In the early 2000s, biofuels were seen as a panacea for several environmental and economic challenges. In more recent years, however, their promotion has faded substantially. With the ongoing expansion of biofuel production worldwide, serious doubts have been raised about their sustainability and potential to reach environmental targets. This Ecologic Brief provides an assessment of the extent to which social aspects of biofuel production are addressed in current EU policies. It also explores possible ways of enhancing, reshaping, or extending existing policies in order to ensure the sustainable production of biofuels. The Ecologic Brief is available for download.

This video is one out of four that were developed and produced within the project EU sustainable development indicators: video production, co-ordinated by the Ecologic Institute.

EU progress towards sustainable development goes side by side with fostering green growth. Here resource productivity has an important role to play. Yet its measurement could have some interpretation pitfalls and it is important to be aware of them.

This video displays the experiences of British Jane. She moves into a flat with integrated Smart Home technology, which does not fit her lifestyle. The video illustrates potential challenges of Smart Homes.

Sustainability aspects are often insufficiently considered, if at all, within standards for evaluations or impact assessments. This book chapter points out the challenges raised by sustainability evaluations and the aspects which should be added to existing evaluation standards.

Vidaurre, Rodrigo and Isabelle Turcotte 2012: Results of the Stakeholder Consultation on Requirements for a Possible Environmental Risk and Hazard Classification System for Pharmaceuticals. Ecologic Institute, Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Institute for Social-Ecological research.

<p>With the slogan, "Every Drop Counts," the 12th edition of Green Week, the biggest annual conference on European environmental policy, took place from the 22 to the 25 May in Brussels, Belgium. With the focus this year being on water, Ecologic Institute disseminated information, best practices, and lessons learned from a number of high-profile projects carried out on behalf of the DG Environment and DG Research &amp; Innovation of the European Commission, the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), and other sponsors.</p>&#13;