The Estonian University of Life Sciences, a project partner of the BalticBiomass4Value project, published a report on good practice business models in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). The report aims to collect information and share the knowledge and experience on the good practices that facilitate the development of circular business models in the BSR.
The transition towards more circular economy that maximizes value of products, materials and resources and minimizes waste generation calls for a systemic change and rethinking of production, consumption and waste use (European Commission, 2015). The change requires not only new technologies, processes, but also new business models that change the way the enterprises conduct their business. The aim of the activities was to collect information and share the knowledge and experience on the good practices that facilitate the development of circular business models in the BSR. The present analysis adopted FAO’s (2013) definition that good practices are those practices that have been successfully proven to work and produce good results, and thus could be recommended as models for the adoption by others.
The present report summarizes the results of three sets of activities:
- analysis of good practice business models;
- description of good practice business cases of small and medium-sized enterprises;
- development of business planning tool for identified business models.
The report builds on the two previous outputs, the “Report on Market Outlook and Future Viability of Different Bioenergy Products and Value Chains in the Baltic Sea Region Energy System for the BalticBiomass4Value Project” (Trømborg and Jåstad, 2019) and the“Report on Mapping of Biomass Value Chains for Improved Sustainable Energy Use in the Baltic Sea Region Countries” (Stolarski et al., 2020). Both of those outputs studied the biomass availability, bioeconomy development trends, drivers and value chains at the macro-regional level in the BSR. This report illustrates how the trends described in those two outputs manifest at the micro, i.e. business enterprise, level.
Firstly, the theoretical background on business models and business model canvas is shortly introduced. The methodology section describes the selection of cases and development of taxonomy of good practice business models. The third section provides the description of identified good practice business models using the business model canvas. Good practice business models are summarized into archetypes in the fourth section. Business planning tool is presented in the fifth section, followed by conclusions in the sixth section.
You can find the full report here.
