Forest-based value creation in Norway 87
Borregaard has been very active in European RD&D projects and has
received funding from Horizon 2020, among others, under the Bio Based
Industries Joint Undertaking.
Borregaard has realised many more of the potentials of path creation than
the two other cases. While the other two cases more or less have plans for
path creation, Borregaard has realised the transformation of a pulp and paper
plant into an advanced integrated biorefinery producing a wide range of
products and relying on the development and commercialisation of advanced
scientific knowledge. The firm is central in international projects for advancing forest- based biorefineries.
4.5 Conclusion
Our first case study, on the recent developments of Norske Skog in the
Skogn region, has shown how a successful path extension, reached through
incremental improvements of a traditional production line, may have farreaching consequences for the valorisation of organic waste. Norske Skog
Skogn has been able to survive demand swings and financial turmoil because
of process innovations, without moving away from paper as a core product.
Incremental innovations, devoted in particular to energy optimisation within
its paper plant, have enabled not only an extension of the traditional regional
path, but even a path renewal by allowing a co- located production of biogas.
An industrial symbiosis has emerged where the new biogas plant can employ
waste water from the local paper plant as well as residues from extra- regional
aquaculture activities. The symbiosis has gone so far as to include an exchange
of the dry bio- residual from the biogas plant with a substrate from local
farmers.
Attempts to create an industrial symbiosis in the Hønefoss area, which we
have studied as a second case, have encountered several difficulties. Before
the entrance of Treklyngen, the traditional path based on pulp and paper production at Hønefoss was exhausted, and Treklyngen’s efforts to renew this
path by branching into other forest- based sectors face an uncertain future. If
successful, the current plans for exploiting the whole wood timber in an
integrated process could reduce the overall amount of waste, across all the
value chains involved, to a minimum. However, in spite of a strong institutional backbone, the region does not offer a firm, or group of firms, that is
sufficiently successful in the traditional regional path to provide enough
support for regional branching. As a consequence, some of the firms which
had considered producing novel products in the area have, in the end,
decided to operate in different regions, where incumbents in traditional
forest- based industries are operating successfully and could offer fruitful
partnerships.
We have witnessed a completely different scenario when studying the
Sarpsborg area. Here the incumbent Borregaard has been able, over almost a
century, to move from the production of pulp and paper to the production of
Borregaard has been very active in European RD&D projects and has
received funding from Horizon 2020, among others, under the Bio Based
Industries Joint Undertaking.
Borregaard has realised many more of the potentials of path creation than
the two other cases. While the other two cases more or less have plans for
path creation, Borregaard has realised the transformation of a pulp and paper
plant into an advanced integrated biorefinery producing a wide range of
products and relying on the development and commercialisation of advanced
scientific knowledge. The firm is central in international projects for advancing forest- based biorefineries.
4.5 Conclusion
Our first case study, on the recent developments of Norske Skog in the
Skogn region, has shown how a successful path extension, reached through
incremental improvements of a traditional production line, may have farreaching consequences for the valorisation of organic waste. Norske Skog
Skogn has been able to survive demand swings and financial turmoil because
of process innovations, without moving away from paper as a core product.
Incremental innovations, devoted in particular to energy optimisation within
its paper plant, have enabled not only an extension of the traditional regional
path, but even a path renewal by allowing a co- located production of biogas.
An industrial symbiosis has emerged where the new biogas plant can employ
waste water from the local paper plant as well as residues from extra- regional
aquaculture activities. The symbiosis has gone so far as to include an exchange
of the dry bio- residual from the biogas plant with a substrate from local
farmers.
Attempts to create an industrial symbiosis in the Hønefoss area, which we
have studied as a second case, have encountered several difficulties. Before
the entrance of Treklyngen, the traditional path based on pulp and paper production at Hønefoss was exhausted, and Treklyngen’s efforts to renew this
path by branching into other forest- based sectors face an uncertain future. If
successful, the current plans for exploiting the whole wood timber in an
integrated process could reduce the overall amount of waste, across all the
value chains involved, to a minimum. However, in spite of a strong institutional backbone, the region does not offer a firm, or group of firms, that is
sufficiently successful in the traditional regional path to provide enough
support for regional branching. As a consequence, some of the firms which
had considered producing novel products in the area have, in the end,
decided to operate in different regions, where incumbents in traditional
forest- based industries are operating successfully and could offer fruitful
partnerships.
We have witnessed a completely different scenario when studying the
Sarpsborg area. Here the incumbent Borregaard has been able, over almost a
century, to move from the production of pulp and paper to the production of