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- Fahnestock, Jesse, 1974-
(författare)
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AERTOs Bio-Based Economy: Forward-Looking Analysis
- 2016
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Forward-Looking Analysis portion of the AERTOs Bio-Based Economy project seeks to develop contextual, exploratory analysis that helps the participating research institutes better evaluate their bioeconomy strategies. The analysis takes a 15-20 year perspective and focuses on the level of the bioeconomy, rather than on specific technologies or biorefinery concepts.The analysis contends that RTOs and their industrial partners should consider the uncertainties of the future bioeconomy at different levels – The World and Sustainability, Europe and the Bioeconomy, and the RTOs and Industry – and through the lenses of three alternative logics.The logic of environmental sustainability pushes the bioeconomy and its component technologies in the direction of large scale, efficiently incentivized substitution of fossil-based emissions through bio-based alternatives, benefiting biofuel production and creating opportunities for RTOs to take a leadership role in their work to make industrial bioeconomy more sustainable.The logic of competitive innovation pushes countries and companies to search for defensible advantages in the bioeconomy. The scale of fossil substitution is smaller but the margins for successful companies are higher, and advanced bio-based materials and chemicals are a dynamic sector for investment. The RTOs have a smaller role and work increasingly on product performance issues.The logic of resource utilization sees countries and companies working to maximize the value of existing assets, particularly natural biomass endowments. The bioeconomy is driven primarily through national strategies and the Forest Biorefinery creates national champions in the Nordics. RTOs have a stable workflow and focus on increasing the efficiency of biorefinery systems.Uncertainties related to the quantitative boundaries of the future bioeconomy can be assessed through a review of scenario literature on biomass availability, biofuels and bio-based chemicals production. There is a wide range of estimates available, but central estimates suggest that potential supply of sustainable biomass to industry could exceed demand by 70% in the long-term. Pressures created by changes at the margin of markets and through regional variations may nonetheless make realizing this potential difficult. Pathways applying the logic of environmental sustainability, to the extent that it generates common standards, will likely reduce supply-side risks.Because the transition to a bio-based economy will occur stepwise, accusations of ‘greenwashing’ may plague early bio-based products and strategies if they are not fully-fossil free or certified sustainable. Nonetheless these first attempts may also generate positive awareness and will need to continue in interplay with the development of standards and certifications. Pathways applying the logic of competitive innovation are likely to be those that create incentives for greenwashing and reputational risks to the bioeconomy.Uncertainties about feedstocks and technology costs have made feedstock flexibility a topic of interest in biorefinery development. Here, too, multiple concepts exist, from modular concepts that are truly feedstock agnostic to robust concepts designed to handle heterogeneity within a narrower feedstock basis. Once again the logical pathway applied will be likely to influence the approach to feedstock flexibility.
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| 2. |
- Fahnestock, Jesse, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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RISEnergy: Roadmaps for energy innovation in Sweden through 2030
- 2016
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- RISE Research Institutes of Sweden is a group of research and technology organisations. RISE is a leading innovation partner working global cooperation with academia, enterprise and society to create value, growth and competitiveness through research excellence and innovation.In the area of Energy, RISE has developed innovation Roadmaps covering:Energy Efficient TransportElectric Power SystemEnergy Efficient and Smart BuildingsSustainable Thermal ProcessesEfficient Energy Use in IndustryDecarbonisation of Basic IndustriesThese Roadmaps describe development pathways for technologies, non-technical elements (market design, user behaviours, policies, etc.) and key actors that deliver on a plausible, desirable vision for each respective innovation area in 2030. These Roadmaps are intended to support RISE’s strategic planning and development, but should be relevant reading for anyone interested in energy innovation in Sweden.
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| 3. |
- Fahnestock, Jesse, 1974-
(författare)
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The use of concepts related to sustainable development in political and strategic documents
- 2016
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Horizon 2020 project Green.eu, as part of the process of building and activating the Innovation for Sustainable Development Network, is undertaking work on clarifying the (operational) meaning of concepts related to sustainable development, green economy, and eco-innovation in different parts of the world, for different stakeholders and in different contexts. This paper is a first attempt to explore how these concepts are used in policy- and strategy-setting contexts, in the expectation that better understanding of commonalties and differences will improve stakeholders’ ability to identify opportunities and mechanisms for collaboration in practice.This analysis explores this situation through a review of documents produced by different stakeholders in different geographies and contexts, applying a consistent framework to make the conceptual content of a range of policy- and strategy-oriented documents comparable. The framework uses Sustainable Development as the central concept around which political objectives, strategies, processes for change, domains for action, and other related concepts are organized.Among broad Strategies for sustainable development, Low-Carbon Economy has been the most prevalent, and has the deepest connections to the other strategies. Likewise, in terms of political objectives, climate protection was strongly associated with all the strategies, confirming the apparent link between Low-Carbon Economy and the others. Ecosystem conservation was nearly as prevalent. Taken together, this suggests that the environmental dimension of sustainability is the most important commonality across different strategies.In terms of overall emphasis on purely economic objectives, no meaningful split is evident between the developed and developing worlds, with poorer countries and richer countries giving economics an equally prominent role in sustainable development. In a keyword-based analysis of international stakeholders, the European Union put more relative emphasis on development as compared to growth than any other stakeholder group.Developing measurement and metrics for sustainability was more than twice as important as any other process for change in the set of ‘global’ documents reviewed. This appears to be an area where global collaboration is widely expected to add value. In a comparison of international stakeholder groups, business emphasized governance, responsibility, and supply chain management, while civil society emphasized partnership and fossil fuel substitution more than other stakeholders.The domains for action based on ‘natural assets’ (land use-agriculture-marine/fisheries/aquaculture-forestry-water) were considered almost universally relevant to sustainable development. Energy is unsurprisingly central to many of the documents: only water received comparable priority as a domain for action.Overall the EU and Brazil seem to have the most similar approach to sustainable development as that which is visible in the ‘Global’ documents. The poorest countries included in the review appear to be the most conceptually isolated, with no obviously strong links (even to each other).
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