Another important step on the road to Stora Enso’s transformation into a renewable materials company. The pulp and paper manufacturer headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, inaugurated yesterday the new Innovation Centre for biomaterials in Stockholm, that will host research, application, business development and strategic marketing under one roof.
Intesa Sanpaolo, Italian major banking group, has become a Global Partner of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, demonstrating its intention to become a key player in the network of stakeholders supporting the transition to a circular economy. The partnership was signed yesterday by Carlo Messina, CEO of Intesa Sanpaolo, and Ellen MacArthur, Chairman and founder of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. In its role as Global Partner, Intesa Sanpaolo will help to redefine business strategies to capture new opportunities, and will ensure financial support for investments used to re-design the industrial system.
The new circular economy package “seems to me that it is mainly focused on recycling materials, and that is off course also important. But we should also be looking at sustainable production, reducing the amount of oil used and replacing them with biobased products, preferably with a negative CO2 print”. Arno van de Kant, business development director of the Bioprocess Pilot Falicity located in the Netherlands, talks to Il Bioeconomista about the Dutch bioeconomy and the European policies to support the field.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
Avantium, a Dutch scale-up renewable chemicals company that develops and commercializes a next generation biobased chemicals and bioplastic, signed an agreement with Mitsui & Co. to commercialize 100% biobased chemicals FDCA (furandicarboxylic acid) and PEF (polyethylene furandicarboxylate) in Asia. As part of this agreement, Mitsui has been granted a right to pu rchase a sizable volume of FDCA from the first commercial FDCA plant to be constructed by Avantium.
“The bioeconomy can and should be the path for the re-industrialization of Brazil, fostering much needed innovations and development of products and processes that will fast-track the establishment of the this new norm in a global scale”. To say this – in this exclusive interview with Il Bioeconomista – is Bernardo Silva, Executive President at Brazilian Industrial Biotechnology Association (in Portuguese ABBI – Associação Brasileira de Biotecnologia Industrial), a trade association that brings together companies and institutions developing and using microorganisms and its derivatives to deliver renewable products for industries and consumers worldwide. The founding members of ABBI are Amyris, BASF, BioChemtex, BP, Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira, Dow, DSM, DuPont, GranBio, Novozymes, Raízen and Rhodia. With Silva we talk about Brazilian bioeconomy and the country’s national strategy to support the field. “The ambition to establish a vibrant bioeconomy in Brazil, which values our comparative advantages and is able to realize the opportunities arising from this new model of development, entails a joint effort between government, business and civil society to discuss, define and practice a plan that ensures the alignment of policies in place and long-term strategies, paving the way for Brazil fulfill its role as a leader a global bio-based economy.”
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
Yesterday the European Commission adopted a new Circular Economy Package to stimulate Europe’s transition towards a circular economy which will boost global competitiveness, foster sustainable economic growth and generate new jobs.
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The bioeconomy is protagonist at COP21 in Paris. BioAmber, a leader in renewable materials, yesterday announced that it has joined the American Business Act on Climate Pledge, alongside more than 140 companies from across the American economy that are standing with the Obama Administration to demonstrate an ongoing commitment to climate action and to voice support for a strong outcome to the COP21 Paris climate negotiations.
“It was a very interesting event, because for the first time the material use of biomass was really in the focus, instead of playing the second violin to bioenergy and biofuels only.” It is the opinion of Michael Carus, founder and managing director of the nova-Institut, relatively to the Bioeconomy Investment Summit which was held in Brussels on 9 and 10 November. With Carus, one of the most influential scientists in Europe, we talk about nova-Institut’s new study on biomass supply and demand, the CO2 economy and the circular economy.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
Germany leads the world bioeconomy. Berlin was for three days (24-26 November) the venue of the Global Bioeconomy Summit which was attended by many of the protagonists of this meta-sector from Europe, Asia, Africa and America (approximately 700 people).
“Building on a strong and competitive agricultural and forest sector as well as on its technological expertise, the strategy should fully engage France on the bioeconomy road and position the country as a global leader in this field”. Boris Dumange, Director General of IAR Pole (French Cluster Industries and Agro Resources), talks to Il Bioeconomista about the bioeconomy in France, where the government announced its own strategy by the end of this year, the role played by IAR Pole, the goals of the intercluster 3BI and the measures the European Union needs to be more competitive. “We believe – Dumange says – actions such as a European preferred public procurement programme or temporary tax incentives for bio-based products could help to bridge the gap between innovation and market uptake and allow sufficient economies of scale to make bio-based products a competing alternative to fossil-based equivalents.”
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
IL BIOECONOMISTA 