Innspillene fra onsdagens workshop vil blin tatt med i det videre arbeidet med å tegne et veikart for fremtidens prosessindustri.

Drew up a future roadmap for process industries

31 mai, 2016 12:49 Del Del

Per Brevik (The Federation of Norwegian Industries), Øyvind Slåke (The Federation of Norwegian Industries and committee leader), Karen Landmark (The Eyde Cluster) and Lars Petter Maltby (Saint-Gobain) gathered suggestions and ideas for a future roadmap concerning the process industries and green competitiveness. 

– Rubbish no longer exists. It is simply raw materials that have been led astray.

This was part of the message put across by Thomas Mørch from Norsk Gjenvinning AS, when roughly 40 people directly or indirectly linked to Norway’s process industries gathered at a workshop at Scandic Meyergården.

The Federation of Norwegian Industries and the Eyde Cluster organised the session, which took place on Wednesday 2 March. The impetus for this workshop came from the government’s expert committee on green competitiveness requesting that the Federation of Norwegian Industries create an outline for a possible national initiative. This outline is described as a future roadmap for a sustainable, innovative and value-added industry. An executive committee will provide their input to the roadmap at the start of May. The committee is chaired by Øyvind Slåke from the Federation of Norwegian Industries, and includes representatives from Norcem AS, Elkem AS, Norwegian Hydro, Alcoa, Yara International ASA, Borregaard and the Eyde Cluster.

Whilst there are big businesses represented in the executive committee, we also require input from the many small businesses out there in order to draw out as many ideas and suggestions as possible, says Per Brevik, Director of Alternative Fuels and Sustainability at Norcem.

 

Challenges and initiatives

The roadmap will outline which technological capabilities and emission reductions are envisioned by 2030, as well as identify challenges and necessary initiatives required to achieve the process industries’ vision of having zero emissions or carbon neutrality by 2050. With this in mind, it will also make suggestions for changes or measures that it believes are necessary. It will also work to outline framework conditions that work to safeguard Norway’s position as an attractive country for process industries.

During the workshop at Meyergården, various factors were discussed including sustainable solutions and circular economies, renewable energy and recycling, whether side streams are being fully utilised, and whether new products being developed from by-products from industrial production are currently being sufficiently utilised, if at all.

– We have to think of waste as a product. We have no other choice, said Ronny Glockner from Elkem Solar. This message was highlighted by Thomas Mørch, who works in Norsk Gjenvinning’s strategy and sustainability department.

– Today, Europe has a raw material consumption equivalent to 1.4 Earths. A growing middle class in China and India will lead to further consumption of raw materials. By 2030, some commodities will quite simply have been used up, highlighted Mørch.

 

Handover to expert committee

During the workshop, participants came up with several ideas to be included in the roadmap. Among the proposals were ideas including consistently mapping process industry flows, developing areas where by-products can be used, facilitating the use of low temperature energy, introducing a labelling system for sustainable products, establishing structures to make use of what is today seen as waste, as well as introducing tax exemptions for recycled products.

– Now we will take the proposed suggestions and summarise these in our executive committee. On 9 May we will make our suggestions to the Norwegian government’s expert committee on green competitiveness, says Lars Petter Maltby, CEO at Saint-Gobain and member of the committee.

– Part of the task is to describe how Norway will manage its position as an important and forward-looking player in the process industries market, particularly in relation to the EU, said the committee chairman, Øyvind Slåke.

Mo Industripark AS hosted the workshop. Jan Gabor, VP Marketing at Mo

Industripark AS, is very pleased that the Federation of Norwegian Industries and the Eyde Cluster chose to hold this event in Mo i Rana.

– It is great that we are included in efforts to develop the green industries of the future, says Gabor.

The event in Mo i Rana was followed by a workshop in Oslo, where the focus was on radical innovations, technologies and products from Norwegian process industries.

Del Del