**1. Introduction**

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations (UN) provides a global road map of seventeen objectives promising access to sustainable development, and SDG12 in particular is devoted to the promotion of sustainable consumption and production [1]. According to the UN (2021), the material footprint has significantly increased (by 70%) since the year 2000, highlighting threats of a sharp increase in the use of plastic bags and bottles and a comparatively small amount of plastic and electronic waste recycled. The scientific community confirms the importance of SDGs in addressing economic, social, and environmental issues that plague the world and promotes the concept of sustainability [2]. However, the implementation framework of SDGs is criticized by researchers and practitioners due to the lack of clear and sound practical tools for the sustainable transition and change toward sustainable consumption [3].

**Citation:** Rutitis, D.; Smoca, A.; Uvarova, I.; Brizga, J.; Atstaja, D.; Mavlutova, I. Sustainable Value Chain of Industrial Biocomposite Consumption: Influence of COVID-19 and Consumer Behavior. *Energies* **2022**, *15*, 466. https:// doi.org/10.3390/en15020466

Academic Editor: Manuela Tvaronaviˇciene˙

Received: 8 December 2021 Accepted: 5 January 2022 Published: 10 January 2022

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The circular economy advocates sustainable development, promoting the necessity to strike a balance between environmental and economic values. In turn, this leads to the need for solutions that help businesses ensure both a positive impact on the environment and insufficient financial returns on profit and investments [4,5].

While climate change remains one of the biggest global challenges, the current COVID-19 pandemic also highlights environmental and climate challenges. Achieving zero greenhouse gas emissions requires economic and social change. The packaging industry as one of the biggest contributors to the greenhouse effects is one of the first to be forced to respond to the goals of the European green transition, which envisages the implementation of an industrial policy for the circular economy [6], and the UN Sustainable Development Goals [1]. Several of the European Union leading retailers are committed to a full transition toward circular economy business models, including the use of 100% recycled or other sustainably sourced materials by 2030 [7].

The growing variety of environmental restrictions and requirements of policymakers is a catalyst for an increase in the demand for renewable and biodegradable composite materials. Recent advances in the availability of biodegradable polymers and the focus on the use of natural fibers have offered opportunities to produce highly durable biodegradable polymer composite systems [8]. During the COVID-19 crisis, consumers have also taken the lead in forcing industries to change and invest in innovations that facilitate the reduction of the environmental footprint [9].

With the overall increase in consumption stimulated with more sophisticated applications and products introduced within the market, the market for bioplastics is continuously growing and diversifying. The global production capacity of bioplastics is set to increase from around 2.11 million tons in 2020 to approximately 2.87 million tons in 2025. The production capacity of biodegradable plastics is increasing due to the availability of new types of raw materials [10].

There are several important arguments for the manufacturers encouraging improvements, which already have been substantiated in previous studies:


Unless the introduction of sustainable packaging has been shown to drive sales or reduce costs, companies, despite promoting their sustainability intentions, lack the business opportunity to pursue more sustainable packaging.

The circular economy emphasizes the importance of reuse and recycle principles rather than extracting natural resources. This means that previously used materials should be recovered and reused in different ways, thereby securing natural resources from overexploitation [28]. In turn, this requires the development of innovative technologies that allow the recovery of valuable materials [29].

At present, much more than before, the new sustainability transition has escalated the necessity of companies and their supply chains to reconsider the contribution to three important values—environmental, social, and economic: the so-called triple bottom line [30].

In the context of sustainable development, there is great potential for the cultivation and processing of durable natural fibers into new products. The demand for such

products is increasing due to the growth of the level of education and well-being in developed countries [31].

Packaging has a major influence on sustainable consumption. The packaging value chain covers various industries and different actors in each stage of the value chain [32] (see Figure 1). The sustainable consumption value chain in this conceptual model consists of five main stages. The first stage in the value chain is Feedstock production & pre-treatment, which is represented by the source of the raw material: the farmer who is the supplier and processor of the raw material. This is followed by the Raw material processing and refining phase, which is represented by downstream processors of the raw material, who offer their processed products in several sectors. Packaging manufacturing is the stage where, using various technologies, the shape of the packaging is obtained and its characteristics are defined for further use. The product manufacturer uses this packaging to package its products as set out in its sustainable packaging strategy. The Retailer stage is represented by leading retailers of food, cosmetics, clothing, accessories, and other consumable products.

**Figure 1.** The conceptual model of the value chain of sustainable industrial consumption and related benefits from biocomposites (source: the authors).

This study has a particular focus on the investigation of sustainable preferences, consumption patterns, and derived challenges within the business-to-business (B2B) segment, namely, the industrial customers. Yet, the academic community has paid more attention to the sustainable consumption practices in the business-to-customer (B2C) segment expanding the scientific discourse on the consumption of individuals, their motivation factors to make pro-environmental and sustainable purchase decisions, while the sustainable industrial consumption is less studied [33]. This is strongly influenced by beliefs and the pro-environmental mindset of managers and owners of companies and their industrial partners [34].

This study aims to investigate the industrial consumption of biocomposite materials and the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the main stages of the value chain of sustainable industrial consumption of biocomposites. This research has a particular focus on the industrial stakeholders in the value chain until packaging reaches the end consumer. Thus, the end consumers and the waste management aspects have not been covered by this research, forming limitations and an avenue for future research.

This research contributes to the theory and practice regarding the enablers and challenges for the use of biocomposites in the further transformation toward more sustainable consumption. This study highlights the research gaps that still need to be investigated regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the sustainable consumption of end consumers and their changing behaviors that confront the traditional less sustainable practices of industrial consumers.

The paper is organized in the following sections: the second section provides an analysis of the literature. The third section explains the methodological approach and research methods applied within this study. The fourth section reveals the results of the exploratory research. The fifth section represents the interpretations of the main issues discussed and summarizes the implications stated. In addition, the conclusions, limitations, and the future research agenda are summarized in the last section of this article.
