SUSTAINABILITY CONSULT

Their core work

Sustainability Consult is a Brussels-based sustainability consultancy that contributes specialist expertise to large-scale EU innovation projects focused on circular economy and bioeconomy transitions. Their work involves supporting the design and validation of sustainable industrial processes — notably waste valorization pathways (converting textile waste into chemical feedstocks) and second-generation biorefinery systems producing ethanol and bio-based materials from biomass. Being headquartered in Brussels gives them natural proximity to EU policy development and funding institutions, likely making them valuable for projects that need to connect research activities with regulatory and market frameworks. Their contributions appear oriented toward strategic, advisory, and dissemination roles within multi-partner consortia rather than laboratory or engineering execution.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their two projects ran almost concurrently (2015-2019 and 2016-2022), so a clear sequential evolution is difficult to establish. The first project, RESYNTEX, engaged them with circular economy applied to textile waste — an industrial waste stream angle. The second, BIOSKOH, moved toward biorefinery systems and explicit bioeconomy frameworks with a focus on biomass cascading and ethanol production. The direction of travel appears to be from industrial waste circularity toward the broader bioeconomy agenda, which aligns with where EU policy and funding priorities were heading in the late 2010s.

They appear to be moving toward bioeconomy and biorefinery as a core theme, following EU Green Deal and bioeconomy strategy priorities — making them a plausible partner for future biomass, bioenergy, or bio-based materials projects.

How they like to work

Sustainability Consult has exclusively participated as a partner — never as project coordinator — across both H2020 projects. They operate within large consortia: their 37 unique partners across 13 countries from just 2 projects indicates they join well-networked, multi-country Innovation Actions rather than smaller research collaborations. This profile is consistent with a consultancy brought in for specific advisory, communication, or policy-bridging tasks within large industrial demonstration projects.

Despite only two projects, Sustainability Consult has built a notably broad network of 37 unique partners spanning 13 countries — reflecting participation in large, consortium-heavy Innovation Actions. Their Brussels base likely facilitates connections across EU member states and institutions.

What sets them apart

As a small Brussels-based consultancy, Sustainability Consult occupies a niche at the intersection of EU policy proximity and applied bioeconomy/circular economy expertise. Their value in a consortium is likely as a connector between research activities and policy or market context — a role that larger research institutes or engineering firms cannot easily fill. For a project coordinator assembling a consortium that needs strategic sustainability framing or EU-level policy linkage, they are a natural fit.

Highlights from their portfolio

• BIOSKOH
  Largest funding award (€358,750) and longest duration (2016-2022), covering flagship second-generation biorefinery development with a cascading biomass valorization approach including ethanol production.
• RESYNTEX
  Early circular economy project targeting textile waste-to-feedstock conversion — an underexplored industrial waste stream that bridges sustainability consulting with chemical industry applications.