Team:Wageningen UR/Sustainable


iGEM Wageningen 2021

Sustainable Development Goals

Heather Fields
All SDG in a circle

In the 20th century, the collective aim of humankind was to prosper economically through industrialization and globalization. Unfortunately, the consequence of industrialization and globalization deteriorated environmental political health of society. Only recently, urgent global issues have become more apparent, and made us realize that this path cannot be walked much longer. To shift the world to a sustainable way, the seventeen United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by all United Nations Members States in 2015 [1]. The main objective was to encourage humanity to tackle global environmental, political and economic challenges.

We, as synthetic biologists, rewire biology to transition away from the status quo towards a sustainable future. A sustainable future is preserved through development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the resources and health of future generations. Led by this fundamental principle, the collective aim of our is to shape our iGEM project to contribute to the following SDGs.

2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

Subgoal 2.4: By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations predicts that by 2050 we will need to feed a world population of 9.3 billion (almost 2 billion people more than the current population) [2]. Feeding the increasing population is a major challenge by itself but, even worse, continuing to use the current unsustainable agricultural approaches to produce food will be a major threat to humanity. Agriculture is one of the greatest contributors to global warming, largely due to methane emitted by cattle. In addition, the agricultural sector is the largest emitter of ammonia into the atmosphere, of which the majority arises from livestock manure [3]. Once in the atmosphere, ammonia reacts with acidic compounds, resulting in the formation of fine particulate matter harmful for humans [4]. Furthermore, the deposition of ammonia on land or water results in an excess of nutrients, which is harmful for biodiversity [5]. At the moment, there is no solutions that tackles both these problems. We talked to dr. Karin Groenestein, who is coordinating Low-Emission Livestock Farming at Wageningen University & Research as an initiative to comply with the Climate Accord. She urged us to develop one solution towards both problems. Cattlelyst provides a solution for the methane and ammonia emissions from cattle. The bacteria in our biofilter will ensure that the ammonia is converted into unreactive dinitrogen gas, which already makes up for 78% of our atmosphere. Methane, in turn, will be converted by the bacteria to carbon neutral CO2. With our solution we contribute to SDG 2.4, by ensuring sustainable food production.

SDG 2

2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

Subgoal 2.4: By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices.
SDG 2

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations predicts that by 2050 we will need to feed a world population of 9.3 billion (almost 2 billion people more than the current population) [2]. Feeding the increasing population is a major challenge by itself but, even worse, continuing to use the current unsustainable agricultural approaches to produce food will be a major threat to humanity. Agriculture is one of the greatest contributors to global warming, largely due to methane emitted by cattle. In addition, the agricultural sector is the largest emitter of ammonia into the atmosphere, of which the majority arises from livestock manure [3]. Once in the atmosphere, ammonia reacts with acidic compounds, resulting in the formation of fine particulate matter harmful for humans [4]. Furthermore, the deposition of ammonia on land or water results in an excess of nutrients, which is harmful for biodiversity [5]. At the moment, there is no solutions that tackles both these problems. We talked to dr. Karin Groenestein, who is coordinating Low-Emission Livestock Farming at Wageningen University & Research as an initiative to comply with the Climate Accord. She urged us to develop one solution towards both problems. Cattlelyst provides a solution for the methane and ammonia emissions from cattle. The bacteria in our biofilter will ensure that the ammonia is converted into unreactive dinitrogen gas, which already makes up for 78% of our atmosphere. Methane, in turn, will be converted by the bacteria to carbon neutral CO2. With our solution we contribute to SDG 2.4, by ensuring sustainable food production.

13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impact.

Subgoal 13.3: Improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning.
SDG 13

Climate change is a global and complex problem. Yet, each of us can make a difference. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions can already be achieved by the smallest of changes in lifestyle and behavior. However, awareness of the problems needs to be created first among all parts of the society, for which education is of vital importance. Through education, people can learn about the impacts of global warming and how they can take action. With our project, we aimed to create more awareness about methane emissions from cattle and the little-known consequences of ammonia emissions. To address goal 13.3, we reached a large range of ages through our educational efforts. We presented our project to primary school children, high school and university students and the rest of society to show the urgency of these problems and how they can be tackled by all of us.

15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

Subgoal 15.5: Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species.

The global nitrogen boundaries have been exceeded by a factor of two as a result of human activities [6]. The negative impacts of this excess of nitrogen on our ecosystems and biodiversity are becoming clearer by the day. It has led to damage of marine ecosystems, and changes in species composition in terrestrial ecosystems that favor fewer species that can withstand the high nitrogen levels. Approximately 40% of protected areas worldwide are at risk for biodiversity loss [7]. In the Netherlands, this is even higher, namely 73% [8]. Within Europe, the Netherlands has the highest nitrogen-emission density. Ammonia makes up 60% of total N-emissions of which more than 90% originates from the livestock sector [9]. We aim to mitigate the ammonia emissions originating from cattle and convert them in the only unreactive nitrogen form in the cycle, dinitrogen gas. With this, Cattlelyst contributes to halting biodiversity loss included in goal 15.

SDG 15

15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

Subgoal 15.5: Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and prevent the extinction of threatened species.
SDG 15

The global nitrogen boundaries have been exceeded by a factor of two as a result of human activities [6]. The negative impacts of this excess of nitrogen on our ecosystems and biodiversity are becoming clearer by the day. It has led to damage of marine ecosystems, and changes in species composition in terrestrial ecosystems that favor fewer species that can withstand the high nitrogen levels. Approximately 40% of protected areas worldwide are at risk for biodiversity loss [7]. In the Netherlands, this is even higher, namely 73% [8]. Within Europe, the Netherlands has the highest nitrogen-emission density. Ammonia makes up 60% of total N-emissions of which more than 90% originates from the livestock sector [9]. We aim to mitigate the ammonia emissions originating from cattle and convert them in the only unreactive nitrogen form in the cycle, dinitrogen gas. With this, Cattlelyst contributes to halting biodiversity loss included in goal 15.

17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

17.16. Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development, complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals in all countries, in particular developing countries.
SDG 17

As the SDGs are universal, the best way to tackle them is collectively. To support this, we contributed to SDG 17 (partnerships for the goals) which addresses enhancing global partnerships for sustainable development. We participated in the iGEM x SDG impact challenge hosted by iGEM team TAS_Taipei. This challenge encouraged each participating team to make tasks for each other, through which the specific subgoals were targeted. By completing these tasks, the efforts each team put in tackling SDGs could be broadened to a global scale. We took this opportunity to create more awareness on the environmental consequences of methane and ammonia, thereby addressing goal 13.
TAS_Taipei conference The challenge concluded with a conference, in which all participating teams discussed which SDGs they tackled and how they helped other teams achieve their goals.

  • References
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    1. https://sdgs.un.org/goals
    2. Alexandratos, N., & Bruinsma, J. (2012). World agriculture towards 2030/2050: the 2012 revision.
    3. Sommer, S. G., Webb, J., & Hutchings, N. D. (2019). New emission factors for calculation of ammonia volatilization from European livestock manure management systems. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 3, 101.
    4. Wang, J., Yin, Q., Tong, S., Ren, Z., Hu, M., & Zhang, H. (2017). Prolonged continuous exposure to high fine particulate matter associated with cardiovascular and respiratory disease mortality in Beijing, China. Atmospheric Environment, 168, 1-7.
    5. Sutton, M. A., Oenema, O., Erisman, J. W., Leip, A., van Grinsven, H., & Winiwarter, W. (2011). Too much of a good thing. Nature, 472(7342), 159-161.
    6. Rockström, J., Steffen, W., Noone, K., Persson, Å., Chapin, F. S., Lambin, E. F., ... & Foley, J. A. (2009). A safe operating space for humanity. Nature, 461(7263), 472-475.
    7. Erisman, J. W., Galloway, J. N., Dise, N. B., Sutton, M. A., Bleeker, A., Grizzetti, B., ... & De Vries, W. (2015). Nitrogen: too much of a vital resource: Science Brief. WWF Netherlands.
    8. Stokstad, E. (2019). Nitrogen crisis threatens Dutch environment—and economy.
    9. TNO, “Factsheet Emissies en depositie van stikstof in Nederland,” pp. 1–16, 2019.
About Cattlelyst

Cattlelyst is the name of the iGEM 2021 WUR team. Our name is a mix of 1) our loyal furry friends, cattle, and 2) catalyst, which is something that increases the rate of a reaction. We are developing “the something” that converts the detrimental gaseous emissions of cattle, hence our name Cattlelyst.

Are you curious about our journey? We have written about our adventures in our blog, which you can find here:

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