This document discusses opportunities and complications in transitioning to a sustainable bio-based economy. It notes that biomass plays a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem services but that maximizing biomass utilization risks exceeding the planet's ecological carrying capacity. The document advocates optimizing rather than maximizing biomass use by taking a multifunctional and cascading approach inspired by natural systems. It also emphasizes the importance of resilience and adapting practices through learning from experiences with experiments and programs.

1. 26/03/2010
Opportunities and complications in
the transition towards a sustainable
BI - based Economy
Leen Gorissen
Transition Energy & Environment
Leen Gorissen

2. Bio-energy. This is IT?
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© 2010, VITO NV

3. Workshop topic
GHG emissions from bio-energy (BioE)
Issues of responsibility
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© 2010, VITO NV

4. Back to the basics
» GHG emissions - Climate change are connected with many
processes influencing global environmental change.
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© 2010, VITO NV

5. It’s all connected…
… and biomass
plays a critical
role
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© 2010, VITO NV Rockström et al. 2009

6. Back to the basics
» GHG emissions - Climate change are connected with many
processes influencing global environmental change.
» Biomass plays a crucial role in promoting, maintaining and
sustaining the life support capacity of our planet
ecological carrying capacity
ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
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© 2010, VITO NV

7. Back to the basics
» GHG emissions - Climate change are connected with many
processes influencing global environmental change.
» Biomass plays a crucial role in promoting, maintaining and
sustaining the life support capacity of our planet
» Low carbon society: “Is there an alternative to massive expansion of
biomass utilisation over the long haul?”
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8. Back to the basics
Compared to other resources, biomass offers a particular variety and
flexibility of use what makes it so attractive for many purposes.
BI - mass
Source: www.bio-economy.net
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© 2010, VITO NV

9. Back to the basics
Non-food applications of BI - mass include:
Energy: fuels, electricity, heat
Fibres: paper, board, additives…
Materials: textiles, plastic, insulation, construction…
Chemicals: solvents, polymers, dyes, cosmetics, medicines
To ensure the best possible benefits from biomass use, next to all bioE
options, other biomass options should be evaluated as well and this in
the light of decoupling economic growth from resource use. 9
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10. Source: "IB 2025, Maximising UK Opportunities from Industrial Biotechnology in a
Low Carbon Economy, A report to government by the Industrial Biotechnology
Innovation and Growth Team, May 2009"
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© 2010, VITO NV

11. Lost in… DEFINITIONS
» Sustainability = Adopting practices and developing products that are
environmentally, socially and economically sound, and that can meet present
needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
needs – Brundtland Commission
» Renewable energy = any form of energy that is naturally replenished - Wikipedia
» A sustainable resource = a resource that is used up at the same speed that it
is renewed. Biomass can be a sustainable resource if the plants are harvested
at the same rate as new plants mature – WikiAnswers
» Sustainable biomass use = ??? - International Panel for Sustainable Resource
Management
Biomass functions as a sort of natural battery for storing solar energy. As
long as biomass is produced sustainably - with only as much used as is
grown - the battery will last indefinitely – Union of concerned scientists
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© 2010, VITO NV

12. Lost in… DEFINITIONS
Sustainable biomass use
= within the ecological carrying capacity of earth
= no disturbance in networks and cycles of life
= decoupling of economic growth to resource use?
BI - mass
Provisioning goods & services
versus
Credit: iStockphoto Supporting, regulating and cultural services & goods
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© 2010, VITO NV

13. Lost in… COMPLEXITY
Complex problems facing society
» Complexity of LCA pathways
» Indirect effects / problem shifting / thresholds / tipping points…
» Marketable versus non-marketable biomass goods and services
Complex society
» Developed – Developing – Emerging economies
» Multitude of sectors, traditions, stakeholders…
» Multitude of views, values & stakes
Complex governance
» Multitude of policy areas, rules & legislations
» Multitude of political agenda’s
» Lock-in of practices, technologies & management regimes
PERSISTENT PROBLEMS
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© 2010, VITO NV

14. DIFFERENT STAKES
Divergent policy perspectives on biomass
» Climate perspective: reduce GHG emissions
» Agriculture & forestry perspective: create additional income
» Energy perspective: reduce fossil energy & improve security of
supply
» Environmental perspective: reduce GHG emissions & replace non-
degradable with biodegradable materials
» Economy perspective: create biomass business
» Industrial perspective: commercialize biomass technologies
» Trade perspective: increase multilateral trade opportunities
» Development aid perspective: reduce poverty
» …
» Nature’s perspective: operate within the ecological carrying capacity
of the earth
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© 2010, VITO NV

15. Nature’s perspective vs theoretical/physical biomass
potential?
» The theoretical biomass potential excludes the role biomass plays in
maintaining ecosystem integrity
» If ecosystems degrade, the biomass potential will be affected
» Decrease in pest & disease control
» Decrease in pollination efficiency
» Decrease in nutrient & water efficiency = decrease in growth
& yield
» Reinforcing climate change impacts
» Decline in resilience to deal with average climate change
» Decline in resilience to deal with increase in climate extremes
»…
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© 2010, VITO NV

16. Economic versus ecological sense
» A favoured approach of dealing with economic recession or
stagnating economies in the past has been to increase public and
consumer spending.
» “While increasing our consumption of the earth‟s resources may
have been the solution to recession in the past, it is not the solution
of the future. The more we erode the earth‟s carring capacity, the
more the ability of leaders to provide answers to economic and
social crises diminishes.” – Ross 2009
» “We need to „shift our emphasis from „managing resources‟ to
managing ourselves so that we learn to live as part of nature.”
- Wackneragel & Rees 1996; Benyus 1997; …
Beyond GDP
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© 2010, VITO NV

17. Economic versus ecological sense
» Optimize rather than maximize:
» Multifunctional
» Closed lean cycles
» Cascade : Ecopyramid
Cosmetics
Pharmaceuticals
Food &Feed
Principles based on
concepts from
Bioplastics & polymers
- Eco-pyramid
- C2C
- Biomimicry
Bulk chemicals and biofuels
Electricity and heath production
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© 2010, VITO NV

18. Cosmetics
Pharmaceuticals
Food &Feed
Bioplastics & polymers
Bulk chemicals and biofuels
Electricity and heath production
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© 2010, VITO NV

19. Economic versus ecological sense
» Optimize rather than maximize:
» Multifunctional
» Closed lean cycles
» Cascade : Ecopyramid
» Synergetic strategies
» Integrated systems: integrate ecosystem services in man-
made landscape
“Due to the large amounts of lignocellulosic feedstock required for
a bio-based economy, it seems currently not possible to integrate
biomass production into existing food production via so-called
integrated energy and food systems.”
(IEA 2010)
Economic versus ecological sense
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© 2010, VITO NV

20. Source: Foley et al. 2005
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© 2010, VITO NV

21. Economic versus ecological sense
» Optimize rather than maximize:
» Multifunctional
» Closed lean cycles
» Cascade : Ecopyramid
» Synergetic strategies
» Integrated systems: integrate ecosystem services in man-
made landscape
» Copy nature’s principle to increases yield (push-pull systems,…)
Economic versus ecological sense
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© 2010, VITO NV

22. Yield limitations
» Yield increase is often mentioned as a silver bullet solution to
biomass production capacity
- land scarcity
- phosphorus scarcity
- water scarcity
- mean CC impact leads to average yield decrease
- yield decrease because of increase in climate extremes
- eutrification, acidification, pollution side-effects
- GHG emissions
-…
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© 2010, VITO NV

23. The importance of resilience
» Earth is in a dynamic state of non-equilibrium
Rock the bowl!
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© 2010, VITO NV

24. The importance of resilience
» Earth is in a dynamic state of non-equilibrium
… creates conditions conductive to life
… adapts & evolves
» There is a lot to learn from nature about adaptiveness & resilience
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26. The way forward…
Rethink the way we think about things!
Remake the way we make things!
Mainstream real C2C, BIOMIMICRY,…
concepts
Revisit the way we communicate about things!
Revise the way we govern things!
Mainstream concepts from CHANGE
MANAGEMENT, TRANSITION theory,…
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27. No one way ticket; a cyclic process of learning by doing
and doing by learning…
Organising a transition arena
for a transition theme
Monitoring and
evaluation of Development of
experiments, long-term
programmes and visions
transition
Experiments and programmes
for system innovation
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© 2010, VITO NV

28. No one way responsibility…
Self fulfilling prophecy ?
Envision & Engage & Experiment & Learn & Adjust
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© 2010, VITO NV

29. Thank you.
Q&A?
Leen.gorissen@vito.be
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© 2010, VITO NV

30. We are
looking forward
26/03/2010 to welcoming you
at the i-SUP2010
conference!