The matter and the metrics: engineering enzymatic workhorses in service of the planet and a sustainable denim dyeing industry

This paper traces the shift from petro-based chemistry to the use of enzymes to enable a sustainable denim dyeing industry, asking why enzymes become the solution to remaking chemistry at a research center in Denmark. Using ethnographic methods, the paper investigates the means and matter by which sociotechnical imaginaries of a sustainable future become crafted by observing how developments in science become coupled with use of metrics to enable chemo-enzymatic indican, the name of the dye. The ethnography adds to our understanding of matter as driving sociotechnical imaginaries by showing how our entrenchment in petro-chemical residues fuel the imaginary of an enzymatic future. To understand this choice of matter–enzymes–the paper examines the interrelatedness of Denmark’s past and present scientific engagements as well as how genetic sequencing and editing technologies enable a renewed attention to enzymes as agents of sustainability. Examining how emerging technologies must adhere to values of efficiency, profits, and reduced environmental impact, the paper discusses how techno-economical and life cycle assessments increasingly drive scientific engagements with the ‘bio’ and shape notions of sustainability in the denim dyeing industry. As calibrations of environments at the micro- and macroscale, the calculations highlight how the transit of matter from petro-chemistry to chemo-enzymatic dye perpetuates Denmark’s national identity as a global leader in the emerging bioeconomy, thus expanding the scope of questions we are posing in relation to the development of biobased chemicals for a sustainable future.