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Human Practices / Sustainability

Sustainability

Holistic approach to sustainability

Holistic approach to sustainability

Sustainability was embedded in the process of developing our project, guided by environmental, social, and economic pillars. Our decisions considered long-term ecological safety, farmer welfare, and economic viability. This integrated framework ensured that innovation aligned with real-world impact rather than remaining a theoretical exercise.

Environmental performance and safety

Environmental performance and safety

The project prioritizes ecological protection through microbial containment strategies and the replacement of chemical fungicides with biodegradable alternatives. By reducing pesticide runoff, soil contamination, and biodiversity loss, PhytoBlock aims to strengthen ecosystem resilience and align with sustainable agriculture practices promoted across West Africa.

Social and economic equity

Social and economic equity

Beyond environmental goals, PhytoBlock was designed to support smallholder livelihoods and fair value distribution. Engagement with cooperatives and NGOs informed a model focused on accessibility, affordability, and training. The objective is to empower farming communities to increase yields, reduce dependency on costly inputs, and improve income stability.

Evidence-based sustainability assessment

Evidence-based sustainability assessment

Sustainability outcomes were evaluated through a structured methodology combining literature-based benchmarks, stakeholder insights, and socioeconomic indicators. This data-driven approach ensures transparency and accountability, linking technical progress to measurable ecological and social benefits for future validation and scalability.

Introduction

Sustainable Development Impact (SDI) is central to PhytoBlock and our research. We explored the broader landscape of cacao sustainability by combining literature research with discussions with organizations such as CADESA, 4C Services, and Beyond Beans. This helped us understand the key social, environmental, and economic challenges in the sector, as well as different approaches to address them. Building on this foundation, we consulted Prof. Griet Ceulemans, who encouraged us to think in terms of systems rather than isolated solutions, and to prioritize transparency,inclusivity, and adaptability in our assessments. We also learned that Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) work best as directional tools rather than checklists, that sustainability requires transparency about both opportunities and limitations, and that meaningful impact emerges when diverse stakeholders are actively involved.

See structural alignment with iGEM Criteria in this section.

Our SDI Foundational Principles:

  • Inclusivity and Co-Creation: We engaged stakeholders to bring diverse perspectives informed our decisions. See our Stakeholder Management in IHP
  • Transparency and Honesty: We committed to openly addressing both positive and negative aspects of our project to foster trust and accountability.
  • No Rigid Frameworks: We emphasized flexibility, avoiding strict frameworks to allow adaptability and context-specific approaches.
  • SDGs as Directional Tools: Recognizing their limitations, we used SDGs as guides, focusing on specific relevance to our context.

Methodological Framework:

Building on those principles, we also explored the B Corp movement on the recommendation of Cocoa Circle. Developed by B Lab, a global non-profit organization that certifies companies like Patagonia or Ben & Jerry's meeting high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency, the framework offers a holistic approach to measuring sustainable impact [1]. Our SDI methodology is structured as follows:

  1. HREDD Framework: Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence helped identify key challenges and potential risks for our project and link these with relevant SDGs. See our HREDD page in IHP.
  2. Sustainable and Inner Development Goals: We focused on our main effects on sustainable development while also performing a full Impact Assessment on the 17 SDGs. Additionally, we incorporated Inner Development Goals (IDGs), a framework that identifies the internal skills and qualities needed to achieve the SDGs [2], to reflect our growth in alignment with sustainability values.
  3. Long Term Impact and B Corp Guidelines: We considered responsible scaling for PhytoBlock, using a Theory of Change framework to think about our long-term impact, and aligning with B Corp standards to ensure accountability and transparency.

By embedding these frameworks into our project, we aim for PhytoBlock to contribute meaningfully to a sustainable and fair cacao industry , ensuring that our innovation is sustainable in the broad sense of the word.

Cacao & Sustainability: A problematic industry

The chocolate industry poses one of the most complex sustainability challenges in agriculture and food sectors. Despite decades of certification programs, corporate commitments, and increasing public pressure, most of the world's cocoa is still produced under conditions that are deeply inequitable, unstable and environmentally damaging. The solution? Our talks with multiple organizations, from Rainforest Alliance to Beyond Beans, clearly highlighted that it lies with systemic change rather than isolated interventions. See more of our conversation in our IHP Timeline

Cacao farmers working within a shaded agroforestry plot

Key Issues

The main sustainable development challenges identified across our research and confirmed by local partners with experience in the field, such as Trias, Beyond Beans, and CADESA include:

  • Child labor and poor working conditions: Over 1.5 million children are estimated to work in cocoa farms in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. This reflects entrenched poverty and limited access to education.[3]
  • Low farmer income and inequality: Most smallholders earn less than USD 1.50 per day, well below a living income. This economic vulnerability restricts investment in sustainable practices.[4]
  • Deforestation and biodiversity loss: Expansion into protected areas has driven major forest loss: over 80 % of Côte d'Ivoire's forest cover has disappeared, reducing ecosystem resilience and carbon storage. [5]
  • Chemical dependency: Heavy reliance on copper-based fungicides and synthetic pesticides causes soil and water contamination, harming beneficial organisms and reducing long-term productivity. [6]
  • Climate vulnerability and monoculture: Rising temperatures, floods, draughts, pests, and degraded soils make current cocoa systems increasingly unsustainable.[7]

For more information on the risks most relevant to PhytoBlock, see our HREDD Table

PhytoBlock: a Sustainable Solution

Within this context, PhytoBlock aims to create a scalable, biological alternative that supports the long-term health of both ecosystems and farming communities.

  • Environmental sustainability: Our engineered Bacillus subtilis biocontrol would replace copper and systemic fungicides, offering comparable disease protection without persistent soil toxicity or disruption of microbial biodiversity. In order to ensure biosecurity, we follow EFSA's Qualified Presumption of Safety (QPS) framework.
  • Social and economic inclusion: Developed with partners like Cargill, Trias, Cocoa Circle and CADESA, PhytoBlock's distribution model through direct-sourcing programs emphasizes accessibility, training, and fair value distribution to include smallholder farmers.
  • System resilience: By improving yields, and integrating within traceable, direct-sourcing systems, PhytoBlock contributes to a self-sustaining value chain that is fair, environmentally sound, and viable over time.

Through this integrated approach, PhytoBlock positions itself not just as green innovation but as a regenerative solution that can endure and evolve with the realities of the cacao sector.

SDG Impact Assessment

We used the SDGs as a guide to predict where PhytoBlock's innovation creates the most impact. This approach links benefits and risks to specific SDGs and their targets, providing a transparent but flexible understanding of sustainability in context.

Our analysis follows 3 dimensions of impact: environmental, social, and systemic impact, based on the insights from our HREDD process.

Environmental

Environmental Dimension

Safeguarding soils, biodiversity, and responsible inputs.

Placeholder for SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production SDG 12 — Responsible Consumption and Production
Placeholder for SDG 15 Life on Land SDG 15 — Life on Land
Potential Benefits
  • Reduced pollution (Target 12.4): Replacing copper fungicides with a biodegradable Bacillus subtilis biocontrol lowers soil and water contamination and prevents the accumulation of toxic metals.
  • Sustainable resource use (Target 12.2, 15.1, 15.5): The biological formulation minimizes chemical inputs, promoting circularity and long-term soil health. By improving productivity by around 107 kg/ha (see Entrepreneurship), PhytoBlock also helps reduce deforestation pressure and supports soil biodiversity recovery.
  • Ethical use of genetic resources (Target 15.6): PhytoBlock ensures transparency in strain sourcing and equitable collaboration with partners in cacao-producing regions.
Potential Risks
  • Ecosystem perturbations (Indicator 15.8.1): Releasing living microorganisms requires continuous observation to prevent unintended ecosystem effects or gene transfer. To prevent this, we will undergo EFSA evaluations and testing before release. Additionally, our design includes a kill switch and a logic-gate to prevent survival outside target conditions and reduce horizontal gene transfer risks.
  • Unequal technological adoption (Target 12.1): If regulatory or financial barriers persist, some farmers may continue relying on chemical-intensive methods, limiting the environmental impact of adoption.
Systemic

Systemic Dimension

Building resilient, transparent value chains through collaboration.

Placeholder for SDG 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure Primary SDG 9 — Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Placeholder for SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals Primary SDG 17 — Partnerships for the Goals
Potential Benefits
  • Innovation ecosystems (Target 9.5): Collaborations among universities, cooperatives, and biotech partners such as Aphea.Bio strengthen capacity-building between Europe and West Africa.
  • Knowledge exchange (Target 9.a): Open collaboration and technology transfer promote shared innovation and equitable access to biotechnological tools.
Potential Risks
  • Resource demand (Indicator 9.4.1): Industrial scale-up must maintain low energy and emission intensity to prevent trade-offs between innovation and sustainability.
  • Institutional gaps (Target 17.9): Uneven technical capacity in partner countries could delay adoption or reinforce dependence on external expertise.

Below is our detailed SDG Impact Assessment, presented SDG by SDG for the sake of cohesion and clarity. A template of this full assessment can be found in our Contributions page for future teams to use.

Open Full SDG Impact Assessment

Inner Development Goals (IDGs)

Beyond external outcomes, PhytoBlock integrates the IDGs to foster personal and collective growth within the team. These internal competencies ensured that sustainability was a mindset embodied in the team's approach, reinforcing the belief that external impact begins with inner transformation.

Inner Development Goals
Figure 1: Inner Development Goals figure obtained from https://innerdevelopmentgoals.org/framework/

Examples in PhytoBlock:

1. Engagement with Stakeholders (Relating & Collaborating)

During stakeholder consultations with partners such as CADESA, Cocoa Circle, and Trias, the team practiced empathic listening and open dialogue, core aspects of the Relating and Collaborating dimensions. Instead of approaching partners with pre-defined assumptions, the team created space for people share their perspectives on local challenges. This process shaped PhytoBlock's distribution model, ensuring accessibility and affordability.

2. Reflective Leadership and Adaptive Team Dynamics (Being & Thinking)

Within the team, members applied the Being and Thinking dimensions by integrating reflection anSd adaptability into our project management. Weekly retrospectives encouraged us to assess our technical progress and interpersonal dynamics, communication, and workload balance. Drawing inspiration from agile principles, the team adjusted roles and workflows when necessary, valuing accountability over hierarchy. This reflective practice nurtured self-awareness, resilience, andcritical-thinking skills essential for sustainable leadership in interdisciplinary projects.

Further Impact: A Look Into the Future

Our vision is to not just create a biobased fungicide, but to generate lasting, measurable impact across the cacao ecosystem. This is why we will continuously evaluate how our operations affect governance, workers, communities, customers, and the environment, ensuring that ethical growth remains central to our scaling strategy.

Scaling Positive Impact

Our future strategy is built around four sustainability pillars:

Sustainable Production & Market Integration

Partnering with major chocolate producers ensures broad adoption and financial stability, while integrating with sustainability programs that reward yield improvement and environmental restoration.

Farmer Training & Local Empowerment

Together with Cocoa Circle, we developed an infographic and training toolkit on agroforestry and good agricultural practices, to be to over 8000 farmers. These materials promote regenerative practices that complement PhytoBlock's biological control.

Additionally, both a detailed and a visual PhytoBlock instruction manual will be developed with the help of science communicator contacts from Belgian organization Ekoli.

Open Agroforestry infographic
Scientific Collaboration & Knowledge Exchange

Collaboration with iGEM Team Phytclub (Manipal University, India) led to a joint educational poster on Phytophthora that can be distributed through the stakeholder network we have built. This marks the beginning of a shared global effort to translate and distribute open-access knowledge to farmers in multiple languages, as the poster will be translated into the relevant languages (Spanish, French, Kannada).

Open Phytophthora infographic
Data-Driven Accountability

Using the B Corp assessment framework, including their Impact Assessment and SDG management tools, we will track measurable outcomes such as farmer income gains, reductions in fungicide dependency, and verified decreases in disease-related yield losses. See more information about our parameters in our HREDD page in IHP.

Entrepreneurship: A Business Plan for Social and Environmental Impact

PhytoBlock's model merges profitability with long-term sustainability: by working through established direct-sourcing programs, engaging with farmers through pilot programs, and designing educational training, we aim to contribute to traceability infrastructures and expand technological access for low-income farmers. Through our operations and partnerships, we will work to build a self-sustaining ecosystem where innovation, fairness, and environmental stewardship reinforce one another in thefuture.

See more in Entrepreneurship

Theory of Change: How to Create Impact

Theory of Change (ToC) is a structured framework that maps how specific actions lead to long-term transformation. It clarifies why and how a project is expected to create change by moving from inputs to measurable impact. Each stage of the roadmap shows how knowledge, resources, and partnerships evolve into real-world improvements:

  • Inputs: The resources, knowledge, and partnerships that fuel PhytoBlock’s activities.
  • Activities: The specific actions undertaken, such as farmer training, product deployment, and collaboration with industry partners.
  • Outputs: The immediate, measurable results, like reduced black pod incidence.
  • Outcomes: The medium-term effects of interventions, such as higher income stability.
  • Impact: The long-term transformation, including more resilient ecosystems.

Inputs

Scientific expertise & research facilities Workforce and access to research materials Collaboration with strategic partners

Activities

Training on PhytoBlock application Farmer workshops on good agricultural practices
Cross-team knowledge exchange (PhytoBlock × Phytclub) Integration of B Corp assessment tools into business milestones

Outputs

Lower incidence of black pod rot More agroforestry practices implemented
Accessible educational materials (infographics, posters) Clear sustainability metrics and accountability reports

Outcomes

Higher useful cacao yield Sustainable land management
Increased awareness of sustainable pathogen control Transparent scaling
Investor confidence

Impact

Improved income stability for cacao farmers Regenerative ecosystems & reduced deforestation
Global collaboration culture supporting responsible biotech Self-sustaining, fair, and environmentally conscious cacao value chain

Alignment with iGEM Sustainable Development Impact Criteria

Yes, stakeholder engagement was central to PhytoBlock's sustainability strategy. Through consultations with 4C Services, Beyond Beans, CADESA, and Cocoa Circle, the team identified the social and environmental challenges, mapped with the relevant SDGs (See our HREDD table and SDG Impact Assessment) shaping cocoa production, including deforestation, child labor, and biosecurity risks. Guidance from Prof. Griet Ceulemans and Dr. Kongor, encouraged a systems-thinking approach,integrating economic and ecological considerations into design decisions. Continuous dialogue with sustainability experts and farmer cooperatives directly influenced our technical design and the creation of training materials adapted to local needs.

We assessed its long-term effects through the Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (HREDD) framework linked to specific SDGs and a Theory of Change roadmap. PhytoBlock promotes inclusion by improving smallholder access to sustainable technology and training. Environmentally, our solution reduces soil contamination and deforestation, supporting ecosystem resilience. Economically, we aims to stabilize farmer income by reducing disease-related losses. Future monitoring under BCorp assessment tools will ensure these outcomes are measured and sustained, integrating accountability into PhytoBlock's growth.

PhytoBlock's SDG Impact Assessment mapped contributions and potential trade-offs across all 17 goals. It identifies strong positive interactions with SDGs 1, 8, 9, 12, and 15, and acknowledges risks such as unequal access or ecological uncertainties associated with microbial use, represented by SDGs 10, 14 and 15. Mitigation measures include inclusion local partnerships (e.g. Trias and CADESA), and strict biosafety compliance in line with EFSA guidelines. This comprehensiveevaluation reflects a balanced understanding of sustainability, acknowledging that impact requires transparency about both opportunities and limitations.

All sustainability and HREDD evaluations are publicly available on our wiki. In addition, we developed and shared our HREDD approach and template of our full SDG Impact Assessment, designed to help future iGEM teams and research groups replicate and adapt our methodology. These include guidance on how to map project outcomes to specific SDG targets and indicators, identify potential risks and mitigation measures, and assess both environmental and social dimensions. Our ImpactAssessment template also provides information on each SDG allowing users to easily document their sustainability contributions and align them with global frameworks.

PhytoBlock contributes most strongly to SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and SDG 15 (Life on Land). By introducing an alternative to copper fungicides, we aim to improve soil and water health, support sustainable industrial innovation, and reduce the drivers of deforestation. Our approach demonstrates measurable alignment with SDG targets, as exemplified in our HREDD issue table. As we scale, our impact will extendbeyond cocoa, serving as a transferable model for sustainable agricultural biotechnology.

References