Securing triple bottom line outcomes from bioenergy development and innovation in rural Norway

In TRIBORN the overall research question has been: What can local governments and agencies do to create a humane, socially acceptable and environmentally and economically sustainable bioeconomy in rural regions? To understand and explain this question the TRIBORN-team have worked with local citizens, enterprises, foresters, municipalities, and experts creating and adapting sustainable forest-based bioenergy enterprises. The interdisciplinary team conducted case studies in Norway, Finland, Sweden and Italy from 2014 till 2017. Social scientists analysed the social and economic aspects ? asking: Do people support bioenergy? Does it pay? Does it help rural employment and incomes? How is it organised? Where does the money come from? What is the role of the local authorities? What kind of mix of international, transnational, national and local policies produce the best outcomes for people, economy and environment? Foresters and natural scientists looked at the impacts on climate, natural environment and landscapes ? asking: Does it reduce harmful climate emissions compared to fossil fuels? Does it harm the biological diversity? Does it harm the landscape and recreation or people?s perceptions of it? What impacts does it have on the water system? How and why do the answers to such questions vary in different countries and regions, and municipalities? The case studies gave some good examples of effective partnerships between local municipalities, foresters, timber processors, citizens, and experts that created innovative bioenergy projects. They came together to create new district heating or biogas and biofuel systems, using waste timber and thinnings, as well as municipal bio-waste and other raw materials. In several cases these projects extended far beyond bioenergy into a sophisticated bio-cluster, with bioenergy as a by-product.. In this way they are developing the local ?circular economy? for the good of the environment, people and local economies. Key motive forces for municipalities and others are the desire to be seen as ?sustainable? and climate-friendly, to contribute to local employment and incomes, and to create greater security of local energy supply. Local authorities commonly play a crucial role in such processes. First of all, they can provide the rationale and the motivation. Second, they can get the stakeholders together by identifying local actors and interests and create space and encouragement for these actors to engage in a collective learning effort. Where there are information and knowledge gaps, they can identify people and institutions that can fill the gaps. They can also prepare tender documents in ways that help the local enterprises. Most importantly, local authorities can help to make stable markets for bioenergy through their own heating choices for public buildings ? offices, schools, meeting places, hospitals ? through regulations for new homes and other buildings, through investment in the central network of district heating pipes.. Effects of increased biomass harvesting for bioenergy on the natural environment have received a lot of attention. Although most of the concern has been about the effect on carbon sequestration, there are potentially effects on for example soil, water, biodiversity, and the use of the forest for recreation. If biomass harvesting is intensified, there is a risk that it becomes unsustainable. A number of scientifically-based governance measures exist to ensure sustainable use of forest biomass for energy and other purposes according to current knowledge, including management guidelines, standards and certification systems. These will need to be updated continuously as knowledge increases. What is sustainable in one context may not be sustainable in others, for example it will be possible to remove more biomass from a nutrient-rich site than from a nutrient-poor one without this leading to nutrient deficiency. Thus, local context is ecologically important. The Nordic countries account for about one-third of European forest resources. They are leaders in renewable energy, CO2 taxation, bioenergy, and the development of a bioeconomy. Forests, and forest industries, are important for rural & regional development, especially in peripheral regions. They are set to become yet more important in the transition from a fossil-fuel to a bio-economy. TRIBORN results indicate that pan-national and national policies need to take into account specific regional and local conditions, and that a rigid, top-down, ?one-size-fits-all? approach to natural, economic and social conditions may hamper the transition to circular bioeconomy. Successful and sustainable development and adaptation of bio-energy in the Nordic countries depends on tailored local and regional action. Therefore, it is essential to work with local bioenergy partnerships, in addition to understand the dynamics within and between national and pan-national policies and regulations.

The project investigates how to increase production of bioenergy in ways that promote sustainable development ? understood as positive economic, social and environmental outcomes - in rural areas. A wide body of research on innovation in renewable energy and its impacts on rural people has questioned the notion that such outcomes are inevitable, and can be taken for granted. Specific forms of bioenergy and related policy innovation may improve energy security and flexibility in rural areas, development of rural economies and communities and climate friendly energy. This project aims to understand and foster systems for bioenergy innovation and related support policies that can produce such positive social, economic and environmental outcomes. We apply and aim to develop a method for developing Regional Innovation Systems approaches that is capable of producing such outcomes in different social, economic and political contexts - a method called the Grounded Innovation Platform (GRIP) approach and is a bott om-up process based on involvement of private and public stakeholders to generate legitimate rural development. The project will generate knowledge on key factors for success and failure in platform building by comparing cases in Norway, Sweden, Finland a nd Italy. Especially Sweden and Finland have achieved good results. We will test and further develop the GRIP-approach by mobilising industry, energy users, farmers, NGOs and governing agencies in the construction of regional innovation platforms under di fferent conditions. The project will contribute to knowledge about outcomes of the development of renewable energy on economic opportunities, social viability and acceptance and environmental sustainability in rural economies; the ability of GRIPs to faci litate innovation within bioenergy production, related policies and governance structures; the ability of GRIPs to fulfil the national RED targets and to reduce negative impacts through sustainable forest management