The text below was written for the Natura Campus Scientific Editors Challenge, in the Sustainable Technologies category. We thank Cintia for her contribution to scientific dissemination by allowing her text to be published on our blog.
Cintia Milagre is a researcher at UNESP, in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology. She completed her PhD and postdoctoral studies at Unicamp in biocatalysis, and in 2011 she studied at Delft University of Technology during her second postdoctoral fellowship.
Natura Campus Team
Biotechnology is one of the so-called “Sustainable Technologies.” But what exactly does Biotechnology mean? Why has it become so colorful? And how can a company in tune with current trends like Natura, whose philosophy is based on social, economic, and environmental responsibility, benefit its consumers with increasingly better products using Biotechnology and Green Chemistry? This year we celebrate the 20th anniversary of ECO-92 or Rio-92, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), held in Rio de Janeiro, which aimed to discuss and establish ways to reconcile socioeconomic development with the conservation and protection of the ecosystems of our planet. One of the outcomes of ECO-92 was the creation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), within Agenda 21, an international treaty for the maintenance of Earth's biodiversity, which currently has 175 signatory countries, including Brazil. According to the CBD, Biotechnology means any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or derivatives thereof, to make or modify products or processes for specific uses. Paying tribute to the colorful Mother Nature, Biotechnology has been classified using a color system according to different application branches. Initially, there were only three colors: Red, Green, and White Biotechnology, but today there is a true biotechnological watercolor:
Red Biotechnology: encompasses medical and sanitary applications;
Green Biotechnology: agricultural and food applications;
White Biotechnology: related to industrial processes;
Blue Biotechnology: related to aquatic diversity;
Brown Biotechnology: related to desert diversity;
Gray Biotechnology: fermentation processes;
Yellow Biotechnology: nutritional applications;
Golden Biotechnology: the use of bioinformatics applied to Biotechnology;
Purple Biotechnology: patents and intellectual property in Biotechnology;
It is worth noting that there is no official classification of this system, and depending on the source consulted, the color palette may be larger or smaller. In practice, what matters in this multicolored universe is that biotechnological exploration and its applications are carried out rationally in order to conserve and preserve the environment. Furthermore, when involving processes and/or chemical reactions, they should resonate with the 12 principles of the also colorful Green Chemistry, which are:
1. Preventing waste formation is better than treating it;
2. Atom economy: maximize the incorporation of all atoms from the starting material into the final product;
3. Use and generate substances with little or no toxicity;
4. Develop safe and efficient products;
5. Eliminate or use safe solvents and other auxiliary reaction agents;
6. Minimize and/or optimize energy use;
7. Use renewable raw material sources;
8. Avoid unnecessary derivatives (for example, protection and deprotection reactions);
9. Prioritize the use of catalytic reagents (as selective as possible) over stoichiometric reagents;
10. Develop products that are degradable at the end of their function;
11. Monitor and control reactions in real time to avoid the formation of hazardous substances;
12. Develop intrinsically safe processes minimizing the risks of chemical accidents, explosions, and fires.
In light of all that has been said, Brazil occupies an extremely advantageous position as we are one of the largest holders of diversity in flora, fauna, and microorganisms that can be sources of biomass, enzymes, pigments, aromas, metabolites, and biotransformation products with great potential for biotechnological applications. Now it is up to the entire industrial sector to commit, as Natura has done, to develop its products sustainably and, when necessary, to seek alternatives to replace aggressive chemical processes with environmentally friendly processes. Thus, we will leave as a legacy for future generations a world as colorful as possible, and it will not be necessary to give up the comfort that 21st-century society enjoys, provided by the technological advances we have.
If you want to know more about:
- Convention on Biological Diversity: http://www.cbd.int/
- Agenda 21: http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/
- Green Chemistry:
http://portal.acs.org/portal/acs/corg/content?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=PP_TRANSITIONMAIN&n
ode_id=830&use_sec=false&sec_url_var=region1&__uuid=f817162d-b082-48b2-ba7d-
945994f08eb9
The images used to construct the figure above were taken from the following
sites:
http://changetheworldgorillastyle.tumblr.com/
http://www.jorgerebequi.com/search/label/arco-iris
