The production of wood-based materials is an important industrial sector in the EU: approx. 40 million m³ particleboards (PB) and 20 million m³ medium density fiberboards (MDF) are produced in Europe every year, utilizing about 5 million tonnes of fossil-based adhesives.To reduce the climate impact of these products, the substitution of fossil-based chemicals in these adhesives is necessary. Moreover, most of the currently used adhesives contain formaldehyde, which is a cancerogenic substance. In SUSBOARD, partners along the whole value chain from renewable resources to furniture come together to bring a 100% bio-based, formaldehyde-free, technically and economically viable adhesive close to market. In the previous RIA project SusBind, an adhesive based on over 80% of renewable material was developed and demonstrated to function in high-quality boards. SUSBOARD will substitute the fossil-based component of this adhesive system with bio-based polylysine, thereby delivering a 100% bio-based solution. This new adhesive system showed very promising results during preliminary testing, where it surpassed the SusBind adhesive in terms of strength development. The adhesive production will be scaled to multi ton-scale and the adhesive will be tested in two different applications, the production of PB and MDF. The SUSBOARD consortium will validate the technical and quality-related performance of the adhesive in industrial board production as well as the board quality for further processing and furniture production. The whole project will be accompanied by an SSbD analysis to ensure sustainability and demonstrate the lower impact of the new adhesive on the environment (up to 30% lower CO2 footprint) and human health. The developed adhesive will be the first cost-competitive, sustainable and completely bio-based adhesive for industrial wood board production. The project partners are therefore leading the way to more sustainable, fossil-free furniture production.

EU’s Climate Target Plan goals are compelling all the economic sectors to drastically reduce GHG emissions. As a result, a global shift from fossil-based feedstocks and processes to bio-based systems is being gradually carried out due to the depletion and significant environmental impacts of fossil resources. To facilitate the green transition of the European industry, a more applicable and realistic environmental assessment of bio-based systems is being demanded as a way to demonstrate the improved performance of bio-based products versus its unsustainable counterparts, and identify the best available technologies, to promote the sustainability of industrial procedures and fulfil the zero-pollution objectives encouraged by the European Commission. In this context, the LCA4BIO project aims at developing and validating a new set of improved, harmonized, precise, reliable and applicable assessment methodologies to properly evaluate environmental impacts and circularity in bio-based systems, that can be applied in certification schemes, thus enabling the international trade of this type of products. Additionally, LCA4BIO will address the development of new prospective life cycle assessment methodologies, considering up-scaling and future scenarios via Integrated Assessment Models with manageable levels of uncertainty, for an accurate comparison between potential environmental impacts of emerging bio-based technologies and current systems in the market. To do that, different stakeholders in the bioeconomy value chain will be involved in a co-creation process that will permit to consider their requirements, and test the adequateness of the methodologies developed by the LCA4BIO partners. The new approaches developed in LCA4BIO are expected to stimulate the growth of the European bio-based sectors that could lead to reduce the GHG emissions and other environmental impacts, and promote circularity processes along the economy and society.

The Cir4Fun Project endeavours to transform the furniture industry by championing circular economy principles across the product life cycle. Through innovative strategies, DPP and digital solutions supporting mechanisms, it aims to enhance furniture sustainability, eco-labelling, and consumer engagement while aligning with relevant regulations and initiatives. Cir4Fun's approach involves creating a comprehensive circular economy roadmap, defining content for a Furniture DPP, developing circular business models and eco-design guidelines, and establishing new assessment methodologies for maintenance, reparability, refurbishment, remanufacturing and recyclability. All this knowledge will be integrated in a holistic Furniture Assessment System (FAS) including a Sustainable Index System, d-LCA, LCC, SLCA. FAS will support the furniture eco-scoring system and DPP. Additionally, it focuses on interoperability, data sharing and data management with reliable approaches to enable simulation testing to inform supply chain strategies and extend product lifespan. Social engagement with stakeholders is emphasized to promote sustainable behaviours and circular practices, ultimately supporting new regulations and standardization in the furniture industry. The project outcomes will be implemented and validated in 3 use cases addressing different value chains across Europe and the findings will be widely circulated across the furniture ecosystem in Europe.

The goal of EcoReFibre is to develop and demonstrate innovative demos for environmentally sound and commercially viable recycling of end-of-life fibreboards, which currently have no commercially viable recycling methods. The quantities of fibreboard waste are growing exponentially in line with the growth in production capacity, and it is highly likely that more than 60 million tons of fibreboard waste have been created in Europe the last 5 years. This has caught the European recycling sector off-guard. EcoReFibre is crucial to Europe's wood-based panel and wood recycling sectors because of various inter-linked market challenges of the current situation for creating secondary materials from wood waste. EcoReFibre builds a strong pan-European consortium bringing together leading research institutes, companies and European associations who will develop and demonstrate a range of recycling technologies for waste fibreboard. Validation and demonstration of the technologies will take place in an operational environment as system prototypes (TRL7) or in the relevant industrial environment (TRL6). These include a sorting line that is able to efficiently sort post-consumer wood waste, extraction technologies for secondary materials (calibrated wood fines and wood fibres) from the sorted waste fractions, and conversion to valuable products, i.e. various fibreboard and insulation products, particleboard and novel biocomposites. As a major impact, the secondary fibres will substitute up to 25% of the virgin fibres currently used in the manufacture of new fibreboard. The economic viability of the technologies is achieved through a synergistic circular economy approach that exploits multiple valorisation pathways of secondary raw materials. The novel fibreboard recycling technologies are transferrable and exploitable for many other biobased industries. Environmental and social impacts and benefits are integrated into a life cycle perspective.