Transitioning towards a sustainable bio-based economy: a few systemic roadblocks to overcome.

The process of phasing out fossil resources and replacing them by renewable resources itself does not guarantee sustainability. Key will be to learn from the mistakes of the past, avoid bottlenecks and lock-in effects and develop new ways and systems that promote genuine sustainability. Transitioning away from unsustai- nable structures and practises thus requires a systems level redesign of our socio-ecological regime and economic system in a way that it sustains instead of reduces the life support mechanism of earth. New interdisciplinary approaches based on the principles of nature such as biomimicry and craddle-to-craddle may be especially promising in this regard.

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