Sustainable Design Approach for Modeling Bioprocesses from Laboratory toward Commercialization: Optimizing Chitosan Production

Enhancing the biochemical supply chain towards sustainable development requires more efforts to boost technology innovation at early design phases and avoid delays in industrial biotechnology growth. Such a transformation requires a comprehensive step-wise procedure to guide bioprocess development from laboratory protocols to commercialization. This study introduces a process design framework to guide research and development (R&D) through this journey, bearing in mind the particular challenges of bioprocess modeling. The method combines sustainability assessment and process optimization based on process efficiency indicators, technical indicators, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and process optimization via Water Regeneration Networks (WRN). Since many bioprocesses remain at low Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs), the process simulation module was examined in detail to account for uncertainties, providing strategies for successful guidance. The sustainability assessment was performed using the geometric mean-based sustainability footprint metric. A case study based on Chitosan production from shrimp exoskeletons was evaluated to demonstrate the method’s applicability and its advantages in product optimization. An optimized scenario was generated through a WRN to improve water management, then compared with the case study. The results confirm the existence of a possible configuration with better sustainability performance for the optimized case with a sustainability footprint of 0.33, compared with the performance of the base case (1.00).

84 The Adoption of AI in the Core Scientific Cycle of Feed Research

The Gartner Hype Cycle methodology highlights five self-explanatory steps through which a technological innovation needs to go: (1) innovation trigger, (2) peak of inflated expectations, (3) trough of disillusionment, (4) slope of enlightenment, and (5) plateau of productivity. It is between step 4 and 5 that any tech innovation really starts to commercially pay off. For Artificial Intelligence (AI), the possibilities and challenges are so diverse that several separate cycles now exist for distinct parts of AI development. For the Animal Sciences / Feed industry the application of AI is not straightforward. In fact, in most industries, application is not straightforward because applications equals implementation. Hence, being able to translate the pains and gains of your customer into the models that you create, and finding a way to implement it, is key and that is more than just applying AI. The majority of (animal) models in the feed industry are mechanistic by nature. Parameters are generated/updated via controlled experiments, and stochasticity is allowed via Monte Carlo simulations and scenario analyses. The validity of the model is its ability to provide usable growth/health predictions, enable least cost formulation, and provide a sustainability footprint. To further support such models, and to offer new services, we have recently begun to combine our near-infrared spectroscopy(NIR), laboratory information management system (LIMS) and mycotoxin databases with climate and geographic data to (1) predict the nutrient composition of raw materials over time, (2) enable risk assessment of mycotoxin co-contamination, (3) improve the feed evaluation of silages, (4) estimate a full nutrient profile, and (5) improve the precision of net energy estimation. In the end, if nurtured carefully, AI is just another technical leap that needs to be integrated into the core scientific cycle.

Critical Consciousness of Food Systems as a Potential Lifestyle Intervention on Health Issues

When examining food systems in contemporary, industrialized, and globalized nations such as the United States, there is a quantity over quality cultural mind-set driven by capitalism. This creates an environment in which consumer desires for convenient lifestyles run high, mainly focused on the production of food and individual financial gain rather than the food systems as a whole. This approach neglects the overall outcomes in health, wellness, health disparities, and the sustainability footprint associated with consumption. Food is more than just food. It involves a network of different levels and elements that creates a multidimensional framework in which food systems, and the choices produced within those systems, can either positively or negatively affect consumers’ lifestyles and health. This article discusses the importance of food systems and the ways in which they can be incorporated into a lifestyle intervention for general food consumers as well as those suffering from dietary-related diseases. With a critical understanding that structural barriers associated with current food systems are partly responsible for dietary-related diseases, individuals’ self-blame and guilt can be alleviated and liberated, thus enhancing overall emotional and physical health. Drawing on social cognitive theory, food systems are conceptualized into triadic, dynamic interaction of environment (eg, food production, processing, packaging, transporting, marketing, disposing), cognition (eg, learned experience, and knowledge of food, nutrition, and wellness), and behavior (eg, food purchasing, preparation, and consumption).

The global sustainability footprint of sovereign wealth funds

With the emergence of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) around the world managing equity of over $8 trillion, their impact on the corporate landscape and social welfare is being scrutinized. This study investigates whether and how SWFs incorporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations in their investment decisions in publicly listed corporations, as well as the subsequent evolution of target firms’ ESG performance. We find that SWF funds do consider the level of past ESG performance as well as recent ESG score improvement when taking ownership stakes in listed companies. These results are driven by the SWF funds that do have an explicit or implicit ESG policy and are most transparent, and by SWF originating from developed countries and countries with civil law origins. In relation to engagement, we find by means of two natural experiments with exogenous shocks (the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe and Volkwagen diesel scandal) that the ESG scores do not change significantly more for firms in which SWFs have ownership stakes. This potentially suggests that SWFs in general do not actively steer their target firms towards higher levels of ESG.