Biocatalysis fulfils many key criteria of green chemistry, but this raises the question: how efficient are such production methods and how important is biotechnology for greener industrial chemistry today? This review summarizes the advantages, disadvantages and potential uses of biocatalysis to undertake greener chemistry. By addressing the obstacles of biocatalytic approaches, it will be demonstrated that continuous improvement is required to overcome existing limitations. To illustrate the state of the art in the use of enzymes and microorganisms, representative examples of industrial chemistry are discussed and evaluated in this article. Several biocatalytic processes are compared to their chemical alternatives. Finally, future trends for the biocatalytic reductions of amides and the asymmetric hydrogenation of olefins are discussed.