Gaia helps Forestcluster Ltd to identify the future winning concepts of global bio-based economy, a sector with remarkable business and sustainability potential.
Bio-based economy is one solution to global challenges such as climate change, scarcity of natural resources and population growth. It also provides significant opportunities to create new business and improved value addition from natural resources, together with improved sustainability of industries and communities. In Finland, bio-based economy is identified as an important focus area, and especially forest-based resources are emphasized in the Finnish context of the bio-based economy.
As a part of this development, The Strategic Centre for science, technology and innovation of the forest-based industries, Forestcluster Ltd, has recently initiated a metamorphosis towards the wider perspective of the bio-based economy. The idea is to cover also other than forest-based sources of biomass and a wider base of actors in order to enable development of efficient and integrated concepts of the future bio-based economy. Gaia helps Forestcluster Ltd in this by running an open participatory scenario process, which looks at winning concepts of global bio-based economy in 2030.
“The future-oriented approach of the scenario process helps us to identify the most important concepts and global business opportunities of the future bio-based economy. This is one important basis for research and development themes of the future Strategic Centre for science, technology and innovation in the area of bio-based economy”, states Christine Hagström-Näsi, CEO of Forestcluster Ltd.
In the scenario process, the world in 2030 is described in three alternative scenarios, each drawing an alternative picture of the future bio-based economy. The scenarios are based on global drivers of the bio-based economy, like world economy, policy and regulation, innovations and renewal, end-user demand, societies, food, energy, natural resources, environment and climate change. Although the bio-based economy looks different in all these scenarios, some common elements have already been identified.
“In 2030, the bio-economy is based on sustainable, integrated and intelligent utilization of natural resources across industries and communities. The solutions are diverse on global and local scale and in different societies. However, in all these solutions, closed material cycles and functioning trading systems for bio-based materials are the key”, says Tiina Pursula, Leading Consultant of Gaia.
Results of the scenario process were presented this week on the 15th of November in the annual seminar of the Forestcluster Ltd. The scenario process work continues in a concluding workshop in December 2011. Discussion is possible also in a blog and a discussion forum at www.forestcluster.fi.
Forestcluster is one of the six Strategic Centres for science, technology and innovation in Finland. It is owned by key forest cluster companies and main research institutes and universities in Finland.
For further information:
- Juha Vanhanen, CEO, Gaia, tel. +358 50 564 1889, firstname.lastname@gaia.fi
- Pasi Rinne, Chairman of the Board, Gaia, tel. +41 79 472 6909, firstname.lastname@gaia.fi
- Christine Hagström-Näsi, CEO, Forestcluster Ltd, tel. +358 50 322 2401, firstname.lastname@forestcluster.fi
