Biotechnology can play an important role to reach the goals of sustainability. In the present work, we describe successful examples of microorganisms especially designed for optimizing ethanol production, biodegradable plastics production from renewable resources, and toxic metals bioremediation. These biotechnological processes significantly contribute to promote sustainable development, although they may, at present, not be competitive with the conventional technologies.

Biotechnology; Sustainable development; Biofuels; Biopolymers; Bioremediation