D8.1 Proceedings on the Stakeholder

Workshops on Agricultural Production

Systems and Sustainable Value Chains

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DISCLAIMER The opinion stated in this report reflects the opinion of the authors and not the opinion of the European Commission. All intellectual property rights are owned by AgroCycle consortium members and are protected by the applicable laws. Reproduction is not authorised without prior written agreement. The commercial use of any information contained in this document may require a license from the owner of that information. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement Nº 690142.

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Deliverable Document Sheet

Project Acronym AgroCycle

Project Title Sustainable techno-economic solutions for the agricultural value chain

Grant Agreement number

690142

Call identifier H2020-WASTE-2015-two-stage

Topic identifier WASTE-7-2015 Ensuring sustainable use of agricultural waste, co-products and by-products

Funding Scheme Research and Innovation Action

Project duration 36 months (June 2016 – May 2019)

Coordinator NUID UCD – Professor Shane Ward

Website www.AgroCycle.eu

Deliverable No. D8.1

Deliverable title Proceedings on the stakeholder workshop on agricultural production systems and value chains

Description Proceedings on the workshop held in month 8 to discuss conventional and novel agricultural production systems and sustainable value chains with key stakeholders, to identify typical models, key constraints and future opportunities.

WP No. 8

Related task Task 8.1 and 8.2

Lead Beneficiary NNFCC

Author(s) Dr Caitlin Burns, Lucy Hopwood - NNFCC Boris Ćosić, Tomislav Pukšec, Neven Duić - SDEWES

Contributor(s) Vjeran Piršić

Type Report

Dissemination Level Public

Language English – GB

Due Date 31.01.17

Submission Date 31.01.17

Date: Action: Version: Ownership:

Written V.1 Dr Caitlin Burns, Boris Ćosić, Tomislav Pukšec,

Reviewed/amended/approved V.2 Lucy Hopwood

Submitted via Online Portal to Funding Agency

V.3 Lucy Hopwood

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction ...................................................................................... 5

2. Workshop 1: Croatia, October 2016 ................................................. 7

2.1 Aims & Objectives ....................................................................................... 7

2.2 Target Audience .......................................................................................... 7

2.3 Conference Overview .................................................................................. 8

2.4 Conclusions ............................................................................................... 11

3. Workshop 2: Brussels, January 2017 .............................................. 12

3.1 Aims & Objectives ..................................................................................... 12

3.2 Target Audience ........................................................................................ 12

3.3 Conference Overview ................................................................................ 12

3.4 Conclusions ............................................................................................... 26

Annex 1 ................................................................................................. 27

1a) Workshop 1: Invitation .................................................................................. 27

1b) Workshop 2: Invitation .................................................................................. 28

Annex 2 ................................................................................................. 30

2a) Workshop 1: Programme ............................................................................... 30

2b) Workshop 2: Programme ............................................................................... 32

Annex 3 ................................................................................................. 33

3a) Workshop 1: Attendance List (full) ................................................................. 33

3b) Workshop 2: Attendance List ......................................................................... 37

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1. Introduction

The efficient use of resources and sustainable development of the economy is a focus

of the environmental policy and objectives of each country. Its success is evident

through the separation of the link between waste production and economic growth,

and is presented as a ratio of the amount of waste per capita and gross domestic

product. The transition from the existing linear- to a circular-economy, focussing on

efficient use, recovery, recycling and reuse to ensure sustainable management of

resources and to extend the life of materials and products, is one objective of the

European Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Recycling and reuse of

resources leads to the development of new technologies and diversification of raw

materials required for the production of various products with high value added which

have to date being reliant on fossil fuels.

In order to increase the amount of recycled and reused municipal-, industrial- and

agricultural-waste, it is necessary to develop systems based on advanced technologies

that can produce high value added products and thus contribute to an economically

viable circular economy.

This report constitutes Deliverable 8.1 of Workpackage 8 (WP8): Sustainable value

chains and business models of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and

innovation programme "AGROCYCLE" under grant agreement Nº 690142. The focus

of this project is on Agri-food Wastes, Co-products and By-products (AWCBs).

Two workshops were held to bring together key players to identify important

resources, constraints and opportunities to developing novel value chains and

creating sustainable business models, to feed into subsequent activities in WP8 and

elsewhere in the project.

The first workshop named “Sustainable municipal and agricultural waste

management and the possibility of applying advanced technologies for waste

utilization” was organized in Zagreb and the Island of Krk as part of a larger three day

event co-hosted with the Bin2Grid project, from 13-15 October 2016. The event was

organized under the highest patronage of the President of the Republic of Croatia

Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic (see Annex 1a). This workshop was aimed at “local

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participants” with a particular emphasis on activities in and related to the food and

beverage (FAB) industry in Croatia. Further details on this workshop are presented in

Section 2.

A second more project-focussed workshop entitled “Barriers and Opportunities to

Valorising Agri-food wastes, co-products and by-products (AWCBs)” was held in

Brussels, Belgium to gain attendance of stakeholders from a wider geographic spread

across the EU. This was held on 26 January 2017 at the Catalonia Trade & Investment

office, Rue de la Loi 227, Brussels. Further details on this workshop are presented in

Section 3.

The workshops formed a vital element of Work Package 8, to generate new ideas and

for project ideas to be validated or get a reality check from key contributing

stakeholders. The key aims as described to attendees are included in the respective

sections below.

The outcomes and action areas from the workshops will feed into the AgroCycle

project’s analysis of Sustainable Value Chains and Business Models in work package 8.

These findings will be described and analysed in more detail deliverables 8.2

(agricultural production systems), 8.3 (sustainable value chains) and 8.7 (business

models) which are due later in the project.

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2. Workshop 1: Croatia, October 2016

2.1 Aims & Objectives

The objectives of this workshop were as follows:

To present AgroCycle objectives and outcomes to local stakeholders;

To raise awareness of issues related to AWCB management to the food and

beverage sector;

To promote anaerobic digestion (AD) to the food and beverage industries;

To promote synergies and exchanges among local stakeholders.

The contents of the course included technical, microbiological, economical and

operational aspects of the conversion of food and beverage waste into biogas.

2.2 Target Audience

The main target group for the event was the food and beverage (FAB) sector, mainly

important local/regional industries active in the sector and relevant federations (at

national or local level).

Other stakeholders also interested in the event included:

National authorities (ministries) dealing with the food and beverage sector or

environmental topics;

Governments of cities;

Regional/local authorities working either on economic activities or

environmental (waste) issues;

Chambers of Commerce and Industry;

Local environmental NGOs and other non-profit organisations;

Waste management companies;

Companies designing, elaborating and running anaerobic digestion plants;

Companies engaged in biomethane production;

Advanced biogas and biomethane production Institutions and experts;

Owners of local biomethane filling stations;

Users of biomethane;

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Citizens.

2.3 Conference Overview

In order to demonstrate synergy and to attract a greater number of stakeholders

cooperation with another Horizon 2020 project was established (Bin2Grid). The

Bin2Grid project is focussing on various agricultural waste streams and their utilisation

through advanced biorefinery concepts.

The event was advertised on various web portals connected to energy and

sustainability. Also two TV teams were present at the event taking statements from

key stakeholders and project participants (Croatian radio television HRT (national) and

Z1 television Zagreb (regional)).

The official programme for all three days with the names of presentations and

presenters is given in Annex 2a. Full presentations can be accessed and downloaded

from the conference website: powerlab.fsb.hr/ogk

Day 1 – Zagreb Location: UNIZAG FSB main Faculty Hall, Zagreb

Date/time: 13th October 2016 (09:30 – 14:30)

The format of the event was a training course/conference which included two lecture

sessions providing a platform to share as much knowledge as possible on various

waste management streams, industry applications, biogas and biomethane

technologies and best practice examples across the entire waste to biofuel chain.

The first session focussed on problems and opportunities in the food and beverage

(FAB) industry. Prof. Schneider gave a general overview of examples and trends of

exploitation of waste streams in Europe to set the context for the day. Prof. Voca

presented on new possible substrates in the biogas production domain. Agrokor

company representatives then gave an overview of the main barriers for exploiting or

disposing of food and beverage industry waste streams. The final presentation in the

first session was from Dr. Panjicko, who spoke about biogas production in specific

food and beverage industries.

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The second session focused on best practice in Croatia on advanced waste

management and biogas/biomethane production schemes. This included

presentations from Mr. Petek (City of Ljubljana) and Mr. Juresic (Ponikve, Island of

Krk) on advanced waste management schemes and Mr. Sandic (Croatian biogas

association, Energija bioplina), Mr. Novakovits (Gussing) and Mr. Milosevic (BDI) on

advanced waste to biogas/biomethane technologies and existing schemes.

In order to stimulate a certain level of interaction a round table discussion was

organized, chaired by Prof.dr.sc. Neven Duic; this enabled better engagement with

the participants and provided an effective platform for communication and

discussion. Special focus was on current barriers, legal requirements and market

conditions. Presentation was made by the representatives of E-Kolektor (part of

Agrokor Group) the biggest operators and collectors of industry waste in Croatia.

This event featured 142 participants, ranging from national officials, local government

officials, various agency representatives, industry representatives and NGOs.

Figure 1: Photos from the first day of the conference in Zagreb

Day 2 & 3 – Island of Krk Location: Beli Kamnik Hotel, Island of Krk

Date/time: 14th October (11:30 – 14:30) and 15th of October 2016 (09:00 – 13:00)

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These events provided a more interactive forum for discussion due to the lower

numbers; discussions were chaired by Mr. Vjeran Pirsic, from EKO Kvarner, an

AgroCycle project participant. These side events took place on Krk Island.

The focus was more on local waste streams and their utilisation, with special emphasis

on sustainable islands and tourism, combined with local food producers focused on

wine and olive oil. Also a very important issue covered was the legal and financial

instruments for boosting advanced technologies for waste management and biofuel

production. The main speaker was Prof. Davor Škrlec, Croatian member of the EU

Parliament introduced the legal frameworks at the Croatian and EU level. The next

speaker was Prof. Ljubomir Majdancic, Head of the Croatian Energy Efficiency and

Environment Protection Fund, which is the main financier of waste management

projects in Croatia who spoke about financial support mechanisms.

At the end of Day 3 a study tour was organized to Ponikve waste sorting and

composting facility and to Katunar winery. This is the best example of a separate waste

collection system in Croatia so it was an excellent opportunity for the participants to

visit. Additionally a visit to Katunar winery was arranged to show how grape residues

can be utilised, through a local composting facility; however it was not possible to hold

this visit due to inclement weather conditions on the day. Day 2 was attended by 41

people and Day 3 by 37 people.

Figure 2: Photos from the second and third day of the conference on Krk Island

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2.4 Conclusions

Conclusions were drawn at the end of the discussions on all three days, and they

focused on the lack of legal and financial mechanisms supporting the implementation

of advanced waste management schemes. Poor public perception of waste

management schemes is reflected in the underutilisation of biogas and especially

biomethane through waste to biofuels chains.

The general conclusion is that these kinds of events are much needed in Croatia in the

future to further raise awareness and confidence. This will become increasingly

important due to strict EU regulation and targets regarding waste management,

recycling and landfilling which will inevitably impact on all businesses and individuals

in the near future.

Combining with another Horizon 2020 project for this event proved successful

because it allowed a much wider audience to be attracted, especially in a small

country like Croatia. The main conclusions from the event highlighted the need for

strengthening the legal framework which would allow decisive measures in the

domain of waste management. Due to the reliance on landfilling and low recycling

rates, Croatia is in a very serious situation with regard to achieving future goals set by

the EU. Biogas, as a renewable source, has finally started to be a serious business

opportunity in Croatia, but based on long term feed in tariffs for electricity. A key

future step is to find common interest between waste producers and biogas producers

in order to better utilise part of the biowaste stream as a valuable resource rather

than seeing it as an environmental and economic burden.

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3. Workshop 2: Brussels, January 2017

This workshop was held in Brussels, to gain attendance of stakeholders from across

the EU, as many industry associations, companies and policy makers have offices in

Brussels and the city provides good transport connections from elsewhere in the EU.

3.1 Aims & Objectives

The key aims of the workshop as communicated with attendees were as follows:

To engage actors across all stages of the value chain

To discuss current activities (across all TRLs), issues and opportunities.

To understand typical and novel sourcing strategies, logistics and storage

arrangements, and key roles and responsibilities.

To agree on the priority areas and actions, to define the focus of future

sustainable business models.

The AgroCycle Knowledge Platform from Work Package 7 was also discussed to get

stakeholder input to maximise the impact and legacy of the project.

3.2 Target Audience

The target for this workshop was to attract a broad audience active in the bioeconomy

or related sectors, but more importantly with experience of developing and delivering

novel value chains or innovative business models. Invites were sent to representatives

from the following stakeholder groups:

Agriculture – including Trade Associations and National Farmers Unions

Industry – including Trade Associations, major producers, waste management

companies and waste managers from corporate sector, retailers, brand

owners

Government – influential policy makers and regulators

3.3 Conference Overview

Location: Catalonia Trade & Investment office, Rue de la Loi 227, Brussels

Date/time: 26th January 2017 (11.00 - 16.00)

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The event combined a series of project-related and technical presentations from

members of the project team and key industry representatives, with interactive

discussion sessions exploring the main topics in more depth.

The day was chaired by Lucy Hopwood, Director and Lead Consultant for Bioenergy

and Anaerobic Digestion at NNFCC, The Bioeconomy Consultants. With over ten years’

experience, Lucy is regarded as an independent expert on AD and bioenergy and

related feedstocks; working with industry, government and research & innovation

projects to develop bioenergy and broader bioeconomy value chains across the EU.

The discussion groups were led by Caitlin Burns and Lucie Pfaltzgraff, both also from

NNFCC.

In total 12 people presented, from across the supply chain and from a range of sectors,

including from policy, research, industry, industry associations and EU innovation

projects. The full programme for the day is included in Annex 2b and all presentations

will be available from the AgroCycle project website (www.agrocycle.eu).

Morning Session: Introduction & Novel Value Chains

Firstly, Ciaran Mangan from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for

Research and Innovation gave an introduction to the EC’s support for bioeconomy

innovation projects and talked about the current programme and plans for the future.

Prof. Shane Ward, a Professor of Biosystems Engineering at University College Dublin

has a long track record in research and innovation projects. Shane is the Project Co-

ordinator for AgroCycle and gave an introduction to the project as well as introducing

more broadly the circular economy and providing some thought-provoking analogies

for future waste systems.

Dr Caitlin Burns is a bioeconomy consultant at NNFCC, based in York, UK. She is

leading a number of deliverables for AgroCycle and organised this workshop to feed

into WP8. Caitlin introduced the aims of the workshop and provided a number of

examples of novel value chains and sustainable business models from parallel sectors.

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Boris Cosic, a research assistant and PhD candidate in the Department of Energy,

Power Engineering and Environment at the University of Zagreb and SDEWES

presented the outputs from WP1 activities where he was involved in quantifying the

availability of agri-food residues in the EU.

Alex Krick, the Deputy General Secretary at CIBE – the International Confederation of

European Beet Growers presented an overview of how the sugar beet industry has

grown into one of the most innovative industries for utilising agricultural side-streams.

This led into the first discussion on Novel Value Chains.

Discussion Session 1: Novel Value Chains

All attendees were pre-assigned to one of two smaller discussion groups to get

balanced and mixed views from across sectors and the supply chain, including from

policy, research, industry, industry associations and EU innovation projects.

Value chains were defined as all the activities from agricultural production of

resources, to product manufacturing, distribution, retail for purposes of this project.

However, sustainable value chains should then use end of life products as resources

for more products. Truly sustainable value chains were defined as those which

enhance economic sustainability by creating added value, social sustainability by

facilitating more equitable distribution of added value among stakeholders and

environmental sustainability by reducing ecological footprints throughout the value

chain.

Both groups were tasked with discussing the following questions to inform

subsequent project activities. Questions 7 and 8 were discussed in more depth, and

stakeholders transcribed their discussion into a chart of the key action areas to

overcome barriers and realise opportunities which is included below.

1. Most influential players in developing and operating value chains

2. What are the key roles and responsibilities?

3. What are the typical sourcing strategies, logistics and storage arrangements?

4. What has led to the success of existing novel value chains?

5. Why are existing value chains failing to deliver true value?

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6. Where are the key opportunities? E.g. underutilised feedstocks, game

changing technologies, new markets

7. What are the key barriers? E.g. Communication, feedstock, market and

logistics.

8. Key action areas to enable novel sustainable value chains to develop and

thrive?

The following provides a summary of the key themes emerging from the discussions

with further detail on specific actions described in the worksheets included below.

Across the supply chain, retailers and large companies were seen to be key

influencers. Whereas, farmers are not empowered to influence and lack

understanding of new opportunities. Policy and farmers unions could help

disseminate contacts.

More targeted communication to different groups of stakeholders across the

supply chain is essential to raise awareness of new technologies and markets.

There is a need to drive market demand by educating consumers and utilising

public procurement.

Some member states and regions have developed infrastructure, others less

so; this appears to be highly dependent on the economic landscape and

regional priorities. Key infrastructure is developed where needed, and as a

result productivity, yields and value improve.

Successful novel value chains were attributed to well-structured markets,

strong market demand, supportive policy, and adding value to current

operations.

The effective design of policy is important as many renewable energy support

mechanisms have skewed biomass use to bioenergy by giving too generous

incentives. Currently there is no incentive to use wastes for products and due

to the resulting higher value outputs, until there is a market pull there will be

no incentive.

There is a need for a whole agricultural system re-think to reduce waste;

potentially through making farmers have licenses, i.e. tighter regulation or

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providing an indirect incentive or reward to encourage new scheme

participation.

Industry might be able to get better value from novel chains but if you divert

agri-waste to higher value outputs instead of compost, you then need to

source or develop a compost replacement, rather than risking reverting back

to synthetic fertilisers – it is important the new value chains don’t negatively

impact on existing markets and other successful developments.

The size of the producer (farmer) is important:

o Small– have to use everything to make the business work

o Large – don’t have to use everything, but trying to use more to

strengthen their business

o Medium – difficult group to generalise about; don’t have to use

everything and often don’t have the interest in using everything, so

valuable resources can be lost

Cost and carbon considerations are important but not are widely recognised

by key value chain players. Often each step will consider their own activity with

little or no consideration for how they affect adjacent steps.

The following principles generally apply, but for any combination to work they

must use an existing feedstock.

o New product and new market = fail

o Existing product and new market = success

o New product and existing market = success

Action Areas

Key action areas to support novel sustainable value chains were discussed and

identified in the discussion groups. These action areas were captured on the work

sheets included below.

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Afternoon Session: Project Presentations & Sustainable Business Models

This session commenced with a series of four flash-presentations to highlight project

activities being undertaken in parallel which may be of interest or provide benefit to

attendees and other AgroCycle partners.

Hartmut Welck, a senior project manager at Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum based in

Germany introduced the 3-year Horizon 2020 project he is working on AgriForValor,

about valorizing side-streams in Ireland, Hungary and Spain.

Dr Lucie Pfaltzgraff, a bioeconomy consultant for NNFCC spoke about her work on

innovation support projects and gave an introduction to BioBase4SME, a 3-year

Interreg funded project which provides innovation support to SMEs in North-West

Europe seeking to build value chains in the bioeconomy.

Stefan Ruyters, a project manager for Flanders Bio Based Valley in Belgium, is the

project coordinator of SuperBIO, a 3-year Horizon 2020 project. Stefan outlined the

projects aims as developing new, innovative, cross-border and cross-sectorial

industrial value chains in the bio-based economy. A range of innovation services are

available to SMEs, funded by the project.

Finally in the series of flash presentations, Edurne Gaston Estanga, a project manager

and science communicator at Iris in Barcelona spoke about their role coordinating

AgriMax, a 3-year Horizon 2020 project seeking to valorise agri- and food-waste based

on flexible multi-feedstock biorefinery processing technologies for new high added

value applications

Providing more industry-focus, Brecht De-Roo, a Global Environmental Program

Manager at Cargill in Antwerp, Belgium gave an industry perspective of the

importance and value of utilising wastes, and presented some examples of how Cargill

have approached this to date.

Victoria Wood, a PhD student and lecturer at Harper Adams University in the UK

introduced her work within the AgroCycle project to explore business models in the

retail sector to utilize unavoidable food waste.

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Finally, Edurne Gaston Estanga from Iris spoke about her role in the AgroCycle project;

she unveiled the plans for the AgroCycle Knowledge Platform, which is still in

development and was looking for suggestions to help improve its usefulness for the

industry and legacy of the project. This led us into the second discussion session,

focusing on Sustainable Business Models.

In order to help novel sustainable value chains break into established markets, the

business models were discussed in groups.

Discussion Session 2: Sustainable Business Models

Again, all attendees were pre-assigned to one of two discussion groups to get

balanced and mixed views from across sectors and the supply chain.

Business models were defined as the logic in which you create and capture value,

including how you create value for your customers, and how you capture value for

yourself.

The below questions were discussed to inform the project and stimulate discussion.

Questions 7 was discussed in more depth, and stakeholders transcribed their

discussion into a chart of the key themes which is summarised below.

1. What are the critical elements of an effective business model? E.g. structure,

communication, etc.

2. What are the most typical current business models for handling agri-residues?

3. Who are the most influential key players?

4. Where are current business models failing?

5. What actions are required to address these failures?

6. What are the key features or examples of novel successful business models?

7. What are the priority areas and actions required for future sustainable

business models?

8. What will be most useful to communicate (and how) via the AgroCycle

knowledge platform?

A range of business models and examples were discussed and linked to current

practices. Some of the key themes emerging from discussion are listed below:

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Key elements can be about profit but it’s important that all the actors in the

chain get the value they deserve and it is fair.

Communication is key; need to be upfront about aspirations and intentions,

and communicate openly and regularly to ensure any deviations or issues are

considered and addressed before they arise.

Market is the most important driver; in the absence of an existing market or

clearly demonstrable market need a business will not attract interest,

investment or innovation so is unlikely to succeed.

The needs and objectives of a whole company need to be aligned, rather than

segmenting by activity or sector – a whole systems approach is likely to deliver

value, whereas independently operated systems are likely to result in conflict.

Mapping waste is important; considering what, where and when waste is

generated. It is essential to understand these critical elements before taking

action and developing solutions as without a constant stream of waste the

business is likely to fail.

Certification schemes could be effective ways to improve business practices

and to encourage more effective sharing of knowledge; setting standards or

guidelines to be adhered to is likely to strengthen individual and collective

business sectors.

Supporting more co-operative schemes through facilitating actions could help

smaller farms to valorise wastes; for example, using fiscal incentives to

indirectly incentivise co-operation or to penalise non co-operation.

With more data becoming available we are starting to better understand

consumer needs; so with more analysis a value chain could become

reactionary rather than proactively delivering goods ahead of the need being

confirmed. This would operate similarly to the “Ryanair model” whereby

consumers can order food (or products) in advance for lower prices or pay a

premium if buying as required.

Need to start small scale to demonstrate that something is realistic and

achievable; rapid growth can be achieved once a product or business concept

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has been demonstrated, resulting in less risk being taken and a greater success

rate.

Develop communications, language and knowledge sharing platforms to

improve confidence and uptake, which in turn reduces risks through increased

awareness.

Servitisation, solution providers, and mass production could be key business

models to democratise agri-waste valorisation – by reducing risk and technical

knowledge required to operate bio-processing equipment.

Contracts and new technologies need to be flexible and products not too

radically different from current – to encourage uptake by consumers;

transitionary- as opposed to step-change is preferred, which allows producers,

the market and the consumers time to adapt to and understand the benefits,

eventually gaining stronger value recognition for all players in the chain.

As a means of concluding discussions, participants were asked to place stickers next

to the business models they felt had most potential to enable agri-food wastes, co-

products and by-products to be valorised (to quantify the enthusiasm for different

business model ideas), or to add other business model examples they felt important.

The outcomes from the two groups are included below.

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3.4 Conclusions

There were some clear common themes emerging from the discussions, but also

differing opinions, especially with regard to business models, depending on the

stakeholder category being represented, typically based on size of business and

attitude to risk. According to the prioritisation exercise undertaken at the end of the

discussion, most people favoured the lower cost and lower risk solutions along with

several of the Business to Business models. Fewer participants favoured some of the

more innovative models, primarily because they felt they were inappropriate for the

nature of the businesses involved or would not address a particular challenge

currently being faced by their sector.

In terms of developing novel value chains, again typically smaller stakeholder

categories such as producers and logistics companies prefer a more conservative

transitional approach. Game changing technologies can evidently be highly successful,

as demonstrated by some of the examples presented by the speakers, but only if other

critical elements of the chain develop at similar rates, in parallel. An example

discussed focussed on the rate at which policies and regulation can be amended to

accommodate rapid technological changes; typically this happens at a far slower rate,

leaving technology ahead of policies and regulation and thus generally unsupported.

Perception from most groups represented was that transitional change is better than

step change when considering success rates and levels of adoption; related changes

can then be made in parallel giving time for communication and education to be

delivered effectively. Early awareness of all stakeholders generally leads to far higher

success rates as opposed to communicating new ideas and strategies as they are

introduced.

The consumer and the market in particular needs time to adapt, as do producers, so

innovation is risky by done right is can clearly be successful.

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Annex 1

1a) Workshop 1: Invitation

Figure 3: Letter from the President of the Republic of Croatia accepting the high

patronage for the Sustainable municipal and agricultural waste management event

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1b) Workshop 2: Invitation

AgroCycle Workshop: Barriers and Opportunities to

Valorising Agri-food wastes, co-products and by-products

(AWCBs)

Location: Catalonia Trade & Investment office, Rue de la Loi 227, Brussels http://catalonia.com/en/offices/brussels.jsp Date: January 26th 2017

Time: 11.00 - 16.00 CET

Overview

We are inviting you to join us to hear about the latest initiatives for utilising agri-food wastes, co-products and by-products (AWCBs) across the EU. We feel your knowledge, expertise and involvement in the sector will be invaluable to our debate on the future of the industry, along with other stakeholders from across EU supply chains. We would be delighted if you can join us to contribute to this debate, as we work to inform EU policy and help build a more sustainable food production system.

AgroCycle

AgroCycle is a 3-year Horizon2020 funded project, which kicked off in June 2016 aiming to increase the valorisation of agri-food waste, using innovation and communication. We need to explore and understand the barriers and opportunities to utilising agri-food wastes, co-products and by-products (AWCBs) in particular sustainable value chains and business models, to support industry.

Reasons to attend

The free invite-only workshop is an opportunity for us to bring together some key influential players with interests and activities in this sector, to present and discuss particular opportunities and barriers requiring action and to share experience of novel value chains and emerging or established successful business models. Being involved in the workshop will give you opportunities to:

Influence EU wide policy on this topic Find out about novel business models and value chains Help build a more sustainable high value food industry Network with industrial stakeholders across the supply chain from agriculture,

logistics, manufacturing to retail Meet researchers at the forefront of food waste valorisation Contribute to and benefit from ongoing activities and findings from the

AgroCycle project

Provisional programme

We will hear from AgroCycle partners and cross sector stakeholders on new business models and sustainable value chains to stimulate informed interactive discussions.

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Confirmed presentations include:

Opening of the Workshop, European Commission DG Research and Innovation Directorate – Bioeconomy

Introduction to AgroCycle, Prof Shane Ward, AgroCycle project coordinator, University College Dublin

Aims of the workshop, Dr Caitlin Burns, NNFCC

Availability of waste streams across the EU, Dr Boris Cosic, SDEWES

Novel business models in the retail sector, Victoria Woods, Harper Adams University

SuperBIO: Supporting novel value chains, Lucie Pfaltzgraff, NNFCC

Biobase Europe pilot plant, Dr Lieve Hoflack

AgroCycle Knowledge Platform, Dr Edurne Gaston Estanga

Innovation in the Sugar beet industry, Alex Krick, CIBE

Plus more talks from industry and waste utilisation projects

Workshop Discussions

As we really value your knowledge on this topic, structured discussions will focus on opportunities and barriers for increasing the utilisation of agricultural wastes, co-products and by-products, such as:

What are the key barriers? Eg. Communication, feedstock, market and logistics.

Where are the key business opportunities? Eg. underutilised feedstocks, game changing technologies, new markets

Why are existing value chains failing to deliver true value?

What has led to the success of existing novel value chains?

Where are current business models failing? What actions are required to address these failures?

What are the priority areas and actions required for future sustainable business models?

What are the unintended consequences of developing new value chains, eg. should we be diverting resources away from animal feed towards high value chemicals?

What will be most useful to communicate (and how) via the AgroCycle knowledge platform?

Register

We would be delighted if you are able to accept this invitation. Please contact Dr Caitlin Burns, Bioeconomy Consultant at NNFCC (c.burns@nnfcc.co.uk or +44(0)1904 567946) to confirm your involvement. Alternatively, please pass the invite to a suitable colleague or nominate a suggested alternative contact for us to invite if you are unable to join us.

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Annex 2

2a) Workshop 1: Programme The program of the workshop - Zagreb 13th October 2016:

09:30 – 10:00 REGISTRATION

10:00 – 10:30 Opening ceremony of the workshop:

prof. dr. sc. Zvonimir Guzović, Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering A representative of the Zagreb Holding company – Čistoća subsidiary

prof. dr. sc. Neven Duić (Project Manager of Bin2Grid and AgroCycle projects) - Introduction to the workshop and a brief overview Bin2Grid and AgroCycle projects

10:30 – 10:45 prof. dr. sc. Daniel R. Schneider (UNIZAG FSB) – Good examples and trends of exploitation waste stream in the EU

10:45 – 11:00 prof. dr. sc. Neven Voća (UNIZAG AGR) – Trends in the use of new substrates in biogas plants

11:00 – 11:15 Agrokor company: Experience with the waste in the food industry

11:15 – 11:30 dr. sc. Mario Panjičko (Centre for Development of Sustainable Technology Ltd.) – Biogas production from difficult degradable waste streams

11:30 – 12:00 BREAK

12:00 – 12:15 Igor Petek (SNAGA Ljubljana company) – Waste management in large cities and biogas / biomethane production

12:15 – 12:30 Ivan Jurešić (Ponikve eko otok Krk Ltd.) – Integrated waste management system on the island, with an emphasis on biomass

12:30 – 12:45 Aleksandar Sandić (Energija bioplina Ltd.) – Biogas production with a view to the advanced utilization of biowaste as a raw material for the production of biogas

12:45 – 13:00 Philipp Novakovits (GET) – An example of good practice of using advanced technologies for the exploitation of waste - the city of Gussing

13:00 – 13:15 Hrvoje Milošević (BDI) – The anaerobic treatment of industrial waste

13:15 – 14:15 ROUND-TABLE TALKS

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14:15 Lunch with the testing of eco products

The program of the workshop – Island of Krk, Njivice 14 October 2016:

11:30 – 12:00 REGISTRATION

12:00 – 12:10 Opening ceremony of the workshop: prof. dr. sc. Alen Host, Dean of the Faculty of Economics in Rijeka

12:10 – 12:30 prof. dr. sc. Saša Žiković (Faculty of Economics Rijeka) - Business Economics in biomass power plants

12:30 – 12:50 Dražen Balić (EIHP) – Socio-economic aspects of biomass power plants

12:50 – 13:10 prof. dr. sc. Mladen Vedriš (Faculty of Law, Zagreb) – Local and regional development

13:10 – 13:30 dr. sc. Nenad Starc, Emeritus Scientist (Institute of Economics Zagreb) – New Law on Islands

13:30 – 13:50 Dean Kosić (Ponikve eko otok Krk Ltd.) – Disposal of pomace (from olives and grapes) on the island of Krk

13:50 – 14:30 ROUND-TABLE TALKS

14:30 – 20:00 Tour of the plants and the locations on the Island of Krk

The program of the workshop – Island of Krk, Njivice 15 October 2016:

09:00 – 09:30 REGISTRATION

09:30 – 09:40 Opening ceremony of the workshop

09:40 – 10:00 prof. dr. sc. Davor Škrlec (European Parliament representative) – Circular Economy

10:00 – 10:20 dr. sc. Željko Prgomet (Polytechnic of Rijeka) – Estimates of pomace and other biomass from agriculture in the Mediterranean

10:20 – 10:40 Marijan Kavran mag. oec. MBA (Croatian wood cluster) – The forests on the islands and coastal areas as an additional source of biomass for energy independence of islands

10:40 – 11:00 prof. dr. sc. Ljubomir Majdandžić (Acting Director of Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund) – The role of the Fund (and the state) in the financing of projects in the domain of the use of biomass

11:00 – 12:00 ROUND-TABLE TALKS

12:00 – 18:00 Tour of the plants and the locations on the Island of Krk

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2b) Workshop 2: Programme Morning Session

Chaired by Lucy Hopwood, NNFCC

11 am - Registration (30mins)

11.30 am – Bioeconomy at the European Commission - Ciaran Mangan, Directorate-

General Research and Innovation (10 mins)

11.40 am - Intro to AgroCycle – Prof Shane Ward, UCD (15 mins)

11.55 am - Aim of workshop - Dr Caitlin Burns, NNFCC (10 mins)

12.05 pm - WP1: Availability of EU agri-food residues - Boris Cosic, SDEWES (15 mins)

12.20 pm - Innovation in the Sugar beet industry - Alex Krick, CIBE (10 mins)

12.30 pm - Discussion - Value Chains (1 hour) – discussing the sourcing strategies,

responsibilities, barriers, opportunities and examples of successful and failing value

chains of agri-food residues.

1.30 pm - Lunch (30 mins)

Afternoon Session

2 pm - AgriForValor – Hartmut Welck, Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum (2 mins)

2.02 pm – Biobase4SME- Dr Lucie Pfaltzgraff, NNFCC (2 mins)

2.04 pm - SuperBIO - Stefan Ruyters, Flanders Bio Based Valley (2 mins)

2.06 pm – AgriMax – Edurne Gaston Estanga, Iris (2 mins)

2.10 pm - Global industry perspective - Brecht De-Roo, Cargill (10 mins)

2.20 pm - Novel retail business models - Victoria Wood, Harper Adams (10 mins)

2.30 pm - AgroCycle Knowledge Platform - Edurne Gaston Estanga, Iris (15 mins)

2.45 pm - Discussion - Business Models (1 hour) – discussing the business models

required to enable novel agri-food residue value chains to be successful, and priority

areas for action. Also, exploring how AgroCycle’s knowledge platform can be most

effective for facilitating an increase in residue valorization.

3.45 pm - Conclusions (15mins)

4 pm - Close of Workshop

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Annex 3

3a) Workshop 1: Attendance List (full)

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35

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3b) Workshop 2: Attendance List

Name Organisation

Caitlin Burns NNFCC The Bioeconomy Consultants, UK

Lucy Hopwood NNFCC The Bioeconomy Consultants, UK

Alex Krick C.I.B.E. - International Confederation of European Beet Growers

Shane Ward University College Dublin, Ireland

Ger Hanley University College Dublin, Ireland

Boris Cosic SDEWES, Croatia

Victoria Wood Harper Adams University, UK

Edurne Gaston Estanga Iris, Spain

Beatriz Arribas CEMA - European Agricultural Machinery Industry Association

Laura Tita EUBIA - European Biomass Industry Association

Justin Carton Manor Farms, Ireland

Sotiris Patsios NRRE/CPERI/CERTH, Greece

Katie Jarvis (via Anna Simpson) National Farmers Union, UK

Valentin Opfermann Copa Cogeca, EU farmers association

Stefan Ruyters Flanders Bio Based Valley, Belgium

Guillermo Garcia-Garcia Loughborough Centre for Sustainable Manufacturing an d Recycling Technologies, UK

Hartmut Welck Agriforvalor, EU project

Lucie Pfaltzgraff NNFCC The Bioeconomy Consultants, UK

Brecht De Roo Cargill, International

Kathy Roussel Agriculture Horticulture Development Board, UK, Brussels office

Ciaran Mangan European Commission, Directorate-General Research and Innovation

Olivier Diana European Commission Directorate General for Agriculture and rural development

Filip Raymaekers DLV / EIP Agri experts

Joanna Dupont-Inglis EuropaBio, EU wide

Paul Thornton Vireol, UK

mercè balcells University of Lleida, Spain

Elena Benedetti AEP Polymers Srl, Italy

María Hijosa Valsero ITACyL – Instituto Tecnologico Agrario Junta de Castilla Y Leon, Spain