Tag: social innovation lab

bioplastics, Coventry, Report, social innovation lab

Designing Solutions Report: Findings from the second UK SIMBIO Social Innovation Lab

Designing Solutions: Findings from the second UK SIMBIO Social Innovation LabDownload

This report presents the main findings from the second Social Innovation Lab ‘Designing Solutions’,
which was held online on the 10th of June 2021 to expand on possible ‘solutions’ that challenge
the norms in bioplastics packaging, identify promising solutions for rapid prototyping, and explore
future pathways for improving the sustainable uptake of bioplastics packaging.

Stakeholders from the bioplastics industry, retail sector, consumer associations, government
agencies, NGOs and international and UK academics identified three areas of solutions that currently
have the highest potential to drive change to a sustainable packaging system. Participants identified:
communication with consumers, certification standards & guidelines, and end of life as the most
promising solutions applicable to a biobased biodegradable plastics packaging system (also referred
to as ‘compostable plastics’ in this report). These solutions were seen as complementary and under
a dynamic process, which, combined with long-term measures, such as education and policy/
regulatory measures, may help facilitate the sustainable transition of packaging to compostable
plastics packaging.

The second lab also proposed that compostable plastics packaging uptake could not be seen
in isolation from the packaging system. They also emphasised the improvement needed to clarify
the information on all packaging products and the advanced management practices required for
the disposal and collection of all recycled materials by the different actors (e.g. workplaces, local
councils). Besides, they called attention to the need to find ways to provide alternative solutions
for packaging used on a regular basis in homes (e.g. bathroom products in bottles). This type of
packaging may be currently highly recycled; however, due to their frequency of use, these packaging
forms can also be reused, refilled, or further re-invented.

The envisioned sustainable pathway by 2030 requires a more fine-grained development of innovations
that will be discussed in the third social innovation lab, i.e. ‘rapid prototyping of potential solutions’.
This pathway is expected to be supported by innovations (e.g. product innovation, process innovation,
service innovation, etc.) and policy changes.

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Seeing the system Report: Findings from the first UK SIMBIO Social Innovation Lab

Seeing the System – Findings from the first UK SIMBIO Social Innovation LabDownload

The report details the findings from the first UK innovation lab event. The aim of this workshop was to facilitate dialogue between stakeholders to obtain a consensus about what the current packaging supply chain looks like for bio-based biodegradable products as well as identify barriers and opportunities, and discuss future possibilities.

The report first introduces the SIMBIO project and the Social Innovation Lab method. Following this an outline of the workshop is given including a summary of the activities. The findings from each of the group activities are then presented. This includes the activities in the consumption, production and waste management workshop breakout groups. The reports presents a diagram of the bioplastic packaging supply chain and three further diagrams that further detail the actors and connections in each of these areas of the supply chain.

Key themes emerging from the workshop are then given. These represent important discussion points raised by the participants. The 5 emerging themes were:

  1. Standardistions, labelling and its connection to competition and innovation
  2. Bioplastic material limitation and potential
  3. Cost and scale of production
  4. Marketing, consumer knowledge and bioplastic waste management behaviours
  5. Infrastructure required

The report comes to a close by making a series of recommendations to better connect the supply chain

Reference: Tjahjono, B., Lazell, J., Beltran, M., Bek, D., & Bogush, A. (2021). Seeing the system: Findings
from the first SIMBIO workshop, 4th of March 2021. In. Coventry: Coventry University,
Centre for Business in Society (CBiS).


bioplastics, Coventry, social innovation lab

Social Innovation Lab in Bioplastics Supply Chain

As part of the ESRC-funded SIMBIO project, the first of three #Social Innovation labs was held on 4th March 2021, involving 40 participants representing a wide range of stakeholders in the bioplastics packaging supply chain. In the spirit of the times, the event used online technologies including Zoom and the interactive collaboration tool Miro to engage participants from Brazil, Canada, Poland, Indonesia, and the UK.

Technological innovations in the form of #biobased biodegradable plastics offer hope for the future. Still, many challenges across the supply chain need to be tackled before they can successfully be rolled out.

SIMBIO (Social Innovation Management for BIOplastics) project is an ESRC-funded research project (grant no. ES/T015195/1) aiming to develop social interventions which can identify and address the economic, social and political challenges of implementing packaging solutions based on biobased biodegradable plastics.

The Social Innovation lab is a method commonly used for solving complex social problems. The lab provides an avenue for multi-stakeholder groups to address a complex problem through sharing of participant’s differing perspectives. It takes a whole systems approach and uses data-oriented evidence base for testing hypotheses, rigorous tracking and analysis.

The event also featured a presentation from David Newman, Director of Bio-based and Biodegradable Industries Association (BBIA). In his talk, David highlighted that –

“understanding the role of innovative materials and how society reacts to the transition into more sustainable practices is a crucial question. As we move towards net-zero emissions, we have to think across systems and how material applications can help achieve those ambitious goals. The SIMBIO project is an aid to that process”.

SIMBIO will ensure a constructive dialogue between different stakeholders within bioplastic packaging supply chains; involving production, consumption and waste management. This process will facilitate the development of a pathway towards greater uptake of biobased and biodegradable options, and at the same time, the achievement of sustainability goals.

Emily Nichols, technical manager for the Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology (REA), whose work is on organics and natural capital topics, said:

“In the right applications, compostable bioplastic packaging has a niche but important role to play in the more efficient collection and organic recycling of food wastes into digestates, biogas and composts. I welcome their consideration as part of the social interventions in this SIMBIO project will develop to support appropriate production, consumption and end-of-life management of the producible range of bioplastics”

Through the Social Innovation Labs, we are able to gain participant’s perspectives as to the realities of the current bioplastics packaging supply chain. We are also able to identify the structure of the bioplastic supply chain and the governance system that drives it. We want to collectively identify barriers, opportunities and develop a pathway towards greater uptake of biobased biodegradable materials in the future.

The output from this event will feed into the other two Social Innovation Labs scheduled for May and August, to design the action plans before looking in more detail at the subsequent event as to how the solutions can be materialised.

The Coventry University team

The SIMBIO research team consists of Prof Benny Tjahjono, Dr Macarena Beltran, Dr Jordon Lazell, Dr David Bek from the Sustainable Production and Consumption cluster of the Centre for Business in Society and Dr Anna Bogush from the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience at Coventry University. The event was assisted by PGRs: Liliani, Danu, Niken and Tanja.

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