After the first successful online meeting of the members of the Greek Multi-actor Transformative Forum (MTF), the second meeting took place – on January 28, 2025 – with a remarkable number of participants! Representatives of the primary sector, the University of the Aegean, civil society organizations and central and decentralized government had the opportunity to meet and introduce themselves and the role they have in the organizations they work for regarding the Circular Bioeconomy (CBE) in the Region of North Aegean (RoNA). Moreover, they were informed about the results so far and the next steps of the RIBES project.
Particular emphasis was given to the two value chains that will be developed in the RoNA regarding:
a) Use of pruning for the production of biogas and biochar and
b) Use of sheep wool for the production of liquid fertilizer
It was clarified to the team members that the selection of these value chains was based on maximizing the benefit of the North Aegean island communities, the abundance of raw material and their scale-up potential. Therefore, it is considered that the proposed value chains will have economic viability.
In the next stages of the project, the selected value chains will be assessed from an environmental and economic perspective, applying life cycle analysis (LCA and LCC) methods, as well as multi-criteria analysis methods, utilizing existing field data, as well as data from the scientific and technical literature. The purpose of the analyses is to create business and governance models that can be used to claim funding in order for the pilot applications of the proposed value chains to be implemented.
In the second half of our meeting, a discussion followed, which aimed to give the participants the opportunity to comment openly on the feasibility and expected benefits of the two proposed value chains in the RoNA.
Based on what was discussed, the implementation of such initiatives for the RoNA is significant and necessary, given that the volume of both the pruning and the sheep wool produced is in quite large quantities and its management needs immediate support, as currently most of it remains unutilized. Specifically, in a small percentage of the produced volume some techniques are applied, such as the mulching of pruning for the production of soil improver fertilizer and the use of sheep’s wool as ground cover on the roots of crops to ensure the preservation of soil moisture, as well as its enrichment with nutrients. These techniques are useful at a local level,but cannot be easily applied to manage very large quantities. The two new proposed value chains are expected to contribute, complementary to existing techniques, to the reduction of the volume of unutilized waste.
A common conclusion was the necessity of implementing awareness raising campaigns for the local island communities, both regarding the available volume of pruning and sheep wool, and the ways in which these residues can be processed, so as to comply with current European and national legislation.
The Greek MTF is expected to hold a total of six progress meetings throughout RIBES lifetime. Of these, three will be hybrid (both in person and online) in order for project’s outcomes to be highlighted.
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Regional Inclusive Biobased Entrepreneurship Solutions, or RIBES, is a project that seeks to transition ten European regions to dynamic, circular economic models that foster social innovation. It is funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement No. 101134911.