The Bio-Based and Biodegradable Industries Association (BBIA), recently formed to promote the bioeconomy in the UK, has appointed its first Ambassador for the Bioeconomy.

Long-serving civil servant Iris Anderson has been appointed to the voluntary role to create connections between the association and companies and political authorities and others to help illustrate the bioeconomy platform.

Her 30-year career has included roles in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF), the Department for the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and, most recently, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

Anderson’s various roles have included Head of Energy Innovation and Head of Renewable Materials and in 2008, she was appointed as the UK policy lead for the EU Lead Market Initiative on bio-based products.

She has worked on a range of projects, including: injecting biomethane into the national gas grid; the anaerobic digestion demonstration facility at the Centre for Process Innovation; and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult in Wilton. According to the BBIA, this work has ‘given her a unique knowledge of the various stakeholders in the biomass industries including industry, academia and innovation bodies’.

Anderson to communicate ‘massive potential’ for bioeconomy

Commenting on the appointment, BBIA Managing Director David Newman said: “We are very proud Iris has joined forces with us in promoting the bioeconomy in the UK.

“The massive potential for using biomass to produce materials is largely underestimated in the political and financial arenas and Iris, with her extensive knowledge and experience, will help us to more effectively communicate this potential and how it can be achieved”.

Anderson added: “I feel very passionate about promoting the benefits of the bioeconomy so I am volunteering some of my time.

“BBIA’s challenge is to communicate the development potential to industry, politicians and the financial world, and I am looking forward to helping them do this.”

Investment needed in UK bioeconomy

The BBIA was created earlier this year to act as a trade body for companies producing bio-based and biodegradable products. It states that its main aim is ‘to put the bioeconomy agenda at the centre of the political debate on sustainability and economic growth in the UK’.

It currently has eleven members: Renewable Energy Assosication (REA); S’Investec; BASF; Biotec; Novamont; BioBag; Vegware; Ecospray; Fuchs Oil; Euro Packaging; and Innovia Films.

In June, Newman stated that, in the immediate future, the BBIA will be focusing on understanding how it can “help make the UK a country in which bio-based and biodegradable producers will want to invest”.

He pointed to the fact that “hundreds of millions“ is invested in these industries in countries like Germany, Brazil, the USA, France, Italy and Sweden, whereas “little” corresponding investment is carried out in the UK.

Anderson will therefore be seeking to bridge the gap between the BBIA and companies and government to promote the development of and investment in the industry.

Bioeconomy background

According to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee’s report ‘Waste or resource? Stimulating a bioeconomy’, which defines ‘bioeconomy’ as ‘the use of biological feedstocks to generate economic outputs in the form of energy, materials or chemicals’, the potential economic market value of the bioeconomy in the UK is around £100 billion.

The report also estimated that around £6 billion of the £60 billion UK chemical industry could be replaced with renewable biochemical’s if the bioeconomy were further developed.

The report suggested that other benefits of developing a bioeconomy included:

• boosting sustainable practices in business;
• creating jobs;
• making use of brownfield sites (through facility construction); and
• enabling the UK to export new products that are currently imported (for example, compostable packaging).

Find out more about the BBIA.