Constructed soils (technosols) represent a promising Nature-based Solution for land restoration. However, existing decision frameworks focus primarily on conventional green infrastructure, failing to address technosol formulation through an integrated perspective of product eco-design, circular economy, and multi-dimensional sustainability. To bridge this gap, this study proposes an innovative decision framework for technosol eco-design integrating environmental, economic, and social criteria based on the current knowledge. The framework highlights that the environmental balance of technosols is critically driven by initial production burdens, specifically transport logistics, the large volumes of waste required, and the energy consumption of pre-treatment processes. When a technosol is properly eco-designed, correctly applied over a long temporal scale, and combined with vegetation cover development, it yields substantial long-term economic, social, and human health benefits. Therefore, this paper establishes that validating technosol prototypes ex-ante can be supported by structurally embedding comprehensive life cycle assessments directly into the design process.
Agro-industrial biorefineries are central to the circular bioeconomy, but their circularity cannot be inferred solely from product recovery or process efficiency. Biorefineries integrating physicochemical pretreatments, biological conversion and extraction should be designed and assessed through a Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) perspective. Two major sources of non-circularity are contaminants present in biomass feedstocks and inhibitory or persistent compounds generated during processing. These compounds can impair enzymatic hydrolysis, anaerobic digestion, nutrient recovery, digestate quality and the safe reintegration of residual streams into agricultural soils. Although many unit operations have reached technological maturity, integrated assessments linking upstream decisions with downstream environmental performance remain limited. A fully circular biorefinery should therefore be defined by its ability to preserve residual-stream suitability for biological valorisation and safe environmental reintegration. Integrating Life Cycle Assessment, Material Flow Analysis, Substance Flow Analysis and Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design provides a comprehensive framework for identifying trade-offs and supporting environmentally safe, resource-efficient biorefineries.
