This fundamental book provides a cross-sectoral, multi-disciplinary view on the biobased economy. It explains opportunities for the value-adding production and use of bioresources, while also discussing the main drivers and obstacles involved. The book is divided into three major parts, the first of which introduces readers to the basics of bioresource economics and engineering. In terms of economics, it discusses decision-making from the policy, producer, investor, and citizen perspectives; in terms of engineering, it addresses key technologies and the processing of bioresources, as well as the development of biorefineries for high-value products on large and small scales. In turn, the book’s second part presents cases focused on different types of energy use, and written by practitioners. The cases illustrate the businesses and technologies involved, as well as the roles of citizens, social organisations and policies. The book’s third and last part highlights opportunities in sustainable agriculture, valuable industrial products and innovative services, while also outlining key conditions for success. 

Written by a team of scholars and practitioners from various engineering, natural-science and social-science disciplines, the book is primarily intended for undergraduate and graduate students, and for practitioners in business and policy who wish to explore the sustainable production and use of bioresources. All theoretical issues are explained with the aid of real-world examples, making the content highly accessible.

The book provides a comprehensive review of renewable energy from an economic perspective throughout the last two hundred years, starting from traditional renewable energy based on bio and hydro energy. The focus is on modern renewable energy based on geothermal, wind, and solar energy. It emerged when innovative entrepreneurs captured opportunities for valuable energy services. As the services with renewable energy expanded, the costs of technologies decreased entailing global commercialisation. This enables larger access to energy and emission reduction of carbon dioxide, but also causes larger differences in the energy resources across countries which impedes international policies. That optimistic viewpoint on the shift to the global low-carbon economy is largely based on statistical data about purchasing power, energy consumption and businesses, and valuable energy services in many countries on all continents. The data are presented in 70 tables, graphs, and figures, most of them original. Interpretation of the data are useful in support of decisions making about sustainable development in civil society, businesses, and policy makers as well as for the verifications of scholarly hypotheses and projections in energy and climate policies.

This book explains how income growth and better environmental qualities go hand in hand, and reviews the drivers and barriers to sustainable innovation on the basis of real-life cases. It discusses why innovation-based income growth reduces environmental impacts and how the huge global markets for sustainable innovation are currently hampered by protectionist policies. Subsequently, diverse sustainable innovators are presented in ascending order of the complexity of interactions between innovators and stakeholders. In this context, innovating consumers who create communities of peers in solar powered mobility are examined in the first case. It also focuses on regional tacit inventors, who spur innovation in tourism mobility thanks to the informal policies but whose efforts are obstructed by the formalities of the European Union. Artists with an interest in both innovations and the environment develop art services that deliver experiences of environmental qualities. Though these experiences have gone unrecognised so far, they are nonetheless socially beneficial. The book also shows how technology suppliers develop four different patterns of sanitation, each with its own pros and cons for the specific community’s needs and conditions. It discusses how project developers also make innovations in office systems, including socially beneficial ones that do away with the need to commute. It includes an analysis of interactions between consumers pursuing ethical consumption and international trailblazers in corporate responsibility and concludes that it is more rewarding to support social entrepreneurs than to attempt to moralise consumers. Further analysis of interactions between sustainable investors and innovators reveals different groups’ opinions about policies and markets, helping to explains their weak influence on policies. Mushrooming local energy initiatives are now evolving into energy service companies, producing shifts on energy markets. Why theseinnovators emerge and how certain policies are blocking them are explained. The policies of the United States and European Union are compared with regard to the main barriers to and drivers of, the renewable energy business. Though the US invests more money and takes more risks, it is less cost-effective in terms of the number of enterprises and jobs, thanks to the feed-in tariffs in Europe. Lastly, the book also discusses policies that invest in education, skills, knowledge and know-how exchange, but instead abolish perverse?? subventions of vested interests to?? create conditions for sustainable development.

This fundamental book provides a cross-sectoral, multi-disciplinary view on the biobased economy. It explains opportunities for the value-adding production and use of bioresources, while also discussing the main drivers and obstacles involved. The book is divided into three major parts, the first of which introduces readers to the basics of bioresource economics and engineering. In terms of economics, it discusses decision-making from the policy, producer, investor, and citizen perspectives; in terms of engineering, it addresses key technologies and the processing of bioresources, as well as the development of biorefineries for high-value products on large and small scales. In turn, the book’s second part presents cases focused on different types of energy use, and written by practitioners. The cases illustrate the businesses and technologies involved, as well as the roles of citizens, social organisations and policies. The book’s third and last part highlights opportunities in sustainable agriculture, valuable industrial products and innovative services, while also outlining key conditions for success. 

Written by a team of scholars and practitioners from various engineering, natural-science and social-science disciplines, the book is primarily intended for undergraduate and graduate students, and for practitioners in business and policy who wish to explore the sustainable production and use of bioresources. All theoretical issues are explained with the aid of real-world examples, making the content highly accessible.

The book provides a comprehensive review of renewable energy from an economic perspective throughout the last two hundred years, starting from traditional renewable energy based on bio and hydro energy. The focus is on modern renewable energy based on geothermal, wind, and solar energy. It emerged when innovative entrepreneurs captured opportunities for valuable energy services. As the services with renewable energy expanded, the costs of technologies decreased entailing global commercialisation. This enables larger access to energy and emission reduction of carbon dioxide, but also causes larger differences in the energy resources across countries which impedes international policies. That optimistic viewpoint on the shift to the global low-carbon economy is largely based on statistical data about purchasing power, energy consumption and businesses, and valuable energy services in many countries on all continents. The data are presented in 70 tables, graphs, and figures, most of them original. Interpretation of the data are useful in support of decisions making about sustainable development in civil society, businesses, and policy makers as well as for the verifications of scholarly hypotheses and projections in energy and climate policies.

This book explains how income growth and better environmental qualities go hand in hand, and reviews the drivers and barriers to sustainable innovation on the basis of real-life cases. It discusses why innovation-based income growth reduces environmental impacts and how the huge global markets for sustainable innovation are currently hampered by protectionist policies. Subsequently, diverse sustainable innovators are presented in ascending order of the complexity of interactions between innovators and stakeholders. In this context, innovating consumers who create communities of peers in solar powered mobility are examined in the first case. It also focuses on regional tacit inventors, who spur innovation in tourism mobility thanks to the informal policies but whose efforts are obstructed by the formalities of the European Union. Artists with an interest in both innovations and the environment develop art services that deliver experiences of environmental qualities. Though these experiences have gone unrecognised so far, they are nonetheless socially beneficial. The book also shows how technology suppliers develop four different patterns of sanitation, each with its own pros and cons for the specific community’s needs and conditions. It discusses how project developers also make innovations in office systems, including socially beneficial ones that do away with the need to commute. It includes an analysis of interactions between consumers pursuing ethical consumption and international trailblazers in corporate responsibility and concludes that it is more rewarding to support social entrepreneurs than to attempt to moralise consumers. Further analysis of interactions between sustainable investors and innovators reveals different groups’ opinions about policies and markets, helping to explains their weak influence on policies. Mushrooming local energy initiatives are now evolving into energy service companies, producing shifts on energy markets. Why theseinnovators emerge and how certain policies are blocking them are explained. The policies of the United States and European Union are compared with regard to the main barriers to and drivers of, the renewable energy business. Though the US invests more money and takes more risks, it is less cost-effective in terms of the number of enterprises and jobs, thanks to the feed-in tariffs in Europe. Lastly, the book also discusses policies that invest in education, skills, knowledge and know-how exchange, but instead abolish perverse?? subventions of vested interests to?? create conditions for sustainable development.