The role of life cycle assessment (LCA) in informing the development of a sustainable and circular bioeconomy is discussed. We analyse the critical challenges remaining in using LCA and propose improvements needed to resolve future development challenges. Biobased systems are often complex combinations of technologies and practices that are geographically dispersed over long distances and with heterogeneous and uncertain sets of indicators and impacts. Recent studies have provided methodological suggestions on how LCA can be improved for evaluating the sustainability of biobased systems with a new focus on emerging systems, helping to identify environmental and social opportunities prior to large R&D investments. However, accessing economies of scale and improved conversion efficiencies while maintaining compatibility across broad ranges of sustainability indicators and public acceptability remain key challenges for the bioeconomy. LCA can inform, but not by itself resolve this complex dimension of sustainability. Future policy interventions that aim to promote the bioeconomy and support strategic value chains will benefit from the systematic use of LCA. However, the LCA community needs to develop the mechanisms and tools needed to generate agreement and coordinate the standards and incentives that will underpin a successful biobased transition. Systematic stakeholder engagement and the use of multidisciplinary analysis in combination with LCA are essential components of emergent LCA methods.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Bio-derived and bioinspired sustainable advanced materials for emerging technologies (part 1)’.

讨论了生命周期评估 (LCA) 在为可持续和循环生物经济的发展提供信息方面的作用。我们分析了使用 LCA 时仍存在的关键挑战，并提出了解决未来发展挑战所需的改进建议。基于生物的系统通常是技术和实践的复杂组合，这些技术和实践在地理上分散在很远的距离，并且具有异质和不确定的指标和影响集。最近的研究提供了有关如何改进 LCA 以评估生物基系统的可持续性的方法学建议，新的重点是新兴系统，有助于在大型研发投资之前识别环境和社会机会。然而，获得规模经济和提高转换效率，同时保持广泛的可持续性指标和公众可接受性的兼容性仍然是生物经济的主要挑战。LCA 可以提供信息，但不能单独解决可持续性的这一复杂维度。未来旨在促进生物经济和支持战略价值链的政策干预将受益于 LCA 的系统使用。然而，LCA 社区需要开发达成共识所需的机制和工具，并协调标准和激励措施，以支持成功的生物基过渡。系统的利益相关者参与和结合 LCA 使用多学科分析是新兴 LCA 方法的重要组成部分。

本文是主题问题“用于新兴技术的生物衍生和仿生可持续先进材料（第 1 部分）”的一部分。