RSB’s Community Collaborates to Build a Sustainable Transformation Roadmap
Looking to unlock the hundreds of years collective experience and expertise present at our Annual Meeting, RSB experimented with an exciting new format to bring attendees front and centre in a collaborative approach to developing a roadmap for the sustainable bioeconomy.
Utilising cutting edge live polling and digital scribe technology, the entire room worked together to explore and understand the road ahead for the bioeconomy through the lens of three different, but interconnected, stories presented by Nuseed, UPM Biofuels and INEOS. Throughout the sessions, attendees could provide feedback, ask questions and flag issues using their phones and this input was added directly to a digitally scribed map.
Led by Tom Farrand from Swarm, our audience were energised and invited to participate in taking market factors, global economic indicators and shifting consumer behaviour into account as part of an interactive group learning experience where they contributed to the development of sustainable bioeconomy transformation roadmap.
Starting the conversation, Glenn Johnston of Nuseed laid the foundation for our roadmap by outlining how the company has managed – when you have sustainability embedded in your vision and DNA – to develop a business that takes an innovative product and multiplies its impact at farm level, and across countries and continents through leadership, creative business structures, and responsible business practices.
Next, Milla-Mari Vastavuo and Liisa Ranta of UPM Biofuels led us on a journey from paper and pulp company to innovator in biofuels and products. Examining the changing landscape in which they operated, the different levers of pressure and the role of company and local culture, UPM Biofuels sought to uncover the magic ingredient in their success and inspire others to follow suit in instigating transformational business practices.
“RSB’s Annual Meeting gathers stakeholders from different sectors around a table to discuss important sustainability topics. We shared the UPM Biofuels journey as part of the development of the sustainable bioeconomy transformation roadmap. This new interactive session brought the community into lively discussion and idea sharing across the whole bioeconomy sector, highlighting RSB’s important role as a platform for educating society about sustainable choices.”
– Liisa Ranta, Manager, Sustainability, Biofuels Development, UPM Biofuels
Finally, Gabriella Isidro (INEOS Olefins & Polymers), Jason Leadbitter (INOVYN) and Petra Inghelbrecht (Styrolution) representing the INEOS group took to the stage to share their journey pushing the boundaries of the bioeconomy using the brand new RSB Advanced Products Standard, explaining how they have managed to develop new materials and products with 100% bio-based attribution in a matter of months to support their entire circularity agenda.
“The RSB standard has shattered the glass ceiling, accelerating development in the bioeconomy space”
– Jason Leadbitter, Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility Manager, INOVYN
These three stories were interwoven with multiple opportunities for audience listening and participation, feedback and ideas. The finished roadmap incorporates the voices of the over 90 people in the room as it examined big questions like “How do we overcome vested interests?”, “What happens if we do nothing?” and “How can we engage consumers in an age of populism?”, the big signposts on our journey like “Collaboration Needed” and “Go Faster” and uncovered the magic ingredients tying these three stories together like “Vision & Intention”, “Collective Action” and “Innovation & Learning”.
The map is an illustration, a reflection of many different journeys already taken, an aggregate of dozens of voices, ideas and centuries of lived experience – now shared!
Moving forward, Tom Farrand asked, do we have all we need for the journey ahead? Will this help get us to a net zero world and ensure we make positive impacts on the most critical issues (and areas) of economy, nature and people/communities? And where should RSB focus its efforts?
VIEW FULL SIZE ROADMAP HERE (16MB)
