Baltic Sea Future
Stockholm 6 – 7 March 2017
Innovative solutions, multilevel governance and how to reduce
negative impacts from source to sea
Paula Biveson, Baltic Sea Action Group
Baltic Sea Action Group
Baltic Sea Action Group, BSAG, is an independent
non-profit foundation based in Finland.
BSAG works to find solutions and right actors to
restore the good ecological balance of the Baltic Sea
Working methods
• BSAG works as a catalyst and a matchmaker, bringing together
knowledge from academia, the innovativeness of companies,
and administrative power of the public sector.
• All actors are inspired to make a commitment, an act or a
process with a positive impact on the Baltic Sea.
• Commitments are public and can be followed in the BSAG
website’s “Commitment Bank”.
• Also the governments of the Baltic Sea countries can make
commitments. The state commitments were presented in the
first Baltic Sea Action Summit in Helsinki 2010.
State commitments in
the Baltic Sea Action Summit
The commitment
of the Finnish
government:
• Finland to
become a
model country
for nutrient
cycling
Photo: The heads of states from the Baltic Sea countries and the king of Sweden
participated to the Baltic Sea Action Summit in Helsinki, 2010.
There is leaks
in the nutrient cycle
…and leakage causes eutrophication.
Government Key Project
• In April 2016 the Finnish government allocated 12.4 million
euros for the experimentation programme 'Nutrient recycling into
practice’.
• The funding is to be used for the development and testing of
innovative technologies and logistics solutions.
• One example of this programme is an ecosystem lead by Baltic
Sea Action Group: Breakthrough for nutrient cycling – an
ecosystem of business clusters.
Nutrient cycling -ecosystem
•
•
•
•
A symbiotic partnership network
50 – 60 participants (companies, institutes, municipalities etc.)
10 different development programs lead by companies
The aim is to create new business opportunities and increase
the overall value of nutrient-related business.
• When nutrients become valuable business, they are not allowed
to leak to the Baltic Sea.
Ecosystem business activities
Examples of the ecosystem
participants
• UPM
– Committed to use recycled nutrients at biological waste water treatment
plants
– Pulp and paper mill effluents contain a lot of organic matter, which is
removed at a biological waste water treatment plants. However, the
effluents are poor in nutrients, which are needed in the biological waste
water treatment to keep the bacteria active. UPM’s pulp and paper mills
with own biological waste water treatment plants commit globally to use only
recycled nutrients by 2030. In Finland, the target is expected to be achieved
by 2020.
• Valio
– Valio introduces the membrane technology used in milk production to the
manure handling. The method makes it possible to separate different
substances and especially water from manure. That enables effective
nutrient cycling from manure.
More examples
• VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
– VTT has designed a Resource Container concept that consists of physicochemical methods used or under development in the industrial sector. The
focus is on recovery of substances (nutrients, bio-carbon and clean water).
– The operating model does not include biological treatment, and can
therefore be flexibly implemented in various scales locally or as a seasonal
solution, i.e. in archipelago. The concept will be tested at the waste water
treatment plant of the town of Pargas in South West Finland.
• RecAlkaline
– Finds innovative ways how to recycle nutrient from used batteries.
More examples
• Punkalaidun municipality
– Agriculture and meat production has a major role in Punkalaidun. Thus
sustainable management of nutrients is a big challenge but also an
opportunity. Punkalaidun wants to be a forerunner in nutrient cycling and
circular economy.
– The municipality has committed to improve local bioenergy sector and
nutrition recovery systems and processes, and aim to decrease need for
minaral fertilizers.
– Punkalaidun will also as a shareholder in bio-companies, start the
production of biogas and recycled organic fertilization products, develop
new business models and processes and decrease the amount of nutrients
leaking into the Baltic Sea.
More examples
• City of Kalajoki
– Kalajoki aims to develop innovative plant growing platforms created with
manure from fur animals and cattle. The platforms would be organic and
they could be used in balconies, terraces and also in commercial gardening.
– Effective usage of manure assures that it will be handled correctly and thus
leakage to the waterways will be avoided.
• HSY (Helsinki Region Environmental Services Authority)
– HSY will develop an innovative waste water treatment process. In the
process phosphorus is recovered during the waste water treatment instead
of recovering it from the residue, as it is done in the competing processes.
Successful development of the process would mean a way to produce
organic fertilizers free from hazardous substances as a side product of
waste water treatment process.
Benefit for the participants
Being a member of the ecosystem:
- makes it easier to find and cooperate with
business partners
- gives better possibilities for piloting and
demos
- makes it easier to follow and affect the
regulatory system
- strengthens members own brand
- can be a benefit when applying financing
from different sources
Going international
• Nutrient cycling –ecosystem is open to international members.
• The aim is to find solutions that can be used locally and
globally.
– If interested, please contact:
Baltic Sea Action Group
Paula Biveson
Mob +46 73 0801088
Email: [email protected]
www.bsag.fi
Film: Nutrient cycling in circular economy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n05buc6LUyY&feature=youtu.be
Thank you!