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The New Nordic Recipe for Sustainable Change

Wednesday, 22 March 2017 11:18 GMT

NN - norden.org

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* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The future is ours. Both under the age of 30, we belong to a generation that has to live with the consequences of climate change and resource scarcity. We care about our own future. We care about the future of our children and grandchildren. And we care about the future of our planet and its fragile ecosystems. We owe that to Earth, and we owe that to ourselves - because humans cannot prosper without a healthy planet.

It has now been 45 years since The Club of Rome published its now-famous Limits to Growth report. Though it was released before we were even born, to us it has never been more relevant. New studies suggest that we are following the most unsustainable and catastrophic scenario of the twelve presented in the report. The production and consumption levels are already exceeding the planetary boundaries. Yet there are millions around the world still in desperate need of food, water and energy.

Solving this problem doesn’t necessarily require many more natural resources, but it calls for resources to be used more efficiently by reducing waste and creating circular solutions. As we both come from the Nordic region, which has high consumption levels, we are perfectly aware that our region critically needs to reduce its large environmental footprint, just as many other countries around the world.

Luckily, through our recent research and analysis of Nordic companies, we show that the “New Nordic Bioeconomy” holds enormous potential for more sustainable solutions. We also call for criteria that are more genuine because bio-based products are not necessarily sustainable. We need criteria and guidance for what constitutes an exemplary product so that consumers, organizations and public institutions can recognize and distinguish sustainable products from mediocre ones, thereby ensuring the best practices around the world are supported, celebrated and scaled.

A sustainable bioeconomy constitutes solutions revolving around better management of renewable biological resources such as wood, seaweed and fish, and their conversion into food, bioenergy and other bio-based products via innovative technologies, partnerships and business models. Based on this concept, the New Nordic Bioeconomy is specifically about a green transition of traditional bio-industries in the Nordic countries, replacing unsustainable and fossil-based resources, upgrading sidestreams and waste, and creating circular solutions.

Our organisations – The Nordic Council of Ministers and think tank Sustainia – have collaborated to uncover the benefits that the Nordic bioeconomy can offer. We strongly believe that companies, governments, organizations and entrepreneurs around the world could and should learn from some of the best examples in this area. Given its size, the bioeconomy can be a strong engine for change: research shows that the turnover of the bioeconomy is €2.1 trillion per year in the European Union alone, and in the Nordic countries, it makes up more than 10% of the overall economy.

We have recently launched the publication “Nordic Bioeconomy – 25 cases for a sustainable change”. The publication shows that Nordic countries – and companies – are leading the way by exploring opportunities within the bioeconomy, which holds huge untapped potential in terms of resource efficiency, emissions reductions, job creation, and creating value-added product areas such as food, pharma and clothing. We already have the “ingredients” to reduce the environmental footprint of production; now we are on track to find a recipe worth sharing.

Synthesizing the characteristics of the Nordic cases, we have been able to lay out four guiding principles for a sustainable and innovative bioeconomy. We call them the strongholds of the New Nordic Bioeconomy:

 

REPLACE – in search of responsible resources.

UPGRADE – unlocking the full potential of side streams and waste.

CIRCULATE – creating local and circular bio-solutions.

COLLABORATE – because we are smarter together.

 

REPLACING fossil-based and other unsustainable materials with bio-based alternatives is the first stronghold. Besides substituting fossil fuels, replacing the existing materials with new bio-based ones often results in the production of higher-value products from the biomass. One of the featured cases, Norwegian Trefokus, is actively working to increase the use of wood in construction as wood-based solutions can lower CO2-emissions by up to 50% in this area.

UPGRADE is another opportunity presented by the Nordic bioeconomy, as optimised utilisation of existing biological resources and upgrade of surplus biomass to higher value products and services can generate new businesses and more efficient resource use. As such, Icelandic startup Codland develops pharmaceuticals and cosmetics based on the currently low-value cod skin, thus increasing the value of cod skin by up to 300%. 

CIRCULATE refers to embracing the circular-economy approach to keep resources in the cycle, allowing renewal and reuse. One notable case is the Kemi-Tornio region in Finnish Lapland, which generates 1.7 million tons of industrial by-products and residues annually. Companies are now working with the region to apply an ambitious cross-sectoral approach to optimise the use of these side streams, aiming to achieve full-scale industrial symbiosis.

COLLABORATION is essential in order for the bioeconomy to reach its full potential. Cross-sectoral collaboration and public-private partnerships are crucial. One example of such collaboration is the Swedish strategic innovation programme, BioInnovation, which has the ambitious goal of turning the country into a full bioeconomy by 2050 through substituting fossil-based resources with new bio-based materials.

We urge everyone to tuck into the New Nordic Bioeconomy as the approach helps cut pollution and encourage circular production across the globe. We have taken the first steps in developing criteria for what constitutes a sustainable bioeconomy. Together with other initiatives in the field we look forward to supporting and promoting sustainable technologies and solutions.

Hopefully, by the time we are both in our 30s an improved bioeconomy will have replaced unsustainable practices, enabling us to live and flourish within the planetary boundaries. We believe the inspiration from the New Nordic Bioeconomy will bring us a step closer to its realization.

About “Nordic Bioeconomy – 25 cases for a sustainable change”

In 2015, the Nordic Bioeconomy Panel was established with the mandate to develop a proposal on a joint Nordic bioeconomy strategy designed to stimulate innovation and support a sustainable transition in the Nordic bioeconomy. As a stepping-stone towards the strategy, the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Nordic Bioeconomy Panel collaborated with the Danish think-tank Sustainia on collecting and categorizing 25 Nordic cases in the ‘new’ Nordic bioeconomy.

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