Forward-thinking businesses are partnering with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Roundtable for Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) and Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) through a new global initiative called below50, to promote the best-of-breed of sustainable fuels that can achieve significant carbon reductions, and scale up their development and use.
Ring binders which are at least 69% bio-based and are USDA Certified Bio-Based Products. To make them is Samsill, one of the world’s largest independently owned manufacturers of solutions which protect, organize, present and transport information and digital accessories. The U.S. company is converting its line of Earth’s Choice ring binders to bio-based materials. The company combined 100% post-consumer recycled chipboard – with plastic containing 25% of Green Polyethylene, a bioplastic made from sugarcane ethanol, a 100% renewable source which promotes the reduction of greenhouse gasses, provided by the Brazilian biochemical giant Braskem, the leading producer of thermoplastic resins in the Americas and the world leader in the production of biopolymers.
Bioeconomy is economic growth and new green jobs. A new evidence comes from Finland. The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA) studied the impact of Metsä Group’s bioproduct mill being constructed in Äänekoski in terms of revenue, value added and employment. The impact of the largest investment to date in the history of Finnish forest industry has significant repercussions in the economy during both the construction and the operation of the mill.
According to ETLA’s calculations, the 1.2 billion euro investment in the bioproduct mill will increase the revenue of companies operating in Finland by around 2.4 billion euro at the construction stage, and it will generate value added that will be directly reflected in economic growth in the amount of nearly 1 billion euro during 2015–2018. The annual employment effects arising from construction during 2016 and 2017 total nearly 4,000 person-years when the effects on the value chain and consumption are included in the calculation. This equals 0.16 per cent of the total employed workforce in Finland.
Solegear Bioplastic Technologies, a global-leading bioplastic technology company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, announced yesterday that it has formally closed the previously announced strategic acquisition of the bioplastics division of Ex-Tech Plastics for consideration of $1.33 million in common shares of the Company at a deemed price of $0.20 per share. Ex-Tech, based in the Chicago, Illinois, area has been a leading manufacturer of extruded plastic sheets for over thirty years.
Waiting for the new buyer of Versalis, Eni – the Italian oil giant – has made new and important progress in its commitment to combatting climate change, creating an original model of integration between its traditional business and energy from renewable sources.
Amyris, the industrial bioscience company based in California, and South Korea-based CJ CheilJedang Corporation last Friday announced that the companies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to support large-scale manufacturing of Amyris’s farnesene, a fuel sourced from sugar cane, in existing CJ facilities.
The conclusion of the Versalis deal is near. Claudio De Scalzi, Ceo of Eni, told the trade unions the company will decide whether to sell 70% of its chemical division to the US fund SK Capital in late May, early June.
The three main Italian trade unions in the chemical sector have reaffirmed the Ceo of the Italian oil giant their clear opposition to this possibility and asked to seek alternatives; one of these would be the CDP (Cassa Depositi e Prestiti), which is is an Italian bank founded in 1850 and constituted in its current form as a joint-stock company on 12 December 2003: 80.1% of the share capital is owned by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance, the 18.4% is held by various banking foundations, while the remaining 1.5% in treasury shares.
The bioeconomy in the United States of America takes another relevant step forward, investing not only in the development of bioproducts but also in education and training. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) yesterday announced the availability of $21 million to support the development of regional systems in sustainable bioenergy and biobased products, as well as education and training for the next generation of scientists that will expand availability of renewable, sustainable goods and energy. This funding is available through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill and administered by USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).
During my ten years at Accenture in Rome my boss always made a point of checking that in our bids for client work we were making them offers they couldn’t refuse. He’d been inspired by Marlon Brando in the Godfather, without the gun parts clearly. Our business grew from 300 to 3000 people.
The guys and gals at the European Commission in Brussels are right now putting the finishing touches to a Communication on Transport Decarbonisation, due out this summer. A Commission Communication is the closest thing there is to an EU law without actually being a law. If it’s any good it will set direction on transport decarbonisation for the next twenty years and go a long way to saving the planet from catastrophic climate change.
by James Cogan*
UPM, the Finnish forest industry company, and the Shanghai-based Tongji University College of Design and Innovation started cooperation in 2015 with a target to create a modern concept for the traditional Chinese tea house by using UPM’s innovative wood-based biomaterials. The project has now reached its goal with the introduction of the Biofore Tea House in the ‘Moi Helsinki’ event in Beijing, China on 13-15 May 2016.
IL BIOECONOMISTA 