ingredients. But the percentage is still low. Biotechnology can enable 100% biological detergents. Imagine the kind of impact it can create to the issue of water contamination and reducing carbon emissions. Work is already on, and collaborations are happening across the industry, academia, and governments to enable more and more bio-degradable or renewable materials. It can play a pivotal part in multiple ways to positively impact the industry’s sustainability and risk mitigation initiatives enabling a carbon neutral society. It’s a journey and may take some time, but we are positive.
In the context of climate action, we understand the importance of sustainable agriculture. There is an imminent need to reduce synthetic fertilizers & chemicals in crop nutrition and protection for food production that do not harm biodiversity. Biotechnology has the potential to have major impact in addressing the challenges. There is a great opportunity to reduce environmental impact by using biological alternatives to the synthetic fertilizers. Also, biological inoculants help revitalize the soil health, thereby increasing the yield potential and make plants more resilient to climate change while reducing the carbon footprint of crops by up to 15%.
“There is an imminent need to reduce synthetic fertilizers & chemicals in crop nutrition.”
