Abstract
The endeavour to align the goals of the Swedish food strategy with the national environmental quality objectives and the 17 global SDGs, presents an extraordinary challenge that calls for systemic innovation. Industrial symbiosis can potentially provide the means for increasing sustainable food production, using locally sub-exploited resources that can reduce the need for land, agrochemicals, transport and energy. This case study of the municipality of Härnösand, aims to assess opportunities and challenges for using waste flows and by-products for local food production, facilitated by industrial symbiosis. A potential symbiotic network was developed during three workshops with the main stakeholders in Härnösand. The potential of the COVID-19 pandemic to instigate policy changes, behavioural changes and formation of new alliances that may catalyse the transition towards food systems based on industrial symbiosis is discussed. The material flow inventory revealed that many underexploited resource flows were present in quantities that rendered them commercially interesting. Resources that can be used for innovative food production include, e.g., lignocellulosic residues, rock dust, and food processing waste. The internalised drive among local companies interested in industrial symbiosis and the emerging symbiotic relations, provide a fertile ground for the establishment of a local network that can process the sub-exploited material flows. Although there are multiple challenges for an industrial symbiosis network to form in Härnösand, this study shows that there is a significant potential to create added value from the region’s many resources while at the same time making the food system more sustainable and resilient, by expanding industrial symbiosis practices.
Highlights
The global food system currently constitutes the largest pressure exerted by humans on Earth, threatening local ecosystems and the stability of the Earth system itself [1]
The major material flows in Härnösand are generated by the agriculture and forestry sector but food processing companies and mining operations generate by-products that could be used within an innovative food system, facilitated by industrial symbiosis (IS)
Material flows from agriculture are considerably smaller, but since many materials originating from agriculture bear different characteristics than materials from forestry, and thereby can be used for other purposes, their potential contribution towards a resilient and resource-efficient food system should not be neglected
Summary
The global food system currently constitutes the largest pressure exerted by humans on Earth, threatening local ecosystems and the stability of the Earth system itself [1]. The food system has reached a point where systemic innovation and a radical transformation is necessary [5]. Since areas that can be sustainably used for food production may have already reached capacity [6], innovative methods of growing, sharing and consuming food are necessary to achieve an increased production within the planetary boundaries and without intruding upon other sustainable development goals (SDG). The transformation of food systems bears the potential to be a strong lever towards optimizing human and environmental health, and promote the transition towards sustainable development on local to global scales [1]
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