Borregaard is a Norwegian multinational company originating from the paper and pulp industry in Østfold County a hundred years ago, but now focusing mainly on the production of biochemicals. Østfold County lies in the southeastern corner of Norway bordering Sweden, and has approximately 285,000 inhabitants. Most people live in the urban areas of Fredrikstad and Sarpsborg, the latter being where Borregaard has its headquarters. With extensive local sources of forest biomass, Borregaard is a core player in the development Østfold County’s bioeconomy, aspiring to apply sustainable land use to produce and convert biomass into a range of food, health, fiber, and industrial products, and energy.
Growing resilience from adaptive diversity
Initially founded by a British company, the wood industry in Østfold quickly developed into Norway’s largest industrial employer in the early 1900s. It expanded with the construction of mills, a carbide plant, and a hydropower plant, before being bought by Borregaard in 1918. In modern times, the biggest competitor, Norske Skog, has had to close down its local plant because of the high costs of running industry in Norway. Borregaard, on the other hand, has diversified its product base over the decades from only cellulose for paper to also including lignin, vanillin, and second-generation bioethanol. The company spends 6–8 times as much of its turnover on research and development than do other traditional wood-processing industries, and focuses on keeping knowledge-intensive operations in Norway. Today, Borregaard is a global company with over 1,000 employees in 16 countries, and a turnover of almost NOK 5 billion (€500m).
Financial support vital for development
Step by step, Borregaard has worked to realise its idea of building a biorefinery to produce second-generation bioethanol. This would have been very difficult without financial support from government schemes. In 2009, Borregaard received public funding together with Østfold Research to conduct a life cycle assessment study of cellulose, ethanol, lignin, and vanillin. From the Research Council of Norway, Borregaard received NOK 19 million (€2m) for a five-year project titled Biomass2Products, where the company was expected to develop a biorefinery concept together with research partners for the production of marketable products and cost-efficient processes for production from biomass. It also received NOK 35 million (€3.7m) in EU EP7 funding for two project proposals sent in response to the Joint Biorefinery Call. Then in 2010, Innovation Norway granted Borregaard NOK 58 million (€6.1m) as support for the actual construction of the BALI Biorefinery Pilot plant, after it developed new technology to produce biofuels and valuable green chemicals from forest waste, straw, and wood chips. In 2014, an additional NOK 18.8 million (€2m) was granted as project support by the Norwegian Research Council within BIONÆR, a national research program on Sustainable Innovation in Food and Bio-based Industries. For example, some of the funding has been used to build the BALI plant, showing that national and regional funding structures in support of the development of new technology and systems are essential.
Norwegian wood will not grow faster
Transforming industries from being fossil based to building on biomass is not a golden, one-size-fits-all solution to business-as-usual. As expressed in an article on bioeconomy in Europe written by McCormick and Kautto in 2013, the challenge of including sustainability in all policies remains and, parallel to “going renewable”, there is also a need to work hard on energy efficiency, transform business models, and add to the sustainability transition of the entire market.
Regional dimension
The wood-processing industry is a competitive industry requiring large investments in facilities and research and development. For Østfold County, Borregaard is a large employer and has a strong influence on the competence development of the region by attracting highly skilled academics from abroad, training and employing local technicians, and investing in local development projects. Kunskapsfabrikken (“the Knowledge Factory”) and the Ispiria science centre are two such projects, aimed at encouraging local youth to understand and study science and technology, and perhaps choose a future career at Borregaard. Borregaard has also established a trainee program with the NTNU in Trondheim, and cooperates closely with local forest owners and in networks at national and international levels. This multinational company seems less inclined to collaborate with other regional actors.
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